Chapter 7

"I'm going out to lunch! I'll see you later!" Sakura said, waving goodbye.

"Have a good lunch!" her staff replied, waving back at her.

With that, Sakura left the hospital and made her way through the busy streets, not towards Ichiraku Ramen, but towards the Hokage Building.

Once she was there, she said hello to the guards who were standing on either side of the entry and walked right in. Then, she worked her way into the depths of the building until she made it to a particular door. When she opened it, she found Kakashi already sitting in one of the many chairs surrounding the large conference table. There was one Ichiraku Ramen in a large to-go cup in front of him, and another large cup sitting in front of the chair right next to his.

"Yo," Kakashi said, raising a hand up and smiling at Sakura.

"Hi, Kaka-sensei," Sakura said, smiling back and walking over to take the seat right next to his. "So, the Hokage meeting room, huh? How did you pull this off?"

"It was easy. I just made arrangements with Naruto asking if we could be part of his lunchtime guards from now on since his guards have to trade off for lunch anyway. Now we're part of his interior guard. If someone manages to get past the guards outside, we're in here ready to keep the enemy from getting into the building any further."

"Sounds good to me!" Sakura said, raising up her cup and Kakashi raised up his own cup and tapped it against hers in a toast. Then, they both happily dug into their ramen like old times.

"So what made you think of making the Hokage Building our new meeting place?" Sakura asked after she had already had several mouthfuls of noodles.

"Well, I was trying to think of a place where no one could bother us, and what building in Konoha is better protected than-"

"The Hokage Building," Sakura finished, smiling at him.

"Right. At first I was thinking that maybe we could take over for the rooftop guards so that we could eat outside, but then us being together outside, even on the Hokage rooftop, seemed too risky. Paparazzi could still take shots of us there, so I figured it would be better if we just stayed inside."

"That's too bad. It would have been nice to have lunch on the rooftop, but you're right, it's too risky. At least there's no chance of anyone getting any shots of us in here. There aren't even any windows in this room!"

"Owe that to the fact that they don't want any top secret intel leaking out of this room."

"Isn't it nice how that all works out? I'm really glad you figured this all out, Kaka-sensei. I hated having to eat lunch all by myself at my desk again."

"You're welcome. I'm just glad that you haven't gotten sick of having lunch with your old sensei by now."

"Funnily enough, I haven't. I actually really missed you." Sakura said, unable to keep the heat rising up to her face, so she faked a laugh to try to keep it light and casual.

"Really?" Kakashi asked, heat rising up to his own face. "Because I really missed you, too," he said, gripping the back of his neck in embarrassment.

Sakura looked shyly at him and Kakashi looked shyly at her and for a moment there was just awkward silence.

Sakura decided that now would probably be a good time to change the subject. "And what do mean by old? You're not that old, Kaka-sensei. You're thirty-six!"

"You don't think thirty-six is old?"

"No, of course not! It's not like you're eighty or something!" Sakura laughed, and right as these words flew out of her mouth, it occurred to her that someone else had said the exact same thing to her once...Ino.

"You know," Kakashi said, snapping Sakura out of her realization, "You should really stop calling me Kaka-sensei. I haven't been your teacher for the longest time."

"Okay, so what should I call you then?"

"How about Kaka-san?"

Sakura made a face.

"What? What's wrong with Kaka-san?" Kakashi asked, wide eyed.

"It's just so formal."

"And Kaka-sensei isn't?"

"No, you're right. 'Kaka-sensei' is formal, too, but I guess I don't see it that way because I've been calling you that for so long now. It's the same way that I've gotten used to Naruto calling me 'Sakura-chan' even though he's married now. It's like we all have our own nicknames for each other and they're never going to change no matter what the circumstances may be."

"So I guess that's a 'no' on Kaka-san?"

"I'm sorry, no. You'll always be Kaka-sensei to me even if you haven't been my teacher in forever," Sakura said, even though Ino's words of "You personally want to keep calling him that for some kinky kind of foreplay" was playing through her head. Sakura shoved the thought aside and told Kakashi instead, "Calling you Kaka-sensei and being able to hang out with you again, it feels like coming home, you know what I mean?" Sakura asked, smiling knowingly at him.

At first Kakashi didn't catch her meaning, and then it dawned on him that she was referring to the conversation that they had at the cemetery a while back. It was when he had said that reuniting with his former teammates, dead as they were, felt like reuniting with his family and that it always felt like coming home.

"Yes, I know what you mean. It is good to be back home, Sakura," Kakashi said, returning her smile.

And for a while, they just sat quietly side by side together in the meeting room, simply enjoying the warmth, comfort, and sheer joy of being in each other's company again.


Once Sakura was back in her own office, she shut the door behind her and couldn't stop smiling to herself. There was nothing going on between her and Kakashi, just lunch and conversation like always, and yet here they were, sneaking around, trying to find ways to meet each other in secret. There was something fun and exciting about it. They weren't really doing anything wrong, not really, and yet it felt like they were getting away with something, and that something was exhilarating!

To be continued…