Too Close for Comfort
A/N: Chapter seven! Thanks to all my readers who reviewed in favour of lemon – I will be adding lemon to this story, so keep reading everyone. I've worked really hard on this chapter to make it longer (starting with the author's note, unfortunately), and I'm also working on a new fanfic too, so I'm a little busy. If you spot any blatant mistakes that I need to correct, just review and let me know. Sorry for the obvious scene breaks, but Microsoft Word and Fanfiction are working together to sabotage my real scene breaks.
As always, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and tell me what you think after you've read it if you have time.
One more thing: I don't own Naruto or the characters.
Chapter seven
"Hey, Hatake."
"Yes? What, Shiranui?" Kakashi sounded a little testy, and Genma chewed on his senbon, wondering if now was the right time to broach the subject of Sakura.
After Genma had stood around foolishly for ten seconds, Kakashi repeated: "Yes? Are you going to tell me what you stopped me reading for?" Genma stared at the book Kakashi had taken to reading: The Kunoichi and the Brave Shinobi. It was one of Sakura's numerous romance novels, and not one of the best, judging from the look on Kakashi's visible sliver of face.
"Better than the crap you normally read?" Genma asked conversationally. Kakashi gave the eternal idiot a glare.
"Icha Icha was once the best series of books known to mankind." Kakashi retorted hotly, defending his precious books to the end. Genma shook his head at his friend. Kakashi looked at him. "I'm guessing that's not what you wanted to talk to me about?" Genma shook his head again, more seriously this time.
"I was wondering about Sakura."
"Oh?" Kakashi scowled, and returned his gaze to the soppy book. Genma took a deep breath, and continued:
"What do you think of her?" Kakashi's head shot up sharply, and he blinked at Genma, obviously thinking deeply. After a few minutes, he said:
"Um…she's strong. She's clever, she learns quickly." He looked at an incredulous Genma. "What? What do you want me to say?"
"Well -" Genma hesitated. This was Sakura he was matchmaking for, and this had the potential to boost or ruin her life, depending on Kakashi's reaction. Genma thought it over. How to put it? Discreetly, but at the same time, leaving Kakashi with no alternative but to say how he really felt, or just blatantly? Being Genma, he would have opted for being blatant, but he knew other people didn't think the same way as him. He inhaled, before speaking again.
"She likes someone. Really likes them." Genma prayed for Kakashi to understand his meaning. He was referring to the Copy Ninja himself. But Kakashi wasn't one to be perceptive at the best of times, and this was clearly the worst.
"Good luck to her, then. Why are you bothering me over some stupid crush?" A thunderous-looking Kakashi practically yelled the question. Genma took a step back. Kakashi really was in a bad mood, which was rare, for him. Genma had only seen Kakashi in a bad mood once or twice, and the best thing to do in these situations was to get the hell out of the vicinity. Unfortunately, this was something Genma could not afford to do, stuck in the bedroom suite while Sakura washed her hair, instructing them to wait on pain of death. Both shinobi had no doubt she would carry out her threat.
"Because it isn't just a stupid crush." Genma paused for dramatic effect. "It's love." Kakashi's reaction to these words was startling to say the least: Genma only just had time to dodge the shuriken aimed at his chest, leaving it to reverberate in the thick oak wood of the door leading onto the hallway. Genma sat up again, shooting his friend a worried look.
"Love?" Kakashi echoed. "She's too young to know what the word means!" Genma sighed. Kakashi was being as far from understanding as it was possible to get. He backed further away from the angry man, who looked ready to use his raikiri to destroy the whole mansion complex, and Genma with it.
"She is in love." He said in a quiet voice, which he was quite unaccustomed to. "I know she is."
"Good for you!" Kakashi yelled, before returning to the world of sad teenage chick-lits. Genma went to remove the shuriken from the door, before Sakura finished, came out, saw it and asked what had happened. That would make for one hell of an awkward conversation, Genma thought to himself.
He looked up when Sakura entered the room wearing a black kimono with a cherry blossom sash. Kakashi threw The Kunoichi and the Brave Shinobi into a corner. Sakura raised a pink eyebrow, but did not comment, merely looking at Genma, who shrugged helplessly. What could anyone do to drag the most skilled shinobi in Konoha out of a foul mood? The glance Sakura had shot at Genma only seemed to worsen the atmosphere.
"Kakashi-sensei, I heard you'd located the Hoshi's private wing?" Kakashi nodded tersely, and Sakura tried to smile. "Well, could you stake it out and try to see if you can find the brooch?" Kakashi hesitated, and Genma sensed a protest from the man, but Kakashi resisted, and simply nodded once more. "Genma and I will go and find Lord and Lady Hoshi."
She beckoned hurriedly to Genma, and they exited, leaving Kakashi alone with his tumultuous thoughts.
Snap out of it Hatake. He told himself sternly. She's not yours; she can like Genma if she wants. She can like anyone. You aren't jealous. He repeated those words over and over like a mantra. You aren't jealous. You aren't, you can't be. She's Sakura!
If only he could believe his own words.
MEANWHILE…
"Lady Kobayashi! Where is your dearest husband this afternoon?"
"He is a little ill today." Sakura lied fluently. Genma didn't correct her, only shifted his feet, aware he had not been greeted by the snobbish Lady Hoshi. Said snobbish lady made an appropriately sympathetic noise.
"I hope it wasn't something he ate." Sakura resisted the urge to say that if he really had been ill, it would definitely be from eating the disgusting food the Hoshi's served up, instead smiling, and replied:
"I think it's just a virus. He should be better tomorrow, hopefully." Lady Hoshi nodded, pretending to care. Genma heaved a sigh, which made the woman frown disapprovingly. Sakura closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, Lady Hoshi was enquiring about the ball.
"Will Lord Kobayashi make it to the ball, Lady Kobayashi?"
"Oh, I should think so, Lady Hoshi." Sakura replied. "I'll make sure he attends." Genma sensed some sort of battle of wills would ensue between Kakashi and Sakura if he refused to go to the Hoshi's ball. He was considering refusing to go himself, but he knew what the pink-haired kunoichi would say to that.
"Very good. Now, what did you come to see me about?"
"Ah, now Lady Hoshi, I heard somewhere that you collected amethyst jewellery. I love amethysts, could you tell me about some of your pieces?" Sakura smiled warmly, and their hostess smiled back, not suspecting a thing. Genma marvelled at the extent of Sakura's research concerning their hostess. It remained to be seen whether or not the brooch they were searching for was amethyst, but Genma was pleased that they had a way to talk to Lady Hoshi about jewellery full stop.
"Do come into the drawing room, and I shall tell you more about amethysts." Lady Hoshi ushered them forcibly down the corridor they were standing in. Yet another corridor, endlessly stretching hundreds of metres across the mansion. Sakura, trained shinobi she was, was almost panting by the end, as was Genma, though both managed to act normally. Lady Hoshi seemed to not to notice the ninjas' breathlessness.
IN THE HOSHI'S PRIVATE WING
Kakashi had discarded The Kunoichi and the Brave Shinobi in favour of finishing the forbidden Icha Icha Jiraiya had recommended. He was steadily getting into a worse mood. Jiraiya had not just had the character portraying Sakura saved by the character portraying himself. Oh no. The old idiot had to go one step further, and now Kakashi was drifting into daydream territories.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Kakashi dragged himself into reality once more, to see the object of his daydream smiling sweetly up at him. I wonder if she'd look so sweet – STOP. NOW. He forced his thoughts onto safe ground.
"Sakura-chan." He gave a forced smile, and she beamed back, happy he seemed to have stopped being so bad-tempered. It made him feel ludicrously ashamed of himself. "What did you find out?"
"She has numerous amethyst artefacts, one of which she spoke of in great detail."
"The brooch?" Kakashi guessed, and Sakura nodded.
"Yeah, she really likes it. We're not going to get it as a gift, that's for sure." Genma put in; seemingly reassured by the fact Kakashi had not run a katana through him the moment he set eyes on him. Kakashi closed his eyes for a moment to compose himself.
"She might wear it to the ball." Sakura said sourly. The ball was a source of great discontent to her: she had nothing decent whatsoever to wear to it, and that fact alone made her despise it. The obligatory dance with her 'husband', however, she was looking forward to a little more.
"So I was thinking…" Genma began.
"…Oh Kami, run for cover everyone." Kakashi said sarcastically. Genma ignored him, and continued, with a not-exactly-disapproving look from Sakura, which made Kakashi's mood darken slightly.
"I was thinking that I could seduce her and get the brooch off her." Kakashi slapped a hand to his face in despair.
"One problem." He said. Genma looked at him, waiting for elaboration on the Copy-nin's part. Kakashi did not disappoint. "She hates you. She's a snob. She doesn't like you because you don't rank high enough on the social scale for you to be worth acknowledging."
"Which will make it even better when I get her into -"
"- Genma! Too much information!" Sakura yelled, just before Kakashi did. "We do not need to know exactly what your 'mission' entails. Just get the brooch, okay?"
"Okay." Genma grinned. "So, if we're waiting until the ball to get the brooch, we have three days to kill." Sakura rolled her eyes.
"We're shinobi, Genma, we live for the moment. We don't make day-to-day plans."
"You're just scared of what I'll suggest we all do."
"You know me too well.
"Back at you." Genma retorted unimaginatively. Kakashi listened to the two ninjas squabbling playfully, trying not to snap and yell at them to shut the hell up. He had a feeling that wouldn't go down too well with Genma or Sakura.
"Um, sorry to stop you arguing, but…where are we?" He asked eventually, genuinely lost. Both Genma and Sakura looked up at him, and then at their surroundings, before turning back to Kakashi blankly. To them, it was the same as the twenty or so other corridors they had walked down in the previous few days. Boringly beige-coloured wallpaper, with a few a few uninteresting pictures of flowers and grass tacked up, which none of the shinobi liked, but also did not doubt the worth of.
"You mean, you don't know?" Genma enquired slowly. Kakashi shook his head, and Sakura let loose a volley of expletives the likes of which Asuma or Anko would have marvelled at. Kakashi stared open-mouthed.
"Sorry," Sakura said, after a full three minutes of swearing. "But I'm sick of this place! It's too big, it's too full of creepy servants, it's got one hateful owner, and one of the most boring, aggravating men in the world. No, not you, Lord Hoshi." She said, to an indignant Genma. "Although you are aggravating sometimes." Genma and Sakura picked up their bickering once more, whilst Kakashi actually tried to think of a way to get back to their suite.
Five minutes later, he summoned Pakkun, causing Genma and Sakura to cease bickering to look at the dog expectantly. Pakkun was grumbling:
"I had to leave my food for this, it had better be good."
"Oh, Pakkun, it is. We're lost." Sakura explained to the pug, who smirked.
"I thought you were trained professionals, and you go prove me wrong by getting lost." Pakkun spat the word with contempt. Sakura widened her emerald eyes innocently, and pouted her lips. Pakkun sighed. "Alright, just for you, Sakura-chan, I'll get you back to your suite." Sakura grinned.
"Thanks, Pakkun! I love you!" The dog stood patiently while the kunoichi threw her slender arms around his neck.
"Can I show you the way, then?" The dog asked, throwing a questioning look at Kakashi, who had a strange look on his masked face.
SIX AND A HALF HOURS LATER
"Sakura! Wake up, dammit!" Genma hissed. Sakura opened her eyes wearily, and glanced to the clock. About quarter past midnight.
"What?"
"Well, I don't know if it means anything, but he," Genma gestured to Kakashi, who was asleep, as, Sakura thought sourly, she should have been, "has been a real bastard today." Sakura stared at Genma, wondering what that had to do with anything, and why he would bother waking her up over it.
"So?"
"So, when I asked him what he thought of you, he thought -" Here, Genma dropped his voice an octave, before hissing, "- I was talking about you and me, not you and him." Sakura closed her eyes in mortification. How would she live this down? The man she loved believed she was in love with Genma.
"Oh Kami." She breathed. "What am I going to do?"
Suddenly, she noticed Kakashi's blanket twitch, and guessed he was awake. Her shinobi mind quickly thought up a plan.
"Genma, get in to the bed."
