"Sakura, go away."

The words were not a request; there was no give in the tone. It was a direct order, but she ignored the command from her superior and sometimes-team leader.

"No," she said instead, plopping herself down in the booth and meeting Kakashi's one-eyed glare defiantly.

"Sakura, I wasn't asking."

"I know."

"Then why...?"

"Because it's two o'clock in the morning on the day after Christmas and you're sitting in a pub, alone but for a half-empty bottle of the strongest alcohol legally available in Konohagakure."

Kakashi just stared at her, torn between bemusement and offense. Settling for mildly amused irritation, he repeated, "Sakura, go away."

He received the same answer as the first time he'd said it: a defiant look and a simple "no."

"And before you ask why again," she added after a tense, silent moment, when it was clear he wasn't going to be speaking anyway, "I'm not negotiating. I think it's because you like me."

Kakashi froze, the wind knocked completely out of his lungs.

"I think," she continued blithely on, "you like that there's someone who can match you caustic witty retort for caustic witty retort. I think you like that there's someone to check you when all the power of your status goes to your head - that there's someone whose threats can be backed up. I think you like that there's someone you can't run from and that there's someone you can't drive away no matter how hard you try." Sakura began to smirk. "And because I think you like watching my mouth move while I talk." The smirk grew into a full-out coy grin.

"But mostly, I think it's just because you like me. Yes, in that way that made you turn into stone just a minute ago."

--

"Yep," Ino crowed to Hinata, Genma, Naruto, and Sai behind her. "It's because he likes her."


Merry belated Christmas! I really did start writing this on the twenty-sixth (coincidentally [or not] at two in the morning), which is when it takes place--two A.M. December 26.

Naruto is not mine.