Title: I'll hold you close in my arms; I can't resist your charms
Rating: T
Prompt:
19. Why?

Authors Note: I'm experiencing a terrible, terrible heatwave. I think this one-shot is relevant to anyone who is, right now, sitting at home, sticking to their chairs, or know what it's like to want to beg for winter almost as soon as it was gone.

Muchos Gracias goes to D0nQuix0te, who is still sticking around. She's the Hombre to my Broski, and I love her for it.


Kohohagakure was known for several things; it's incredibly strong ninja forces; the home of the First and Second Generation of Sannin; the lush forests surrounding it that give it its name. The one thing that most people didn't know about Konohagakure was that in the summer months, almost like clockwork, the village would be hit with a heat wave.

Civilians began to shed their layers, stripping down to the barest essentials of clothing. While this could be considered a good thing, as young girls got to see their crushes shirtless, and young boys got to see girls wearing clothing that left barely anything to the imagination, in some circumstances, those who served Konoha has ninja felt less fortunate.

One such man was Hatake Kakashi, who felt like an idiot. In the sweltering heat, which had risen to 32 degrees from the 29 that it had been that morning, he was on a mission, and was forced to wear the standard navy blue shirt and pants, along with the very thick and very unforgiving flak vest. It wasn't a very demanding mission by any means, if you could call it that, as he'd simply been sent by Tsunade to a small village just outside of Konoha to get a package of scroll's that were deemed too important to be sent by a regular messenger. Something about land disputes and how she was the only one who could solve it.

Kakashi had made it to the village at the peak of the afternoon heat, and taken a small break to have one cold drink before returning. He knew he was supposed to be on a tight schedule and was expected back by the late afternoon (or, as she'd put it, 'before dinnertime') but he could easily lay blame to helping a poor old woman back to her home because she suffered a heat stroke or something to that effect. Maybe the woman would be pregnant. Pregnant woman were very delicate, as far as he knew. Besides, he figured, Tsunade wouldn't even be in her office; she'd probably be hiding somewhere cool and dark, drinking herself stupid to make it through the day, and forcing Shizune to do her work for her. Work that Shizune would do a half ass job at to spite her.

He didn't blame her one bit.

"This is torture," he said aloud. No one was around him, but he felt like proclaiming it.

By the time he'd gotten back to Konoha, it was just past sunset – around seven in the evening. He'd already gone to Tsunade's office, and literally dropped the scrolls onto her desk. He didn't give a crap what happened to them after that.

As he approached his apartment, he noticed something odd. Kakashi could clearly remember that he did not open his windows before he left that morning, in an effort to keep the cool air from the night before inside. He also did not remember owning a small black fan, which was currently sitting in his window, seemingly sucking in the breeze that was graciously hitting his back.

Kakashi ascended the stairs leading to his home at a record speed, opening the unlocked door.

"Hello? Who's there? If you're a rapist, I'm gonna warn you, I can probably kick your ass," a voice called. It was a very, very female voice - a very, very female voice that he would be hard pressed to forget.

"Sakura, it's me," he called back as he closed the door behind him. He could hear her sigh with relief as she walked from the living room to the door.

It seemed Sakura had already gotten a head start on what he'd been planning for the evening: greeting him was a twenty year old girl wearing nothing more than light blue underwear and a white tank top. Her shoulder length hair was piled at the back of her head in a clip. She held a paper fan in her hands, and he could see the drops of sweat grouping on her nose.

"Sakura, why are you in my apartment?" he asked as he began pulling off his vest. She stepped forward, making him turn around so she could help him take it off.

"Older apartments have more windows, so air flows a lot easier. Older places like yours weren't built with air con," she explained, as if that was a good enough reason.

"Your apartment has air con," he pointed out. She shrugged. He moved to take off his sweat-laden mask, while Sakura stepped closer and reached behind him to untie his hitai-ate.

"Yeah, but it broke down. The stupid cat lady upstairs blew the breaker because she had the temperature in her apartment at, like, 16 or something. I live on one of the higher floors, so I'd probably die of a heat stroke if I stayed there."

"What about the woman upstairs?"

"Eh, she's got something like eight children. She can go live with one of them until they fix it. Or she can swelter and die, whichever is easier," she laughed. He began tugging at his shirt, and she helped him lift if over his head, and did her best not to make a remark at how sweaty it was.

She leant against him once he was shirtless, and he could feel her skin almost melting against his.

"Sakura, why are you just in your underwear?" She giggled, and planted a kiss on his cheek. She started skimming her hands slowly down his body, and didn't seem to mind he was coated in a layer of sweat.

"Because it's so hot out, Kakashi, or hadn't you noticed? It was so uncomfortable, and if I don't have to wear anything, I'm not going to. Why, do you have some objection?"

Kakashi planted his hands on her hips, pulling her closer to him, damned if it was over thirty degrees outside. Sakura's arms went back up again, loosely hanging over his shoulders.

"No, I don't. But you're impeding the plans I'd made this evening. I was going to take a cold shower-"

"I don't see how-"

"And then go to sleep naked."

Sakura paused, looking up at him. He could almost see her eyes darken with desire. Her arms locked around his neck, and she pulled herself even closer. Kakashi's arms almost instinctively traveled up under her shirt, feeling the soft curve of her back. He noticed that she wasn't wearing a bra.

"I don't see how my being here is going to stop you. Besides, I was going to take a shower anyways. We might as well double up," she offered. He pressed his face into her neck, kissing and biting at the skin.

"It would save energy," he mumbled into her shoulder.

"And after-"

She didn't get to finish her sentence, as Kakashi had moved to kiss her, and she couldn't help but groan. With deliberate steps, Kakashi and Sakura walked towards his washroom, where, in less time than it takes Naruto to down a bowl of ramen, they shed their remaining articles of clothing, and were standing underneath the cold shower of water.

"I'd like to think this is one of my better ideas," she said. Sakura was standing with her back against him. Kakashi's arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her as close as possible, and Sakura let out a squeak of surprise. The contrast of temperature was remarkable – the coldness of the water on his back versus the heat Sakura's body was giving him.

"Because you're the first person to think of taking a cold shower, Sakura," he said. He felt her laugh before he heard it. She turned around, pressing herself against his front. Kakashi was hard pressed not to look at her breasts.

"No, but I got you here, didn't I?"

"I've had a long day. All I wanted to do was go to bed," he said. His voice started to strain.

"Who said you weren't going to sleep tonight?" she teased.

"I was on a mission. I'm quite tired."

"Then I guess you deserve some sort of reward, don't you?" she said, smirking.

Kakashi made a guttural growl, and flipped their positions so that Sakura had her back against the wall. They were flush against each other, but Kakashi wanted more. With one hand against the wall, and the other one firmly around her hips, he put one leg in between hers, forcing her upwards and closer, causing her to moan. Her arms were around his neck again, with her hands tangling themselves in his wet hair. She gasped, loudly, while her legs went around his hips.

His mouth attached itself to her collarbone, leaving a trail of bite marks from one shoulder to the other. Sakura's heart soared with the contact.

"If this is what you get for being a messenger, I can't imagine what you'll want when you come back from an S-Class mission," she breathed.


End.

I'm not going to promise that I'm going to pop out another one of these any time soon, because frankly, every time I do say that, nothing ever comes of it. So, I'm just going to say that I'm going to make more of an effort to brainstorm ideas from my list (21 more to go!), and write them when the time is right. Right now, I've got a very, very massive Labyrinth story brewing that I've spent at least several months planning. I didn't have a computer from about... mid-January to April or so, I think, so a lot of my planning was done on paper. So far, there's two full stories planned out, with a third one in it's infant stages. With the first two arcs alone, I've got about 30+ chapters to write, and I'm aiming to make each chapter at least 10 pages on Word, minimum.

I finished school in January, and spent up until the middle of May jobless, since places don't hire as much in the middle of the winter as they do when Universities let out. I spent a lot of my time planning out everything while watching CSI, and I'm trying as hard as possible to make this story as real-fiction as possible: planning out characters to the finest detail, finding image references to perfectly describe scenes and characters, researching different cultures and their clothing styles, myths, and royal protocol, and, in general, going the distance to make this great.

I'm not saying that this series is going to be put into the back-burner; I don't want this to sit on and collect dust, incomplete, and unfulfilling. I promised you thirty one-shots, and thirty one-shots is what you're going to get!

Lots of love, and sincerest apologies,

xLHx