A/N: Here's a huge cyber-hug for all of my readers. You make me feel very appreciated and keep me motivated. Because what do writers want? To be read. And who is the reader? You. So thank you. Also, a special thank you to Kogomaru for being my sounding board. I've got an awful lot of ideas in my noggin that need sifting through, so I appreciate the help.
In other news: I appologize for the fact that this chapter took so long in coming out. It was kind of a challenge.
Sakura felt herself coming out of a daze. Her eyes were closed but her mind woke, its gears beginning to turn in slow circles. She remembered Kakashi, but couldn't remember what about Kakashi was so important at that moment. She smiled at the thought of his handsome face anyway.
The woman with pink hair shifted to her other side, opening her eyes. Her eyes focused on an image of Kakashi, skewed to the side and upside down. She blinked, her eyes coming in and out of focus, but her mind not knowing if Kakashi was really in front of her or if she was having a waking dream. She didn't move, too afraid he might disappear.
The man she saw was still except for the slow rise and fall of his bare chest. He sat cross-legged on the floor, eyes closed, face serene. It seemed as if he existed in some other world with the bright sun illuminating his body. Sakura unconsciously rolled to her stomach in an attempt to become closer to the ethereal being in front of her.
"Glad that you're awake, Sakura," the being suddenly spoke.
"Kakashi?" Saukra pushed herself up on her forearms, hair falling in her eyes.
He didn't speak again, but he opened his eyes and reached his hand out to brush the hair from her face.
She caught his wrist as he went to pull away. "You're usually not here when—" she paused, catching sight of his bloodied hand, "Oh, shit."
"It's nothing, Sakura," he took his hand away.
"It's nothing?" she nearly screeched. "Look at you. Look at you! You're a mess. All patched up with one of my old yukatas. Walking in here all bloody and nearly lifeless last night and then pass out on me. How was I supposed to take care of you?" Panic crept into her tone.
"I was wondering why these bandages had flowers on them," he brought one to his face and inspected the small scrolling pattern. "It would be kind of a waste of money to have flowers printed on something that was meant to get dirty, wouldn't it?" He chuckled.
"Why are you laughing?" She said, exasperated. "You could have died."
"No," He said, his face suddenly commanding seriousness, "I couldn't have. And I didn't. It's nothing, Sakura." He put an emphasis on each syllable.
"Of course you could have," she started, "you're human and—"
"I'm a Shinobi. This is what Shinobi do. It's nothing, Sakura," he repeated for the third time.
Her shoulders fell at the word Shinobi. She didn't know whether it was supposed to be a comfort to her or if it was supposed to frighten her. "I don't think I like it," she mumbled.
"I know what I'm doing."
"What you're doing is stupid! You stupid man," she huffed.
"Very eloquent word choice you have," he smiled mockingly at her.
"Kakashi!" she hit him in the arm.
He winced and rubbed his bandaged bicep, "Ouch."
"Oh! Now I'm the stupid one," she rushed to his side, kissing the sore spot. "I shouldn't have done that. But here, let me check underneath those." She moved his hand to his lap and began to gingerly unwind the strip of fabric. Her attention was suddenly sucked into her work; she bit her lip and furrowed her brow in concentration, making sure not to hurt him again.
He watched while she worked, a smile creeping onto his lips. "See," he said, and her head snapped up, concentration broken. "I knew I'd be just fine."
Sakura smiled hesitantly. "I can't exactly just sit there while you're in pain."
"So let me go out and do what I have to."
"Just let you go out and let you tear your body to shred, then I'll clean up the mess?" She finished unwinding the bandage and looked at the small gash it concealed.
"Well, when you put it that way," he scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.
Annoyed, she poked at the gash a little too hard. "How do you want me to put it?"
Kakashi winced, "Sakura, you know that I'm doing this for us."
"And what am I supposed to do for us?" She looked at him seriously.
"This," he simply pointed to her medical work. She rolled her eyes. "And this," he used his free hand to pull her chin up and kiss her softly.
She melted into him almost immediately, but pulled back with a sigh. "You can't keep wooing me like that forever, you know." She folded the bandage over, putting the fresh part back onto the wound and rewrapping it. "That's the best that I can do for now. I need to find some more material and slave."
Kakashi rolled his shoulder in circles and extended his arm, balling his hand into a fist a few times. "It feels pretty good the way it is." He shrugged.
"No. I'm sure that it doesn't. Now let me check the rest of these," Sakura immediately set to work unwrapping Kakashi's other wounds without giving him a say in the matter.
Kakashi laughed at her stubborn determination.
It only rekindled her anger, "Don't laugh at me. I want to do something, at least."
"Would you believe me if I told you that you already do a lot?" He smirked.
"No," she said with finality.
"I love you," Kakashi said in a half-mocking tone.
Sakura, still too irritated to speak, kept milling over Kakashi's wounds.
Kakashi smiled, a deep hum of content reverberating through his chest. "I do love you," he thought to himself.
Sakura slid her door open, slumped through it, and slid it shut.
"You look like things have been pleasant," Kakashi smiled sarcastically.
"It's not exactly easy hiding a fugitive in your bedroom," she deadpanned. "After catching hell from my dearest father for missing breakfast, I spent all morning finding ways to avoid Naruto and," she paused, "the other one like the plague. I hope that you've come up with an idea or two. Then at least one of us will have done something productive."
Kakashi stood and pointed to one of Sakura's dressers, "I may or may not have used my morning to peruse your unmentionables."
"You pig," Sakura rolled her eyes.
"I'm only kidding," he stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "If I really wanted to look at those, I'd just take them off of you." He smiled as she slapped teasingly at his hands. "Alright. Yes," He kissed her neck, his nose tickling her flesh, "I have a plan."
"Sakura-chan, what are you doing in there?" Naruto's voice crashed through the shoji door. "You've spent all day alone in your room. Are you finally depressed about marrying Sasuke like you should be? If you want to you can come and have some fun with me. Maybe I can cheer you up because—"
"I'm not doing anything, Naruto," Sakura lied, yelling at him a little too harshly. She looked at Kakashi significantly, and he began placing the mess of maps and supplies scattered across the tatami floor into drawers.
"But I can hear you moving stuff around in there," he put a hand on the door to slide it open, but Sakura quickly gripped the other side to keep it shut.
"Can't you just wait for two minutes, Naruto?" She barked at him.
She heard the blonde grumble something along the lines of, "I don't get women," before he finally let go of the door.
"What do you want?" Sakura said quickly before mouthing "hurry up" to Kakashi.
"I want to know if you're ok," Naruto told her.
"I'm going. I'm going," Kakashi mouthed back.
"Well, go faster," she waved her arms frantically at her lover then turned back to the door. "I'm fine," she chirped with uncertainty.
"I'm coming in," Naruto started again for the door. Sakura pointed to the window, ushering Kakashi out into the garden. Naruto opened the door vigorously as she whipped around to face him.
"Just opening the window," she laughed nervously.
The scowl on Naruto's face deepened. "I'm supposed to tell you that tomorrow you've going to the market to look at wedding kimono."
"And who said that, because I don't really think that I—"
"I don't blame you, Sakura," Naruto patted her on the shoulder, "but I don't think you have a choice in this matter. I can try and get you out of it." He offered.
"Is my father coming with?" She bit her lip anxiously.
"He said that he had to."
Sakura hesitated for a moment, "Yeah. Thanks, Naruto."
"Hey, it'll be alright," he hugged her. "I still don't think you have to marry that bastard."
"You're right, Naruto," she said cryptically, but Naruto just cocked his head at her, confusion on his brow.
She laughed and shook her head at him, "Just go." The moment he was out the door the tension flew from her body, and she let out an aggravated sigh. As Kakashi climbed back through the window she pointed an accusatory finger at him. "You! You really need to leave soon so that I can relax."
"He didn't see anything."
"He could have," she said dramatically.
"Here," Kakashi changed the subject, placing a handful of flower stamen into her palm. "I took the time to find these while I was in the garden. At least now we have everything we need."
"Everything we need? What does it matter now anyway? Our plans are ruined because of my horribly ill-timed marriage obligations. There isn't anything we can do about it." She practically threw herself onto the floor and sat, dejected.
"We'll change our plans," Kakashi stated simply. When she didn't say anything, he sat in front of her trying to catch her gaze.
She kept her eyes focused on the hibiscus stamen in her hand, "You know, we could just think about not having sex instead of me having to make this nasty herbal mix to prevent pregnancy. You know that the Ayurveda medicine is really a mix of Chinese and Buddhist, and it's not Japanese. Do you really even think that it works? What if I was pregnant right now? We can't travel if I'm going to have a child, Kakashi."
"Sakura," Kakashi pulled her chin up, forcing her to look at him, "I'm not going without sex."
She laughed weakly but her pleading eyes gave away her pain away, "What are we going to do?"
"We're going to leave tomorrow. We'll just have to revise our schedule a little bit and leave from the market."
"But it's different. Leaving from my room, out that window, where I don't have to look at anyone or think about them. How am I supposed to look Naruto in the eye and then leave? I don't have the heart to hurt him like that. Isn't there any other ship we can leave on?"
"No. There's one boat that we have a chance of getting on, and it leaves the port at five."
Sakura put her head in her hands, rubbing her temples. She looked up a moment later, a fake smile plastered on her face. "No one said this would be easy, did they?"
Kakashi's heart ached for his lover, "Sakura, if you don't think that you can—"
"Who said that? I can do this," she looked at him seriously, "I have to do this. After everything that you've done for me," she began to ramble again.
"It's ok to be scared," Kakashi said gently.
"I'm not scared," Sakura tried to convince herself. "I don't," she took a breath, "I don't want to talk about this any more right now."
"Ok," Kakashi said, not knowing what else he could do to comfort her.
She nodded and stood, and the pair silently prepared for the journey ahead well into the night.