"You sure you don't want a doctor?"

"It's just too much sun," said Toshi weakly. "I think I'm too pale to take the sun here."

"You are." Kakashi watched Sakura place a towel on the actress's forehead. He turned to go, but reminded Sakura to take good care of Toshi for the evening.

It was past midnight when they finally returned to their lodgings.

Sakura was napping in a chair beyond the bed, Kakashi noted. He half-smiled, half-sighed. "Sakura-chan," he prodded his student's shoulder. "Wake up. Time to go to bed."

"Huh-wha?" Sakura opened bleary eyes. She flushed when she saw her teacher looking kindly down at her. "I'm fine, I'll keep watch."

"It's okay. I'll take over. I slept through the movie anyway, feeling very rested now." That was the truth; he'd seen the movie so many times he could recite some of the dialog backwards.

Sakura tried to say something else, but was cut off by Kakashi's stern glare. "Sakura, go on and rest. We still need you tomorrow. Plus, I need your chair."

"Okay," said the pink-haired girl quietly. "Anyway, she's been sleeping for quite a few hours. Shouldn't be a problem."

"Got that. Now go."

As he took the seat Sakura vacated, he looked over at the sleeping form. She was a little darker from the sun, but her long blonde hair shone in the weak moonlight.

"You can stop pretending to sleep now, Toshi-san."

"I wasn't," replied the woman muzzily. "At least, I wasn't until you came in."

"Sorry about that. You feeling all right?"

"Just dizzy, really. Could you get me a glass of water please?"

Kakashi poured a glass of water and brought it to the bed. Toshi was sitting up, or some version of up; she was swaying slightly. Kakashi sat beside her to help her drink. When she stopped, he said, "You're going to the doctor immediately."

"What? Why?"

"You can't even sit up, Toshi-san. And your skin's clammy, and you have a rising temperature. Don't argue."

"... Fine." Toshi slumped back onto her pillows. "I don't have the strength."

Kakashi dampened her brow with the same towel Sakura had used earlier. Toshi mumbled a thanks.

"You should sleep now."

"Can't," replied the woman. "Maybe we can talk, and perhaps I'll drift off to sleep."

"Okay," complied Kakashi. "What about?"

"Technical stuff, so as to bore me completely... I know. The difference between jutsus and witch spells."

"Well, jutsus require chakra from the ninja."

"Spells... power from the source."

"And then we have to train and learn from scrolls."

"We do the spells then learn how we do it."

"There's nijutsu, taijutsu and genjutsu."

"We have transmutation, conjuration and illusions."

"Then there's bloodline limits..."

The door swung open slowly.

Kakashi opened his eyes to see a very familiar person standing in the doorway.

"Aya!"

Aya Fukuda was standing there with an indecipherable expression. She wanted to say something, stopped, turned, and ran off.

It was then Kakashi realized he was naked, in bed, and was holding an equally naked but sleeping Toshi.

"What the hell- AYA!" Kakashi hastily pulled on his clothes and his mask. He couldn't believe what was happening – why was his girlfriend here, in Sunagakure, and what was he doing in Toshi's bed, and why the hell were they naked? But first he had to get hold of Aya.

He saw her, her curls dark dancing in rhythm to her frantic passage through the alleys. He leaped over the roofs to land just in front of her. She collided straight into his arms.

"Don't touch me!" she cried out and pulled away. Her eyes – her lovely amber eyes that he'd been dreaming of the past few weeks – were red, her face streaked with tears.

"Aya, what you saw – I swear nothing happened!"

She just looked at him, her breathing shallow from her crying and her running. She waited for a long beat; he didn't dare to say anything.

"I came here to apologize," Aya whispered. It was not what Kakashi had been preparing for; his explanations died in his throat. She swallowed again before continuing, "I came to apologize, for acting like, like a jealous twit. For a week I was angry, but you kept calling and leaving messages, and I wanted to say sorry, but I didn't know where you were or how to find you, and I went to Tsunade-sama and begged her, and she relented and gave me a pass to come here and wait, and I waited for two weeks just to say sorry to you..."

She trailed off, her breaths becoming regular. "So right now, I'm saying that I'm sorry. Sorry for acting like a jealous idiot, sorry for having seen what you do on your 'missions', sorry for thinking we had something – had something special, for being so damn blind... I'm sorry, I'm sorry I fell in love with you, sorry for being so incredibly dumb -"

"Aya, I- there's nothing between us-" Every apology she made hammered a nail into his heart. He didn't know what to do, what to say.

"Yeah, I realize that now. I just wished you'd make that plain sooner - "

Kakashi swore at his blunder. "Aya, honey, that scene you saw – it wasn't - I don't know how it happened, we were just talking and then I woke up and I saw you -" He ran his hand through his very tousled hair. He knew he wasn't being very convincing, but he had to try. "I have no feelings for her, I don't understand why I was in bed with her – it's not what you think, I swear – You know I'm telling the truth, dammit!" He punched the alley wall with his fist.

Aya stepped back from him. Her eyes were rimmed with pain and confusion. "I don't know anything anymore. I don't – I never thought – I need to be somewhere. Else. Somewhere I can-"

Kakashi closed his eyes, his breathing heavy. He was confused and angry and hurt and disoriented. "Aya, we can figure this out – AYA!"

He called after her retreating back. As he took after her she merged into the milling crowd around the special stage for the actresses.

"Dammit," swore Kakashi softly. He slumped against the wall and slid to the ground. What the hell just happened?