Content warning: sexually explicit scenes, and gross descriptions of injury, I'm hoping y'all are prepared for that stuff by now, but I try to warn at least a little in case!
Sakura woke up a little before sunrise the next morning, throat dry and begging for water. She rolled over under the blankets, rubbing her eyes. She felt the breadth of Kakashi's back next to her and snuggled in closer to him.
Sakura was exhausted and everything hurt. She had thrown too much of her chakra through her arms yesterday, and now her hands were stiff and felt swollen, joints locked into funny angles. She winced, trying to flex her sore fingers, willing herself not to cry when she thought about it. In her heart, it felt like her own fault that Moriki was dead.
Sakura rolled back over to look at the ceiling, stewing in her turmoil.
So, maybe Moriki had been too far gone. If she thought about it objectively, like she should as a professional medic, she knew that. He had lost so much blood by the time she'd gotten into the OR, his heart beating far too fast and pumping out all of the blood in his body through the destroyed arm, that any hope for his survival had always been a long shot. His blood pressure had dropped critically low, organs battling with the lack of life-giving fluid as it failed to travel to his brain, to his limbs, only pouring over the floor and Sakura's clothes.
Her clothes.
The mess of blood all over. Drenching her from head to toe, it had coated her like a sick second skin, streaming between her lips and into her mouth, down the side of her throat and across her chest.
Bile rose in Sakura's throat and she shot out the bed, racing for the bathroom. It took all of her years of training not to fall over on her shaking legs. She threw herself in front of the toilet, knees cracking painfully against the cold tile. Her nostrils burned with stomach acid as she gagged, vomiting violently. The smell of blood still clung to the air around her, somehow, turning her stomach and making her skin crawl. She tried to hold back the tears as she puked, stomach muscles clenching and shooting pains up her spine.
Sakura nearly flinched out of her skin when she felt a warm, gentle hand ghost over the back of her neck. Kakashi had woken up when she jumped out of bed and followed her into the bathroom when she began to be sick. He squatted beside her, pulling her hair back away from her sweaty face and rubbing her back for support. Sakura shooed away the feeling of embarrassment that had followed him in behind her, too occupied with her gag reflex to worry about how disgusting this had to be for him to watch.
When it was finally over, she spat thickly into the toilet and flushed it. Sakura tried to stand, but her knees quivered, and she fell heavily into Kakashi's side. Now, shame bubbled up with more force. She couldn't even stand on her own.
"Lemme brush my teeth," she mumbled, unable to bring herself to look into his face. He was silent as she turned and leaned toward her sink, fumbling around for her toothbrush. Kakashi only kept his hands on her waist, taking the brunt of her weight to keep her standing. Sakura was grateful, if ashamed, as she did her best to scrub the vile taste of sick out of her mouth. She spit and rinsed, then turned around to lean against the porcelain sink, pulling out of his grip and holding her face in her hands.
"God, I'm sorry," she said, eyes covered by her fingers. The whole ordeal had certainly not been cute to watch, she was sure. Sakura heard Kakashi snort and peeked at him between her fingers. He was shaking his head as he came in close. She squeaked when he swiped her feet out from under her, catching her neatly in his arms. Sakura blushed, staring pointedly over his shoulder and not at his face.
"Why should you apologize for being sick? As if that makes sense," he scoffed, carrying her out through the bathroom and through the bedroom into the living room, setting her gently on the couch. "Besides," he said, voice rising in volume as he walked back into the bedroom. "It's not like I haven't seen you sick before. Remember when you tried to go on a diet when you were supposed to be training?"
Sakura rolled her eyes in annoyance. Back when she had been a genin, a young and naïve girl still clinging to civilian standards, she had always been trying one diet or another. She had worried about gaining too much weight or building too much muscle and not being cute enough. Well, she had definitely gained weight, most of it hard, cut muscle, but nowadays she knew it was just the necessary lifestyle of a kunoichi. But back then, she had still been hung up on having a cute, girlish figure. So, after a particularly grueling afternoon of training on the tail end of a week-long starvation diet of ginger-lemonade, Sakura had tried to force down some protein-supplicant snack and puked all over the training grounds, and to an even more mortifying extent, her own dress.
She flushed, just thinking about it. Naruto had been disgusted, screeching about it and all but running in the other direction with his nose pinched between thumb and forefinger. Even Sasuke had shown a rare display of any fleeting emotion, looking at her heat-sick form laid out in the grass with distaste.
Kakashi had only sighed at Sakura with resignation, sending the boys home and helping her over to the river so she could splash her face with cool water. He had even stood guard behind her, offering her his jōnin sweater to wear so she could peel off the vomit-stained qipao and hold it in the rushing water, changing in as much privacy as could be offered in the open field. She probably even still had that sweater somewhere, stashed away in the back of some drawer.
That was the first time she had seen his ANBU tattoo, when he had sat next to her on the riverbank in the late afternoon sun. She'd looked it up later, adding a new layer to her understanding of who he was. He had pulled off his sandals, peeled away the bandages at the hem of his pants and stuck his feet in the water. Sakura had only been able to stare at his masked profile in abject shock – he rarely took the time to focus on her like that. Not to mention, he never let his guard down that much.
"Why are you doing this?" Kakashi-sensei asked, not looking at her. His feet dangled off the edge of the bank, floating under the waves of rushing water. Sakura pulled her legs to her chest, crossing her arms over her kneecaps.
"I wouldn't expect you to know what it's like to be a girl and care about your figure," Sakura said haughtily.
"We're shinobi, Sakura. We are our bodies, we're soldiers, bought and paid for commodities," he said, bluntly, striking Sakura silent. "If you care more about your daily calorie intake than about your ninjutsu skill, you're going to die a bloody, painful death."
"Well, I-" she tried to say, struck dumb. Sakura could only stare blankly at her teacher as he sat there, staring off into the horizon. It was rare that anyone dropped reality at her feet like this.
"I don't want to die," she whispered, feeling shy and ashamed. Sometimes, surrounded by these seemingly-immortal boys and such a strong and ineffable leader, Sakura forgot the very real, very fatal dangers she encountered so regularly. Sure, she had done well in the Academy, and yeah, she was stupid good with her chakra control. But she was still weak, paling beyond pathetic in comparison to her teammates. She had no Sharingan, none of Naruto's unexplainable stamina and power. All she had were her smarts and some painfully average abilities.
"You're still a genin, so for now, I'll be around to protect you," he said, shrugging. "But if you plan to live to see adulthood, you need to stop depriving your body and hurting yourself."
Sakura nodded, really only to herself. The two of them sat there in silence for a few minutes, Sakura deep in thought, Kakashi leaning back on his hands and kicking his feet idly. Sakura was still too young to really take notice, but this was one of the few times the man allowed himself to relax around any of his students. He was a universally recognized spectre of death with a laundry list of confirmed kills at least ten feet long, but he was still just a 26-year-old dude trying to make each day livable. His chin tilted ever so slightly upward, enjoying the warmth of the sun across his cheeks. Part of him was tempted to pull down his mask, to breathe easier. His weight even began to shift to allow his hand to rise and pull the fabric down in the warm silence, but-
"Sensei?"
"Yeah?" he answered, hand quickly falling back into the grass. What the hell was that about, almost pulling down his mask? Where did he think he was?
Sakura scooted forward, moving to the river bank. She pulled off her sandals too, dropping her toes to wiggle in the water. She propped her elbows on her legs, resting her chin in her hands and looking out over the wooded skyline.
"My father was a shinobi, a long time ago. He died when I was really, really little."
Kakashi turned ever so slightly, just enough to see her better in the peripheral of his one uncovered eye. He hadn't known that about her, wouldn't have expected it with her normal-looking house and sunny disposition. He was well aware of Naruto and Sasuke being orphans, everybody was, but it wasn't common knowledge that Sakura had been raised by a single mother. He felt a little more aware of her now, knowing this. She was more like the other two, like himself, than he had thought.
"He didn't even die on a mission, he died when he went on a trip to find special flowers for my mother, out in the Land of Tea. Special golden bluebells, for their anniversary. He ran into some sort of robbery on the road. Too many bandits still active so soon after the war, I guess."
Sakura paused, picking a blade of grass out of the ground.
"My mom was really scared after that, she didn't like to leave the house. Growing up like that, sometimes I felt really scared too. I would get so scared sometimes, I'd just have to sit down and cry or it felt like my heart would give out. The doctors said we had anxiety, because of what happened with Daddy."
She sighed, more tiredness in her eyes than a twelve-year-old should have. More than she ever showed to anyone.
"Mama and I dealt with it different. When Ino said she was going to the Academy, I decided to go too, because I thought, if I could be strong like Daddy, maybe I wouldn't be scared anymore. That I could protect Mama, so she wouldn't be scared anymore. But it didn't really work out that way. I'm still scared, and now Mama hates part of me for doing what we do, for being like my father. She thinks I'm stupid for risking my life. She's probably right."
Sakura laid on her back in the grass, staring into the sky.
"But I don't really care, because at least I can keep her safe, I think. I can protect her. That's why Daddy was a shinobi, that's why he died, trying to protect people. And I didn't want that to die with him."
Kakashi pulled his feet out of the water and turned to face her completely. She was sprawled out in the grass as if to make snow angels. When he moved, Sakura tilted her head to the side, her still feverish and sunburnt face pressing into the dewy grass to look at him as he spoke.
"That was the Will of Fire."
"Like a nindo?"
"Sort of," he replied, scratching the back of his neck. "But your Will of Fire is deeper. It's about your people, not you. Your nindo is how you carry out your duty; your Will of Fire is why."
Sakura's face turned back to the sky, a sound of acknowledgment leaving her lips. She closed her eyes, breathing deeply through her nose.
"Get up," Kakashi said, not unkindly.
"Hmm?" Sakura asked, opening her eyes to see him standing, redressing his bandages and pulling on his shoes. He stood over her, reaching a hand down to help her to her feet.
"I need to make sure you get home without passing out, at least. People might think less of me otherwise."
That had been the day Sakura decided to give up all of the dumb diets, once and for all. The next morning, there had been a big pink basket of fruits and vegetables, and even chips of all things, on her front steps, tagged with the Henohenomoheji face. There had even been a short note scribbled at the bottom, "For the Will of Fire."
"Ew, I don't need to be starting a trend here," she called after him, and she heard his laugh from inside her bedroom.
"You could do worse than once every ten years," he joked, coming back out into the living room. Sakura was carefully popping and massaging her knuckles when she looked up, and she blushed. He was carrying a small mountain of pillows and the shuriken-printed blanket, the edge of it trailing along comedically behind him. He dropped the whole fluffy mess on top of her unceremoniously, making her laugh in spite of herself.
Kakashi dug through the pile to find her, tweaking Sakura's nose when she broke through to the air. He found the blush across her cheeks incredibly cute. It pulled at the strings of his heart, almost bringing one to the surface of his own skin, but he managed to tamp it down.
"You wouldn't happen to know how to make tea, would you?" Sakura asked, feeling guilty to be asking him to make tea for her in her own home. She just felt too tired, too bone-achingly exhausted to make it to the kitchenette.
"I am a grown man," he said with mock offense, getting up to start a pot of water boiling. Neither of them dared to mention how much of an issue that could truly be, as he rifled through her cabinets for the tea.
"Above the knives," she called out, trying to help.
"Spotted," she heard him say to himself, then the sound of the cardboard box being dragged out of the cabinet. Sakura took a moment to rearrange the pillows around her to relieve some of the pain in her upper back, pulling the blanket around her lap.
She could just barely see dawn beginning to edge over the sky when Kakashi returned, a mug of tea in hand, and what looked suspiciously like her bathroom trashcan.
"In case you get sick again," he said, setting it down beside her. She took the cup from him, wrists cracking noticeably as she did so. Sakura sighed. She handed it back to him, gesturing for him to set it on the table.
"Can you not heal them?" Kakashi asked, his voice low.
"I could, but I…" she said, trailing off into silence. Her eyes began to water as she avoided looking into Kakashi's eye, looking toward the ceiling instead. If she even began to think about generating that warm glow of healing chakra right now, her throat burned with acid and her gut tightened, threatening to throw vomit all over the floor. She choked it down and began rhythmically popping her fingers and wrists yet again.
Kakashi took one of her hands from her, nudging away her push of protest. He began massaging them for her, rolling the joints a little more savagely than Sakura could have done in her current state.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.
Sakura gulped, forcing herself to look at least somewhat more in his direction. A sigh of relief worked its way from between her lips as he whipped her wrist in a circle, a loud crack snapping its way through her wrist and elbow and releasing a string of pressure that had stretched all the way to her shoulder. Coppery spit began to gather under her tongue just trying to think about what she would try to say.
"No, not yet, I don't think," she whispered, one tear rolling down her cheek. "I just want to spend a day thinking about literally anything else."
Sakura had lost patients before, but she had never hurt someone she was trying to help like that. Never. The way his flesh had rendered into airborne shreds – the memory turned her stomach over in its place. Her ear throbbed where it had been pierced with a shard of Moriki's bone, a grim reminder of what had happened the day before.
Kakashi moved to her other hand, humming lightly.
It betrayed everything she was, everything she had been trying to do. When she had been knocked out of her concentration, lost control of the powerful surges of her chakra, it had behaved so abnormally. It had whipped and slammed in the air, burning it, ripping and basically blowing up the shredded remains of Moriki's arm. He'd almost certainly bled out just as Sakura had hit the floor.
Sakura was terrified that if she tried to summon her healing chakra, it would only happen again. She wasn't in control anymore, not of this powerful reserve of burning energy that reacted so violently to blood and bone, flowed so deep and full of awareness through chakra networks and bloodstreams.
He whipped her left wrist, the joints all along her arm again cracking with satisfaction. Sakura's shoulders sagged with relief, and she collapsed back into the pillows. Her eyes closed, Sakura waved her hands expectantly in the air, fingers opening and closing comedically until Kakashi handed her the steaming mug of matcha tea. She ignored his snort of laughter as she took a sip, grateful for the way it quenched her thirst and soothed her acid-burned throat.
"Thank you, Kakashi," she said, finally meeting his eyes. She hoped he knew that she meant it for more than just the tea.
"Anytime," he replied. He did.
Kakashi left not long after that, presumably to train with that genin team of his. It was barely five am, and Sakura was still exhausted and sore. Not to mention, emotionally drained. She fell asleep soon after he was gone, bundled in the pillows and blankets as she was.
"Psst. Shikamaru. Pssssst. SHIKAMARU!"
The man in question's eyebrow twitched. He hunched over, clenching his cigarette between his teeth, trying to hide. But it was too late unless he was planning on running. Which sounded like such a drag, he really didn't feel like expending all of that energy right now. Instead, he took a deep, desperate drag of his cigarette and straightened his spine, leaning back with resignation.
"What, Naruto?" he asked, not bothering to hide the annoyance in his voice.
The blond man snuck up behind him, peeking to the left and right to be sure that no one saw him.
Idiot, I'm only up here to hide from people like you in the first place.
They were both on the roof of the library, far away from anywhere any normal person was going to come strolling past.
"Why are you acting so weird, man? Can you, I don't know, chill or something?" Shikamaru whined.
"I'm looking for Ino."
"Then why are you bothering me?"
"You're the one dating her!"
"Yes, and it's exhausting enough. I'm not going to start tracking her all the time!"
"But like, just this once, dude!"
"Do it yourself!"
"I don't want to, she's your girlfriend!"
"I don't want to either! Ask your wife, she probably knows. All these women always know everything about everyone all the time," he said, taking the cigarette between his fingers and flicking the ash to the side.
Naruto glared at him, tapping his foot impatiently. Shikamaru put the cigarette back between his lips and inhaled.
"So, are you going to tell me where she is?"
"Yeah, yeah."
More silence.
"Shikamaruuuuuu-"
"God, fine, yes, Naruto. Shut up," he said, pushing himself to his feet and walking away. He turned to look over his shoulder, calling back to the annoyed-looking blond. "Well, are you coming? She's at the flower shop."
"Well, jeez. If you knew already, why didn't you just say so?"
"Because I was hoping you'd leave and not drag me into whatever this is," Shikamaru said, dropping from the third story roof and landing lightly on the hardpacked dirt street. Naruto quickly followed suit, their unwarned arrival making the woman in the vendor stall next to them jump with surprise.
"Weeeeeell," Naruto said, dragging it out with a leering grin. "Dontcha wanna know what I need to see her about?" he asked, poking the back of Shikamaru's shoulder. It made the cigarette between his teeth twitch tellingly with annoyance.
"No."
"Yes, you do. It's really, really good."
"No," he repeated, as they turned the corner onto the street where the Yamanaka Flower Shop stood.
"Yes."
"I'll find out when you tell Ino anyway, so stop being so loud, please," he begged, tiredly. He loved the guy like a brother, but damn if Naruto didn't remind him of his genin trainees. He was just as goddamn exhausting. Shikamaru pushed open the door, and the little bell rang above their heads.
"Hey there, sweetie. Hey, Naruto," said the girl they were looking for, leaned over a magazine on the counter and not making any effort to look up. "What's up?"
"He came to bother me of all people, trying to find you," Shikamaru said, walking up to the counter and leaning back against it.
"Hmm, no clue as to why that would be, huh?" she teased, leaning over to plant a kiss right beneath his ear, the cold metal of his earring tickling her nose. Shikamaru did his best to hide the shivers, but it wasn't much.
Naruto pretended to gag, sticking out his tongue and pointing his finger down his throat.
"Oh, shut up, Mr. Mom," she said, smacking him over the head with her magazine.
"Owww!"
"So, what did you come all the way over here to tell me?" she asked nonchalantly, picking at her cuticles with boredom.
Naruto began to grin wickedly, one hand rising to shield his words as he spoke conspiratorially.
"Sakura's neighbor accused me of sleeping with her."
Ino and Shikamaru both gaped at him.
"Ohmygosh, are you?!" she almost screamed.
"NO! Shut up! Why do people keep thinking that!"
"What else are we supposed to think when you say something like that?!" Shikamaru asked.
"Well, for one it means she's sleeping with somebody! We have to find out who it is!"
"I really don't think-"
"No, Shikamaru," Ino said, cutting him off. She planted her fist and raised a fist in determination. "Our sweet little Sakura never gets any, and if she is, she should be telling me every sweaty little detail. I knew she was getting it in with somebody."
Shikamaru winced, not liking the direction things were taking.
"Did you really have to say sweaty?"
"Who could it be?" Naruto demanded, slamming his palm into the counter and ignoring the glare Ino sent him for doing so.
"How am I supposed to know? I just told you she hasn't told me anything. Get your hands off of the marble, please," she said, rolling up the magazine and using it to push his palm off of the counter. Naruto stuck his tongue out at her when she leaned over to inspect the glossy finish for fingerprints.
"You have to have some idea though, Ino," he begged. "Her neighbor said all she knew was that he was a ninja, so we can at least work from that, right?"
"How on earth would she have known that without having seen him?"
"Uh," he stammered, neck and face going bright red. "She said he, uh, had too much…stamina for it to be otherwise."
Shikamaru had to laugh at that, tears coming to his eyes. He could just imagine Naruto having to stand there, being accused of having sex with Sakura Haruno by her neighbor just because she knew he was a shinobi. Naruto shoved him in his shoulder.
"Get fucked, Nara."
"Oh, he will," Ino interrupted, looking into space with her fingers tapping against her chin thoughtfully, making Shikamaru grin devilishly. "The question is, who's fucking Haruno?"
Mid-afternoon, Kakashi was in the very back booth of some dimly lit bar, a mostly untouched bottle of sake in front of him as he pretended to read his book.
"I thought I might find you here."
Kakashi looked up to see Yamato, hands in his pockets, looking down at him with concern.
"Good sleuthing, detective."
"I heard you transferred your team," he said, ignoring the comment and sliding into the booth across from Kakashi. Kakashi flicked his book closed and tucked it into his waistband, giving up on trying to read it. He raised his hand to get the bartender's attention, gesturing for another cup.
"I did," he confirmed, taking the cup that was brought and filling it, pushing it to Yamato's side of the table.
"And why is that?"
"Don't want them to get too attached. We've seen how it usually goes with my teams," he said, sipping at his sake.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
Kakashi gave the man a tired look, meaning clear in his gaze. Yamato sighed.
"I wouldn't exactly place that blame on you. For one, the Uchiha kid had some pretty major stuff going on at the get."
Kakashi snorted. "You don't become a shinobi if you aren't already a little fucked up."
"You've got me there."
Ino and Naruto were making their way to Sakura's apartment. Ino had forced Naruto to carry bags of food and bottles of wine, piles of romance movies, anything she could see as necessary for getting Sakura to spill the beans. Naruto, of course, was moaning and groaning about it.
"Why couldn't Shikamaru come and help me carry all this stuff?" he asked, whining.
"Because he'd be no help, you knucklehead. It's going to be hard enough to get Sakura to talk, without him complaining and trying to smoke up her whole house."
"Yeah, well…fine, whatever," he replied, making a face. His face perked up again as he asked, "So what are we doing?"
"We're going to go up there, cheer her up, get her drunk, and find out who it is that's been spending the night. Do you not listen to things when they're planned? We literally just went over this."
"Ehhh." He waddled ahead, electing not to answer her, for his own sake.
They rounded onto Sakura's street, her building's tile roof gleaming in the sunlight. Her apartment was obvious, soft pink curtains bundled behind the glass windows.
"Ugh," she groaned, rubbing her temples with annoyance. "Just don't talk too much and follow my lead, okay?"
"I can do that."
"I'm going to pretend I believe you, because I really would rather not carry any of that," she said with a sigh, opening the door to the building and leading them up the stairs.
"I can be sneaky, I did take the same Academy training you did."
"Yeah," she said, approaching Sakura's door and knocking on it. "But I passed."
"Hey!"
"Don't hate me for being right," she sang as the door swung open.
Yamato leaned back in the booth, pouring another cupful of sake.
"You're being unusually moody, if you aren't aware."
"I thought I was always moody. I need to work on that, to keep up my reputation."
"You know what I mean, senpai."
"I'm sure I don't."
Yamato fixed him with a hard glare, unwilling to relent.
Kakashi dragged at his drink, reluctant to speak. When he reached for the bottle to pour another cupful, Yamato snatched it away from his grasping hand.
"Not until you tell me what the issue is. We have enough to worry about around here without you moping around like some sad old man."
Kakashi gripped the empty porcelain cup in his hands, his pride stung.
That was the issue, wasn't it? That he was a sad old man, who went from a beautiful woman's house to stand and stare at a grave? That couldn't unearth himself from the guilt of his failed squads, shifting leadership of genin teams from his hands time after time? That couldn't admit to himself that he loved someone, because that meant they would leave him, that they would die?
He was old, and if he was honest with himself, probably even starting to lose his edge. His eye was fucked, and every morning his joints popped a little more painfully when he got out of bed. Kakashi carried decades of baggage on his shoulders, in the form of death and regret.
So, so much regret.
The fingers of his right hand twitched.
Hatake Kakashi did not deserve to be happy, did not deserve to be in love with someone so good and so kind. Sakura deserved so much better than what he had to give. Hell, he couldn't even be honest about the fact that he had hypnotized her to sleep, even if only for her own benefit.
These shooting emotional pains dulled around her, when the smell of strawberries and a glowing pink warmth drowned out the pain that lived between his lungs. But here, with nothing but his own thoughts and desperation to keep him company, he broiled in that pain.
"It's a woman, isn't it?" Yamato asked, knowingly.
Kakashi's uncovered eye flicked up, heart beginning to beat a little faster. Yet, there was no change in his lazy, unaffected expression. He reached again for the sake, nabbing it this time before Yamato had a chance to snatch it away.
"What makes you ask that?"
"So that's a yes."
Kakashi could only huff uncomfortably in response.
Naruto had arranged all of the takeout and snacks Ino had forced him to carry into an appealing spread across Sakura's coffee table, wasting no time in digging in with a magically produced pair of chopsticks. He had even been so kind as to pour wine for the three of them, but as clueless as he was, he had poured it into regular glasses, giving them each way more than could be considered a single serving.
But, Ino thought, as she healed Sakura's swollen hands for her, maybe he was a genius. She had told him to get Sakura drunk. It was the only way they had a chance in hell of getting her to talk.
There was already a shitty romance film playing on Sakura's tiny TV, Icha Icha characters running noiselessly across the screen. Ino noted gleefully that she was already easily distracted by what was happening in the movie, as if captivated by the ridiculously crappy plot.
Good, perfect. If she cared about that bad of a romance, this would be easy.
"I've missed our girl time, Sakura," Ino said with a cheesy sigh, dropping Sakura's now-healed hands and flapping her wrist dramatically.
"Girl time?" Sakura echoed, quirking her eyebrow at Naruto, who was shoveling down food at a mile a minute.
"I can do girl time," he struggled to say around a mouthful of dumplings. He scrunched his eyes and his hands flew in a flurry of symbols. A puff of smoke later and a bright-eyed girl with long blonde ponytails sat in Naruto's place, his bright-orange uniform baggy on the slender frame.
"Naru-chan, present and accounted for." She smiled happily, before going back to slamming food down her gullet. Much cuter, but still definitely Naruto.
"You and Hinata must have a very exciting love life," Sakura said, trying and failing to smother her laughter.
"Oh, you don't even know," girl-Naruto said, grinning.
Ino leaned over to pick up her heavy glass of wine, handing one to Sakura as well. She smiled, seeing Sakura sink half of it back in one gulp. Ino refilled the glass, encouraging, and let Sakura drain half of it again in one go.
Sakura had had a hard few days, after all, and she deserved to let loose. Tsunade had sent her home to relax, and she planned to do just that. Her stomach had settled, and her hands felt fine, good even, and she just wanted to chill out and enjoy an evening with her friends. Even if one of those friends was an idiot like Naruto, she thought, as his female figure popped away in another burst of smoke.
"For someone who acts so lazy and bored all the time, Shikamaru really can get it going when the time comes, if you know what I mean," Ino said, waggling her eyebrows and making Sakura giggle.
"Does he take down the ponytail when he's hitting it, or no?" Sakura asked, trying to cover her smile with her hand.
Ino grinned wickedly, picking up a throw pillow and holding it over her head threateningly.
"Wouldn't you like to know, Haruno? You wanna know what my sex life is like, Little Miss Celibate?" she teased, beginning to beat Sakura's legs with the pillow.
Sakura barely managed to get her glass to safety, shrieking with laughter as she tried to avoid Ino's blows. Naruto pulled the table away from them, guarding the food protectively.
"Hey! I get it when I want it!"
Both Naruto and Ino snapped to attention then, eyes blazing with purpose. Neither of them had drunk much, letting Sakura get tipsy, and now they had their opportunity.
"Oh really, Sakura-chan?" Ino questioned, smile predatory.
"So, what is she like?"
"Remind me why that's any of your business?" Kakashi asked, sighing. This wasn't how he had expected this afternoon to go; he had planned on sulking in solitude for the day. Per the usual.
"She must be pretty special if she's got you this wrapped up," Yamato said with a shrug. Kakashi acted pretty normal most of the time, if a little sedate and unimpressed with most of the world's goings on. But for the past six months or so, he had been more on edge, more liable to disappear from public gatherings and spending his time isolated. For the last week though, he had oscillated, moving between an uncharacteristic lightness to moods even more dour than usual.
"She's…" he trailed, unable to find the words. The sake was getting to him, keeping him from doing the smart thing and shutting the hell up. "She's amazing," he said, a picture of Sakura rising in his mind's eye; her hair splayed out behind her as she roused from sleep, a groggy smile in her eyes and lips. "She's too good for me."
"Every woman is too good for you, Hatake. You need a better reason than that to mope."
'You're an asshole."
"I take offense to that."
"I take offense to you drinking my sake," Kakashi replied, looking at their shared bottle pointedly. Yamato rolled his eyes, gesturing a hand in the air to have the bartender bring another round.
"Now you have nothing to complain about."
"Bold of you to assume I don't have more complaints."
"Bold of you to assume I won't make the booth grow arms and trap you here until you talk."
The two of them glared at each other, the silence only interrupted when a fresh round of sake was dropped off at the table.
"Is she cute, at least? You aren't hiding her away because she's ugly or something."
"She's beautiful, thank you very much," he shot back, defensive on Sakura's behalf. He felt compelled to smack Yamato upside the head for the unintentional disrespect. "Watch your mouth, Tenzou."
"So, who is she?" the younger asked, filling their cups again.
"That's definitely none of your business."
"Embarrassed?"
"No," Kakashi said, sighing. He was doing a lot of that tonight. "But she deserves better than me, Tenzou. I'm not going to drag her name through my mud."
"Then why deal with it?"
Kakashi leaned his head back against the suspiciously grimy vinyl of the booth, looking at the ceiling with defeat. Alcohol gushing through his system and kicking his barriers down like kids toys, there was no point in denying it to himself any longer.
"Because I'm a goddamn idiot who fell in love, that's why."
"Just tell us who's getting your precious goods, Sakura!"
"Ew, Ino, don't say it like that, you pig!"
"C'monnnnn, Sa-ku-raaaaa," Naruto whined from the floor, laying on a pile of pillows. He had jerry-rigged a string of straws so he could sip at his drink while he laid on the floor, too lazy to sit up anymore. Sakura was fighting them, and now they were all bordering on drunk, bickering back and forth.
"I don't know why this even matters to you so much!"
"Because, Forehead, I'm your best friend and we tell each other everything! I told you every time I had anything juicy going on!"
"Yeah, and now I know way too much about Genma, so you're really not helping your case here."
"Ew, Ino."
"Naruto, you better shut the hell up or I'll tell Hinata about the time you and-"
"HEY, how about we get back to Sakura, hehe, hehe," he said sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment.
"No, I'd really like tp hear more about whatever that's about-" Sakura tried to say, before Ino started poking her and cut her off midsentence.
"If you can't tell us who he is, can you at least tell us how he is?" Ino begged, crawling into Sakura's lap. She batted her eyes imploringly. "I need to know about all the good lays in this town, just as back up."
"I'm telling Shikamaru you said that."
"Go ahead, he'll just spend three days thinking about it then take it out on me in bed. I could use a little excitement."
"You're terrible."
"That's why he loves me, I keep his life interesting."
"Difficult, you mean."
"Tomato, tomahto, Forehead. Now tell us what he's like in bed."
Naruto and Ino leered at Sakura with expectancy in their eyes as she picked up her glass, draining it for courage.
"Well, he fucked me on the kitchen table, if that's the kind of thing you want to know."
"SAKURAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"…and she's so smart and like, reads so fast," Kakashi drawled, spinning his cup around as he stared off into space. "And she's so pretty it's stupid. Every time I look at her, I feel like a kid bringing flowers to his school teacher." He decided not to dwell on the ridiculous amount of irony in that particular analogy.
Yamato grinned at the older man, beyond amused at how mushy Hatake was apparently capable of being, once you got enough liquor into him. The wet ring around his mask around where his mouth should be had grown steadily as he drank.
"And, Tenzou, man, the things she does with her mouth? I don't know what the old lady was teaching her but damn-"
"Okay, I'm going to stop you right there. I really don't think I want to know what any of that meant."
"Oh believe me, man, you really wish you did, I mean she-"
"Shh, shh, shhh," Yamato said, holding up one finger in front of Kakashi's face and bringing him back to focus. "If you love her, why are you being such so moody about it?"
Kakashi's face fell, what was visible of it anyway. "I told you. She deserves better than me."
"Not that tired old shit again, Kakashi."
"Excuse me?"
"You're a good man, Hatake. You've given your life for this village, literally. There's nothing you wouldn't do for your comrades. Why shouldn't you deserve something nice every once in a while?" he asked, sipping at his drink in resignation.
Kakashi groaned, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes.
"Can we just go back to how good she is in bed?"
"Yes, fine, we can go back to talking about how good she is in bed."
Sakura had to admit that she felt relieved when Naruto and Ino finally left, taking the mess in the living room with them under threat of never being allowed back. She loved them to pieces, but they were messy, and they were loud. Not to mention, they had berated her enough to get her to spill some of the spicier details about her recent nightlife, sans any names of course.
She dropped heavily onto the couch, sinking into the pillows, the alcohol coursing through her bloodstream making her giddy and warm.
The air in her apartment felt much too hot, clinging to her flesh like a film. She stripped off her shirt, leaving her chest bare as it rose and fell with each breath.
The two of them had goaded it out of her, gotten her to tell about the ways Kakashi toyed with her body, made her writhe and shake with pleasure. Sakura had gotten carried away, almost dropping too obvious of details, like the mask or the ANBU tattoo. But it was hard to describe to them the delicious ways he made her feel without so clearly picturing Kakashi in crystalline detail; the way his curiously silver eyelashes fluttered against his cheekbones when he shut them, the way his jaw clenched when he dropped to his knees and hitched her thighs apart, the way those surprisingly, tantalizingly pink lips parted to let his tongue lick along-
Sakura moaned, surprising herself. She hadn't realized that she had fallen back into the cushions of the couch, knees spread, one hand slipped beneath the elastic of her underwear. A flush poured its way across her cheeks and down her throat, but she didn't stop.
Sakura's lips parted with a pathetic, breathy sigh, fingers pushing further beneath the cotton fabric of her already-damp underwear. She bit her bottom lip, the stinging pain only heightening her arousal, as she pushed two fingers inside herself, muscles tightening around them and making her nipples tighten.
Sakura's other hand rose to palm at her sensitive breast, the coolness of her fingers making her shiver in the warm air. The fingers between her thighs continued to pump in and out, slick with wetness, thumb beginning to circle her swollen clit. She grit her teeth, breath coming out in short pants as warmth pooled in her gut, tightening her body like a spring.
Sakura conjured an image of Kakashi in his mind, the lines and angles of his jaw and neck, his broad, protective shoulders. Her throat tightened, thumb rolling over and pinching her nipple, as her mental projection came more into focus. She could see the hunger in his eyes, in the way they narrowed to focus on her like she was prey, lips pulled back to bare the pointed canines that drove her absolutely fucking crazy.
A rough moan tumbled out of her throat, back arching as she came. Sakura rolled her hips, flexing out the last of the built-up pressure in her thighs with a satisfied sigh. Her neck and shoulders melted, warmth spreading through her body. A happy sigh traveled through the room, and she relaxed into the pillows.
A thought wriggled its way to the front of her brain, sparking an idea she might not otherwise have had. Curiously, she raised her hand, still slick, and brought it to her lips, tracing a wet line across the sensitive flesh of her mouth and across her chin. Slowly, she lapped at the wetness with her tongue.
Mmm, sweeter than I'd have thought.
Sakura laid there for a few more minutes, sucking lazily on her own fingers, settling into a post-orgasmic haze.
Then there was a short knock on the glass panel that led to the tiny balcony.
Kakashi had sobered up- at least a little bit. Yamato had all but forced him to drink two cups of coffee, making him lucid enough to walk in a straight line, if still a little loose-lipped. He wanted to slap himself in the face for having said the things he did say. First of all, he was edging dangerously close to disclosing way too much information for his own safety. Second, what the hell was he doing, talking about Sakura's skills in the bedroom that way? That was his business and his alone, to think about when he was safely in private. And now he was having to tamp down the stirrings of arousal in his gut as he walked slowly to her house. Sakura had had an impossibly demanding few days, like hell he was going to walk into her house and try to seduce her. In fact, he considered going home instead but set his mind against it.
He could hold down his baser urges for her sake. Kakashi would much rather spend the night with one arm falling asleep underneath her as she slept than to lay alone. It was worth it to see the glow of her eyes as the morning sun hit them, the way she smiled so brightly and with unabashed enthusiasm when she woke and still found him beside her. It was so unlike anything else in his life.
That's because you love her, idiot.
He sighed, tilting his head back. He could deal with it for tonight, surely. Kakashi kept pace towards Sakura's house, hands in pockets and humming lightly to himself. He could see the pinkish glow of Sakura's windows up ahead, bright against the night sky. Checking his balance, affected as it was by the earlier sake, he jumped up to her balcony. A flower pot fell off of the edge of the railing, almost tumbling three stories and crashing to the ground below, but he managed to catch it in time. Kakashi slipped off the rail, setting the flowers back in place silently.
Kakashi knocked on the glass panel, hoping she was still awake. It would feel extremely weird to try breaking into his much younger girlfriend's house while drunk.
Girlfriend?
He yanked his mask down, desperately sucking in a breath. Well. That was unexpectedly domicile.
The balcony door slid open with a shiiiink, spilling light over Kakashi's face.
Sakura had opened the door completely undressed, the toned curves of her breasts and waist lit aglow from the light inside. Her face was flushed, the finer strands around her hairline sticking to beads of sweat across her forehead.
A light gust of wind blew past them, stirring with the air that flowed out of Sakura's apartment. Kakashi's nose twitched unconsciously. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly, deepening the blush on Sakura's face for reasons he didn't know. There, on the breeze, he could smell something, smell her.
Kakashi grinned the biggest, most shit-eating grin of his life as he looked down at the naked woman before him. He definitely smelled what he thought he smelled, taking in the sweat across her skin and the wetness that shone across her thighs and – good lord, across her lips.
"I hope you saved some for me," Kakashi said, huskily. "Smells delicious."
Sakura's gut tightened, pure instinct taking over when he bared those stupid fucking canines at her. She reached her fist out of the doorway, yanking him in like a rag doll and slamming it shut. It was a minor miracle that the panel didn't shatter into dust, the glass singing with the force of the blow. As it was, it bounced back open by an inch or two, curtains swaying in the wind.
Kakashi kissed her then, savoring the flavor on her lips, on her tongue. She melted into him, his hands wandering down the bare length of her back and the soft curve of her ass.
"Fun night, I take it?" he teased, as she latched her lips onto his neck, right beneath his chin. Liquid heat spread all the way through to his toes as she unbuckled his vest, pulling it up and over his head.
"Ino and Naruto came over, brought wine, talked too much." She peeled his sweater off next, pleased to find his fishnet shirt underneath it. Sakura plucked at the taut threads appreciatively, liking the way it stretched over his muscles.
"Do I want to know what you talked about?" he asked, as she dropped her hands to play with the edge of his waistband, walking backward to lead him to the couch. She dropped onto the cushions, yanking Kakashi down with her. Drinking had made her bold. He landed on his knees in front of her, letting her spread her legs and rest the backs of her knees over his shoulders.
"Girl talk."
"With Naruto?"
"He's easier to talk to than you'd think."
"Really, now?"
"Are we going to keep talking about Naruto or are you going to – oh."
Sakura threw her head back with a loud sigh. The feeling of Kakashi's tongue, taking broad, wet strokes over her clit made her breath fly out of her lungs.
She opened her eyes, looking down the length of her body to see Kakashi nestled there, between her thighs. His hot, burning eyes flicked to meet hers, forcing a jolt of feeling through her entire body. They locked onto her, following every shiver of her skin and shake of her shoulders, watching her. There was more in them than just lust, there was something deep and warm; looking into her eyes, needy for something that he could only find in those jade green irises. They searched for something deep inside of her that Sakura couldn't name, but felt bubble up out of her, meeting his eyes with that same burning feeling, one hand reaching to trace along the line of his jaw and sink into his hair. They narrowed to hungry slits when she bit her lip, the little pinch sending a zing down her spine. As if in response to the movement, Kakashi pressed two fingers past her entrance, curling them inside her. Sakura almost screamed, clenching her thighs on either side of his skull. She felt the sharp edges of his teeth against her hot and sensitive flesh when he smiled at her cries. Kakashi moved his fingers faster, coaxing moans and wetness from inside of her, lapping both up greedily.
"Ka-kakashi…, she moaned, needing more, needing it now.
His hands gripped her hips, pulling her off the couch and onto his lap. Kakashi pushed the table out of the way, making room for their bodies. She rolled her hips down into his crotch, eliciting a rough growl from his throat. It was the animalistic, primal things like that that urged Sakura to grind harder against his tightening cock, desperate for more of him.
Sakura perched herself on her toes, blood running hot. She leaned over to kiss Kakashi, deeply, aching for his lips and his tongue against hers. Her hands reached beneath her to fumble with his waistband, pulling and shoving his pants and boxers out of the way. He lifted his hips ever so slightly, to help her push them past his hips. Sakura smiled into the kiss, amused at his eagerness.
Then she took his hot, throbbing member in her hand, guiding it inside of her, and leaned her weight back onto Kakashi's lap with an echoing moan that made even her eyes water. His hands tightened over her naked hips as she moved, rolling her weight back and forth on her toes. Sakura's eyes rolled back in her head as Kakashi's cock pushed inside of her, slowly, over and over again. Her gut was tightening, ruining her every sense of self as electricity bundled inside of her hips.
Sakura lost her balance, weight falling to her hands on the floor on either side of Kakashi's head. She gasped for breath, sweaty hair dangling in both of their faces.
"Tired already?"
"Hatake, if you don't do me right this minute, I'll kill you."
"My pleasure," he said, grinning at her. His fist wrapped in her hair, pulling her off of his lap and onto her knees. He then threw her, forcefully, so that she landed on her elbows, cheek scraping against the carpet. She mewled for him, wet thighs shivering in the air with her hips held aloft as they were. Sakura could just barely feel the brush of his pants against the backs of her thighs as he positioned himself on his knees behind her, grasping her hair in one hand, her hip with the other. She gulped thickly, her entire body wound tight with want.
Her elbows gave out under her when he pressed the thick length of himself inside of her dripping slit, her cheek against the carpet, fucking her into the floor until she was nothing but an unintelligible mess of moans and demands for more, harder, fuck me, baby, please, baby make me come- Until her body shook, clenching around Kakashi's cock and forcing a guttural groan from his throat, wetness pulsing from inside of her and down her thighs as she orgasmed. He pounded into her once, twice more, before pulling out and letting her collapse onto the ground, breathing heavy.
Sakura turned onto her back, hand reaching to help him as he finished onto her stomach.
They were both silent, save for the heavy panting of their breath, as their lips connected again. Their teeth knocked together in desperation, needing each other.
Neither noticed that Sakura's glass door had stayed open a fraction of the way, or that a bird had perched on the railing outside. Neither saw the bird watching them, head tilted, eyes widening with unnaturally human surprise.
Shikamaru was fiddling with his lighter, leaning against a tree. Ino was across his lap, fully unconscious. He'd complained about what a drag it was to come all the way out here for something so troublesome, but she'd insisted. She needed to find a bird to do the Mind Transfer Jutsu on, and she needed someone to protect her body. By default, that meant him, and eventually, he'd had to relent.
That was how he found himself to be out in the woods, late at night, when he could be sleeping soundly in his bed. Oh, how it called to him…
Ino began jerking slightly in his lap, the tell-tale sign that she was returning to her body. She came to with a start, jerking upright. Her face, so recently pale and expressionless, was suddenly cherry red, as her hand flew to her mouth with surprise.
"Well, find out anything good?"
Ino could only shake her head back and forth with shock, climbing into his lap and straddling him. Shikamaru's eyes widened with surprise as she ground her hips into his.
"What the hell is this for?"
"Shut up, Shikamaru," she said. Instead of answering, she began to wrestle his vest off over his head. Besides the complete and utter shock at what she had just seen, arousal was coursing through her veins. There was no way she was going to be able to spill the beans to Shikamaru, not without sitting on it first, about something as juicy as this. If she didn't distract him, he'd outsmart her and get her to tell him everything; even Ino could admit that. So, she thought as she pulled her top over her chest and let Shikamaru kiss along the swell of her breast, might as well kill two birds with one stone.
"You don't have to tell me twice," he said, as she captured his lips and pushed her delicate fingers past the elastic of his pants.
This bitch long as hell. Classes let out and I forgot how tf to act. Word count WHO?
I know the romance has sort of taken a back burner, I think, I'm going to heat it back up, I promise! I haven't written in so many years, that I wasn't prepared for how much I was going to gravitate to the more action-heavy, dramatic plot! I especially didn't think I'd execute it well! Oh jeez, should I change the genre listing?
Classes are OUT I'm ready to SINK MY TIME INTO THIS STORY IM SO EXCITED! Thank you to everyone who has liked or followed, everyone who's reviewed, thank you to everyone who's had this open in a tab on their phone browser for three weeks and just refreshes it every so often bc honestly bIG mood.
