A/N: In my dog-lover version of the Naruto universe, ninken live way longer than normal dogs, so Pakkun and crew are still hanging about. Also, we're going to finally start getting some more insight into our favorite scarecrow's thoughts.
Chapter 12
Sakura had successfully managed to avoid Kakashi for three days, and in that time, she'd gotten fairly adept at blocking out thoughts of him as soon as they entered her head. She'd also been relearning how to ignore Inner Sakura, who insisted on telling her that she could avoid Kakashi for the rest of her life if she wanted, but she'd never be able to forget the other night ... the heat in his eyes, the warmth of his breath against her lips, the touch of his fingers on her hips, pulling her into him …
Sakura mentally pounded her inner self into the ground of her mind and stuck her pen roughly into her white coat pocket. She picked up the file she'd come to her office to retrieve and was about to continue her rounds when a nurse rapped lightly on the partially-opened door before poking her head through the gap to look in.
Catching Sakura's eye, the nurse pushed the door fully open and entered the office. "Sakura-sama," she said with a small bow. "We need you in exam room 8. There's a patient there who refuses to see anyone but you."
Sakura sighed. Sadly, this wasn't an uncommon occurrence; most of the Rookie 9 and their former teachers had taken to insisting upon her whenever they had to visit the hospital. Shaking her head, she tucked the file into the crook of her arm and walked past the nurse and out of the office. The nurse followed behind her.
"What's the injury?" Sakura asked without stopping.
"He's got a gash across his chest from a kunai. Apparently it was a sparring accident," the nurse reported. "He won't even let us stop the bleeding … said he needed to preserve his modesty."
Sakura's heart stopped, but somehow she was able to keep her pace steady. She knew only one man who would say something outrageous like that. "Tsuki-san, you wouldn't happen to be talking about our illustrious former Hokage, would you?" she queried, glancing at the nurse out of the corner of her eye.
The nurse blushed and looked down at the tile. "Um, yes, Sakura-sama," she confirmed. "He told me not to tell you that he was the patient, but …"
"Thank you, Tsuki-san. I'm glad you did," Sakura said. And she really was; she had no idea what her reaction might have been if she hadn't had any time to prepare herself for seeing him again for the first time since …
Since you were a half-second away from finding out if that man's kisses are as sexy as that cocky smirk he's always wearing, Inner Sakura finished with a wide grin.
For the love of god, why won't you just go away? Sakura growled mentally. I thought I was done with you years ago.
Inner Sakura shrugged, looking like she was enjoying herself way too much. Sakura glared at her.
"... Sakura-sama? We just passed room 8." Tsuki's timid voice cut into the staring contest Sakura was having with her inner self.
"Ah, oh, right. Thank you, Tsuki-san. I seem to be a little distracted today," Sakura explained with a fake smile and a small laugh as she turned back toward the correct room.
"Completely understandable, Sakura-sama. You're always so busy!" Tsuki nodded sympathetically. She opened the exam room door and handed Sakura a clipboard. "Here's his chart. Let me know if you need any assistance, Sakura-sama. I'm happy to help."
Sakura didn't miss the way the petite girl's cheeks flushed lightly as her eyes flickered toward the patient before she left the room. She frowned, suddenly feeling irritated. Had he always elicited those kinds of reactions in women, and she'd just never noticed? And how old was Tsuki-san anyway? She was probably half Kakashi's age … there was no reason for her to be blushing over an old pervert like him.
Still glowering, Sakura flipped over the first page on the clipboard and turned toward her obnoxious patient. When she finally looked up, though, she was stunned to see that the gash, while shallow, ran across his chest from just under his right rib cage almost to his left collarbone. Small rivulets of blood were still trickling from parts of the wound.
"Kakashi! What the hell happened?" she cried out, dropping the chart onto the counter and moving to stand in front of him, lifting the jagged edge of his shirt to expose the cut.
He was sitting on the exam table, hands curled around its edges, torn shirt hanging loosely from his body. His posture was only fractionally more hunched than usual, but it was enough to tell her that he was in pain.
He gave her a wry smile. "Well, I had some … frustrations … to work out, so I thought it would be fun to have a Rokudaime versus Nanadaime Hokage sparring session."
"Are you mad? You know Naruto still gets carried away sometimes, especially if he's sparring with someone like you!" she scolded as she quickly set to cutting off his shirt.
Once it was removed, she pushed his shoulders back slightly to get a better look at the wound. He winced. "Ouch, Sakura-chan. That hurts."
"Quiet. It's your own damn fault," she said sharply, not sparing him a glance as she examined the gash. "Alright, I need to clean this out first. You've got dirt and bits of rock and … is that dog fur?" She reached out and pulled away a stray hair, holding it up to the light. "Dog fur," she sighed, letting it fall to the ground beside the exam table and turning toward the counter to put together the disinfecting supplies.
Out of habit, he started to raise his arm to scratch the back of his head sheepishly, but immediately thought the better of it as the slight movement sent a shock of pain across his chest. He clenched his jaw briefly before forcing his eyes to crinkle in his usual smile, even though her back was to him. "Well, I couldn't very well leave Pakkun and the others out of such an epic battle," he protested.
"You are impossible," she groused, grabbing a bottle of rubbing alcohol from the cabinet and setting it next to the other supplies she'd placed on a tray.
Picking up the tray, she put it down on the far end of the exam table and told him to turn so that he would be sitting of the broad side of the table rather than the end. He obeyed, his movement awkward as he tried to avoid causing himself more pain. With her supplies now easily within reach at his side, she began disinfecting the wound.
"So where is the overzealous Nanadaime now? Shouldn't he be in here too? I can't imagine he's uninjured if you look like this," she questioned, eyes focused on her task.
"Ah, ha ha …" Kakashi chuckled nervously. "I think he's still resting on the training grounds."
Sakura lifted her head to shoot him a raised eyebrow, hand paused. "Ka-ka-shi …" she warned.
"Ah, well, you see, I might have knocked him unconscious …" he creased his eyes at her, but he knew she was having none of it.
" … And you just left him there?" Her voice was low and carried a subtle threat of bodily harm to come as she spoke.
"No!" he replied immediately, then looked up at the ceiling. " … Well, kind of. I sent Pakkun to get help."
She blinked. "You sent Pakkun to get help."
He nodded, smiling uncertainly. "Yes?"
She flattened her palm against her forehead. "Kakashi, he could have a concussion! You can't just leave him out there! Dear god, you're old enough to know this … or your birth certificate says you are at any rate!"
Kakashi waved his hands in front of her, trying not to flinch at the pain as he did so. "No, no, no, Sakura-chan … I used a genjutsu," he explained quickly. "He's fine! …" He paused, furrowing his brows. "Well, physically …"
She bopped him on the head reproachingly. "Kakashi!"
"I'm just kidding, Sakura-chan. It wasn't a traumatizing genjutsu …" he reassured her, smiling innocently.
She gave him a flat look. "I hate you."
Returning her attention to cleaning his wound, grumbling about the way he always made her worry unnecessarily, she didn't see the tender, amused look on his face as he gazed down at the top of her head.
A few minutes later, Sakura placed the swab onto the tray and straightened up. "Okay, I'm going to heal it now," she told him as she channeled chakra to her hands. He nodded, and she held her glowing palms about an inch from his chest. His flesh instantly began to knit itself back together.
As she watched the cut close, Sakura was for the first time extremely unhappy that she had become so used to healing injuries like this that she barely had to concentrate. Unlike the disinfecting process, which required her to stay focused in order to ensure that she cleaned the wound completely, the chakra-healing part left her with way too much unoccupied attention for her to avoid noticing Kakashi's muscular chest and incredibly toned abs.
Even as she tried to keep her eyes from trailing over his body, she was once again uncomfortably aware of how close he was to her, and she was dismayed to discover that she liked the way he smelled when he was sweaty and dirty from sparring.
Like really liked it …
She was beginning to get that tunnel vision that she seemed so often to get around him. The more she was unable to keep her eyes off of him and the more she inhaled his scent, the more the rest of the room seemed to fade away around her.
Absently, she realized that she'd never had cause to consider the concept of a "clean sweat" before, but there was probably no better way to describe the raw, masculine scent that was nearly overwhelming her. As if it were a drug, with each intake of breath, she found it that much harder to stop her gaze from drifting over his body, that much harder to stop herself from shortening the distance between them, that much harder to stop herself from leaning forward and nuzzling her nose against his neck.
With the calming sensation of her warm chakra flowing through his body, Kakashi watched Sakura's shifting facial expressions as her eyes ambled from the gash on his chest down over the ridges of his abdomen. He watched her catch herself several times, always returning her gaze quickly to the wound, only to let it travel from there to his collarbone or to his shoulders or back to his abs moments later. Wearing a devious grin, he couldn't resist shifting just so to make his muscles clench, and he was rewarded with a blush and the slight parting of her lips.
Sakura couldn't help that her mouth went dry at the way his abs tightened when he resituated himself. They were, she had to admit, damn near perfect. As was his chest. And his shoulders. Even at 44, he maintained that balance between bulk and tone that she had always found difficult to resist. Truth be told, there was something about his upper body that was more appealing to her than her husband's. Sasuke was in incredible shape, there was no questioning that, but looking at Kakashi, she realized that maybe she preferred a longer torso, a leaner frame.
And the way he smelled …
Inner Sakura was getting a kick out of imagining what it would be like to press her hands against his chest and run her fingers over each ridge on his abdomen down to where his pants fell low on his hips.
Sakura bit her lip. Thanks to her rotten inner self, Kakashi's proximity, and (Inner Sakura pointed out gleefully) his shirtlessness, the craving she had felt the night before had returned tenfold. As she stared at his hard body, she could feel the heat of desire growing in her nipples and pulsing between her legs, and with each movement he made, the desire became more like pain. Having him that close yet not hers to touch was some sort of torture she'd never known existed.
As if he could read her thoughts, he stretched slightly, muscles expanding and then contracting, and suddenly Sakura wasn't sure she had ever wanted anything more than she wanted to spread her legs over his lap right then. At that moment, she wanted those abs between her thighs with a lust so fierce she wasn't sure she hadn't been hit with some kind of genjutsu.
After stretching (intentionally, of course), Kakashi saw Sakura's eyes pause on his lower abs, then stop where his skin met his pants. He waited for her to jerk her gaze back up, as she had repeatedly over the last twenty minutes, but she didn't, and she seemed to be breathing more shallowly than before. He was far from an innocent man, and thoughts of what might be running through her mind and making her breathless as she studied that area of his body so intently had him struggling not to get hard.
He had to credit a lifetime of denying himself things that he wanted with the near-miracle that somehow he managed …
However, knowing that even his iron willpower would truly be put to the test if they remained like this for much longer, Kakashi was incredibly relieved to realize that his wound was healed.
"Sakura, I think it's done now," he said quietly, lifting an arm to gently clasp one of her hands in his, his fingers on the back of her hand and his thumb resting against her palm.
The green glow of her chakra faded, but she didn't lower her arms, and she didn't say anything. When she finally raised her eyes to his, Kakashi was stunned by the heat in them, and even his renowned willpower couldn't stop the bolt of desire it sent straight down to his groin.
The warmth of his hand wrapping around hers only fanned the flames of the acute desire burning through her body, and she knew he could see it when she looked up at him. She watched his gaze widen and then darken, and the sight of those grey eyes the way she had imagined them the night before had her unwittingly stepping closer to him. His grip tightened at her movement, and he couldn't stop himself from bringing her hand to his chest.
As if in a trance, Sakura let her other hand fall, the tips of her fingers brushing over his skin before coming to settle on his thigh. His eyes, locked on hers, grew darker still as he let go of her wrist and dropped his hand inside her white coat to her waist.
"Sakura …" he said in a low, rough voice that had her inching even closer. His fingers pressed into her lower back, making her arch ever so slightly.
The hand on his thigh clutched unconsciously at the fabric of his pants as the one he'd left on his chest slowly, without her permission, traced up over his collarbone and circled to the back of his head, where her fingers sank into his hair, her thumb lightly massaging the side of his neck. He slid his other arm under hers to grasp her hip.
She stood now between his thighs with both of his hands under her coat and resting low on her waist, but she wanted him closer. Unwilling or unable to stop (she refused to determine which), her eyes dropped to his mouth, and the hand in his hair blindly coaxed his head down even as she used the leverage to draw herself forward. The hand on his thigh drifted up to his jawline, and he tugged her flush against his body, his own need to feel her becoming overwhelming.
"Sakura …" he repeated darkly, his hold on her waist tightening.
Eyes transfixed by his mouth, she traced his bottom lip with her thumb as she whispered, "I just …"
Just once. I have to know …
When her lips met his, she was hit with a nearly crippling wave of desire.
She pulled back instinctively with a sharp intake of breath, eyes wide, only to find herself caught in his gaze. Her eyes widened further - he had never looked at her that way before. No one had ever looked at her that way before. The raw hunger she saw in those charcoal depths was frightening and intoxicating and that brief kiss wasn't enough. Her eyes drifted shut as she wrapped her arms around him and dragged his mouth to hers with a soft moan.
One large hand slid up her back to cup her head, holding her still as he deepened the kiss, nipping at her lower lip and pressing her body into his with his other hand on the small of her back. Her hands fisted in his hair as she let the tip of her tongue slip out to dance with his.
With a low groan, Kakashi's fingers moved to her shoulders to push off her coat, and his mouth left hers to trail across her jaw to her neck. She tilted her head back to bare more of her throat to him and dropped her arms. Leaving warm kisses along her neck, he ran his hands over her shoulders and down her triceps to her wrists, taking the coat with him.
When it hit the ground with a rustle, he kissed his way back to her mouth and lifted her arms to drape them around his neck again, then pulled her in tightly, pressing their chests together as he slanted his mouth fully across hers.
She'd thought all those ridiculous Icha Icha books had been exaggerating when they described a kiss that could make you feel like you were on fire, but apparently that was only because she'd never experienced it. This, now, the way his lips moved with hers, the way one large hand splayed in between her shoulder blades and the other traced a path down past the small of her back to grip her ass, the roughness of his stubble against her chin and the softness of his tongue dipping into her mouth to slide against her own … she had never felt more in danger of burning up than she did in his arms. Her entire body was being consumed by the need to be closer, to be enveloped by him, for him to do something about the blaze in her belly.
His hand rose to tangle in her hair, tugging her head back so he could nip at her neck. "Sakura .. God, Sakura …" he groaned between kisses. " … I want you." After trailing his tongue up to her ear, he sucked the lobe into his mouth before giving it a quick bite. "I want all of you …"
His voice was deep and dark and she thought she might come just from those words and the tickle of his warm breath. Her hands had fallen to grasp at his waist, and she was close enough to feel that he was hard.
Very hard.
And oh, how she wanted that inside her … She wanted him to pull down her shorts and take out his cock and lift her onto his lap, filling her and pushing up into her over and over so that she might finally get some relief from the flames threatening to engulf her.
"Kakashi …" she sighed needily as he brought his other hand down to grab her rear. "Kakashi, please …"
In response, he smashed his mouth against hers as he moved his hands to her thighs and hoisted her up, spreading her legs and setting her on his lap.
They leaned back, lips only an inch apart, breathing ragged, and looked at each other as they took a moment to appreciate the feeling of their bodies connecting where they needed it most.
Without breaking eye contact, he guided her into rolling against him, and the sensation was too much to keep them from closing their eyes. As she rolled her hips a second time, their mouths met again in a gentle, unhurried kiss.
"Sakura …" he murmured against her lips, hands pressing into her ass and pushing her down onto him as she continued to move slowly. "Sakura, I-"
"Sakura-sama, we've got an emergency. Are you almost finished with Kakashi-sama?" Tsuki's voice came suddenly from the other side of the door.
At the sound, Sakura jumped off of Kakashi like a startled cat, mouth open in shock as she tried to regain her bearings. Somehow (probably as a result of years of ninja training), her frazzled mind managed to come up with a response. "Ah, yes, Tsuki-san," she said, controlling her breathing as well as she could while staring at Kakashi. "We're just wrapping up. I'll be out in a minute."
Her eyes didn't leave his as, only half-consciously, she ran her fingers through her hair and straightened her clothing. It wasn't until she bent down to pick up her coat from the floor that she finally broke eye contact, but she couldn't seem to look away; her bewildered gaze shot back to his own unsettled one as soon as she had the coat in her hands. Mechanically, she dusted it off and slipped it over her shoulders. She picked up his file from the counter and backed toward the door before finally turning and lifting the handle.
Neither of them said anything as she left the room.
A/N 2: Yeah, so that got a little out of hand.
