Chapter 12: Jumble of Doubt

Kakashi sighed as he pressed his head against the cool glass of his car, staring sullenly inside. He was pretty sure the keys in the ignition were purposely mocking him as they slightly swayed from his leaning against the car. This wasn't the first time he had forgotten his keys inside. Maybe it was because he drove his motorcycle more often so he didn't ever give much thought about it. That was the beauty of it; it was idiot proof. You couldn't lock your keys inside. He had a bad habit of locking the car from the door panel on the driver's side before he exited. Usually he had a spare key, but that was also in his wallet - inside the car. He also had another spare clipped on his keys he used for his bike, but that was at home.

"I suppose I could try and break the window," Kakashi said, his breath fogging the glass as he spoke.

"Break it? No, don't do that," Sakura replied worriedly.

Kakashi sighed as he stood up while interlacing his fingers on top of his silvery head. "There isn't much choice. We have no money, no phone, and every place except for bars is closed right now. We can't get anyone to unlock it for us until the morning."

"We could walk…"

Kakashi held back a laugh. "That would take us hours to get back."

"Well, we have all night?"

Kakashi looked at her grinning face questionably, not entirely sure if she was being serious or not. His eyes searched the dark ground for any kind of decent sized rock. All he could make out were some pebble sized ones, which would hardly do any damage. Maybe he could find some bigger rocks deeper inside the park. Though he supposed he could try and use his martial art skills to break it, but it was likely he'd end up embedding more glass in his skin...

He tried to think of what other options they had. They were outside of the city. There were hardly any local homes or businesses unless they crossed back over the bridge, but that was like an hour away. If they did walk all the way back to the edge of the city, he could probably call someone. Or actually, the park they were at now should have a public phone somewhere, but they'd need change. Ugh. This was turning into a nightmare.

'Phone…'

He did leave it in the car too, right? His memory only recalled putting up his book and wallet in the glove box. Did he have it? But it wasn't in his pockets when he checked earlier. Kakashi's eyes turned toward the small hill they had been at. It was worth a shot to check.

"I'm going to check the hill real quick. Be right back," he said as he began to jog towards the hill.

Sakura leaned against the hood of the car as she watched him jog off in the distance. She really didn't mind being stuck like this. It was actually quite funny how things were turning out. She also couldn't help but want to spend more time with him. This night could never end as far as she cared. She smiled at that thought as she turned her attention back to the stars that sparkled overhead.

Kakashi looked carefully around where they were last. Stepping lightly onto the grass, he tried to see if the glimmer of the moon reflected off of anything that could possibly be his phone. His eyes caught sight of a small shimmer as he walked. He stepped back slowly to try and find it again. There it was. He did bring his phone. He briefly thanked all the divine powers that be in finding it. Dusting off a few blades of grass and dirt when he picked it up, it seemed to be working just fine. Now who could he call… and not be indebted to for the rest of his life? That already crossed off a lot of his friends. Given what time it was, which was around 1:00 am on a Saturday night, a few were probably already wasted at some bar by now. That excluded even more people. Thinking more about what today's date was, one of his good friends should actually be in town. His mind settled on giving him a try. Scrolling through his contact list, he found the number he was looking for. He cleared his throat and prepared to try to give the best guilt trip performance ever.

"Hey, sorry to call you so late. It's Kakashi. Are you in Tokyo visiting this weekend? Oh, good. Well, I'm in a bit of bind. I have a small favor to ask and since you're my most reliable friend ever in the world you could help me, right?"

There was a moment of silence over the phone.

"Okay, okay, well I locked my keys in the car… yeah again, and my wallet. Even my book. I'm pretty distraught about it. Do you think you could, um, pick up me and my friend and take us to my place? Or… If you can't I guess I could walk. I could probably be home by sunrise... Oh, you can? Great! Well, I'm at Sansui Park. Yeah, the one outside of town. I know it's a little over an hour trip for you… I'll pay for gas and, um, whatever else you want. Okay, thanks. I owe you... yes… a lot. Thank you."

Kakashi let out a sigh of relief as he ended the call. He was lucky his friend was in Tokyo visiting some family. At least that was settled. Now he had to wonder how uncomfortable it was going to get when his friend got here. Since he was a teacher at the same place he was, he probably knew Sakura. No telling what he'd think about the situation they were in. Kakashi hadn't been open with anyone about their relationship yet, or why he was skipping a lot of his usual outings to be with Sakura. He supposed he'd have to deal with it sooner than later anyway. With a shrug, he walked back down the hill. Sakura sat on top of his car with her feet dangling above the ground.

"I found my phone back where we were, thankfully. I called a friend to come pick us up. It will be awhile until he gets here," he said.

"Oh, good! Though I'm a little disappointed we don't get to walk for several hours."

"I'm sure you are."

Sakura smiled as she began leaning back against the windshield of his car, arms crossed. She let out a yawn. "I'm getting really tired already," she murmured while closing her eyes.

"Get some sleep for a little bit."

Sakura opened her eyes slightly to reach her arms towards Kakashi. "Come up here with me."

He smiled, making his way to where she was, and hopped up on the hood. He placed an arm around her and leaned her into his chest. He was glad today didn't end up too terribly bad. It could have been a lot worse. Kakashi rested his eyes for a moment, listening to a breeze intertwining its way between the branches of trees that surrounded them. A few crickets would grow silent, and then chirp again once the air was still once more. It wasn't before long he had fallen asleep with her.

The crunch of gravel in the distance stirred him awake. A pair of headlights slowly traveled up the road to where they were. It was most likely his friend. Kakashi gave a small shake to Sakura as she still lay against him.

"Mm?" she mumbled.

"I think our ride's here."

"Oh, okay," she replied back with a yawn.

Kakashi pulled up his mask, almost forgetting it had been down this whole time, and slid off of the hood to walk into the clearing of the parking lot. The car drove up in front of Kakashi and rolled the window down on the driver's side. His friend peered at him with an annoyed face.

"Hello, good, good friend of mine," Kakashi said with a sheepish smile.

"Hi, Kakashi. You owe me big time," he replied glumly.

"Sure, sure," he replied quickly as he motioned Sakura to come. She peeked behind Kakashi shyly, unable to see who his friend was in the dark. Kakashi opened the back door for her to enter. She slid in and flinched once she realized who was staring at her in the rear-view mirror. A young man with dark eyes and a light scar that ran across the bridge of his nose stared back at her. She was very much aware of who he was.

"Haruno… Sakura?"

"Hello… Iruka-sensei."

Sakura wanted to die. She never thought she would meet another ex-teacher of hers. Though she slowly realized it would make sense that Kakashi was friends with a lot of the teachers from middle and high school where she had attended. It seemed like she had just left her hometown forever ago, but in some ways it was not. She wondered if it was really alright for other people to know about them. She did just graduate only a few months ago. How would that look to people? It would probably just make their relationship seem even weirder.

"Why is she here…?" Iruka asked slowly towards Kakashi, after he slid into the front passenger seat.

"Um…"

"Alone in a dark park with you…"

Sakura began sinking lower into her seat, trying to avoid anymore questioning glances from Iruka in the rear-view mirror.

"It's complicated."

"Uh-huh…" Iruka rubbed the bridge of his nose with two fingers and let out a sigh. "Okay… So we're going to your place?"

"Yep. Do you still remember?"

"Yeah, but shouldn't we perhaps drop Sakura off wherever she lives first?"

"Well, I live closer where we are right now and I'll just take her home once I get my other set of keys. So, I don't want to trouble you any more than that."

Iruka let out another troubling sigh. "Fine, I guess."

Reluctantly he began to shift the car to head back down the road. Kakashi could see how uncomfortable Iruka was; it was written all over his face, probably thinking of the questionable relationship between him and Sakura.

Kakashi cleared his throat, breaking into the silence. "So, um, thanks for coming to get us. I'm pretty sure I won't lock my keys in again after this…"

"You better hope so. You're lucky I was visiting Tokyo this weekend."

"Yeah, I remembered your father's birthday was this week and I figured you'd be down. So, how's your family doing?"

"They're doing as well as they can be. They keep getting older and older. So, you haven't visited in a while since you moved, Kakashi. Been busy with school?"

"Um, yeah, I forget how to be in classes now."

Iruka chuckled at that. "I suppose that would be a little strange after teaching for so long. Did you decide if you're going to come back after you finish?"

"Maybe."

"Hum, I see. So Sakura…" Iruka said as he shifted his gaze into the mirror. She was still trying to hide in the backseat.

"Yes..?"

"What have you been up to since I last saw you at, um, graduation?"

"Oh, well, I moved to Tokyo to go to school here."

"I see… How do you and Kakashi know each other?"

A small awkward silence.

"We have a class together…" she said finally.

"I see…"

Iruka looked like he was debating on saying something more. Sakura was hoping he'd avoid any more questions about her and Kakashi. Maybe she should pretend to fall asleep, though she was wide awake from her nap earlier. The drive back was going to be a long one. Thankfully, he didn't say much else, but the silence was almost deafening to her. Part of her wished she could hold Kakashi like they did earlier for some kind of assurance. Kakashi simply stared out of the window, expressionless looking as usual. After about an hour and a half they were reaching a nice looking suburb.

"I forget, is it this road?" Iruka asked.

"Not this one, but the next one."

They turned onto the street and shortly after that, pulled into the driveway of a two story house.

'So this is where Kakashi lives,' Sakura thought.

It was kind of strange being in a place so personal to him, but it was certainly very intriguing. She hoped she'd get to explore inside a bit, even though she was feeling super tired again right now. The clock on the dashboard said it was a little after 5: 00 am now. Iruka turned off the car while he let out a yawn.

"Thanks again, Iruka," Kakashi said tiredly.

"You're welcome. Um, do you mind if I talked with you… alone?" Iruka asked while hesitantly glancing at a sleepy Sakura in the back.

"Could it wait until tomorrow? Well, later today? I'll be coming by your place anyway to pay you for the trouble."

"Rather now."

Kakashi sighed. "Okay, Sakura can you wait by the front door for me?"

Sakura nodded as she unbuckled her belt and opened the car door. She shut it quietly before giving one last awkward look towards Kakashi. He tried to give her a reassuring smile before she made her way towards the house. The smell of fresh cut grass washed over Sakura's senses. She was always really fond of that scent. She walked towards the front steps of the house through the wet dewy slivers of grass. Sitting at the steps now, she bit her lip, wondering what exactly they were talking about. It was more than likely about her. She felt awkward looking towards the car, so she shifted her body to admire the rest of the neighborhood surrounding them. It seemed really nice and quiet here. Compared to where she lived with Ino, there was always constant movement in the streets surrounding their apartment building, and here it was so still. Part of her really admired how he got to live in and own a place like this, but it all the more reminded her of how much younger she was compared to him. She wondered what it would be like to live here with Kakashi…

'That's thinking way too ahead,' she thought embarrassingly.

Iruka rubbed his face as his eyes searched for exactly what words to say. Leaning his head against the palm of his hand, his elbow rested on the door panel.

He sighed and said, "Kakashi, please tell me this isn't what it looks like… between you and Sakura."

"Okay, then it's not. Does that make you feel better?"

"Are you telling the truth?"

"No."

"…"

Iruka looked even more troubled as he gave another sigh. "Kakashi, you're over a decade older than her. We've been friends for a long time now, but I never thought you would stoop to something like this."

"Stoop?"

"You're taking advantage of her and frankly, that's pretty disgusting..."

Kakashi couldn't help but feel a flush of anger. He fought back the urge to punch something. After a moment of reclaiming his nerves, he replied, "That's not what's going on here."

"Then what's going on?"

"Things just happened. I don't know. You think I don't know how messed up it looks? But I care about her a lot and she feels the same… So, it is what it is."

"She's still a kid, Kakashi."

"…"

"Furthermore, I can't help but think…" Iruka's words faded out as if he didn't want to finish them.

"Think what…?"

"She was in one of your classes right?"

"Yes, and…?"

"Well, you didn't start all this when she was still going to middle and high school? Did you…?"

Kakashi felt his anger flaring up again. "Did you really just suggest that? You've known me for so long and you think I'd do something like that?"

He began to open the car door to leave. Part of him felt angry that Iruka was more or less right about their age difference, which opened a floodgate of guilt, but suggesting he would have started the relationship while she was still in middle school just pissed him off. He wasn't taking advantage of her… was he? He heard Iruka call out his name, but he shut the door deciding to end their conversation at that. Sakura looked at him worriedly as he approached.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Fine."

Sakura felt her gut drop at his tone. He definitely didn't sound fine. Kakashi picked up a potted plant near the doorway and dug through the soil to reveal a key. Sakura wondered how often he lost his keys exactly. He unlocked the door and held it open for her.

Inside now, her eyes scanned the entryway. It led into a decent sized hallway. Only a couple of his shoes were visible at the genkan. Other than that, it looked pretty empty besides a few seldom furniture pieces. She could hear Iruka pulling away into the street shortly after Kakashi closed the door.

"Let me get my other keys and I'll take you home."

"Kakashi…"

"Yes?"

"It would probably be better if I just stayed here. I mean… the sun is almost up and we haven't really slept yet. So…"

"I don't know…"

"It's not a big deal, and I really don't want you to drive if you're tired anyway."

"I'll be fine."

"Kakashi…"

Kakashi sighed and took in a deep breath, slowly defusing his anger. He really was pretty tired right now. "Okay."

Sakura had a gleeful kind of smile in response. After they took off their shoes, she followed Kakashi up a set of stairs. Once upstairs, they passed by a room that was closed shut. To the right was the bathroom and straight ahead was his bedroom. He led them to his room and flicked on a light. He began to rummage through his walk-in closet. Sakura was starting to feel a little nervous for some reason as she stood, unsure of what to do.

"You can sleep in my room… and I'll just be, um, downstairs," He said from within the closet before coming out with a few sets of clothes.

"Oh, well, you don't have to…" Sakura said while fighting back a blush.

"I think it'd be a good idea if I did…"

Sakura frowned slightly at that. They were together now, but… well so what if they slept in the same bed together. They didn't have to necessarily do anything. More embarrassment seemed to color her cheeks. Kakashi hid a smirk at her blush. Iruka's words were still echoing around in his head. There was no way he could sleep with her and not feel even guiltier.

He handed her a simple cotton t-shirt. "You can sleep in that if you want. I'm going to change in the bathroom."

"Okay," she replied as she took it. He disappeared into the hallway and closed the door behind him. Her eyes searched over his room. There were all kinds of scattered things somewhat neatly placed throughout the room. It varied from papers to some interesting decorative objects. On the wall there were a lot of various certificates and awards he had won. A tall bookshelf stood in one corner and she paled at all of the Icha Icha books that took up about three shelves. Snapping her eyes back to the shirt in her hands, she figured she should start changing before he came back to find her half naked. Quickly, she took off her top and shrugged off her pants to the floor. Pulling the soft shirt over her head, she could already smell his scent. Part of her really wished he could sleep next to her. She was already starting to miss his touch. Picking up her clothes from the floor, she neatly folded them and placed them on top of a chest that was placed at the foot of the bed. Her curiosity was prodding at her to peek inside.

'What if… it's filled with porn?'

That thought made her apprehensive to pry, but what else could it be? She slowly sunk down to her knees, and began to approach with a finger to open the latch. A soft knock made her jump straight up from her spot. Trying to collect herself, she distanced herself from it, trying not to look obvious that she had been snooping.

"You can come in."

Kakashi walked in hesitantly as his eyes looked her up and down. Sakura stood somewhat embarrassed, twirling the end of his shirt she wore. It barely covered the top of her thighs and the way she was picking up one end of the shirt, he could almost see her panties. He decided it was a very good thing he was sleeping downstairs as he tried to hide an uncomfortable blush from his now maskless face. He wore his usual pajama pants and for the sake of modesty, wore a somewhat snug white shirt to sleep in. Averting his eyes, he walked to the closet to drop off his dirty clothes into a hamper. From there, he went to the bed and pick up one of the pillows to sleep with downstairs. He tapped the bed for her to lie down. She slowly made her way to his bed and sunk under the covers.

He adjusted the sheets over her and said, "Well, I'll see you a little bit later in the morning, alright?"

"Okay,"

He gave her another reassuring smile, before he turned to leave. He flicked off the light as he hugged the pillow in his arms. "Goodnight."

"Night," she replied, somewhat disappointed.

Sakura hoped he'd at least kiss or hug her one last time before they parted for the night. He disappeared beyond the doorway and she heard his steps slowly fade away the further he went downstairs. She sighed, and clinging the pillow against her face, she turned on her side. He did look pretty upset after he talked with Iruka. Maybe he was having doubts about them now or… No. She was just reading too much into things. They had an amazing date today with an unexpected ending to it. She was sure he'd be okay after they both slept for the night. Birds were already chirping behind the covered window above the bed. She closed her eyes and found sleep rather quickly.

Kakashi tossed the pillow on the couch as he rubbed his tired eyes. Letting his body fall onto the couch, he couldn't keep his mind from straying away from thinking about what Iruka said. Maybe he really was a disgusting person. He had finally come to terms with the fact that he was simply acting on what he felt. Age be damned between them, but Iruka was right, wasn't he? He really didn't have any business being with her. She was still impressionable. Sakura did just move out of her parent's house just barely a few months ago. It was hard to justify that she could make any adult decisions. Was he manipulating her feelings? Or…

Groaning into his pillow in desperation, he decided to stop thinking about it for now. He was just upset and not thinking clearly. He hoped to feel better in the morning. Adjusting his body comfortably on the couch, he wondered if he really would feel any different in the morning. He hoped so.

TBC

[ Author note: -begins throwing star-shaped sugar cookies at random people to review-

Reviews appreciated! Ty to those who took the time to last time~

Chapter edited by: CelestialCircumference ]