Chapter 12-Personal Space
Sakura shaded her eyes from the bright sun with one hand as she looked up at the electrical line which hung across from the bench she sat on. On the line sat around a dozen birds perfectly spaced apart from one another.
A latecomer soared through the sky, landing between two birds already perched on the line. In reprimand, the two birds pecked and squawked loudly at it, which consequently made them bump into the other birds sitting next to them, which led to even more loud squawking and vicious pecking.
Sakura screwed up her face and covered her ears in pain. The thought to simply get up and leave crossed her mind when a shadow darkened her vision through already closed eyelids. Opening her eyes again and looking up, Sakura saw a tall figure looming over her.
"Are you okay?" Kakashi asked, looking down at her in concern.
"I'm fine, thanks. Those birds were just making a lot of noise."
Kakashi turned around to look up at said birds.
"Want me to get rid of them for you?" he asked, not looking away from the perpetrators.
"No, it's okay! Thank you, though!" Sakura said quickly. Knowing Kakashi, he'd use his Sharingan to warp those poor birds to some unknown dimension.
"No problem," he said cheerfully, taking the empty seat next to her and throwing an arm over the back of the bench, making it look like he had his arm around her shoulders. Then, he crossed his legs with one ankle resting on one knee, making the bent leg on top lightly touch the side of Sakura's thigh.
Sakura let out an exasperated sigh.
Even birds like personal space, a concept of which Kakashi seemed to be completely unaware of lately. What he was doing now went beyond his earlier stalking. Every chance he got, Kakashi would find some excuse to physically bump into her, which was quite a feat for a ninja who is anything but clumsy.
Maybe she should squawk and peck at him like the birds, but - Sakura blushed - Kakashi was growing on her. At this point, she was so used to him getting into her personal bubble that it was weirder when he wasn't. If it was anyone else, she would have socked him in the face a long time ago, but she never punched him. She never even said a word. She would simply pretend it never happened, the same way he pretended it was nothing at all.
That's the funny thing about personal space: That even birds relinquish their right to personal space when they're in the midst of courting.
Sakura hated herself for not wanting him to pull away. She wasn't supposed to yearn for him that way, yet with each passing day she did in spite of herself. She tried to remind herself of the many reasons why a relationship with Kakashi would be wrong on so many levels, but the other part of her also kept reminding her of how right it would be on so many levels.
Sakura was no longer sure which side of the argument was being told by the devil on her shoulder and which side was being told by the angel. Although she had been positive that it had been the devil telling her a relationship with Kakashi would be a good thing, she couldn't help but think that maybe it was actually the angel whispering that side of the argument in her ear, and that made Sakura worry.
"You're here early." Sakura said, trying to break the silence between them and clear her head at the same time.
"I am? I thought we were all supposed to meet up at one." Kakashi said, confused.
Sakura looked at Kakashi, her eyes growing wide in realization.
"Oh my gosh, it actually worked." Sakura said quietly.
When the expression on Kakashi's face became even more dumbfounded, she began to laugh.
"Nani?" Kakashi asked, growing more confused by the second.
"Why didn't we think of this before!" Sakura said, throwing her hands up in the air and rolling her eyes up to the heavens.
"Think of what?" Kakashi asked who was now starting to sweat in discomfort. He didn't like it when he didn't know what was going on.
"Ten years! Ten freakin' years and this is all we had to do!" Sakura said, covering her face in self loathing while her body continued to shake in laughter.
"Sakura, will you please tell me what's going on?"
"I'm sorry." Sakura said, removing her hands from her face, which had turned red from laughing. "It's just that-"
"You're early, dattebayo!" Naruto shouted in surprise as he came around the street corner with Yamato and Sai in tow.
"We should do this more often." Sakura said to Naruto, getting up to greet him and the rest of their team.
"Do what?" Kakashi asked, getting up himself and getting more and more irritated at not receiving a straight answer.
"Sorry, Sempai, but you've been duped." Yamato said, patting Kakashi on the back good-humoredly.
"I have? How?"
"Should we tell him?" Naruto asked, although it was clear from the shine in his bright blue eyes that he was eager to do so.
"I don't know. If we tell him, he'll know and then it might not work next time." Sakura said reasonably.
"True, but he's always going to be late regardless if you tell him or not." Sai pitched in.
"Yeah, but maybe now he'll try to be even later than usual." Sakura replied.
"That's true, too." Naruto, Yamato, and Sai agreed, all nodding their heads in unison.
"May I just say that as team captain that I am highly disappointed by the fact that my subordinates are highly incapable of providing me with a simple answer to a simple question, and that I am deeply hurt to have been talked about and plotted against behind my back." Kakashi said solemnly.
Sakura, Naruto, Yamato, and Sai all turned to look at Kakashi, and then everyone, with the exception of Sai, burst out laughing. Sai simply smiled, but it was a genuine smile, and for him that was saying a lot.
"I can't get any respect." Kakashi said, slumping his shoulders.
"Oh, poor Kaka-sensei." Sakura laughed, rubbing his arm patronizingly. "It's just that we wanted to make sure you showed up on time for this next mission, so we said that we were all going to meet here at one, but the real meeting time isn't actually until three. We still have a few minutes to spare." Sakura said, smiling up at him.
Kakashi's one exposed eye widened in realization and then melted into a look of defeat. He seemed genuinely disappointed by the fact that his efforts to arrive late were thwarted.
"This was a great idea, Sakura-chan!" Naruto said enthusiastically.
"Thanks!" Sakura smiled, looking pleased with herself.
"You came up with this idea?" Kakashi asked, looking at Sakura in shock, hurt, and betrayal.
"Ahahaha!" Sakura laughed, scratching the back of her neck nervously, a mannerism she had picked up from him after years of being in his company. "We're all here and good to go, right? And that's all that matters, so let's get a move on!" she said, then turned tail and sped walked towards the Great Konoha Gates, leading the way out of the village.
"Wait up, Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled, running after her.
Sai said nothing and just quietly slipped past Kakashi, although the polite smile he flashed Kakashi now was definitely a fake.
"You're not angry, are you?" Yamato asked worriedly.
"What? No, of course not." Kakashi said, looking coolly at him.
"Good. You always were one to take the high road." Yamato said, clapping Kakashi on the back one last time before following in the wake of the rest of their team.
Kakashi shoved his hands into his pants' pockets and slowly followed everyone else as well. Beneath his mask, however, Kakashi was smirking. It was true that he usually took the high road, but an opportunity had just presented itself, and in this case he was fine with not getting mad, but getting even, and he knew just how to wipe that smug smile off of Sakura's face.
Exhausted and tired, Team Kakashi pretty much dragged themselves through the Great Konoha Gates after their mission. It was a complete contrast from how they energetically left through the gates at the start of their mission. It was usually that way: Excited to leave, worn out when they came back.
Sakura and Naruto barely lifted up their heads and waved their hands to acknowledge their friends, the rest of the Konoha 11, as they reentered the village. It was rare to have the famed 11 all together at one spot at any given time, but it was summer and it was usually cooler outside than inside the buildings and everyone knew that the best cool breezes (Aside from on top of the Hokage Monument) were to be found by the Great Konoha Gates, which is how the Konoha 11 all came to be conglomerated in one spot at the same time.
Kakashi knew it would be evil to do this, especially right here, right now. He had even considered backing down, but he still had the business of revenge to take care of. Besides, not all of the Konoha 11 had been present at the Charity Dinner, and although word of mouth assured that most of them were aware of the "situation" between him and Sakura, a real live demonstration seemed called for.
"Sakura, can I talk to you for a minute?" Kakashi asked, right before Sakura and Naruto turned a corner.
"Sure, Kaka-sensei." Sakura said, nodding for Naruto and the rest of their team to go on ahead of her to the Hokage Tower where they were all due to give a mission report to Tsunade. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
Making sure that his normal eye was towards the rest of the Konoha 11 who were either laying or sitting under the shade of one tree, and that even Kotetsu and Izumo in their little guard shack could see (After all, Kakashi wanted to make sure that everyone knew that Sakura was off limits now), Kakashi placed a hand on the wall behind Sakura's head, caging her in on one side.
Sakura's heart began to race. This looked and felt very...intimate. If she had been half asleep before from exhaustion, Kakashi had certainly gotten her attention and woken her up now.
From the corner of her eye, Sakura could see her friends over his outstretched arm. What must Kakashi and she look like with him singling her out like this? Sakura saw Ino elbow Chouji in the ribs, and everyone else also begin to stir. Apparently, Kakashi had woken up and gotten everyone else's attention as well.
Sakura's eyes widened as Kakashi proceeded to inch closer and closer. Was he going to kiss her?
When Kakashi's masked lips were a mere few inches from Sakura's own, Kakashi turned his head so that his masked lips were inches from her ear instead.
"Are you feeling okay?" he asked in a deep (and maybe Sakura was just imagining it), sultry voice.
Sakura gulped. "I just feel very warm all of a sudden," she admitted. It was true. With Kakashi so close, she could feel the heat of his body. Her highly attuned awareness of that and her growing embarrassment only made her own body temperature rise even more.
"It's the heat. You should take a cold shower when you get home." Kakashi needlessly suggested. Sakura was already planning to do exactly that the minute he caged her between his outstretched arm and body. "And try not to outdo yourself next time, okay? Not that I mind carrying you." Kakashi said, smiling down at her with a happy eye crease.
Sakura felt her face heat up at least one degree more, remembering how he actually did have to carry her in his arms (bride style, mind you) after she fainted from healing everyone of their various injuries from this latest mission. If Kakashi kept embarrassing her like this, her body temperature would keep rising and she'd eventually faint from heat stroke, which would only be even more humiliating.
"S-sure, Kaka-sensei." Sakura stammered. "We should probably go now. Shishou's waiting for us."
"Yes, of course." Kakashi said, smiling down at her with yet another adorable happy eye crease.
Maybe she'd faint like Hinata from simply blushing too much.
Sakura felt a wave of cool relief once she was completely away from him, but immediately felt the heat return to her face when she turned the corner and saw Naruto, Yamato, and even Sai staring at her in wide eyed surprise. They hadn't left, after all. They saw everything, too.
Stupid Kakashi! What was he playing at?
But it was obvious to Sakura and everyone else around them what Kakashi was playing at.
"You two seem to be spending a lot of time together. Are you courting each other?" Sai asked in that detached, scientific manner of his.
"What? No! Of course not!" Sakura shouted red-faced, before stomping away so quickly that she left the rest of her teammates behind.
"Did I say something wrong?" Sai asked, confused.
"No, you just stated the obvious like always, and someone is just in a state of denial." Yamato said kindly.
And with that, he and Sai followed in Sakura's wake, literally eating her dust.
Meanwhile, Kakashi did a quick survey of the damage he'd just caused:
The rest of the Konoha 11 as well as Kotetsu and Izumo were buzzing like a hive of bees, and Kakashi caught snippets of their conversation, everything from "I told you something's going on between them!" to "Kaka-sensei and Sakura. Huh. I would've never guessed."
Once again, Kakashi stuffed his hands in his pants' pockets and smirked beneath his mask as he slowly followed behind the rest of his team.
Revenge was sweet, but marking his territory was even sweeter.
To be continued...