That's What She Said
"Huh?" Kakashi lowered his book, wondering if he had heard right.
"Rumor has it someone's quite smitten with you," Genma mumbled, rolling the senbon in his smug mouth. Leaning a little closer, he whispered, "So, tell me the good stuff. Don't leave out any dirty details."
Narrowing his eye at the lecherous look Genma was sporting, he turned back to his book. "I don't really know what you're talking about."
Giving a playful punch to the shoulder, he said, "Come on, don't play dumb on me. We're friends!"
Rolling his visible eye, Kakashi flipped a page. "We're not friends."
"Ouch," Genma replied, clutching his heart tightly as if a kunai had just pierced him there. "Please? It's such good, scandalous gossip."
"Who are you even talking about?" he asked, looking intently at a page.
He sighed and replied, "Your cute little pinkie student, who else?"
Looking up from his book, he raised a brow. "Come again?"
"Haruno Sakura," he replied flatly.
Blinking, his face skewed in confusion. "Where the heck did you hear this?"
Holding out his hand, he started to count his fingers as he spoke. "From Shizune, who heard it from Tsunade. Tsunade heard it from Kiba, and Kiba heard it from Choji, who heard it from Shikamaru, who heard it from Ino, who-"
Making an annoyed cough to interrupt him, he shot Genma a glare as he untangled his propped up feet on the table in front of him.
"What exactly is this rumor?" Kakashi asked, intrigued.
"That you two have been secretly fooling around. So, be a good friend and tell me all about it," Genma said as he heartily patted Kakashi's back.
"We're not friends," he repeated dryly.
Closing his book for a moment, he rose up from his chair and left without saying a word.
Well, this was certainly unexpected. Of all people, he wouldn't have ever dreamed to hear fake rumors swirling around about him and his former student in some kind of romantic relationship. They had always been friends, but never anything more. Part of him felt a mix of feelings for her that fluttered around in his heart when she was near, but never made it anything more than just desire.
Sakura had grown to be strong in more ways than one and quite beautiful, but figured he was simply a perverted old man to think of her anymore beyond that. He always tried not to indulge on his feelings and just hoped it would pass. She deserved someone more her own age, didn't she?
But this rumor was interesting. Who started it? What did she think about the idea of it? Disgusted? Horrified? What if she truly did want to be more than friends?
Suddenly, a blur of green darted in front of him. Fearing it was Guy wanting to start another time consuming challenge, he was about to bolt until he saw it was his student, Lee. Kakashi stopped in his tracks. "Yes?
Lee raised his fists into blades, furrowing his bushy brows. "I challenge you for Sakura's love!"
He deadpanned. This was exactly why he wanted to avoid Guy. "Why?"
"I will beat you and prove to her that I'm once and for all worthy!" he exclaimed, and then struck a pose.
Between the sparkling eyes and glimmering teeth, Kakashi squinted his eye starting to think he might go blind at any moment.
"We're not together," he mumbled.
"Oh, I heard you two were engaged," he replied with a relieved sigh, relaxing his stance.
His fingers limp at the spine of his Icha Icha, nearly dropping it. "Where did you hear that?" he asked.
"From Ino."
Raising a hand to rub the bridge of his nose, Kakashi sighed. It was starting to make sense now. Ino was the queen of gossip and he had a feeling she was the person making it all up and spreading it around.
That fact made him a little hopeful. She was close friends with Sakura, wasn't she? Maybe she was doing it on behalf of Sakura… because she actually did like him and didn't wan to admit it to him? Heck, he certainly didn't want to admit his feelings either, figuring she would never see him that way in the first place.
"I see," Kakashi finally replied, stepping around Lee without another word.
Raising his open book to his nose, he continued to walk around the streets of Konoha with the hope of running into Sakura at some point. He wondered what all she had to say about all this.
During his walk, it was obvious everyone was talking about the growing rumors. Hushing slightly as he went by certain groups. The last time he was involved in the rumor mill, it was weeks before people finally found something else to talk about. Somehow he had a feeling this was going to last much longer.
Being already approached by various other people to confirm his relationship with Sakura, it was apparent it was more than just two rumors flying around of them being together in some way. Some of them were down right amusing.
Nearing the training grounds now, he could hear the splinter of trees in the distance falling over like dominos. There was only one person he knew who loved to do that to blow off some steam.
When Sakura saw him approached, she immediately went ten shades red and turned abruptly around, looking like she was debating on breaking out into a run.
"Sakura," he called out.
Hesitantly, she turned around, but stared at the ground. "Um, hey," she replied awkwardly, panting from her workout of smashing every tree in existence at the grounds.
He looked around at the littered wood on the field. "Planning on building a house?"
She shot him a glare. "No," she pouted.
"So, we both seem to be quite popular today, hum?" he asked, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he looked for any reaction from her face.
She didn't disappoint by blushing even more. "A-apparently," she stuttered.
"Who started it? Do you know?" he asked, stepping a little closer.
"Ino-pig," she muttered, glancing worriedly at him as he approached.
"Mm, I started to figure. Any idea why?" he asked.
She shrugged. "To embarrass me?"
"Because…?" He took another step closer.
"B-because… I-I don't know," she scrambled to say, starting to edge backwards as he was only barely two feet away.
"Sakura, do you have feelings for me?" he bluntly asked, taking another step forward.
"…I, uh…"
"I've had a crush on you," he admitted. "For quite awhile."
She stared at him in disbelief. Suddenly, she jabbed her finger in his stomach. Her eyes went wide when she found it connect to his sculpted abs.
He stared down at her finger. "What are you…?"
"I was starting to think you were a transformation jutsu of someone else," she laughed nervously, retracting her hand looking completely mortified.
Before she could completely move away, he grabbed her wrist. "I didn't think you'd look at me more than a friend. It doesn't bother you how much older I am?"
Tugging her towards him, she looked rather stunned. "I-I, uh, I…"
He pulled her in his arms and slowly moved his gloved hands along her shoulders and up her neck, moving her even closer. Before she knew what was happening, he had tugged a finger at his mask and then captured his lips with hers.
She groaned in shock at first, before finally relaxing into his kiss. Her hands swept up at the base of his flask jacket, clutching against the pockets tightly as if she was holding on for dear life.
When he parted, he pulled up his mask before she had a chance snap from her daze to see his face. "There. Now at least one of the rumors is partly true," he murmured with a smile.
"W-what rumor?" Sakura asked.
"That I kissed you just like this… except apparently it was in the Hokage's office at night."
"Uh…"
"And that we were both naked on the desk. Can we make that true, too?" he mused, making a happy eye-crinkle of a smile.
She paled. "That's what she said!"
[ Author Note: I don't know how these turn out so long, but I've abandoned trying to shoot for under 500 words long time ago, lol. -_-
This prompt is from the Last Fan Standing challenge I missed. Guidelines were to make sure that the very last line had to be 'That's what she said.'
Sooo, there you go! I'm glad to finally write something not so depressing. Appreciate hearing your thoughts, if you have any. ^_^ ]
