Chapter 17

"Ano..." came a loud complaint from the doorway of the suite. "But where's Sakura-chan? I haven't seen her in forever! Kaka-sensei will be reading his porn, but Sakura-Chan will want to have some breakfast ramen with me, dattebayo!"

A single eyebrow arched up in response to the blond's claim.

"Okay, so she might not, but I bet she'll still, come..." Naruto muttered. Deciding the Nara was going to find it easier to take no part of Naruto's 'troublesome' mission to have breakfast with Sakura, the blond spiky-haired head leaned to the side to see around Shikamaru's hair. "SAKURAAA-CHAAAAAANNNNN!"

Growling softly, Bull padded sleepily over to the slightly ajar door between Kakashi's quarters and the common rooms. As he plopped back down, causing the unlatched door to close the remaining inch and click shut, a huff of air escaped him as he turned into a rather weighty, toothy, slobbery blockade. Hearing Akino and Bisuke growl on the other side of the door, advancing to quiet the boisterous Naruto, the blockade snorted in satisfaction as the yelling cut off.

The lazy genius at the door in turn muttered something about late night planning that had taken place, and started to discuss a particular section of a trade agreement that Sakura and Kakashi had been working on. No more than 10 seconds into the fictitious, but nevertheless uninteresting explanation, the blond could be heard to retreat down the hall to the elevator, exclaiming it was too early to try to "decipher Shikamaru's political mumbo jumbo."

"Good boys," drifted through the room, only audible to the dogs with their enhanced ninken hearing. Pakkun's, Bull's, and Urushi's tails all thumped quietly against the floor where they were sprawled out. The tell-tail thumping could be heard on the other side of the now closed door as well when a whisper of "extra biscuits later" was also uttered.

The ninken knew he wasn't quite ready to have visitors barging in. Shikamaru had been informed early that morning by Pakkun that Sakura was resting, as was Kakashi, and the dogs had since kept everyone out of the room but themselves.

He wouldn't admit it, but with his ninken he didn't have to. They knew their master, and they themselves didn't want anyone to disturb the human pile that contained Kakashi and his mate. While Kakashi would deny that Sakura was his mate, or that he was even looking for one, the ninken had all come to an agreement that this was the case; the humans just were doing their weird human dance of pretending it wasn't the case. None of them understood what it was about, but they knew Kakashi would get there when he was ready. He was always late; why should this be any different?

But they all knew. And they had all agreed to help get Kakashi to arrive at the same conclusion sooner than his habit may allow by itself.

It was an hour later that the mass of pink hair started to shift as her sleep began to wane.

Kakashi chose to ignore the tickle of several strands of pink brushing his neck and cheek. Her usual scent was pleasant, she was warm, and she had a death grip around his torso that he couldn't loosen if he wanted to. Besides, it would be entertaining to see how she reacted to the realization that she was using him as a human body pillow.

So he pretended to still be sleeping, carefully controlling for his breathing and keeping his muscles relaxed in the perfect imitation of sleep. He had perfected the act as the sensei of Team 7, despite the fact that unless going through chakra exhaustion, Kakashi had really never slept on a mission. He let the trio think he was asleep during their respective guard duties, but had never actually let them be the sole watch until after the war when they were more than capable.

He would wait and see what she did when she woke.

There was something she was supposed to do.

She knew there was.

But she just couldn't find it in her to care right now. The hospital ran her ragged. This was a rare opportunity to bask in the warmth of her pillows. It was too bad she had worked herself to exhaustion again and had collapsed as soon as she came home from the hospital. It wasn't an unusual feeling though, knowing she was still in her training gear.

Wait.

Training gear? She should be wearing her medic uniform.

No. Wait.

She tensed as the memories of the last months ran through her mind. She had entered ANBU. And she was in Kumo. With Kakashi. And Sasuke had been there.

Sharingan.

Her eyes snapped open as she realized where exactly she was. And that her pillows didn't normally radiate heat.

She felt it as her face burned. She knew the color of her face would rival that of the old dress she wore as a genin. If it had been possible, she would have turned purple when she realized that her head was lying just below Kakashi's sternum, and her arms were draped over him, her right hand gripping the front of his shirt, her left alarmingly holding onto the hem of his shirt and waistband of his pants in the same fist.

Easy. Slowly. Don't wake him up...her mind was doing it's damndest to not fly out the window with her realizations. She slowly and smoothly relaxed her grip on Kakashi's clothing, leaving her hands where they were. If she removed herself too quickly he would notice.

Then again, if she didn't remove herself quickly enough he would notice. She could feel the paralysis of her predicament coming over her. She didn't know what to do. She couldn't move. She was shaking.

No. That wasn't her.

Kakashi couldn't keep it in any longer. Giving up all pretenses of being asleep, he let the laughter rock his body, and in turn, Sakura's frozen form. He could feel her blush heating his abdomen and the rigidity of her muscles as she poorly hid the internal combustion of her neural synapses.

Her face did not disappoint as she erupted from her position against him and turned with a look of outrage on her face. She was nearly purple and her face transitioned from murderous anger to mortification and back again. The sight of her warring emotions only made him laugh harder and he clutched at his stomach as the muscles clenched to the point of pain.

His laughter died down to rolling chuckles as he scooted back and sat up on the bed in front of her. Until he glanced at her face again which was perfectly matching her hair at that moment.

When his laughter came again it broke Sakura of her stupor. She had never seen him laugh like this. A chuckle? Sure. A slightly creepy, book-covered giggle? Unfortunately. Way too many times. This, however, was a full-blown masculine laugh that made her insides squirm a little.

Which unfortunately made her receding flush flare back up with a brilliance that ignited Kakashi's laughter once again.

Not knowing what to do, she reached for an old habit.

"Baka-shi!" She half-squealed, half-growled at him, swinging her open palm to cuff him on the side of his head.

She was not surprised when his head dipped and her hand cruised straight through where his head had been, and he caught her hand on the other side before sitting back up to look at her, eyes twinkling and chuckles still emanating from his throat.

She was surprised, however, when his grip shifted against her hand, and he brought her knuckles to press gently to his masked lips. His eyes stayed trained on her own during the unprecedented event, not wavering as he lowered her hand to the bed between them, still holding it gently.

She wasn't sure how long she sat there, dumbfounded and holding his gaze, but eventually she realized she hadn't blinked or taken a breath for far too long. When she finally surfaced for air, it was to the feeling of heat not only spreading across her face, but engulfing her from the core and spreading throughout her body.

He wasn't sure exactly what made him do that, but he wasn't going to regret it either. It was a very Sakura-like response to cuff him for having his fun, and he found himself further entertained at her wide-eyed gaze. She seemed frozen in time, just staring at him with her vibrant veridian eyes.

Deciding not to push her too far, he gave her hand a gentle squeeze and patented eye-crinkle, before getting up from his spot and heading to the en-suite bathroom. If he pushed her too far she might use chakra next time, whether she meant to or not.

Deciding to give her a moment, Kakashi pulled his long sleeve shirt over his head and proceeded to turn on the shower before divesting himself of the rest of his clothes. Stepping under the hot spray, he chuckled quietly to himself, thinking about what reactions she might give him next time.

A/N: Yes yes, I'm still alive. I have no excuse this time. I just wasn't feeling it. But here we are with a short chapter, but better than nothing, right? I really like this one, and I hope you do to. I was feeling a little inspired and had a little bit to punch this out. So I figure if I don't post it now, it will probably be another 6 months or something!

R&R if you would be so kind as to try to inspire me to write some more! Your comments mean a lot to me!