Chapter Thirty:
"Naruto's outside your apartment." Came paired with a nudge to her ribs.
"Hm?" Sakura wriggled closer to the offending nudger.
"He seems quite insistent on seeing you."
Sakura cracked open her eyes to find a bare chest being used as a pillow, the chest led up to a masked neck and lower face, then a wild mop of hair.
Oh Kami it was never this messy before, even when they camped out in the woods.
She smothered a laugh in the duvet as she sat up. "Your neighbour has gone out to shout at him." Kakashi continued, his sharingan focussed across the village at her apartment door where the scene was unfolding.
Naruto's chakra was a meteor in comparison to the rest of the village, big, bright, loud and mostly destructive. A fist continued hammering on his bed partner's door whilst she blinked unaware of the drama and kept staring at his hair. "You've had your hands in it all night. Don't blame me."
He enjoyed the blush creeping up her cheeks at his words and decided he needed to cause that more often.
"I did not."
"And everywhere else." he continued, deciding to ignore the flared chakra at the other side of the village and close the sharingan to focus on the blushing creature before him. "Your hands certainly wander. Although, I suppose I should have guessed, you always have been handsy with me."
"Says the man that would use any excuse to get into my bed." She shoved at him with one hand, only succeeding in making his frame readjust its balance.
"What kind of teacher would I be if I let my student freeze to death in the night?" He placed a hand to his heart, a mock of offence.
"Oh I see, it's teacher and student now is it? Is that what you're going to tell Tsunade?" She sat up in the duvet, curling her legs to cross in front of her neatly. "That whilst I was under your tutelage, you manipulated me into the same bed as you."
"There were some occasions the inns couldn't spare another bed." he contemplated, stroking his hand down his masked chin.
"You had me reading your porn books."
"You required mental stimulation. It was the only source I had."
"You licked me." She pointed a finger at her own neck and was just rewarded with a grin behind his mask. "Such a perv." She shoved at his shoulder again and he laid back onto the bed.
"You should deal with Naruto before he gets another noise complaint."
"Hai hai." Sakura rolled out of bed and realised there was a lacking of ninken.
She turned back to their master. "You know, I was told that you never ever let them on the bed."
"I don't." he replied, stretching out and popping the joints in his shoulders and back.
"Hmmm, not what I saw last night."
"Hm."
Sakura collected her travel pack and turned to his bathroom.
She caught a glimpse of the puppy pile in the living room, their dishes all lined along the wall licked clean but the telltale smell of dog food in the air. Kakashi had already been up?
Sakura realised she had no idea what time it was. She peered further around the living room to set eyes on the clock. 1pm? She'd slept half the day.
She dove into the bathroom for a quick refreshment and change of clothes and barely gave Kakashi a shout of goodbye before she was out of his balcony and running the rooftops towards her apartment.
"Sakura-san!" Naruto spotted her as soon as she came into sight. "Granny said your mission returned! Oh, did you need your shoulder bandaged?"
"Hai." The response was perhaps not entirely accurate, Naruto seemed to ask the question as if it answered where she was coming home from. Perhaps not 100% true, but as far as the question went, she had in truth needed it bandaging, just not that morning.
Then Sakura noted the neighbours who were all giving her the stink eye for not being in and the fox-demon spitfire who had decided banging on her door non-stop was a perfectly rational response to someone not being home. "Gomen." Sakura addressed the prying eyes and quickly steered Naruto away from the apartment complex. Even if she was dying for a proper shower and fresh clothes.
"Can you believe they changed the menu?!" Naruto quickly launched into their last topic in letters and she fell into place beside him, a smile on her face.
Sakura managed a full late breakfast with her old teammate before she was passed from Naruto to Ino. Well, less passed, more 'taken by force of will and strength of annoyance'.
Ino had escorted her back to her apartment, gave her another round of 'how could you's and shoved her into the shower so she could take her out drinking.
After she'd styled her hair.
And made-up her face.
And, 'oh, you're not wearing that, are you?'
So 10pm rolled around and Sakura was once again talking Hinata away from apologies and into congratulations.
Her clan had finally accepted an active role for Hinata and she had taken over Sakura's class in the Academy full time.
The group were meant to be out celebrating the role, but between Hinata's guilt and Ino's nosiness the topic of conversation had changed dramatically. Choji's grandfather had a heart attack last month which has spurred their clan into trying weight loss, and Ino was insistent that he should hook up with one of the civilians in the bar now he was looking 'well you don't look half bad, yeah'.
Which led to everyone's opinion about the physical attractiveness of other people in the bar.
And Sakura thought about how much of a cringefest it would be if she ever told them she was into her Sensei.
Bar Ino, who would respond with some lewd comment about sex, the rest would probably be shocked silent.
It wasn't unheard of… but, it wasn't exactly easily embraced.
"You seem better." Hinata spoke directly to her, her voice under the ruckus of the gang trying to get Shino to take down his hood on his jacket.
"I feel better." Sakura replied, the truth of the statement strengthening her.
"The solo mission helped?" Hinata's reply put her on the backfoot. "Gomen, I sometimes pick up extra shifts at the mission desk. I overheard Kakashi-sensei one morning."
"Oh. Actually it did. More than I thought."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Hinata offered. "I uh, was also hoping you wouldn't mind sitting down at helping me find my feet with your class actually." Hinata's fingers twiddled together at speed, her self-consciousness growing the longer Sakura didn't reply.
"… I'd like that." Sakura smiled at Hinata, the two had always been friends but not quite enough to enjoy a meal without other company. But that was purely from lack of trying. Sakura thought perhaps it was time to have a good friend with a level head, instead of just Ino.
"Would you mind joining me somewhere for breakfast tomorrow? My treat." Hinata proposed.
"You're welcome to come over to my apartment if you like, I have a few folders of lesson plans I could go through with you?"
"Really?" The sparkle in the Hyuga heiress' eyes flashed in awe.
"Absolutely. I'll cook us something." Though Sakura did need to food shop… "Lunch maybe, around 12?"
"Are you sure, I don't mi-"
"Nonsense. I'll see you at 12 tomorrow, my place."
"Dattebayo!" the shout came from Naruto and all eyes turned. The 'greeting' was to the latest shinobi to walk in the bar. One that looked absolutely lost to be there.
"Sai!" Ino called his name easily above the rest of the noise and the group went to grab him into their clutches, a new target to play with.
"Sakura-san." Hinata whispered.
"Hm?"
"Kakashi-sensei said a few things about your mission… maybe I inferred a few things wrongly, but… I'm currently sensing his ninken walking around the bar, they have for a while and perhaps… maybe… he might be having some need of your company."
"Gomen… he's a bit..." But overprotective wasn't quite accurate, yet it was the closest that fit. "I'll tell them to tell him I'm fine."
"Oh, I guess you could tell him yourself."
Sakura followed Hinata's gaze over the crowded corner of the bar, where Kakashi had just slipped in the back door and was very clearly watching her.
Hinata passed Sakura a soft smile and slid out of the booth to babysit Naruto and his troublesome mouth.
Sakura made a beeline to the back door, heading past her former-sensei and out into the empty garden. It was getting cold for patrons to be outside now.
A hand slid around her waist as she stepped into the air. Crowding her instantly, the warmth of his body encasing her.
"Sensei, in public already?" she teased. "Next you know, they'll be complaints." She turned around to him.
Didn't seem he was in a playful mood.
"I have to go."
In those simple 4 words Sakura understood why he looked bereft, she felt her own mood drop.
"Tsunade won't let me go with you yet."
"I know." He'd asked, several times. "You need to rest." As he had been told each time.
"Any idea how long?" She suddenly felt the cold around her. He stepped closer, as if to ward it away.
"Hunter-nin assignment. Depends on the target."
"Oh."
"Goes faster if I take the ninken." The rest of the sentence hung in the air. If he took the ninken, they weren't here with her.
"Take them." A look passed. A look that questioned how stable her mental state was. "Honestly. I can't do anything anyway. Tsunade has me on rest. She might let me into the hospital if I ask really nicely, but I'm fine." She smiled at him in a way she hoped was reassuring. "Besides, I have a teaching date with Hinata tomorrow. She's as responsible as they come, if she thinks I'm going to snap, she'll tell Tsunade. And Tsunade will have me detained in a hospital bed." Tsunade had explicitly said as much if Sakura ever repeated that again.
"You liked teaching." He brushed his hand against her cheek and she noticed the gloves he wore.
Which meant he was already packed and ready to go. She was his last stop.
"I'll be fine."
"Hm." He stepped back and Sakura snatched his hand before he could transport himself away.
"That's it?" She glanced quickly around to confirm they were alone. "I don't even get a kiss before you go?" she whispered, pulling herself up to his body.
"I want a date first."
"Kakashi…"
"What if we don't get along?" he continued dramatically and she rolled her eyes. "We might like different things… I don't know about you, but I don't just go around kissing strangers."
Her fingers purposefully poked at his top left pocket, the one that rested over his heart. It met the firm hardback of a book.
"But you'll go around with a porn book in your top pocket? Reading it in the streets. About a poor defenceless Sensei who was seduced by his student." She used her wording to twist it around her tongue in a seductive way, making herself very much like the invested plot line.
"Mah Sakura, is that what you think of me?" He scratched up into his hair. "This one is about a shinobi who falls in love with the civilian he saves."
"Hm?" Seemed a little tame for Kakashi. "A civilian?"
"Who happens to work in the sex industry."
"There we go." she laughed. "Enjoy it."
"When I come back." He caught her by the bicep, turning them into the darkness of the shade of the building. Crowding her against the brickwork. "There are a few things I want from you."
"Yeah?" she whispered, aware of how close he was.
"Hm." He stepped closer, a foot between hers, his thigh pressed hers apart. "I want a date. To start with." He bent his head to hers, closer. "And… one more thing."
"Hm."
"I want to know what you saw." he spoke direct to her ear, his voice low and secretive.
"What I saw?"
"Hm. On the tree outside the Icha Icha cult."
"The jutsu." she recalled.
"I want to know what you saw."
"I don't see how tha-"
"You said my name." The words he spoke were possessive and dark, like he owned the fantasy, like she owed him the explanation. Like she was his.
"Sakura!" Ino's voice split the air. "Where are you? We need to-" Ino halted as she turned the corner.
Kakashi had obviously heard her coming, obviously heard her calls even inside the pub. Heard her footsteps and the jingle of her compact mirror that never seemed to stay inside its lid as she walked with her handbag.
So Sakura expected Ino to round a corner and find Sakura by herself against a wall, with an inexplicable blush on her cheeks.
Instead, Kakashi stayed exactly where he was as Ino turned the corner. Plastered to Sakura like she was superglue.
"I'll see you when I get back." he spoke and then, a beat or five too late, he patterned a jutsu through his fingers and was gone with a puff of smoke.
And Sakura realised it wasn't a few seconds too late, it was right on time, orchestrated by master of jutsu to leave Sakura in the worst position known to man; victim to Ino.
"Oh. My. God!" Ino began. "You were gunna fuck your old sensei in the beer garden?!"