IOP

by FicReader21

for me

IOP

Before he knew it, he was laying on the tiled floor, water pelting down on him with shock waves of pain rolling through him until he blacked out.

Kakashi lands himself in a strange new world, and is (un)fortunate enough to stumble upon a helpful stranger.

big ups to harry styles for giving us "golden"

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Most shinobi spent their entire careers in anticipation of The Mission—the one where, from the moment that scroll unfurled and the mission objective became clear, they knew it would inevitably be their last. Kakashi had been waiting for his for some time.

On a few occasions, he'd thought it had come for him. There was more than one mission he shouldn't have made it back alive from, but somehow he always managed to get home and get healthy, and then lie in wait for his final mission, all over again. This time, as the bright light flashed before him, blinding him completely, he was certain it had come.

Little did he know, it wasn't death that was waiting for him on the other side of that light. No, instead, it was a steamy shower, scalding water, and a very naked, very indignant woman.

"What the fuck?!" she screeched, scrambling out of the shower, her feet slipping and sliding from its doors to the cabinet. Kakashi was too stunned to offer an explanation, mostly because he had none to offer. His muddled mind seemed to be more keen on the idea that this woman had pink hair, and, from what he could see—everything—it was natural.

"What are you doing in my shower, you creep?!" she shouted, digging around in a drawer for something.

He had no idea.

"I—I'm sorry, I don't know how—" He reached out to placate her. That was his first mistake.

Actually, his first mistake was materializing in her shower to begin with, but seeing as he hadn't made that decision of his own volition, he would say that wasn't really his mistake. However, reaching towards an infuriated, deeply violated naked woman? Not one of his better ideas.

She screeched, high pitched and ear shattering, and suddenly the yellow and black thing she had pointed at him, cradled in her shaking hands, was launching at him.

He had no idea how he'd come to this place, or why, but judging by her ample anger and lack of clothing, he could gather that he had made some dire error. He only wished he'd separated guilt and self-preservation, but he really had not anticipated this shaking woman to knock him out so easily.

Before he knew it, he was laying on the tiled floor, water pelting down on him with shock waves of pain rolling through him until he blacked out.

"Oh my god," Sakura muttered, staring at the man on her shower floor that she may or may not have electrocuted to death. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," she chanted as she ran—still naked—out to the living room. "Ino! Ino!" she shouted, slipping on the hardwood in her haste.

"God, what do you need now— why are you naked?" Ino's eyebrows were shooting way up as she shamelessly stared at Sakura's naked body.

"I think I may have killed someone in our shower," Sakura blurted out quickly before darting forward to grip Ino by the wrist and drag her to the bathroom, where she then displayed her victim. The water was still raining down on him.

"Jesus, Forehead," Ino breathed out, staring with wide eyes but still having the common sense to shut the water off. "Did you really have to tase him in the shower?"

Sakura whimpered. "I panicked! What would you do if some creep was just in the shower with you?" she whined.

"Where did he even come from?" Ino asked with a shocking display of calmness.

"I don't know," Sakura sighed. "He kind of just…appeared," she said with a shrug. Ino handed her a robe pointedly and Sakura accepted it, though it wasn't without her signature dirty look. With another withering sigh, Sakura climbed back into the shower to assess the man, hoping with her whole heart that she hadn't committed manslaughter.

He had a mask on; tattered and soaked through from the shower, and a headband slung low over his left eye. Her fingers shook as she peeled the mask back and pushed the headband off. He was dressed like a weirdo, and he had materialized in her shower like a weirdo, but she couldn't help but notice that he was a very attractive weirdo.

"He's kind of cute. Y'know, for a dead guy."

"Ino! He isn't dead," Sakura wailed out of sheer desperation.

"How do you know? You aren't a doctor yet," Ino sneered jokingly.

"I don't need a medical degree to feel a pulse, Pig," Sakura snapped.

"Well, do you need one to figure out what we're supposed to do with him?" Ino snapped back.

Sakura stared at her best friend from childhood; her best friend who had been with her through thick and thin, through heartbreak and success, through all the ups and downs of her life. She looked at her best friend, and that look was all it took for Ino to sigh in resignation.

"I'll grab his head, you get his feet," she grumbled.

Their apartment wasn't exactly luxurious, by any means, which left them with two options; the kitchen, or the living room. Sakura didn't care how attractive this guy was, she didn't want him anywhere near her knives.

Ino complained about getting her couch filthy but still helped Sakura move the body. It was a fair point. Whoever this guy was, he looked like he'd been through hell and back. His clothes were tattered, caked in mud, and she was pretty sure she could see dried blood along the frayed edges of the fabric. Edges that looked suspiciously like slashes from some kind of blade.

He looked pale, but that could have been from a multitude of reasons, not the least of which being tased and then abandoned on the shower floor. That scar cutting through his eye was concerning, though not as concerning as the cuts on him that had yet to scar.

She figured it was the least she could do to treat his wounds, despite his abrupt and absurd arrival in her shower.

"So, you're just gonna strip him down?" Ino said dryly as Sakura unzipped his flak vest and began pulling off his many layers to get to the bleeding wounds that she could now see were definitely stab wounds.

"He's already seen me naked. Tit for tat," she muttered, even though she did feel ridiculous. "Make yourself useful and get the first aid kit, would you?"

Ino ignored her in favour of rifling through his pockets. "No ID, no wallet, no phone—nothing," Ino muttered. "Who is this guy?"

Sakura sighed and shot Ino her most scathing dirty look as she went to collect the kit herself. Ino paid her no mind.

She got to work, cleaning and dressing his wounds. She was concerned that he'd yet to rouse from unconsciousness, but his breathing was even and his pulse was steady, so she figured there was little she could do about it. Smelling salts were an option, but then she'd have to explain why she'd electrocuted him and now had him nearly butt naked on her couch.

Then again, he would have to explain how he'd ended up peeping on her in the shower…

It turned out the smelling salts were unnecessary, though. She applied antiseptic to one particularly gnarly cut, and with it, he'd twitched and hissed loudly. She jumped back just in time to see his eyes fly open.

He scuttled as far back as the couch would allow, moving his hands in a quick succession of signs. Sakura stared at him in bewilderment and then shared that look with Ino.

"Are you throwing up gang signs?" Ino asked dryly.

"I have no chakra…" he mumbled softly to himself, staring at his own hands in amazement. "What village are you from? How did you do this to me?"

"Christ, Forehead, how much damage did you do with that taser?" Ino asked with wide eyes and a slow shake of her head.

Sakura tried to remain calm but she was beginning to worry, too. The look in his one open eye was sharp and cognitive, which was a stark contrast to the nonsense he was speaking. He seemed too calm to be as crazy as the rest of him insinuated; from his clothes to his words, he appeared to be a justifiable lunatic. But his calm demeanour as he sat on her couch and slowly took in his surroundings, his confused frown, and his cool observation of Ino and Sakura said differently.

"Who are you, and how did you get in here?" Sakura asked, gentle but firm.

"Hatake Kakashi. I don't know how I got here," he replied with a slow shake of his head.

"We should call the police. Or an ambulance," Ino suggested. "Or a mental institution."

"I'm not crazy," Kakashi sighed.

"That's exactly what a crazy person would say," Ino whispered dramatically. Sakura elbowed her.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" she asked pointedly. With perfect timing, Ino's phone started blaring loudly from her purse. She jumped as she scrambled to pull it out.

"Shit," she hissed under her breath before scuttling away to answer it. Sakura already knew who it was. She could hear the car pulling up into the driveway beneath them, right on time. Ino returned moments later, chin tilted high with righteous resolve, just in time to see her boyfriend of two years let himself into their apartment.

"Hey, Sai," Sakura greeted tiredly.

"Hi, Sakura. Who's the naked guy?" he asked, sparing a barely-interested glance in Kakashi's direction. Said naked man had his face buried in his hands.

"Oh, that's Kakashi," Sakura said with a shrug, as if she hadn't met Kakashi about twenty minutes ago under very suspect circumstances.

"Cool." He turned his attention to Ino, chin still tilted up, and arms crossed over her chest, and then to her suitcases sitting behind the door. "Ready?" he asked with a calm smile that very easily conveyed his endless amounts of patience—patience he would no doubt need, because Ino looked to be on a warpath.

"We can't go," she said determinedly.

"Of course we can," Sai replied gently.

"Nope. We need to stay here with Sakura. And Kakashi," Ino insisted.

"Kakashi," Sai repeated gently, taking another look at Sakura in her fluffy white robe, and Kakashi in his state of undress. "I think they're rather comfortable being left alone."

Sakura felt her face ignite. "That's not—!"

"You missed some hair on your left leg, Sakura," Sai informed her. She descended further into her mortification.

"We can't go," Ino said again, this time stomping her foot in a grand display of maturity and seriousness.

"Why is he covering his face?" Sai asked.

"Sai! We have to cancel!"

"He can't be uglier than the last guy you were seeing—"

"Okay, everyone get out!" Sakura burst. Kakashi's surprised eyes appeared over his hands. Sai's smile sweetened further and Ino's upturned chin lowered with a pout.

"But—" she began.

"Go," Sakura said sternly. "Before Sai says one more stupid thing, and then you'll have no boyfriend to go with," she threatened.

"What did I do?" he muttered softly as Ino shuffled him out of the apartment, sparing Sakura a worried glance over her shoulder.

"I'll be fine," she promised.

"Okay. Okay, okay, okay," Ino muttered, her purse slung over her shoulder and a wheelie suitcase handle clutched in each hand. Sakura sighed, glaring at Ino as her patience waned thin again. "Okay, fine! I love you, don't get murdered!" she called out sternly before the door slammed behind her.

Sakura laughed to herself, forgetting for just a second that she had quite the conundrum on her hands. After a beat of silence, Kakashi cleared his throat, calling her attention back to him.

"I guess it's just me and you," he said with a forced grin.

She scrutinized him for a moment, from his long legs, to his wild hair. "At least you're nice to look at," she sighed before making her way to the washroom to resume her shower. She had the satisfaction of watching his one eye go wide in surprise and his ears turn bright red. "And no peeping this time!" she shouted before slamming and locking the door behind her, not that that had stopped him the first time.

Looking into a bright light and being transported to a new world sounded like every afterlife cliché he'd ever heard. He certainly felt like death. His whole body ached, and his nose was picking up a faint burnt scent, which made him wonder if he'd descended into some eternal fire to pay for all of his crimes, but something just wasn't adding up.

If this was the afterlife, he felt seriously ripped off. If this pink-haired menace was supposed to be some sort of angel, then the afterlife was just as cruel as his life had been. Sure, she had tended to his injuries, but she was much meaner than the medics he was used to—and that was saying something.

So, he was confident that he had not died. He was also confident that she was not a shinobi, judging by her absolute bewilderment at his mention of villages and chakra. He would have to broach the topic of who exactly he was very carefully, if at all. He got the feeling she wasn't the type to leave a stone unturned, though, and considering how quickly she'd incapacitated him in her shower, he was getting the impression that he was not in the position to fight her off.

A rare and unusual predicament for him. He hadn't been knocked on his ass like that since he was six. It was a little thrilling, if he was being honest.

But not thrilling enough to defy her last demand and join her in the shower again. He wasn't above admitting that that had been a particularly regretful event. Even if he happened to think she was as nice to look at as she apparently found him.

He buried his face in his hands and groaned to himself. A pretty woman was the least of his concerns right now. He needed to figure out where he was and how the hell he was going to get home.

He inspected her shelves, keeping an ear out for the running water in the bathroom while he looked for some kind of clue that would tell him where he was. He considered time travel, but of the few historical texts on her bookshelf, none mentioned anything about the shinobi world. Dimensional travel, perhaps?

Gods, his head hurt too much to make sense of it. Besides, the water had just cut off, which meant she'd be stepping back into the living room soon enough, and he didn't want her to catch him snooping. She didn't appear to be the most forgiving person.

Although, if he had been in her position, he wasn't so sure he would have handled a shower-sneak as graciously as she had. All he could do was be grateful.

"I suppose snooping is better than peeping," she said, rubbing a towel roughly over her wet hair, only pausing to shoot him a knowing look.

"I wasn't snooping," he lied.

"Find anything interesting?" she asked.

"You have a lot of medical texts. Are you a medic?"

She paused in drying her hair once more, this time, to look at him with that strange mixture of confusion and wariness. "I'm a med student. I'm studying to be a doctor," she explained slowly. She opened her mouth, poised to speak again, but slammed it shut with a quiet snap. Her brow furrowed in consideration. "What are…" she began slowly before clearing her throat to try again. "What do you do?" she asked carefully.

To lie, or not to lie.

"I'm a photographer."

"Liar," she snorted.

Well, that backfired.

"Ah, well, you wouldn't believe the truth anyway," he said with a small sigh. When she didn't respond, he raised his head to look at her. She was watching him with that guarded look in her eye, but she looked less hostile than curious.

"Try me."

Try her, he did. He didn't pull any punches, from telling her about the shinobi world, to the fated mission that brought him to her shower. He even told her about the ghastly scar cutting clean through his eye, and why he kept it closed. Imagine his shock to find that there was no chakra-leeching Sharingan behind that eyelid when he moved to reveal it to her.

She hadn't been very impressed with the black eye staring back at her; it was different from the grey eye she'd already seen, sure, but it was nothing special. He wasn't sure why he expected the Sharingan to have stayed with him; he couldn't access his chakra network, so it made sense that the Sharingan would also be inaccessible. That blip did little to help in the way of convincing her of his earnestness.

Still, she listened. She offered snide comments and rolled her eyes too many times, but she did listen. Poorly and impatiently, she listened. She didn't seem to think he was a mental case by the end of the story, so he figured that was a win in and of itself.

"So, you're an elite ninja," she said after a long lull in the conversation.

"Some would say one of the most elite—"

"If you're such a badass, how did I knock you out in ten seconds flat?"

Ouch.

"Well, I don't know how to help you," Sakura admitted softly, as if she hadn't just taken a wrecking ball to his ego. "But I think I know someone who might." She rose from the couch and disappeared behind one of the doors to his right without another word. When she returned, she had a pile of clothes with her. "You can't go out naked, and the clothes you have are bizarre at best. Hopefully, these fit."

He lifted the haphazardly folded sweater off the top. They looked like plain enough civilian clothes to him—further evidence he hadn't time travelled—but he couldn't even remember the last time he wore civilian clothes.

"It's a shirt," she said dryly.

"Thank you," he replied, just as dry.

"And you might want to shower, too. You stink." The little blush on her cheeks told him otherwise, but they had a fragile sort of truce going on, and he didn't want to jeopardize what might be his only ticket home.

So, he shrugged, gathered up his new civilian clothes, and headed toward her bathroom. He spared her a look over his shoulder, catching her with her eyes glued to his retreating back and her lips pursed in thought.

"No peeking," he teased. He watched her delicate blush deepen into a flush of fury before ducking into the bathroom and locking the door, hiding his soft laughter with the sound of running water.

"So, this is a taser."

"Yes."

"And you can use it without chakra? Or seals?"

"Uh...sure."

"And what are those?"

"Cars."

"What do they do?"

"They're motorized vehicles used for transportation. You sit at the wheel and drive it to where you need to go."

"And that's something you're able to do?"

"Yes."

"What's this?"

"Modem. It's for the internet."

"What's the internet?"

"This is insane," Kakashi mused as he scrolled through endless pages of information, available at his fingertips in seconds. And he did it while sitting in a car. Sakura said it wasn't a very nice one, and she called it a "beater", but Kakashi was still pretty impressed.

The books in Sakura's apartment had proven to be useless in his attempt to find his way home, but maybe he could glean something from the internet. One quick search told him that he apparently didn't have to go very far.

Sakura had never heard of Konohagakure, and that wariness had crept back into her expression when she explained to him that they were currently in Konoha City. He decided to drop the subject for fear of alienating himself further from her. He had meant to tread lightly on this topic, but it was easy to forget when she seemed to take so much of it in stride.

But he could see her knees wiggling incessantly below her steering wheel, and her fingers were tapping lightly against it at every stop. She kept her eyes resolutely on the road in front of her, and when he asked her a direct question she answered him, but was otherwise mostly unresponsive.

He wasn't sure if he was making her nervous, or if it was the situation they were in, or perhaps it was looping someone else into it. Regardless, he resorted to consulting the internet instead of her. He didn't always receive the answers he was looking for—for example, he learned that "hidden village" was what locals referred to as Konoha's red light district of sorts, and yes, he'd had to look up what the hell a "red light district" was.

Eventually, he just had to accept that hidden villages and shinobi were not a thing of this world. At least that meant he wouldn't do insurmountable damage to anyone's timeline, he supposed. But in a world with no jutsu or chakra, how was he supposed to make it back? He decided to wait until Sakura stopped driving to pose the question aloud.

Before long, they arrived at a house and Sakura cut the engine. She hesitated before getting out of the car.

"Just a warning," she began with a nervous laugh. "Naruto can be a bit…much."

"Much, how?" he asked, suddenly feeling wary.

Sakura hummed, her lips pursed in thought as she considered him. Finally, she shook her head and opened her door. "Never mind. You'll just have to see for yourself," she dismissed quickly. Kakashi caught a glimpse of his reflection in the side mirror on her car and froze. "Well? Aren't you coming?"

"I need a mask."

Sakura blinked at him. "A mask."

"Yes. I don't show my face to people," he said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat, well aware that he had been showing his face to her for the last four hours.

"Is this some kind of ninja thing? Because you don't really have any reason to be so cloak and dagger here—"

"It's not a ninja thing," he denied swiftly, unwilling to say anything more on the matter.

She narrowed her eyes at him, arms crossed over her chest. "A mask," she repeated. With a long-suffering sigh, she rolled her eyes and opened the door on his side, leaning over his lap to open the compartment above his knees. He tried not to think about how nice her hair smelled, or that her hand was sitting a little too high and heavy on his thigh.

She turned her face to him—so close, too close—and then dangled a blue surgical mask between them. She didn't say anything else before she retreated from the car and his personal space, waving at him to hurry the hell up and get out of her car, and then proceeding to laugh right in his face when he attempted to climb out with the seatbelt still strapping him down.

"This world is full of traps," he grumbled as he stepped in line behind her, following her up to the door.

"Mm, yes, seatbelts are far more nefarious than violent, magical ninjas," she said deadpanned, sparing him a dry look before ringing the doorbell. She gave it about three seconds before she thumped her fist against the door in three hard knocks.

"And you think my world is violent?" he remarked as he watched the door shake on its hinges.

She ignored him in favour of attempting to knock the entire house down with her fist again. When the door didn't relent to her attack, she switched tactics. "NARUTOOOOO!" she shouted, head tilted all the way back, and aimed toward the open window she had parked her car beneath.

She waited a tick, frowning unhappily when nothing happened. When her jaw dropped and she took in a huge breath—no doubt in preparation to unleash another inhumanly loud screech—he leapt forward to clap his hand over her mouth. That did not improve her mood.

"He's coming," Kakashi said quickly, pulling his hand back as fast as he could when he felt her lips part beneath it. He made it out just in time to see her clamp her teeth down in a hard bite around air.

She looked about ready to chew him out when the front door opened. Kakashi deflated with relief when her anger found its new target; a tall blond man wearing mismatched socks, bright orange boxers, and a tattered t-shirt with the picture of a cat eating ramen printed on the front.

"Who's the old guy?"

"That's Kakashi," Sakura said, pushing her way past Naruto and into his home, and not doing nearly enough, in Kakashi's opinion, to defend him.

"I'm only twenty-six," he grumbled. They ignored him.

"What's with the mask? He sick or something?" Naruto asked, his lips curling in mild disgust as he let Kakashi and Sakura past him into the house. Kakashi was ready to present Naruto with one of his usual lies, but Sakura beat him to the punch.

"Allergies. Seriously, this place is disgusting. Do you ever dust?" Sakura sneered, brushing a finger across a mantle and displaying the dust she'd collected. Naruto went bright red and started to make excuses, but while he was distracted, Sakura sent a sly wink Kakashi's way.

She may have been a bit of a pit bull, but she was certainly full of surprises. This place wasn't nearly as dangerous as where he'd come from, but his life had not been filled with this much uncertainty in quite some time. She had a knack for making it all feel less daunting.

"So, what's up?" Naruto asked, once he'd finished up with whining that Sakura was too mean to him. Kakashi looked to Sakura, hoping she had some sort of plan on what to tell Naruto.

"Kakashi is a ninja from an alternate dimension."

Okay, not exactly the sort of plan he had in mind.

It was worth blurting that out just to watch Kakashi's eyes go so wide. She had to bite back her laugh.

As she expected, Naruto went through a ten second bout of disbelief before leaning into it with his entire being. Naruto may not have been particularly scholarly, but if there was one thing he had studied, it was just about every single piece of media centred around, containing, or even alluding to ninjas. Surely all that time and energy spent wouldn't be entirely useless.

He pried Kakashi with endless questions, most of which Sakura thought were pretty irrelevant—she wasn't sure what how many flips Kakashi could do before he threw up had to do with getting him home, but who was she to interrupt?—but she could swear she saw Kakashi's eyes creasing with what may have been a genuine smile. Sure, it was buried under a mountain of trepidation at Naruto's enthusiasm, but it was there. She'd stared at him long enough to recognize it.

After fifteen minutes, she had to tune them out. It wasn't that she was uninterested in Kakashi—quite the opposite, in fact, she was probably a little too interested—but there was only so much kunai-talk she could take. She only hoped that Naruto would have some insight to offer, instead of just fact-checking his video game collection.

"I'm ordering us something to eat," she announced before heading into the kitchen to peruse the many takeout menus Naruto and his roommates kept on hand.

"Ramen!" Naruto cried ardently from the living room, proving that the only thing he cared more about than ninjas was food. Sakura shook her head and laughed to herself, knowing damn well that she would not be ordering ramen.

By the time she returned to them, Kakashi looked like Naruto had finally begun to wear him down. She didn't try to save him. She'd already saved his ass multiple times that day; a strong guy like him should be able to handle Naruto for an hour or so.

Thankfully, Naruto did shut up once the food arrived. It was hard to talk with two slices of pizza entering his mouth at once, though he did make a valiant effort. Kakashi was glancing down at the food, and the empty plate she had collected for him. With a slight shake of his head, he leaned back and left it where it was on the coffee table.

"Naruto," Sakura began with a slight clear of her throat, "do you have anything to drink?"

"Yeah, there's a pack of beer in the fridge," he mumbled between bites.

"I didn't see any when I was in there…" she said, frowning in thought. "Would you grab a couple?"

Naruto looked between her and his pizza, sighed and stood up, but not before rolling up the rest of one of his slices and shoving it into his mouth. He gave her a thumbs up before heading to the kitchen.

"Should be right here! I bought it this morning…" she heard him muse with his head in the refrigerator.

"Really? Huh, maybe someone moved it?" she shouted, feigning innocence. "Go ahead. He'll be gone for a while. I hid it in the back of his roommate's cupboard," she said, wiggling a plate of food in front of Kakashi's face. He took it with a grateful nod of his head.

"You're covering my ass a lot today," he said quietly between bites of his pizza. She bumped her shoulder lightly into his, hiding her smile behind a massive bite of her own. "A shame you didn't cover yours," he sighed, his lips quirked up in a crooked, teasing smile.

His next bite of pizza flew clean across the room when she punched him in the stomach for that.

They had spent quite a lot of time with Naruto, most of which had proved pretty fruitless. The sun was completely set by the time Sakura was driving them back to her apartment. He felt uneasy. He wasn't sure if she would ask him to find a place of his own, though he was almost certain she would. She'd been generous enough as it was.

She really was full of surprises, though.

"Do you wanna go for a walk?" she asked as her car chirped and the lights flashed at them, where they stood on the pathway to her second floor walk-up.

So they walked. Kakashi felt a little relieved, now that the hustle and bustle of the city had calmed for the night. Aside from the odd car rolling down the street, or a pedestrian with their nose buried in their phone, he could almost convince himself he was back home. This Konoha was strange, but the trees were still green and plentiful, and the cliffs may not have had faces carved into them, but they were still great and imposing.

"So," she began after a few minutes of them walking in silence. "Did Naruto give you any ideas?"

"Ah, I'll have to think about it. He certainly said a lot," he joked. Her laugh was light and airy, but a little embarrassed.

"Sorry about him. He means well."

"Nothing to be sorry about," he dismissed. "He reminds me of someone. An old friend I used to have." He wasn't sure why he was bringing it up to her; she was as good as a stranger, but she watched him so keenly with her bright eyes, like she was trying to solve some sort of puzzle. He'd always had an aversion to people seeing him, but he was almost tempted to let her try.

"Used to?" she asked softly, as if she knew where this was going.

"He died in a war."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay, really. It was a long time ago," he explained. Thoughts of Obito always brought him a tinge of sadness, but it wasn't the heart-wrenching, all-consuming despair he'd once felt. "We were kids."

That was the wrong thing to say. He didn't realize it until he looked down beside him, wondering why she hadn't spoken, and found she was not there. He turned to see her frozen in place, staring at him with wide, sad eyes. He sighed and stepped back towards her.

"If you cry, I'll leave you here," he threatened half-heartedly.

"I'm—I'm not gonna c-cry," she warbled, her lip quivering as she punched his shoulder. "Kids?" she whispered after a few minutes, in which she'd collected herself, and Kakashi pretended not to notice the few stray tears that left streaks down her cheeks.

"That's just the way of the shinobi world," he said with a shrug.

"The shinobi world sounds stupid," she grumbled, prying his arm from his side so she could hug herself to it as they continued their walk. He supposed she had done it as means of self-soothing, but when her arms tightened around his, and her hands squeezed, he felt more comforted than he would ever care to admit.

Ino was going to freak out when she found out Sakura had not only neglected to call the cops (or the hospital, or the asylum), but she had gone several steps further and invited him to sleep in their apartment. If he didn't kill her, Ino would.

Imagine her shock when, instead of death, she found breakfast waiting for her.

He had obviously used whatever she had in the kitchen (or whatever Ino had, because really, Sakura cooking? No.), but she was still a little overwhelmed by the gesture. He'd even folded up and neatly stacked the pillows and blankets she'd dumped on the couch for him. And then he had the audacity to stand in her kitchen and present her with a plate of pancakes with fresh fruit and piping hot coffee, sheepishly scratching the back of his neck, and ducking his head to hide his bright red ears.

"I hope you like pancakes—" He broke off with a grunt when she gently pushed past him to grab a mouthful of pancake.

She moaned around the bite; warm and sweet, and just slightly crispy around the edges. "Oh my god," she groaned, spearing another bite and shoving it in her mouth before she'd even managed to swallow the first one.

"I'll take that as a yes," he said with a quiet laugh. She wiggled between him and the table to plant herself in a chair and continue eating, blinking up at him expectantly. When he didn't take a seat beside her, she sighed (and maybe a little piece of blueberry flew out of her mouth, what about it?) and reached up to drag him into a chair by his collar. For an elite ninja, he sure let her push him around a lot.

"If you keep feeding me like this, I might have to follow you back to your Konoha," she joked.

He laughed. "What are you, a stray..."

She looked at him, eyebrows raised and fork to her lips, to see that his smile had fallen completely from his lips in way of a small "oh" as he apparently reached an epiphany.

"Dog," he finished. "Naruto was right."

That was a terrifying revelation. Maybe she had done brain damage with the taser. "Naruto? Right?" she asked incredulously.

"He said if I was able to come here through some portal, then there must be other points of entry. He said he saw it in a video game, or something," he explained.

"Naruto says a lot of things about video games."

"But this one was right," Kakashi insisted. He stood up from the table and moved to the living room. "Where's my vest?"

Sakura spared her pancakes one long, forlorn look before following him out of the kitchen. She handed him the vest she'd hung in the back of her coat closet.

"I think I'm missing something," she said pointedly. He was too busy rifling through the thousand-and-one pockets to enlighten her.

"It's not here," he whispered, frantically searching. "The scroll isn't here. Did you take anything out?" he asked, eyes wide and beseeching.

She shook her head slowly. "No, not me. Ino did look through your things, though…"

It came as no great shock that Ino's first instinct had been to go through his belongings, but what was shocking was that, in the height of all the chaos, she had mistakenly stashed one of those belongings in her purse as she headed out. And now, his summoning scroll was sitting at the bottom of a "Louis" halfway across the globe.

Sakura had been somewhat apologetic, but mostly she had been happy to point out that, without his chakra, he couldn't really activate it, anyway. That was a whole other problem, but currently, his main goal was to have his scroll back in his possession.

The silver lining was Sakura's shock when he broke the news that he had eight dogs. It didn't really work that way with ninken, but her eyes were comically wide and her lips parted in the sweetest little "oh", so he didn't bother explaining the intricacies of summoning contracts to her.

"Well," she said once the shock wore off, "Ino said she'd send it back in priority mail. I guess you can use this time to figure out what to do once you have it," she suggested.

"What are the odds that Naruto was right about more than one thing?" he asked.

"I never would have guessed that he'd be right about anything, so," she shrugged. "It's worth a shot."

He hummed in consideration. "Do you have a map?"

"Where the hell are we going?" Sakura asked for the fifteenth time in the last hour.

"I don't know, your map keeps spinning!" Kakashi cried in despair, tapping hard on the touch-screen.

"Because you keep reorienting it to north!"

"What does that mean?!"

"Just stop tapping the screen!"

Sakura huffed and continued driving in silence for a moment.

"When is my next turn?"

"I don't know. The screen went black because I stopped tapping on it."

Once they figured out their way, it was actually a pretty pleasant ride. Travelling by car was definitely much easier and luxurious than running had ever been. It seemed he continued to find more and more things about this world that he liked. Some voice in the back of his head was telling him that life here would have been much easier than the one he'd had for the past twenty-six years.

What had been a day and a half run through the jungle was a four hour drive (not accounting for the several wrong turns they'd taken on Kakashi's watch). It had been smooth sailing once Sakura had taken up the task of navigating for herself. He maintained that if he had simply been left with his instincts, it never would have happened.

She maintained that, if left to his instincts, he would have ended up road kill. He didn't argue with her about that.

"What's so special about this place?" she asked, staring up at the canopy of trees overhead.

"We've got to go a little deeper. This is where I was before I ended up in your shower," he explained. "Maybe there's a way back through here."

"Yeah, this definitely sounds like a Naruto idea," she grumbled as stomped over twigs and rocks, desperately trying to keep up with him. He slowed his pace further for her sake. "If it is here," she said, her voice lilting a little too much with forced curiosity, "will you just...go back?"

He stopped in his tracks for a couple of reasons. One, because they'd come upon the clearing where he'd had the fight that sent him into another dimension (literally), and two, because he was certain what she was really asking was if he wouldn't consider staying here, in this world. In her world.

He gave her a crooked smile over his shoulder, and teased her with "not before saying goodbye to the shower," to deflect, but in all honesty, he didn't know what he would do. Part of him was hoping he wouldn't have to make that decision.

Some other foolish part of him wondered if she felt as much trepidation at his inevitable departure as he did. But that was stupid. He had a reason to want to be here, in this world where children didn't murder each other, where he didn't have an abysmal past following him everywhere, where maps had a mind of their own.

She had no reason to want him here. None that he could see, anyway. He hadn't even been here a week, and he was certain that was enough time to convince her that he was the last person she needed trudging around in her life.

While he concentrated on sorting through his confusion, Sakura had apparently not been concentrating on where she was stepping.

She let out a high pitched screech as she pitched forward, her foot trapped under a gnarled tree root. Her eyes were wide, and her mouth wider around her scream as she plummeted face-first toward the dirt, hands raised over her head in surrender to gravity.

Instead of the ground, though, she landed on him; palms slamming hard against his biceps and face squished against his chest, grunting deeply, every bit the charming young woman he found her to be.

"This place is a hazard," she complained into his shirt.

"I didn't realize walking was such a challenge for you," he teased.

She tilted her head back to glare at him, but in doing so, she made it abundantly clear to both of them that, despite their bickering, they were engaged in quite the embrace. Kakashi held her tight, his hands on her hips, and she really had just flung her entire body against his. If he domed his head just a few inches, his mouth would be right over hers, and her lips were parted roundly again as she exhaled in surprise.

"Kakashi," she whispered.

"Yeah," he managed to squeeze out of his suddenly constricted throat.

"I think I sprained my ankle."

Sakura did feel a little bad that Kakashi's lead turned out to be a dead end, but part of her was relieved. He was a weirdo, for sure, but she couldn't lie to herself. She was enjoying having him around. He was interesting, and despite knowing absolutely nothing of this world, he was pretty brilliant.

He had this knack for being so serious, and yet not serious at all, all at once. He always had this expression, like he could fall asleep at any given moment, but then he would hit her with some snide remark, and one of those crooked smiles that made her stomach churn, and she knew that, despite his sleepy eyes, he was very much awake and observant. Too observant.

"You've locked your car five times," he pointed out.

She was nervous, sue her. It had been her idea to stop for the night. It was getting late, she was tired, and while her ankle wasn't sprained, it was badly twisted and she wasn't in the mood to drive four hours on it so late in the day. Besides, she was enjoying this jog from the city. Or maybe she was enjoying Kakashi. It was hard to tell.

"This place is much nicer than the inn I staked out at during my mission," Kakashi said, appraising the room in the—frankly, cheap as shit—hotel she'd selected. She was a student, though, so she didn't really feel bad about it. Especially since Kakashi seemed impressed regardless. The place had Wi-Fi, so he was convinced they were in the lap of luxury.

"How does that work?" she asked as she flung herself onto the foot of the bed to peel her shoes and socks off in one go. "Is it like, you do missions and they cover your living expenses? Or do you just get paid per mission?" He watched in curiosity as she struggled with her left shoe.

"Different ranked missions have different pay grades," he said, raising his voice over her disgruntled huffs and puffs.

"My ankle is swollen," she explained with a dissatisfied pout. She lifted her leg to display it to him. He rolled his eyes but sat beside her, gingerly placing her leg on his lap, and effectively shocking the hell out of her. He kept his head domed as he shimmied her shoe off.

"The more dangerous the mission, the higher the pay," he continued softly. "Sometimes, depending on the nature of the mission, they'll spring for accommodation. Most of the time, I sleep in a tree."

"A tree," she repeated dully, finding herself too fixated on the feeling of his cool fingers resting gently against her sore ankle to really pay attention to what he was saying. "Was the mission that sent you here…" she trailed off, caught off guard when his thumb brushed the inside of her leg, just above her ankle. It tickled, but what stopped her was the tingle that went down her spine.

"S-Rank," he said, completely oblivious to the havoc he was wreaking on her nervous system. "The highest rank."

"Okay, big shot," she teased. "I guess those are kind of like once-in-a-lifetime kinda deals, huh?" she said, smiling to herself as she lowered her leg back to the carpeted floor. His ears had gone suspiciously red.

"I've done a few of them," he admitted.

"What, like, three?"

"Give or take a few," he said with a shrug. She narrowed her eyes at him, getting the distinct impression that he was grossly understating things, and hoping to intimidate him into spilling his guts. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work.

She heaved a sigh and flopped back onto the bed. "Fine, be that way," she grumbled, fixing him with her cutest pout. He just shook his head, an amused smile faintly touching his lips.

I'd like to faintly touch those lips, she thought fleetingly before banishing it away. It was entirely unacceptable to feel that way about a strange man from another dimension who had mysteriously appeared in her shower one day. Even if he did laugh at all her jokes and take her punches like a champ.

Suddenly perturbed by her own thoughts, she cleared her throat, and rolled herself off the mattress to her feet.

"Why don't you shower, and I'll, uh—I'll grab us something to eat," she suggested, keeping her eyes focused on the dingy grey carpet.

"Okay…" he said with palpable uncertainty. "But what about your ankle…?"

She had already slipped her feet into his too-big shoes and was clunking her way toward the hallway. She thought she heard him sigh just as the door closed behind her.

"What would you do if you couldn't find your way back?" she asked suddenly, face squished in concentration as she twisted her hand in his, darting her thumb about, trying to gain the upper hand.

"I guess...I'd just have to make a life here," he said with a shrug, dodging her attempt to pin his thumb down.

She grunted unhappily at that. "What would you do for work? Join the military?"

They were each laid across their respective beds, heads toward each other with their hands interlocked, arms stretched toward each other over the space between their beds, engaging in what Sakura called a "thumb war". He was certain he'd heard of this before, but he'd definitely never had the opportunity to play. She hadn't liked hearing him say that.

"Definitely not," he refuted.

"But you're a ninja," she reminded him, biting into her bottom lip as she nearly clamped her thumb down over his.

"It's sort of a family business," he deflected. Her displeased frown was even cuter than the purposeful pouts she kept sending at him to try and convince him to divulge more.

Honestly, he had told her much more in the past few days than he'd said to people he'd known his entire life. That was terrifying. She had an uncanny ability to just pluck information out of him, most of the time without even trying. For a ninja, that was frightening. He was grateful that they appeared to be on the same team; otherwise he would have met a formidable adversary in Haruno Sakura.

"Well, what do you do for fun?" she asked, switching tactics, both in her questioning and the battle of their thumbs.

He considered that carefully. Most of his time was eaten up by missions, or training for missions. Rarely did he concern himself with much else. "I read," he answered slowly.

She picked up on the hesitation. "Read what?" she pried.

"Do you have Icha Icha in this world?"

"Don't think so," she said, her voice clipped as he trapped her thumb beneath his. She managed to pull free in the nick of time.

"Then, that's what I would do," he decided.

"You would read?" she asked, so distracted in her incredulity that he managed to pin her down for good. "You are rotten," she sniffed when he finally released her thumb.

"I would bring Icha Icha to the masses. You have no idea what you're missing," he said.

She sighed. "Best three out of five?" she asked, probably upset that he'd just won their best two of three.

"Sure," he agreed, solely for the pleasure of watching her face squish into a concentrated frown before he bested her again. "What would you do in my world?" he asked.

"I guess...the same thing I do here," she considered with a shrug. "Wait, do you guys have doctors?"

His burst of laughter surprised her. Her lips parted in a shocked smile, her eyes wide and bright, and the faintest blush warmed her cheeks. He nearly pinned her thumb down a third time. "Yes, we have doctors, Sakura," he said, shaking his head and laughing at her ludicrous question.

"I think I would like that," she said, her smile turning wistful. "Saving people who save people."

Her smile was so soft and sweet he forgot to breathe for a moment. And then, before he knew it, his thumb was being held down with such a force, and her sweet smile turned wicked with glee.

"Hah!" she shouted in his face, leaning almost too far off her bed to do so. "I'm coming after you," she taunted in a sing-song voice. She meant the game, of course, but he couldn't help but to return her infectious smile and think that perhaps, one day, she would.

She wasn't sure what possessed her to do it, really. Maybe she had gotten sick of all his questions. Maybe she found his questions endearing and this was the best way to encourage more.

She really wasn't sure. All she knew was, the next morning they were heading back to Konoha, they were seated in her old beater that she was still making payments on, Kakashi was behind the wheel, and Sakura was extremely nervous.

When he put the car in drive and started moving, she nearly blacked out from the stress of it all. She really was a glutton for punishment, she inwardly lamented. She had no one to blame but herself.

"Could you at least open both eyes?!" she cried when he nearly drove them into a concrete pillar.

"Oops, sorry. Habit," he mumbled, turning his face to flash a smile at her. She looked away, feeling her stomach begin to lurch almost pleasantly in the face of that smile. She could feel heat pooling in her cheeks, and she willed all her silly, girlish feelings to subside. Not shockingly, they didn't listen.

When he stomped on the brake, her stomach lurched for real, and no amount of charming, sweet smiles could stop her from removing him from behind the wheel.

"I would've gotten the hang of it eventually."

"Sure, but by then, I would have run out of gas," she teased. She'd been smiling a lot lately, and it was doing things to him. He didn't even have his mask to hide behind when it was just the two of them, and it was just his luck that the person he needed to hide from most seemed to easily see everything he wanted to hide.

She was completely oblivious to his inner turmoil, though. She just flashed him that sweet smile, her eyes dancing when they focused in on the smile he had no choice but to give her in return, and went about her day. She seemed perfectly happy to ride home in relative silence, just driving him bonkers with those little smiles.

Well, she was perfectly happy with the silence between them. She leaned forward to turn a dial, and suddenly, music was blaring through the car, a happy song that had Sakura's smile widening, her head tilting back, her hair blowing in the wind pouring in through the crack in her window, and had her voice ringing out loudly, way off key, and singing what he was pretty sure were the wrong words.

He couldn't help but laugh with her.

"I think you're getting some of this wrong," he pointed out after she sang the words "I know you were way too bright for the eyes" shortly thereafter followed by "rum makes me so high".

She laughed, carefree and easy, her cheeks pink but he thought that had more to do with the sun than any embarrassment. "Who cares?!" she laughed. "It's just us."

Just us. That sent a thrill through him. She was so unabashedly, unapologetically happy, that he couldn't help but feel happy he was with her in that moment. In any moment, really.

"Try it!" she giggled, slapping her hand lightly on his thigh. How could he say no to that?

The chorus was coming around, a lyric that even Sakura could not mess up, and even though he'd never heard the song before, it was easy to chant a bunch of doo doo doos along with the radio. His singing along had her inexplicably overjoyed. He thought she might actually burst from excitement.

"Get out of my bed, 'cuz I don't wanna share, when you can't stop snoring," he sang poorly, but pointedly. Sakura was delighted.

They sang the rest together, shouting complete gibberish into the wind, laughing their way through it. Every time the chorus came around, they chanted "can't stop snoring" instead of whatever the actual words were. Kakashi thought this was probably the best song he'd ever heard.

"Was that your way of telling me I snore?" Sakura giggled out as the song ended.

"Yes," he said, because she did snore.

"Jackass."

He'd never been happier to be insulted.

One thing led to another, and before she knew it, she had Ino's fancy coconut flavoured vodka out and open, and was making some heinous concoction for her and Kakashi to sip on her couch while she hounded him with more questions about his life, and his world, and his dogs. All while she opposed all of his answers with the hard-hitting truth that he would be much happier here, in her world, with her, possibly for the rest of his life.

But in, like, a cool, casual sort of way.

"Oh, come on," she groaned, shaking her head in disbelief at both his words and how strong her drink was. "You can't be serious."

"I am," he said, adamantly shaking his head. His cheeks were pink from the liquor.

"You would rather live in Konohagakure for Icha Icha, and Icha Icha alone?" she asked.

"It's worth it!"

"What about your dogs?!" she cried.

"If this summoning thing works out, I could bring them here with me," he said with a shrug.

She rolled her eyes. "But you couldn't bring the books?"

"Touché."

They went on like that for god only knew how long. They bickered endlessly about who would have it better, him in her world, or her in his. Neither of them mentioned that the reality was they would both be worse off, leading separate lives in their respective dimensions. She had to down the rest of her drink to drown out that unhappy thought.

"I don't think it would be so bad, you know," he said softly after a long moment had passed. "Being stuck here," he finished, almost in a whisper, as if he hadn't decided whether or not he actually wanted her to hear him.

"Even though I snore?" she asked teasingly, trying to make light of the situation, but instead digging deeper, hinting that if he were to be stuck, she hoped it was with her.

His smile was softer than she expected. "Even though you snore," he agreed. And then he was leaning forward, so completely within her personal space that her senses were overwhelmed with him; the warmth that radiated off his chest, and his clean, heady scent. She could feel his breath ghosting across her face.

He pressed his lips to her cheek, letting them linger there for a moment longer than they needed to, but even so, she was sad when he leaned away.

"How about a trial run?" she proposed with the confidence of a woman who had had more than her fair share of vodka.

Kakashi's eyebrows show up high in surprise. "What are you suggesting?"

Kakashi could count on one hand the amount of times he'd been truly happy in his adult life. At the top of that list was waking up in Sakura's bed, a piece of her hair in his mouth, her snoring in his ear, and drool dribbling out of her mouth onto his shoulder as she slept soundly on top of him.

He smiled to himself, sinking further into his pillow, wrapping his arms tighter around her, feeling like he could lay here for the rest of his life and be content. And then he promptly felt bone-deep fear run through him.

He was trying hard not to freak out, but it was a difficult feat when he had spent the last twenty years avoiding exactly this scenario: getting close to someone who would inevitably disappear from his life. This time, though, that inevitability was palpable. He would be leaving her. Whether it was tomorrow, or in a week, or a month, he would have to say goodbye. He never had been very good at that.

As if she could hear his thoughts, she started grumbling unhappily in her sleep and burrowing her head further into the crook of his neck. He had to laugh at it. Sure, he was scared shitless, but it was hard to dwell on that when she was there with him at that moment.

He sighed and carefully rolled them over onto their sides. She didn't seem upset by that, so he placed a small kiss on her forehead, knowing that he was digging himself deeper into a hole but not caring terribly much. She sighed happily in her sleep and he took that as his cue to disentangle himself from her grasp.

She burrowed into the pillow, now that his body was off the table. He couldn't help but think that he had turned into a bit of a sap as he draped her blanket over her, his heart warming considerably as he watched her settle into it.

He needed a shower to clear his head of his conflicting thoughts. Between his need to escape and never look back, and his overwhelming desire to let this strange, entirely encapsulating woman take over his life, he was feeling beyond torn.

He wasn't sure what was worse, the prospect of allowing himself to get even closer to her, or the knowledge of knowing he was a coward who would avoid it at all costs. He may have been a strong shinobi—one of the strongest, if he did say so himself—but in this he was weak. This has always been his weakness, though he has always presented his detachment as a strength.

He felt anything but strong now. He was weak to Sakura's charms, ghastly and uncouth as they were, and he was weak for wanting to hide from how she made him feel. Alive. He'd been living with one foot in the grave for so long, he wasn't sure he knew how to live any other way.

He groaned quietly to himself as he stripped out of his clothes. There was just something about her—her innate ability to be disarmingly cute, annoyingly charming, and alarmingly observant. The worst part was that she seemed completely oblivious to the effect it had on him. He nearly had a stroke when she invited him into her bed.

Of course, nothing happened, aside from him feeling like a fool, which seemed to be the norm wherever Sakura was concerned. But then she'd smile at him, or hit him with those bright green doe eyes, and he knew that no one could ever be safe from her. No matter how strong he could become in his life, he would fall victim to her quips and jabs. The horrifying part was that he quite enjoyed that.

He had just turned the water on in the shower, testing out the temperature with his arm when the door opened behind him. Startled, he turned to face it.

Even more startled was Sakura, staring at him with eyes wide as plates, cheeks bright pink and lips parted in that way that made every thought in his mind turn to panicked mush.

"Oops," she squeaked, though she made no move to leave. "I-I thought you were gone," she stuttered, her eyes glued to his chest.

Where was there for him to go? Even if he'd had a place to escape to, he was well under her spell.

As stuck as he was, her gaze was not. He watched, half-surprised, half-flattered, as her eyes slowly trailed down from his chest, lower and lower, until her breath whooshed out of her in one big exhale, and her pink cheeks turned furiously red. Still, she stared. He cleared his throat pointedly.

She squeaked again as she snapped her head up, turning her face towards his, so he could see up close how flustered she'd become. She was gawping at him, her mouth opening and closing on words that wouldn't come, and while he truly, deeply understood the feeling, he couldn't resist messing with her just a little bit.

As cute as she was flushed and grappling for words, he liked it even better when she was on the verge of decimating him.

"Care to join me?" he asked, feeling his own smug smile spread across his face, and watching as her wide-eyed, pink-cheeked surprise made way for unbridled rage.

She had purposely avoided inviting him to share her bed again, though every traitorous bone in her body demanded she do so. Her pillow smelled like him, which was ludicrous, considering he'd been using all of her bath products for the past week, but there was still something underneath her flowery shampoo that went straight to her head and had her mewling embarrassingly into her sheets.

She was convinced it was a conspiracy. From the inanimate objects in her apartment, to her own body, it seemed everything in her life was clutching to and reaching out for every scrap of him they could grab.

Her short-lived bedtime loneliness was worth it, though. It was far too satisfying to take in Kakashi's shock as she squeezed next to him on the couch, pressing herself flush against him and wrapping his arm around her to cage her there and keep her warm.

"What…?" he mumbled sleepily.

"I was invited to join you, was I not?" she said, all too aware of the self-satisfaction coursing through her, and the fact that her proud little smile had Kakashi pulling her tighter to his chest. "Was that a limited time offer?"

He held her gaze for a moment before tucking her head under his chin. She chewed on her bottom lip anxiously, wondering if his silence meant yes, but he just wouldn't say it out loud. Maybe for fear of getting kicked out and having to sleep on the street.

"It's a standing invitation," he murmured softly into her hair, making her skin erupt with goosebumps.

"Good to know," she whispered into his collarbone before the two of them quietly faded into unconsciousness.

When the scroll arrived, Kakashi had the overwhelming urge to burn it and never look back. Instead, he took a kunai to his thumb until a bead of blood broke the skin. He pretended not to notice Sakura's tense shoulders and pinched lips, or that he hadn't heard her quietly whisper "I hope you stay" the night before, when she thought he had been asleep. He didn't tell her that he also hoped that.

But the scroll activated, and he was, before all else, a shinobi of the Leaf.

Pakkun couldn't speak in this world, but he seemed to understand what Kakashi wanted from him. Impressive, considering Kakashi hardly knew what he wanted himself.

Before he knew, things were set in motion, and it was too late to change his mind. Pakkun stood atop his shoulder, grumpily accepting a head pat from Sakura, who was very determinedly not meeting Kakashi's eyes. He couldn't force her to give him just one last glance; one last sweet smile, or blush, or enraged snarl.

"I don't know how I will ever repay you," he said quietly, staring at her profile as she kept her face turned slightly away from him. He could see her lips were downturned and twitching.

"Good luck, Kakashi," she sighed more than said, taking a healthy step back from him.

He nodded to himself in acceptance. She didn't want to say anything more on the matter, and he certainly had no idea how to express his gratitude, or his unwillingness to leave, or whatever emotion it was that was causing that horrible twisting feeling in his chest.

"Thank you for everything," he said, trying hard to slide back into his detached ways but finding it impossible.

Pakkun harrumphed softly on his shoulder and Kakashi gave him a nod. He crinkled his eyes over his mask at Sakura, though he was hardly smiling behind it. Finally, her eyes met his.

Just as Pakkun was readying to teleport them to the summoning realm, Sakura leapt forward and wrapped her arms around Kakashi's neck, nearly knocking Pakkun over along the way. She hugged him tighter than any embrace or chokehold he'd ever been in before.

"The invitation goes both ways," she murmured against his neck, her lips and her tears brushing against his skin.

He tried to hug her back, but the jutsu was complete, and before he knew it, he was standing in the midst of his eight ninken, chakra flowing through him, a feeling he'd missed this past week, but feeling like he'd give it all up in a heartbeat, just to see her again.

When Ino had planned her trip with Sai, Sakura had been excited to spend the summer months alone; the whole apartment to herself, no forced social interactions, unwelcome guests, misplaced thongs, or blonde hair clogging up the shower drain.

Now, after just two weeks, she couldn't wait for her friend to come home. She would unclog ten thousand shower drains if it meant she didn't have to steep in her Kakashi-induced melancholy for another minute.

In an attempt to escape her own thoughts, she headed to Naruto's. On the car ride over, a song Sakura loved but hardly knew the lyrics to came over the radio, and she sang along so loudly, drivers in the cars beside her stared at her in shock. When she pulled into Naruto's driveway, she was in shambles.

"Sakura, what's wrong?!" he cried, hugging her tight, the familiar and strangely comforting scent of instant ramen washing over her.

"He left— and then the radio —and-and-and—and I can't stop snoring," she blubbered into his shirt. He had no idea what she was talking about but he still hugged her until she felt better.

Kakashi waited patiently in front of the Hokage's desk as the Godaime reviewed his mission scroll. It had taken him time to make it back to Konoha from the summoning realm, during which time he had endured endless questions from his ninken about his inability to channel chakra, and the nice smell he suddenly had. He took offense to both of those topics; the first, because it wasn't his fault he'd been compromised by dimensional travel, and the second because they had very clearly insinuated that his own smell was not nearly as pleasant.

He left out those details, among others from his time in the other world, saving both his pride, and the pink-haired, one-woman-battalion for himself. Still, the Godaime seemed unconvinced.

"How did the summoning contract work without your chakra?" she asked, though Kakashi got the distinct impression that wasn't her real question.

"The chakra in the contract couldn't be neutralized by dimensional travel. I suppose it's not as changeable as flowing chakra," he offered, knowing that she cared little to hear about his theories on stagnant chakra versus flowing, and the intricacies of summons and their chakra.

"Hm," she huffed. "And this helpful stranger?" There it is, he thought, keeping the visible portion of his face carefully neutral as her blonde eyebrow arched high on her forehead.

"A good Samaritan," Kakashi dismissed. "They kept me from sleeping on the street, taught me a few things about the world I'd landed in, that sort of thing."

"I see. And how did you come across such a generous, hospitable person?" she pressed, her lips now tilting in a knowing smirk.

"I was fortunate enough to have landed in their company when I was sent through the portal," he said with a carefully crafted shrug of nonchalance.

"You. Fortunate," she said in disbelief. He shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. "Listen, brat, I know there's something amiss here."

"I don't know what you're referring to."

"Anytime Hatake Kakashi hands in a report more than three sentences long, there's something wrong," she said, crossing her arms over her chest sternly and leaning back in her chair to observe him coolly. "So, spill."

"There's nothing to tell. I met a woman, she helped me out, I came home."

"Some random woman welcomed you into her home?"

"Well, actually she almost killed me first, but yes."

"A random, civilian woman almost killed you, and then welcomed you into her home," Tsunade repeated, doubt colouring her words.

"Yes. With something called a taser. She used it on me in the shower."

He knew he fucked up immediately when Tsunade's frown switched to a cocky smile in the span of a single heartbeat.

She didn't need his cooperation to draw her own conclusions. In all honesty, every assumption she made was rooted in some truth, with the exception of a few salacious details. Kakashi wasn't sure how pleased she would be to hear about his week-long stint of cuddling and poking the bear that was Haruno Sakura.

But, as someone who had always considered himself a master of disguising his feelings, Tsunade seemed to see right through his mask, proverbial and literal.

"You know, you are considered officially lost in action. You've been gone for nearly a month, Kakashi."

"I hope that doesn't affect my pay," he sighed.

"Well," she said, leaning back so far in her chair he worried she might fall over. Maybe he hoped for it a little bit, too. "I could pay you, but I'm not sure how much good it will do you. I have a feeling you won't be needing it."

"Hokage-sama?" he asked, warily staring at the scroll she pushed toward him.

He could have sworn he almost saw a sad smile flit across her face before that stern, annoyed expression slid easily back into place.

"You are dismissed," she said, not without meaning.

It still felt weird, climbing into her shower. She half expected him to be there some days. Other days, she would hold her breath as she turned the water on, waiting for him to poof into existence under the showerhead as he had the first time. He never did.

She had tried to go out on a few dates (per Ino's instructions), but it was hard to find a rebound for someone that was quite literally unlike anyone else she'd ever met before, and anyone she would ever come to meet. Everyone just seemed a little too boring, or laughed too loudly, or didn't quite understand her sense of humour.

At least she had Ino to distract her now. Pulling up to Naruto's house to cry on his shoulder while his four roommates watched her parade through their home to commandeer their couch for her pity session was getting embarrassing. Ino was less forgiving than Naruto, but sometimes a girl really needed to hear "get your shit together, Forehead", and no one delivered tough love the way Ino did.

"Don't cry in there for forty minutes, Forehead! I'm meeting Sai later," Ino called into the washroom as Sakura shrugged out of her robe.

And sometimes her tough love was a little too tough.

Sakura forced her lip to stop quivering as she stepped into the shower, focusing instead on how cold the tiles were beneath her feet, and how, once she was out of school and a successful surgeon, she would spring for heated floors.

She sighed happily, the water getting hotter as it poured down on her, warming her cold toes, and imagining what other day-to-day luxuries she would one day enjoy (heated towel racks!). She was so enthused by her thoughts that she entirely missed the quiet pop behind her. She did eventually notice the woodsy, warm smell that had not been there before.

She gave an experimental sniff. It was nice, but it was definitely not anything she or Ino owned. She gave one more sniff. It was sort of familiar.

Something grazed her hip and she high-tailed it the hell out of there, nearly concussing herself on the sink as she tripped on her way out. The taser was in her hand and pointed before she could think twice.

"I thought the invitation was open," he joked, his weird clothes getting soaked through, not that he seemed to care. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"How—? What—?" she asked, completely at a loss, and mildly concerned that she may have been hallucinating. He just laughed and leaned down to her, half in the shower, half out, but she didn't particularly care that he was dripping all over her fluffy mat because his lips were sealing against hers. Warm, and soft, and there. He was really there, and this time she would absolutely not let him leave.

He cupped her face and brought her closer until she was standing fully against him. With a start, she realized how absolutely butt-naked she was.

And then promptly pulled the trigger on the taser she'd forgotten she was holding.

She watched in horror as Kakashi hit the floor, groaning in pain as the water rained down on him.

"Oh my god! Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! INOOO!"

Ino burst into the bathroom in a panic, freezing when she saw the once-again unconscious man in the shower.

"Seriously? Again?!"