"I'm very disappointed in you," Kakashi said, his eyes narrowed angrily, their expression hard and unyielding.

"I'm so sorry, Sensei," Sakura said, letting her head hang down with a pout. "I will do better in the future."

"Your sorries won't help in this situation," he said, taking off his gloves, one finger at the time, then throwing them on the desk. "Konoha is in danger because of you."

"Oh no," she said, her voice quivering, "what can I do to make it up to you?"

"Nothing," he said coldly, "but I'm sure a good spanking will help you remember your faults in the future."

"Yes, Sensei," she said, wringing her hands, "but please don't hit me too hard?"

"I will hit as long and as hard as necessary," he said and got up brusquely, looking scary and merciless.

She wasn't wearing much to begin with, actually, she was in underwear, very sexy underwear and willingly bent over the desk, naked tushy in the air.

Thud.

The metal plate on Kakashi's glove stung a little and she gasped.

Thud.

"Hit me harder, please," she begged, writhing lustily.

"No," he said.

Thud.

She wanted more. He knew it. That's why he merely brushed her skin.

Thud. And… THUD.

"Ouuuuu!" she howled, her sensitive skin on fire where his hand had come down with force.

It came down again, this time to knead first her left, then her right butt cheek. She turned so wet she was basically dripping, anticipating the moment his hand would go on to explore other regions of her.

"I'm buuuuurning," she said, "please, Sensei!"

"But I told you I'm angry with you," he said by her ear, his hot breath giving her goosebumps that travelled down the entire length of her body and curled her toes.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she whined, "please take me, please take me hard!"

"No," he said huskily, "I'm stronger than this."

Thud.

Hard enough to sting, too soft to bring pleasure.

"Please…"

"Sakura? Bist Du wach? Darf ich hereinkommen?"

Sakura blinked. What the…

Oh... SHIT.

For a moment, she was completely disoriented, thinking she was still in Micha's home country, still at the medical facility there, but no, this was Konoha, this was her bunk bed in the hospital, and she was… wet. Thoroughly wet. And throbbing with the need for release.

Oh. My. Gooooood.

Sakura muffled her embarrassed squeal with her pillow. Never in her life had she had such a cringeworthy dream. This was lower than the lowest porn, not that she had much experience but… it certainly couldn't get any worse! She had worn degrading lingerie! The kind she had once owned but had thrown away after several years of looking at it and feeling embarrassed at the thought of ever putting it on for Sasuke.

"I need a minute," she said, her voice high and screechy.

Fuck.

What time was it? She rolled out of bed, slipped into her slippers and opened the door a crack.

"What were you doing?" Micha asked her with interest, leaning forward a little. He was dressed to go outside. Or had he come from outside? There were wet patches on his coat.

"I had… a dream," she admitted, blushing deeply. Oh god, she wanted to die. Sensei? She had called him Sensei? How kinky was that…

Micha grinned. "I see. In my hometown, we say that the first dream you have after coming home from a long journey comes true."

Sakura sucked in breath. Oh no - her treacherous body said 'oh yes'. Had she no dignity?

"Not that I believe in such things," Micha added, his grin broadening, "I'm a man of science."

"So, why are you here?" Sakura asked, trying a neutral, business-like voice, hoping he'd quickly forget about this.

"I'm here to fetch you for a meeting," he said.

"A meeting?" Sakura racked her brain, but she was pretty certain there was nothing scheduled for today.

"Yes, at 7am."

"Huh?"

Sakura craned her neck to see his wrist for the watch he was wearing, and he happily put it under her face.

"It's now 6.30am."

Sakura groaned.

"Gives you a bit of time to dress properly and get your hair in order," he still grinned. "If we walk briskly, it's not more than fifteen minutes."

"Micha…," something was dawning on her. "Are you saying we have a meeting with the Hokage?!"

"Ho-ka-ge," Micha repeated happily, "that's the title, right? I know his name is Ka-ka-shi. I even know how to write it!"

He wrote the letters into the air with his fingers.

For a short moment, Sakura felt like she had skipped in time, but no… she remembered she had crashed here last night - after talking to Rin for over an hour, too exhausted to make even just one more step.

"Did you sleep here at the hospital too?" she asked Micha and opened the door more widely. Clothes? Still none. Just Rin's. At least she had clean underwear in her backpack.

"No," Micha said, "Ka-ka-shi showed me a place to stay."

"You slept at the Hokage Tower!?" Sakura swiveled around.

"Is that the name of that place? It's very fancy. I'm not quite sure whether he meant to say it's just for one night or…?"

"No, he means you to stay there permanently," she said. And now she was curious. "So… how…"

"Well," Micha said happily, "you disappeared. He looked for you for a bit and was very disappointed when he didn't find you. I saw that he was in pain and gave him something against it. He made it clear to me that I should follow him and so I did. He showed me a few things here in Ko-no-ha and then he took me to the place he lives. We had drinks, he told me his name and… ohhh, there was a dog who talked! Or no… that's impossible...?"

This was the longest Sakura had ever heard Micha speak. His enthusiasm was strangely endearing.

"No," she said, "was it a…," she didn't know the name for pug, "a small dog with a deep voice?"

"Yes!" Micha said. "There is such a thing?!"

"There are quite a few more, they're Kakashi's ninken," she said, "his pack. They have a contract with him and help him when he needs them."

"Extraordinary!" Micha exclaimed. "I thought I got too drunk and hallucinated!"

"You…," Sakura swallowed, "drank with him?"

"Yes," Micha nodded, "something translucent but strong."

Sakura shook her head as she disappeared into the tiny bathroom. Sake. Kakashi had served Micha Sake?

"Oh," Micha's muffled voice drifted into the bathroom. "Your parents were here."

"What?! How do you know who…"

"Kakashi made a drawing to explain. Two people - your parents - at the top, then a line and you underneath. It was a very cute drawing."

"Why didn't you wake me?"

"They left after talking to Kakashi. They looked very happy!"

"I have to go see them today," Sakura murmured, yes, she could imagine how happy they were to get a chance to talk to the Hokage in person… and she had to see Sarada! And Ino… she quickly brushed her teeth, putting all her tasks onto a mental to-do list, washed herself, put on Rin's ill-fitting clothes, and then stepped outside. Micha was leaning against the wall, his hands in his pockets.

"He's very nice," Micha smiled. "Is it the same here as it is back home, I wonder? When you drink together, you're friends?"

Sakura grabbed a coat - it was Kakashi's. Kakashi, Kakashi, Kakashi. There wa no escaping him, was there.

"He's the boss of the entire village," Sakura said moodily, closing the door to her little on-call room after ushering Micha out, "I'm not sure he has time for friends."

"Is that why you carry a picture of him around but pretend you hate him?" Micha grinned again.

"Well," she sighed. "It's complicated."

"It always is until it isn't," Micha offered his profound wisdom as they walked into the cold.

###

It was still dark outside. Never had she been in the Hokage's office this early and it was just too strange that it was Kakashi who had called them here at this hour. Kakashi who used to tell them to convene at "approximately 9 am" in their Team 7 days and had then arrived one to two hours late? At least the walk through the icy cold had purged her body of lustfulness, all her limbs and her womanly parts were frozen solid. She was in no danger anymore.

The office smelled like him though. A lot. Mandarin oranges with a hint of freshly mown grass - and pine? It was probably safer if she breathed through her mouth.

"I know I can trust you. That's why I want you to know that there are things happening in the foreground and there are things happening in the background."

Kakashi waited patiently until she had translated everything for Micha.

"I will make sure you also know about the things in the background from now on, like the rest of a select group of people," Kakashi continued. Then he pressed his eyes shut and blinked.

Was he that tired? Sakura squinted at him. It wasn't like he ever listened to advice anyway, so there was no point in worrying. She would try and prevent herself from doing so.

"He is trying to mislead certain people?" Micha wanted clarification. "Doing one thing but really doing another?"

"Yes," Sakura nodded. "Exactly. The act is for the Noharas. Rin's one of them, but Kakashi has a different relationship to her."

"Ah, that lady," Micha said, scratching his chin.

"We will meet Kabuto later," Kakashi let them know, "I must certainly not tell you that he is not someone we can trust, right?"

"And yet you want him to be the one in charge of the tests?" Sakura asked. How did that make sense?

"Yes," Kakashi said. "Not only does he have access to Danzo's and Orochimaru's labs and knowledge, he is also the one who developed the ability to create a blood seal. If I do not involve him, it'll raise suspicion. Besides, he has a massive crush on Rin."

"Blood seal?" Micha asked puzzled.

"I might be translating it wrong," Sakura said. A massive crush on Rin? What did that mean? "There is a person here who did all the experiments and managed to transfer the Uchiha bloodline trait into another person."

"You mean into Ka-kashi?"

Kakashi's eyes crinkled when Micha said his name and he lifted his thumb.

"Can you show him the seal?" Sakura asked. She was slightly irritated about this new boys' club that had formed so quickly while she had slept. It was very typical male behavior, they bonded over nothing. She already knew that Micha would take Kakashi's side in the future even if he shouldn't and that she would be the one left out.

Kakashi got up and walked around the desk, unbuttoning his shirt. Sakura swallowed. Oh great. Not the time to remember a certain dream… Kakashi shrugged out of one sleeve and presented the seal to them.

He had been working out, hadn't he, Sakura couldn't help but notice when she saw his biceps like this. She swallowed hard again. Why did he have to look so good?

Micha stepped closer and peered at the tattoo.

"It contains blood?"

"Yes," Sakura said, resisting the urge to step closer too. "When it's released, the Uchiha eyes in Kakashi's head will be switched on."

She translated what the trigger was - Kakashi said pills and in a few instances of high duress, no further stimuli had been necessary. Kakashi had to take a set of other pills every week so that the Uchiha blood didn't kill him since it was almost like poison to his body. The use of the Uchiha eyes was what triggered amnesia, which they believed was a key trait of the Uchiha madness, though it was still unclear how everything was connected.

Kakashi shrugged back into his shirt and buttoned it up after she was done.

"The one you'll do the tests on won't be Sasuke."

"What?! Why?"

"Cause I say so. It'll be me," Kakashi sat back down. "Sasuke has a family, I don't. And no," he lifted his hand, "I will not change my mind, don't even try to convince me otherwise."

"What did he say?" Micha demanded to know when Sakura didn't translate, since she was too busy fuming helplessly.

"He wants us to test the cure on him."

"That's not such a bad idea," Micha mused, "since he has only a fraction of the blood in comparison to the other man we can use lower quantities of the serum."

And there it was already. Micha took Kakashi's side because he considered him "a friend" after drinking with him once. Sakura felt her mood taking a nosedive.

"He's very important for the village," Sakura said darkly. "I'm strictly against it!"

"Ah, don't you worry," Micha said and patted her head, "I'll take good care of him. I'll set up the lab as soon as I have access."

"I will let you know if the autopsy of the fallen warriors reveals anything interesting," Kakashi added.

"You saw the Oni masks, didn't you?" Sakura blurted out. Okay, she was very angry, maybe had never stopped being angry since getting back. The thing was, she had no problem understanding that he needed to fool the Noharas by playing nice when he was preparing something entirely different behind their backs. But she had a big problem understanding why he had not once mentioned what was too obvious: that Rin was probably not exactly as innocent and weak as she liked to pretend.

"I did," Kakashi said simply.

"You know whom we saw with Oni masked soldiers, right?! Or have you forgotten that too."

His face darkened. "Careful, Sakura."

"Why are you raising your voice?" Micha asked her.

"He is protecting Rin," Sakura told him angrily, "how can he be so blind? Something is extremely dodgy about her, he has to know!"

"Don't talk to him about Rin without telling me what you are saying," Kakashi said with narrowed eyes. "It's rude."

"I said you're protecting Rin, that you're blind and that something is extremely dodgy about her!"

"Then you should have looked more closely without being blind yourself," Kakashi coldly said. "You can leave, we're done."

"You made him angry," Micha observed on their way out.

"I don't give a shit," Sakura snapped. "What do I care whom he gets married to but he cannot be this biased about it! He does everything for the good of the village? I don't think so!"

"Sakura!" Kakashi's voice called out after them and she stopped at the door, angrily pressing her lips together.

"I'm going to my nice apartment for a nap," Micha informed her and waved at her with a cheeky grin, "see you later, don't fight! There's better ways to release tension."

Oh please.

Sakura turned around on her heel and stomped back in. "What now? A spanking?" she muttered angrily to herself.

"I remembered there's something el…," Kakashi began, but Sakura interrupted him brusquely. "I want to give these clothes back," she informed him resolutely, pointing at herself.

"Okay?" Kakashi said, sounding rather surprised, putting the file he had taken from a pile back.

"I need my other clothes back!" Sakura added stubbornly.

"Right now?" Kakashi asked puzzled and checked his wristwatch.

"Yes, right now," Sakura claimed. Okay, she realized she was being very immature. But Kakashi obviously possessed a special ability to press her PMS-buttons. And her premenstrual mood swings had gotten so much worse since she had stopped taking contraceptives even without him pressing anything, it wasn't funny.

"Alright," he said. "If you insist. Let's go upstairs."

He came around the desk and silently took the lead, not once checking whether she was following him. Well, she did follow, though she was already feeling sorry for being so childish. It was clear he had better things to do then cater to her strange moods.

Kakashi opened the door to the Hokage residence, stepped inside and then stood still, facing her as he held the door open.

"Did I mistreat you in any way?" he asked bluntly. "When we had the… affair," he added.

"Of course not," she murmured, feeling herself blush.

"Are you being truthful?" he asked. "Because it's pretty obvious that you are keeping something important from me. I just want to… I don't want it to be awkward between us. Be assured I have no lingering… I do not… I will not in any way inconvenience you, your family and your work."

Oh yeah, she had heard him say something like that before. She didn't need to hear it a third time, she got it.

"It's all good," she lied stubbornly.

"Then why are you so angry with me?" he asked. "I don't understand."

Three things went through her head at that moment. One, that she was surprised and then again wasn't that he was a guy who took a woman's feelings seriously and was ready to discuss them. Two, it was relatively simple, even if it wasn't at all: She couldn't deal with the fact that he had moved on and was about to marry Rin. All that stuff she had said to him in the forest while holding his injured body… lies. The reason for her immature petulance was extreme jealousy and she'd rather die than admit this to him. Three, that he apparently still had not gotten back his memories - and that she had to make sure it stayed that way.

Noble idiocy was the trope she hated the most in romance stories, but in this case, it was absolutely necessary that things remained exactly as they were. Him, the busy Hokage with no memories of their passionate affair and her the silent damsel, who knew what they had lost but would suffer quietly and by herself.

The simple truth was, she was head over heels in love with him.

His very presence before her made her light-headed, his scent, the hint of the warmth from his body even though he stood several steps away from her, the way his eyes searched her face for an answer she was not going to give him, his unruly hair that would always be a reminder of what kind of person he could be, even when he chose to sacrifice his nights and his sleep in the service of the village.

She could not be in his way, she could not be needy, she could not expect to rekindle the flame. No more sparks, no more fire, that's what she had to assure because anything else was simply too destructive.

"I'm angry because…," she began haltingly because he was still waiting for her answer, his dark eyes questioning and earnest, "... because you are the worst patient I've ever had! You have no regard for my profession and my expertise!"

"Oh," he said and frowned, then nodded. "Yes, I can understand. I should have stayed at the hospital after getting injured."

"Yes!" she added, feeling relief that she had found such a good answer, "and you should sleep at night. Don't you know how unhealthy it is not to?"

"Yeah, I know," he murmured and walked into the apartment. "It's warmer this morning," he informed her, "I left the heating on."

"And you should eat proper food," she continued chiding him, not letting him change the topic, yet walking to the bookshelf in an attempt to bring some distance between him and her. "A healthy, balanced diet. I will instruct Shizune, she can…"

"Oh no," Kakashi interrupted her quickly, "don't involve Shizune. She's already working far too much for me. I'll take care of it myself."

Sakura lifted her eyebrows at him.

"I promise, okay?" he said and walked to the bathroom quickly.

Don't promise me anything you cannot keep, she thought, and turned around to study the title of the books once more. It had occurred to her yesterday that some might contain useful knowledge about how to run a hospital. She took one with the title 'The Art of Leadership' out and started thumbing through it.

"Hm, they're gone," Kakashi said, stepping from the bathroom. "Someone must have taken them out of the washbasket to do laundry. I'm sorry, I can't give them back right away."

"Oh," Sakura said and it took her a few seconds to understand what he was referring to. The clothes. She was here because she had said she wanted her clothes back. Those completely inappropriate clothes.

He looked at the book in her hand.

"Are you interested in that? Take it. Anything from my shelf you feel is useful to you, take it!"

"O… okay," she said.

"You don't even need to give it back," he added and his eyes crinkled.

"Hm, that good?" a miracle that she was able to answer in such a light tone because thinking about what he looked like when he grinned made her heart flutter.

"You won't be able to stop until you've finished it," he said.

"Then I can't wait," she said and put the book under her arm. And now she'd leave and they wouldn't see each other for several days until the Rokudaime and the Head of Konoha's hospital needed to interact, like they would have to many times in the future. It would get easier of course because it simply couldn't get any worse than it was right now.

"I'll give you some of my clothes," Kakashi said into the slightly awkward silence between them, "follow me and have a look at what is on offer."

She was much too curious to refuse thought her legs felt a little like jelly when she stepped into his bedroom where he opened the large wardrobe.

If she had thought his office smelled like him then his bedroom was like a Kakashi scent factory. It was overwhelming. Quickly, she breathed through her mouth again, at the same time throwing furtive glances everywhere. There in the corner were the Icha Icha books! She knew them by their colorful covers and had wondered where they were. The Team 7 photo was by the bed as was his own team photo with Minato Sensei and the one with his parents. The bed was large, a double bed, and someone had made it, it was neat and wrinkle free. No pajamas visible.

And she wouldn't think of him in this bed with Rin. Nope. Wouldn't. Or… herself in this bed with him.

"Here," Kakashi said and pointed his fingers at the meager content of the wardrobe. "A tracksuit maybe?"

"That… that should do," she agreed and stepped towards him, her heart beating in her throat because it brought them closer. Too close.

"The grey one?" he asked and took it out.

"Sure," she said and grabbed it from him, their fingers brushing against each other, making her crisis a thousand times bigger than it already was. She froze completely and just stood there like the biggest dummy, his clothes in her outstretched hand.

"I looked for you last night," Kakashi said quietly, his eyes on her face.

"Oh… yeah?" she swallowed. She wanted to kiss him so much. For eight months, this need had grown and now it was very hard to control it.

"Yes, because I wanted…"

Hasty footsteps at the front door made him look up and fall quiet.

"Sensei? Are you up here?"

Saved from making a total fool of herself by Kaeru. She had never been gladder to see his sulking face than now.

"What is she doing here?" he frowned at them as they came walking out of Kakashi's bedroom.

"Do you have my notebook?" Kakashi asked sharply.

"Your… oh! Your notebook! I put it back yesterday already."

"No, you didn't," Kakashi frowned.

"I did," Kaeru said and walked over to the bookshelf. "I put it in here. See?" he tapped against a black book amongst all the others. "It won't attract attention here."

Kakashi walked over and tilted his head. "What a relief. I thought someone had stolen it."

"Sensei, you have a meeting with the Anbu commanders, have you forgotten? They're waiting," Kaeru said and threw Sakura a scathing look like it was all her fault.

"Is it eight already?" Kakashi murmured. He looked at her. "It seems I need to go. Just take your time when you change. I see you around."

Anything from my shelf you feel is useful to you, take it! he had said, right?

She wouldn't read it, it was private. But she would hide it - forgetting slowly what they had lost until it didn't matter anymore.