And now we have chapter 1 of my little story.
Please remember that I don't own Naruto. This is at the very least slightly AU for the reasons I said at the beginning of the prologue.
Let's get on with the story. :-)
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Chapter 1
Sakura peeked nervously out of the first floor window of the medical complex into the late evening outside and frowned. He was there again, waiting for her to get out from her studies and work. He thought he was being inconspicuous, but to her well-trained senses he could not have been more obvious if he'd tried.
Ever since Sasuke had taken up with Ino a couple of years ago, Lee had taken it upon himself to "protect" Sakura. As if she needed protecting. She could look after herself!
Still, the green spandex clad Chuunin would not take no for an answer. In the beginning it was slightly flattering and amusing when she noticed him keeping watch over her, and the little presents and cards he left her seemed quite sweet, but he was now becoming more intrusive and annoying. She would be lying to herself if she did not admit that his increasing intensity scared her at least a little bit.
He was starting to approach her more often now, and he would sometimes even knock on her door to check if she was home. She was usually polite, but she had started to show him slight annoyance recently. The only time she got any real peace was when he was away on a mission, but then when he inevitably came back he seemed to get even more intense.
She sighed as she took the back stairs and sneaked out of the rear entrance. She knew that she would have to deal with him eventually as the subtle hints of annoyance were not working, but she really did not want to tonight. She was looking forward to getting back to her apartment, locking the door and drawing the curtains to avail herself of some much needed privacy. She had been putting off the inevitable confrontation for a long time now, but she was still faintly hoping that he would get a clue and move on to something, or someone else on his own.
As she was quickly making her way through the streets of Konoha, she spotted Kakashi sat slumped against a wall not far from the Jounin bar, obviously so drunk into insensibility that he'd tried to walk home, but not got very far. For a brief moment she considered walking straight on and ignoring him as she did not really like dealing with drunks, they were unpredictable at best. But her conscience wouldn't let her leave him. She would never forgive herself if something happened to him that she could have prevented. Besides, he was a team mate, and most of all, a friend.
She absently wondered where Gai had gone and whether he was any better off than Kakashi, but seeing as he was nowhere in sight she put that thought aside and concentrated on assisting the masked man.
Using her considerable strength, and noting the strong smell of alcohol, she lifted him in a fireman's carry and proceeded to make her way to where she knew his apartment was. It must have been quite a strange sight, the delicate looking pink haired young woman carrying the larger, silver haired man through the deserted streets.
"Phew, Kakashi-Sensei, you must have really been packing the drinks away," she muttered to herself as she neared her destination, thinking of how she had spotted him with Gai-Sensei in the bar a few hours earlier as she had stormed past on that stupid errand Tsunade-Sama had sent her on. She had never seen the Jounin this drunk before. Actually, she had never seen him drunk period! It was totally out of character. "I do hope you didn't do anything stupid…"
"Ah… Sakura," Kakashi mumbled in his drunken stupor, "Kawaii…"
"Now, now Kakashi-Sensei," Sakura huffed as she dragged him up the flight of steps that led to his front door, "that's just the drink talking." However she was blushing as she went and Inner Sakura was for once, speechless…did he just say I was cute?
She reached the front door of his apartment. "Now, how do I get in," she wondered. She was reluctant to search his pockets for the keys, but she could not leave him outside, and she really did not want to resort to taking him back to her own apartment. In a moment of inspiration she checked under the doormat… and found the spare key. She rolled her eyes at the stupidity of such an obvious hiding place.
Once inside she took him through to the bedroom, noting the sparseness of the apartment as she went, and the fact that it was fairly clean. She also noted with faint amusement the small bookcase filled with a collection of questionable novels in his bedroom. She supposed that everyone needed their little hobbies. She sat him carefully on the bed and removed his jacket before lying him down and removing his shoes.
She saw that he was holding what seemed to be a piece of paper in his hand, but he had it in quite a death grip and she could not get him to let it go. She tried to see what was written on it, but apart from a couple of sloppy looking characters in one corner she could not see anything. She shrugged to herself and decided to leave it. It was so dog-eared that he couldn't even get a paper cut from it.
As she removed his forehead-protector she considered taking a look under the mask, after all, she and her team mates had been trying to get a peek for years without any success. But after she thought about it for a moment, even though she could justify removing it for safety reasons she realized that it would be a cheap way to get a hollow victory, plus it would be a breach of trust. She ignored inner Sakura who was screaming for her to look and left it alone. She could remove it later, but only if she had to.
She applied a minor medical jutsu to help with the removal of the excessive amount of alcohol from his bloodstream, and then covered him with a blanket. She had to sit with him to make sure that he was going to be ok until it was safe for her to leave him, which would take several hours. After all, if he was sick whilst wearing that mask… well, it didn't really bear thinking about.
For those several hours she just sat by his bed and watched the gentle rise and fall of his chest, listening to his occasional drunken mumbling as he dreamed, totally mesmerized. She had no trouble admitting to herself that she liked him, and wished that he was more than just an occasional teacher and a friend, but she knew that he still saw her as a child and he seemed to have no interest in relationships of that sort with anybody in any case. She sighed to herself – a girl could dream, couldn't she?
When she was satisfied that he was recovered enough that it was safe to leave him, and it was clear that he was soon to awaken, she started to get ready to leave. She did not want to be there when he actually awoke, plus time was getting on and she would have to prepare for her work with Tsunade soon. She set a glass of water and 2 pills on the bedside table with a note:
ooooooooo
Take these pills and drink this when you wake up – they will help you feel better. Oh, and find a different place to keep your spare key! Anyone could have got in!
I've taken the spare key with me for now. I'll give it back to you later.
You really should look after yourself better, Kakashi-Sensei.
Sakura
ooooooooo
She had almost decided not to leave the pills and to let him suffer his way through the hangover that he would still have even though she had speeded his "recovery." But he had said she was cute, and even if it was just the drink talking it was nice to hear someone other than that idiot Lee saying such things.
She took a last look around to make sure that everything was fine, left his apartment and locked the door. Carefully looking around for any sign of Lee in the morning light, she made a dash back to her own apartment and locked the doors and hurriedly drew the curtains, sighing in relief.
Now it was not known by many, but after Sasuke had returned to Konoha he had asked Sakura out and she had turned him down, stating that she had her eye on someone else.
Naruto had then asked her out, thinking that it must be him that she liked, but he was disappointed when he got the same response. No matter how they tried, she would not give the information on who she liked, although she was adamant that it was not Lee, to their combined relief.
They tried all sorts of stupid things to get her to confess, which normally meant that Naruto pestered her and Sasuke just looked on and gave the occasional comment. This happened whenever Team 7 met up, which was usually once a week, barring missions or other circumstances. Kakashi would watch proceedings with an amused air, then go back to reading the latest Icha Icha novel and not get involved.
Eventually, as Sakura had hoped, both Sasuke and Naruto had grown tired of asking and had moved on to other things, although they usually asked her at least once when they met up. It was a kind of running joke, and Sakura took it in good spirits. She didn't mind too much as it was nice to see Sasuke with a sense of humor.
After a while, when Sasuke had satisfied the Hokage that he was loyal to Konoha, he was allowed to take the exam to be made Chuunin, which he passed. During the celebrations he asked Ino out, which had made her extremely happy. She rubbed Sakura's face in it for a while until it was clear that Sakura didn't care. Sakura would never tell Ino that Sasuke had asked her out first. That would not be fair to Sasuke who seemed to be fairly happy with the Yamanaka girl. Ino would not have taken it at all well if she felt that she was second best.
Well, they were happy for a short while anyway. After Ino got over actually having 'won' Sasuke, they grew apart and had since moved on.
Naruto had made Chuunin before Sasuke much to the dark haired boy's annoyance, and it was possible that he would soon be Jounin. He had stayed single for a while, but eventually he noticed the shy Hyuuga Hinata, and despite her father's initial protests (he came around when he was quietly and forcefully reminded by Tsunade that Naruto would one day be Hokage,) they had married a few weeks ago. They were very happy together, even though their personalities were so very contrasting.
Sakura pondered her "crush" as she washed her face and prepared for the day ahead. She was not sure it could be called a Crush anymore as she had been carrying it for many years now. It had developed over quite a while, although she had only really started to notice it towards the end of the period when Sasuke was with Orochimaru and Naruto was training with Jiraiya.
But last night he had called her cute!
Still, no need to get carried away, it was probably just the drink talking. Even so, it was a small ray of hope.
She thought about the spare key she had taken with her from his apartment. She hadn't really needed to take it with her, but it meant that she could check that he was ok when he came to retrieve it without having to chase him all over Konoha. It wasn't that she wanted to see him again, nope not at all…
She yawned widely as she set out for her day at work with Tsunade. She hadn't had any sleep last night, but what kind of ninja would she be if she could not cope with that?
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Kakashi read through the offending document one more time. He sighed with relief. At least it did not say that he had to sleep with Sakura. There was no way that he could destroy her honor over a stupid drunkard's bet. Besides, Sasuke and Naruto would kill him… and possibly the Hokage would too… well, they would try anyway. He would normally have smirked at that thought, but it was strangely unamusing in this situation.
This bet was dangerous ground for the copy ninja. He liked Sakura, but he had long since vowed that any relationship with the pink haired young woman, or any other woman for that matter, (hang on a minute – since when had he started thinking about Sakura as a woman?) would never develop beyond friendship. He was scarred from losing too many people close to him over the years, and he still felt that not getting too close to anyone was the only way to avoid that pain again. With this bet, there was a danger that his guard, if he let it down, could not be put back up. Still, he pondered, maybe it would be worth it…
He shook his head in denial and cursed himself for possibly the 100th time in the last 5 minutes. How on earth could he be so stupid? He was deluding himself as badly as Lee was; it had to be impossible for her to like him in that fashion anyway! Besides, he did NOT feel anything like that for her. He would not allow it… No way…
Finally he raised his eye and noticed the drink, pills and note left on his bedside table. He groaned as he read the note. Of all people, Sakura had brought him home. How could it get any worse? Judging by the temperature of the cool glass of water, it had not been long since she had left. It had probably been the barely audible snick of the door closing as she left that had woken him.
He sighed as he stood up and moved away from the bed. After he had put his copy of the "contract" in a safe place, he downed the pills with the water and headed for the shower to try to clear his head.
He would have to go to see Sakura and apologize. It wasn't that he wanted to see her… nope, not at all.
But first, a visit to Gai was in order…
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Authors Notes.
I gotta say that whenever I read a fic where a character is putting someone else to bed, I'm always amused when they think that the person being put to bed has to be completely undressed, or changed into sleepwear. I know it can be a convenient plot point, and it is sometimes amusing, but it is totally unnecessary. :-P Just so you know. :-P
This part originally contained chapter 2 as well, but Tomie thought it was too long so I split it. It was a good move as the length more closely matches the other chapters now.
Please remember, no flames. I'm writing this for fun. :-)
And once again, thanks to Tomie (TransientShia) for reading it and giving me the encouragement to carry on.
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