Disclaimer: I own nothing of Naruto

Chapter 4: Some Sparring Practice

Kakashi nearly had to strain to hear the whispered response of his former student. He watched as she took a defensive stance, noting that she didn't pull out any sort of weapon. He remained, slouching and watching her lazily, as he reached with his left hand and pulled up his forehead protector. The exposed red eye watched Sakura carefully as she raised an eyebrow from across the training field. She smirked as she watched him return his hand to his pocket.

"Good. I was afraid you might be tempted to hold back. Maybe pull out your illicit reading material."

"Ah, well I'm waiting on the new edition to come out."

Sakura suddenly disappeared from the spot, his sharingan eye seeing her dart to the left. Her speed had increased greatly, he could only guess that she was most likely just as fast as he was, if not faster. Had he not possessed the sharingan, he wouldn't have caught her direction at all. He felt her chakra behind him and quickly turned to face her, just as her left foot came up to meet his face. He blocked the taijutsu easily and responded with a hit towards her abdomen which she blocked with one hand, performing seals with the other.

"One handed seals? When did she pick that up?" Kakashi thought to himself. His sharingan caught what she intended to do before the words came out of her mouth, and he prepared to be attacked on all sides.

"Kage Bunshin no Justu!"

He was surrounded by 3 other pink haired shinobi now, but instead of attacking him immediately, they stood, waiting for his attack against them. He turned to the real Sakura and commented,

"Wanting to keep it taijutsu?"

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Sakura just stared back stoically at her former sensei, surrounded by her shadow clones. Of course she intended to keep the battle taijutsu, her ninjutsu was not her best skills, and with the Sharingan, He would obviously have the immediate advantage with genjutsu. However there was an element to her taijutsu fighting style that she was positive he would not expect her to use.

"Of course, Kakashi." As she affirmed his assumption, she channeled chakra to her hands and watched them glow blue with a satisfactory look on her face. She glanced back up to Kakashi to see a look of understanding on his face.

"Ah, medical jutsu? Impressive. I knew you studied with Hokage-sama, but I didn't see this during Jounin testing."

"That's because at that point, I could only use them to heal tissue, not destroy it. Hokage-sama didn't offer to teach it to me till after I became ANBU, believing it was too high skilled and dangerous. Of course, by that time I had already started working out how to manage it on my own."

"Dangerous?"

She shrugged. "The channeling of the chakra has to be precise. Since you are attempting to destroy tissue with it, if it is not done properly, you will destroy the tissues of your own hands before you can even attempt to strike your opponent.

"But enough discussion of techniques, Kakashi. You wanted to fight." She lifted her hands, blue chakra coursing over them in a defensive stance once more and motioned to him with two fingers, the international sign for "Come and get it."

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Kakashi knew that clones were only there, circling him, to distract him from the real Sakura that stood about 7 feet away from him, hands glowing with the dangerous chakra flowing around them. However, he would have to get rid of the annoyances before he could focus on the more dangerous med-nin in front of him. Perhaps they sensed him formulating a plan, because suddenly all the cloned Sakura's ran toward him at top speed. He hurriedly flew through the hand symbols and created a match for each clone to fight with before advancing on the blue handed Sakura, who had a look of cold detachment on her face, almost a look of disinterest, as if she were fighting some Genin and was already bored with the combat. His mind barely registered the several small pops of destroyed clones as he advanced on her.

He ran straight towards her, not stopping or slowing in any way, his hands up in a semi defensive position. She delivered a tissue-tearing blow to the form in front of her, a look of suspicion on her face as she noticed his lack of defense. As the blow landed on his body he dissolved into…

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"Leaves?" Sakura calmed her mind and tried to sense his chakra from around the area, replacing the slightly confused look on her face with the previous mask of disinterest. She stretched her senses out, feeling for any disturbance in the air, closing her eyes serenely, as if lying down to sleep. Suddenly, she heard a whispered voice, sounding as if it were coming from right behind her.

"You look bored, Sakura, by the look on your face. Or should I say the mask on your face?"

"I copied it from you." She replied harshly, not bothering to turn around to where the supposed voice was coming from. She still could not sense his chakra anywhere in the near vicinity. He was most likely off somewhere in the distance using a voice projection jutsu to try and get her to turn around, while he most likely came up on her from the direction she would have to turn her back on. She would not be fooled by such a simple plan. Rather than turning around confused to hunt the whispered voice, she kept up her hunt for a trace of his chakra. Suddenly she felt a sharp prick on her neck, as a gloved hand held a kunai up to her throat, effectively trapping her momentarily.

"Never doubt your enemy's ability to mask their chakra from you."

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Kakashi was surprised, after seeing the skill level she had demonstrated that she was now caught by a mere chakra-masking jutsu. She just stood in front of him, her body rigid, and he knew that if he were to turn her around to face him he would see the same indifferent mask on her face. She had become quite good at masking herself, although he had only observed her a short time and had already caused her to have to check her emotions a few times, while he lazily watched her face flicker the barest trace of emotion before it was replaced by a shield that was just as effective as her ANBU mask. Suddenly an idea came to him of what he could do that he knew would knock the mask of for at least a few moments. Kakashi leaned back down against the much shorter woman and put his lips against her ear. He felt her body tense up even more as she could feel his breath whisper through her hair, brushing softly across her ear.

"I win."

He was going to pull the kunai away when Sakura disappeared and left in her wake dozens of cherry blossoms floating in the breeze. He saw her reappear, bending over across the training field from him to pick up a katana, which she strapped to her back, before turning around and walking off in the opposite direction, back toward the streets of Konoha.

"My mask of indifference, my dissolving into leaves, or in your case blossoms, trick. My my, Sakura. They should call you the copy ninja."

"I don't have time for this anymore." She tossed calmly back over her shoulder as she walked slowly back toward her apartment.

He thought momentarily to leave her alone and perhaps seek her out later, but decided that since, in a way, this was a mission, he should treat it with the utmost of importance until he was done with his "rest". His mind made up, he turned and walked off of the training field, following her from a distance. Making sure to stay back far enough to where she probably wouldn't sense that she was being followed at all. He knew now, after judging both her new found coldness and her fighting skills that she was very much a changed person, and it would be unwise to underestimate her abilities.

Kakashi rounded a corner of the street to see the kunoichi enter her apartment building, presumably to shower and change after a day of training. As he lounged back on a park bench in front of his own apartment complex, he decided to give her a half hour. After that he would assume that she wasn't coming back out for the evening and he would go in after her.

The Sakura he had just interacted with disturbed him, she wasn't the 12 year old Genin that he had trained so long ago, she didn't even resemble the Chuunin he had watched fight her way to the title of Jounin with pride. However, he had seen glimpses of that bright eyed and cheerful, caring girl, something apparently no one else had seen since the death of her parents. Perhaps, because of his past mentor-student relationship with her, he stood a chance of breaking through to that girl that she had locked away. In a way, Sakura reminded him of himself, and how he had locked the emotional side of himself away after the suicide of his father, preferring to keep cool detachment in missions and ridiculing those who expressed their emotions. But he had found a way to cope, learning that particular lesson from Obito and Rin, and they had helped to break through his own cold exterior. Though he still preferred to mask his emotions, he doesn't do it to the extreme of the emotionally scarred hunter-nin up in her apartment. The once light filled sea green eyes of Sakura were now dull and lifeless.

He sighed heavily, thinking 3 days wasn't enough to accomplish this kind of mission. She had experienced too much loss and emotional hell in too short of a period of time. He reached into a pocket of his green vest and pulled out a copy of Icha Icha Paradise and settled down to wait another 25 minutes.

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Sakura unstrapped her katana and laid it carefully on a table near the door of her apartment, while at the same time stepping out of her sandals. She hadn't trained to her satisfaction this afternoon, due mainly to the interruption by Kakashi. She figured she'd come in quick for a shower and then run some errands. If she wasn't allowed to take missions for 3 days, she would need to stock up her apartment. Her cupboards were bare, save for a container of cup ramen that had been there for at least a year. Her refrigerator was also empty except for a bottle of red wine she had received as a gift for her 20th birthday. Sakura decided to head up to the market after her shower to purchase some non perishable items that were edible. She needed food for the next few days, but didn't want to overstock with things that could perish, as she definitely planned to be back on missions as soon as this forced vacation was over and done with.

Sakura pulled the ill fitting shirt off over her head as she walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. She slid the rest of her clothes off and looked at her body in the full length mirror of her bathroom. Her body, traced with the scars of refusing to allow treatment on herself, was overly thin and bony. Her hip bones jutted out against her skin, and she could count every rib of her torso. She was skin and bones and muscle. Of course, she wasn't anorexic or anything. She ate enough to keep up her strength on missions, but sometimes, when caught up in the chase of a missing-nin, she would forget to eat, relying on her own increased stamina and adrenaline to last through lengthy combat. She eyed the crumpled pile of clothing on the floor warily. She would need to go pick up some new clothing while she was out. The clothing that used to fit her naturally curvaceous frame was now way too big. She thought back to Kakashi's statement on her current size. Not that he could talk much, he was also thin.

The thought of Kakashi reminded her of the agreement from the training ground. Technically, by walking away from the fight, she forfeited, meaning he had won the battle. Which means she owed him lunch. Actually, she was surprised that he hadn't followed her back from the training grounds, the Kakashi she knew would most likely be relentless in the retrieval of something that he had won. She sighed and stepped into the shower. She most likely would see him around again, then she could go have ramen with him or something and then he could leave her alone. She knew the Hokage had sent him to try and talk to her, and maybe lunch with him would satisfy the ninja in the mission. Although, she had to admit, it was rather nice to see Kakashi. He reminded her of early Genin days, when it was her, Naruto and Sasuke…She had been weaker than, but she had been content. Now she had strength, she was one of the top ANBU in Konaha. She had finally mastered the one shinobi rule that she had lacked discipline over when she was a Genin and Chuunin. The one rule, that was the key to her becoming the best ninja she could be. She had learned to master her emotions, to sheathe them like her katana and tuck them away from her conscious thought.

Sakura stepped out of the shower and started drying herself off, wrapping a towel around her long pink tresses and one around her waist, she opened the bathroom door to get dressed to go shopping. As she looked out from the steamy bathroom however, her jaw dropped down in shock.

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Kakashi glanced up to the sky. Sakura's 30 minutes were up. He carefully closed Icha Icha Paradise and slid it back into a pocket of his green vest. He crossed the street to the pink haired ninja's apartment building and quickly climbed up the stairs to her floor, using the position of her bedroom window to guide him to the correct apartment. As he approached the door he assumed to be hers, he masked his chakra once more then quietly tested the doorknob to see if it was locked. It wasn't. He quietly came in and shut the door softly behind him, before walking across the studio style apartment to recline back in a chair at the foot of her bed in front of one of the 3 windows that faced his apartment building.

Kakashi's chair faced the bathroom, where he knew her to be, based not only on her chakra or the sound of running water, but the fact that there was steam coming out from under the door. "Must take hot showers like me." He thought to himself as he heard the water shut off. He aited patiently, figuring it'd take her a few moments to put on clothes and then he would tell her he'd come to take her out to lunch, as was the deal. Maybe he could get her to talk to him over a bowl of ramen. He heard the doorknob turn on the bathroom door, and stared lazily across the room, ready to face the kunoichi. The door opened, and there stood Sakura.

In a towel that draped around her waist, hugging her hips and nothing else.

Kakashi had quite a clear picture of her naked upper body, riddled with scars, and her jaw dropping down in shock before he averted his gaze up to the ceiling, while she quickly pulled the towel up to cover her entire torso. He was trying to get the image out of his head, but it seemed Sakura's 20 year old naked upper body, complete with towel wrapped cutely around her hair, was burned into his brain. He groaned inwardly and managed to shake the image out of his head. She was his student, for Kami's sake. She was more than a decade younger than him. And she was currently glaring at him from across the room.

"What the hell are you doing in my apartment Kakashi?"

---Author's Note--- Yeah, sorry for the large gap in updating. Although I'm not going to college right now due to some family issues, I do have to maintain a job to maintain my residence, so I've been somewhat busy lately. I'm also looking for a beta for this story. My Boyfriend was going to do it, but we broke up and his time is now occupied by some form of extracurricular activity known as 'Mia'. So anyone interested, email me. I'm trying my best to keep people in charactor, but it would be a big help to have a second opinion on the matter.

Thanks bunches for reading, and remember to drop a little contribution in the review box!

-realta