Chapter IX

"Ugh..." The unidentified gunman awoke to find that his vision had digressed into the second dimension as all he could see was a grid of white squares. Blinking several times, he tried to put his situation into perspective. The last thing he remembered was fighting a pink-haired woman with killer needles, and wherever he was, he found that whole body was immobile save his facial muscles and fingertips

He realized, as he was staring at the topside of a rather large chandelier, that he was somehow tied firmly to the ceiling.

Damn ninjas must have taken me hostage, the man immediately concluded, gritting his teeth and testing whatever bound him to the ceiling..

A door opened and a man with spiky blond hair sauntered in with a cup of coffee and a cheese danish.

The gunman continued to stare at his visitor, debating on his chances in escaping once he gained the attention of this stranger. He didn't look like a ninja and certainly did not act like one, seeing that the man choked on some bread crumbs and downed what seemed to be his scalding hot beverage.

After the blond man stopped coughing from his performance, his head snapped up to acknowledge his host and gave him a toothy grin.

"Guu-du mou-ni-ing!" No, the gunman thought. He's definitely not a ninja.

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The morning was quite uneventful as Sakura and Kakashi arose sleepily to the 8:30 alarm and attended to their morning duties in a daze. The intense summer heat did not set in this early in the morning, but the air was already warm and promised much humiduty.

Other than a muttered "good morning," both acted extremely accustomed to each other's presence by ignoring it. Both weaved around each other's paths with eyes half-closed and minds comparable to the undead.

However, their inattention to one another was banished once there was a knock on the door. Sakura immediately shoved Kakashi, who was emerging from the bathroom, back into the lavatory before rushing to the door.

She threw the door open where Sasuke stood at the entrance with a raised eyebrow.

"Good morning!" was Sakura's cheerful exclamation before there was a loud thud sounding from the bathroom.

"…" An awkward look momentary passed the kunoichi's face before she focused on her teammate's morning motive.

"What's up?"

"Do you know where Kakashi is? I haven't been able to find him all morning and I have no idea where his room is." Sakura's brain raced frantically through her limited morning vocabulary to find an excuse to delay any replies that would put the shinobi in the state she had witnessed at the party last night.

"I guess he'll join us for breakfast. I need to change!" Sakura clutched the hem of the bathrobe at her bosom, attesting to her lack of decency as she slammed the door in the Uchiha's face.

Sakura sure is chipper in the morning, Sasuke thought as he retreated down the hall.

Her spectator now absent, Sakura turned to see Kakashi coming out of the bathroom once again.

"That was uncalled for," he said as he reached for his shirt.

"So was our marriage," Sakura countered.

"Hai, hai." There was something odd about seeing Kakashi in a white T-shirt. Or was it because she had only seen him wearing dark clothing for six years minus two hours from since she had first met him?

Kakashi turned toward the window, his back facing the kunoichi. As he pulled off his shirt, she noticed something that had escaped her eyes last night and immediately appeared behind her leader, examining the man's back and holding the hem of his shirt over her head. Kakashi immediately threw his hands forward, catching himself on the window frame before he was knocked outside.

"Stand up straight," the medic commanded. Her patient obeyed wordlessly.

Amongst the maze of scars, Sakura found the wound he had received when Kakashi had shielded her from the rain of shuriken back at the inn. She leaned closer to examine the two-day-old injury and rested her right hand on Kakashi's shoulder to keep the shirt from falling into her view. Admittedly, she had postponed his check-up a bit too far, but fat chance she would confess that out loud.

Like most men, Kakashi never found the hospital to be the most inviting piece of architecture in Konohagure. He had never had a check-up for as long as he could remember; an intricate weave of scares verified his indifference to modern medicine.

"Alright, looks like it's healed enough. I can heal you completely now," Sakura diagnosed as she gathered chakra in her left hand.

"So how far are you in your training?" Seeing the pace she was healing a single wound gave him the impression that the time she had been a medic-nin was not very long.

"A few months shy of three years," Sakura replied but quickly continued.

"There's a lot of memorization and tests to complete before becoming a medic-nin. It's more studying than anything else in the first two years and the next few months are all testing."

"How many months?"

"Five." No wonder there seemed to be a shortage of certified medic-nins lately. Tsunade had created another level in the Inferno for potential medics.

"All the senpai's said that the physical examination was added and the program really got tougher since Tsunade-sama became Hokage."

Sakura shifted her attention to the next gash. This one had not been healing as quickly, but it was still no problem.

"Knowledge comes before field experience."

Kakashi mused on this new perspective on Sakura's career choice. On achieving ANBU status early in life, he had always looked upon people to who had a knack for schoolwork with a certain amount of respect. The unexpectedly studious nature of becoming a medic-nin fit Sakura like a glove, and yet…

"Wouldn't it be better to work in a hospital?" The atmosphere of the room suddenly grew heavy. The sound of chakra swirling about Sakura's hand became clearly audible in the weighted silence of the room.

"I'm done!" Sakura immediately grabbed a change of clothing in hasty retreat to the bathroom.

"Sakura." She stopped.

Kakashi sensed that Sakura was angry again. Whatever was the reason happened to be, he silently demanded for an answer in this round. Sakura stood with her back towards her leader. The burden she had harbored for six years weighed heavily in the clammy morning air.

"Do you th—" Sakura took in a sharp intake of air before letting out a long, shaky breath. Kakashi waited until she had regained her composure.

"Do you think I'm weak?"

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"Hey you down there, can you get me down?" The strangely whiskered man stopped chewing on his breakfast to ponder for several seconds before looking back up at him with his conclusion.

"Sure!"

"Really? Thanks!" Finally, a break, the gunman thought. The other man, however, paradoxically walked leisurely toward a wall—

"Umm… Don't you need…" —and continued to walk vertically up its side.

"…a ladder…?" the man stared at his liberator taking a leisurely stroll around the paintings and faux columns. Who was this guy?

"Name's Uzumaki Naruto," the man introduced as he knelt by the horizontally challenged man.

"My last name's Bradford. My first name's Shiro." Naruto cocked his head.

"Bu-ra-du-fo-duu?" He frowned slightly in confusion before giving the man another smile.

"Well, I'll be interrogating your first today! If I can't get enough information, my friend Sasuke'll take over after lunch!" Two days into his assignment and the gunman already received his greatest revelation; Ninjas are weird.

Any more great revelations and my brain's gonna explode, thought the discombobulated hostage. He had only one thought on his mind as he watched Naruto forming seals to release whatever jutsu that plastered the man to the ceiling.

I wanna go home.

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Kakashi scratched his head. When she was young, he never thought she was weak per se. Unreliable, yes, but not really weak.

"No," he answered after a short internal debate.

"Liar." Sakura whipped around to face Kakashi. Six years worth of inner turmoil was written as anger in her features.

"Liar," she reiterated, "None of you three ever left me alone. It's always 'Stay here', 'I'll finish it' or 'I'm OK'! You think I don't know what that means?!"

"Sakura."

"I didn't work at the hospital because I don't want to keep feeling weaker than you!" She squeezed her eyes shut as her voice rose in volume.

"Sakura."

"But none of you guys even acknowledge me!"

"Sakura!" Accusations halted at the drastic change in not so much the volume, but the tone of the voice. Other than during the survival training lecture her ex-teacher had given her the day she became a genin, he had never called her name so severely. His face had also become darker and unsympathetic.

He was mad.

Sakura averted her gaze to the floor. She finally told him. Not in the most eloquent fashion, but she told him. Now the only thing was to wait for an answer, and waiting for an answer from Kakashi was comparable to spending two years in a straightjacket under several hundred meters of dirt. In short, his response was not the worst part of waiting. The gap between dialogues was the killer.

"I'm not too sure what makes you believe that we do not see you as an equal. You have your own strengths and weaknesses just like the rest of the team. You can do things Naruto, Sasuke, or I cannot do, and that's what makes us a team.

"However! The fact stands that you are a chuunin among jounins. Even if we had another chuunin assigned into this team, I have no doubt that the fact that we have a teammate with a lower rank will unconsciously make us think that we have to substitute for the gap in between the two positions."

Concentrating on the cloth she clutched in her fingers, the kunoichi continued to stare at the floor with nothing in particular in mind. He was right. Why did he always have to be right? Her mind kicked in high gear, utilizing all her mental processes to find a way to get away from him. Since walking away without saying anything would be probably further her leader's disappointment, she needed a more tasteful method of getting out of the room to change.

Kakashi's face softened. Reaching out, he gently pulled the kunoichi into an embrace. Last thing he wanted was team dynamic falling apart because of a simple lecture.

Sakura rested her cheek on the man's shoulder. She was growing hungry and was in no mood to argue. At least that was what she told herself as she ignored that tiny voice informing her that she had lost another argument.

"They closed the borders," Sakura murmured into the man's shoulder. At least that statement could go undisputed, though it was a rather pathetic attempt in saving face.

"Ah."

Silence.

"Senpai?"

"Hmm?"

"Do all sibling fights end up like this?" Kakashi thought for a while before deciding to fess up.

"Dunno. I'm an only child."

"… Me too."

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Since Naruto won out of forty-nine games of janken, Sasuke preoccupied himself with memorizing the details and layout all twenty rooms as well as meditating on several large busts in the hallways marked as 'Caesar'. With Naruto in short supply, everything seemed to become so much peaceful.

And boring.

A pair of maids wearing light yellow yukatas caught the Uchiha's attention. Not wishing for their stream of gossip to be disturbed, he swiftly moved behind the large pedestal that held 'Caesar' where he could eavesdrop on his victims.

"…see that blond ninja? Don't you think he's adorable?!"

"That Naruto guy? I don't know… he's not what I'd call a ninja. I thought he was annoying." My sentiments exactly, the dark-haired shinobi concurred silently with the taller maid. The shorter maid pouted at the other's disapproval

"I think Sasuke-sama's a lot cooler!" Sasuke withheld the will to gag.

"But he seems so cold," the shorter argued.

"He's so mysterious… and his eyes…"The disillusioned servant sighed as Sasuke suppressed the urge to administer Reality Check. The other huffed.

"If you're going for mysterious, you might as well go for that masked guy. Especially since the only thing you can see of his face is an eye."

"Kakashi? Naw, he's taken."

"Taken?" Taken? Sasuke chorused in his mind. He barely knew anything about his former sensei even after six years and these two knew about his ex-teacher's love life? The unfairness of life had now reached breaking point.

"Yeah, we have a ninja couple in our house! Don't you think that's cute?" Ninja couple… Sasuke was afraid that he knew what was going on and felt the fuses blowing in his brain for the second day in a row.

Dammit, not again.

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Author's Notes:
This chapter was too serious for my/your own good.

I decided to make my chapters longer at the worst possible time. The monitor in my room is going completely blurry, so I end up having to type this fanfic by turning the monitor on and off (but mostly off) to clear it up.

They said something about getting and LCD monitor, which I hope is true.

Anyways, someone asked me to post on good Kakashi/Sakura fanfics back in my 7th chapter. I, in truth, really don't want to, so you'll have to either go to my profile or use the search function by typing in 'kakasaku'. Or go browse the Kakashi/Sakura community on Livejournal (go to my profile for the link).

"Fanartist"