Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto characters. Any extra characters that I make up…those I can claim as my own.
A/N: So I just realized how long chapter one was. For me. Whatever. Also, I know I messed with the ages a little. I didn't want Kakashi to be fourteen years older than the others. I think that would've made things awkward and weird. So I just left his age from Naruto alone. If yous have gotses a problem wit it, tough! Deal with it. Or don't read. Don't flame on it though, cuz that'd just be annoying. If you have to flame, please make it about something slightly more substantial than how I've dealt with age.
Please keep reading!
-- Sakura Kaijuu
----
By the time seven o'clock rolled around, Sakura had showered again and picked out a long, flowy black skirt with a flower pattern all over it. For her shirt she had chosen a long sleeved white shirt decorated with iridescent sequins and embroidery. She left her hair in the headband. She liked it best that way.
Sakura walked down the street and sighed. She tried to think of what college Ino and Shikamaru had gone to. It had been a big one. Shikamaru and Ino were very different people, but they had wanted to stay in the same college. Well…Ino did, anyway. Shikamaru acted so apathetic all the time it was hard to tell.
She went in the front doors of Chez Pierre only to see Ino and Shikamaru waiting in the foyer. Ino hopped over to Sakura and hugged her, "Oh, you look so pretty!"
Sakura sighed again. She hugged Ino back and when they broke apart Sakura looked at her friend's hands carefully. She spotted the ring on Ino's finger immediately and smiled. "So he did?"
Ino nodded excitedly and smiled at Shikamaru. He looked away and blushed. She giggled a little and turned back to Sakura. "It was so adorable. He just came home one night and he just took it out of his pocket and asked if I would marry him. Then he got all embarrassed." Ino's grey-blue eyes shone with excitement.
"Aww…Good for you!" Sakura looked over at Shikamaru. He was still avoiding looking at either of them.
Something hit Ino the next moment. "Wait…you don't seem too surprised to see Shikamaru…"
Both Shikamaru and Sakura jerked in surprise. Shikamaru finally looked back at them, first at the back of his fiancée's head and then right into Sakura's eyes. Ino turned and glared at him. "You told her, didn't you!"
"Yes…" he replied meekly. "There was no reason why it had to be so secretive. She came anyway."
After another minute or so of fuming, Ino dragged Sakura to the chairs they were sitting in and set her between herself and Shikamaru. Sakura looked at him apologetically and he shrugged in response.
"Can I at least know his name?" Sakura asked Ino.
"I guess," Ino looked at the doors. "He's already late." She turned to Sakura matter of factly. "He's a year older than us, but he was in a lot of Shikamaru's classes in college. His name is –"
Ino was cut off by a tall man approaching them and looking apologetic. "Sorry, Ino. I lost track of time."
Sakura blinked slowly and looked up. She recognized that voice. It belonged to a tall, handsome man with silvery hair. It belonged to Hatake Kakashi. And that was who was standing in front of her. "Eh…!"
Kakashi looked equally surprised to see Sakura. "Well, fancy seeing you again," he turned to Ino. "So this is who you've set me up with?"
Ino nodded. "Sakura, what's up?"
Eyes still wide, she turned to Ino and pointed at the man in front of her, "This is my client. The one I met today. And got the deal for."
"Oh! So you already know him!" Ino looked pleased. "Let's go eat!"
The four of them approached the restaurant desk, received their table and proceeded to order drinks. Ino got caught up in talking to Shikamaru, purposely isolating Kakashi and Sakura. Sakura looked embarrassed. "So…how was the rest of your day?"
"It went pretty well, I guess. I got back and told everyone that Atheia Advertising would be doing Little Faerie Bu. Sasuke and Naruto were very interested in you," he added casually.
She shrugged apologetically, "I know that Naruto likes me. He always has. We've known each other since we were about twelve. I had long hair then."
"I think he mentioned that once. He told you he met me at school. He told me all about you. About how you were unattainable because you were so caught up in being the best. He envied you, apparently," he held his drink in his hand, watching her carefully.
"More like worshipped the ground I walked on. He was always following me around everywhere. It would have been creepy if it wasn't for the fact that I knew he was completely harmless," Sakura paused. "What about Sasuke? What's up with him? He seemed so sad."
Kakashi looked concerned. "Well…Sasuke has had a lot of family problems. His parents died when he was very young, and his older brother abandoned him. My family kind of took him in. He doesn't like other people very much. But once we got back to the office, he was a little more cheerful than usual. It seems that you and Naruto have that effect on people when you're together."
"Hm…I guess we do," she smiled a little. She looked at his face. Particularly at the scar across his eye. "Kakashi, what happened to your eye?"
He touched his eye briefly. At first he didn't say anything. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times and then shook his head. "No. Not now."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry." Sakura was sympathetic to that kind of story. She had a couple of those herself.
The waiter came and the four of them gave their orders. The rest of dinner consisted mostly of Ino talking excitedly about what she wanted for her wedding and Sakura and Kakashi looking interested and Shikamaru was quiet and slightly embarrassed. Finally dinner ended and dessert was over and it was time to leave.
Ino hugged Sakura again, "It was so nice to see you again! You need to stop working so hard so you can have days like this. Okay?"
Sakura smiled. "I know, Ino. I'll see you later. Congratulations to you two."
"Thank you," Ino took Shikamaru's hand and they started to go, leaving Kakashi and Sakura standing in front of the restaurant.
Sakura looked up at Kakashi. "Did you have a good time?"
"Yeah," he admitted. "I thought it would be much worse than that. It's always nice when you've already met the person."
"I'll second that," she replied. "I gotta go. I have work tomorrow."
Kakashi shrugged. "So do I. That doesn't mean I'm going to go home and sleep right now. The night is still young."
"It's ten o'clock," she said matter-of-factly. "I need to look good to be good at my job. It's part of being the major social lieu of a company."
"Hm…" he looked mildly amused. "So that's why you looked so good today at lunch."
She looked away and blushed. "I didn't think you noticed."
"Sakura, as Naruto put it later, you were smoking hot. You know how to make yourself look good for your clients," he gently moved her face back into eye contact with him. "But I just think you're pretty."
Sakura started and pulled away from him. "I…I have…I have to go."
"Did you drive?" he asked, nonplussed by her reaction. When she shook her head, he looked around. "Do you live close?" A nod. "Hm. Then I'll walk you. It's not polite for a gentleman to leave a lady to walk home alone in the dark."
She started walking, knowing that Kakashi would follow her no matter what she said to try and stop him.
----
They arrived at her apartment building and as Sakura unlocked the door, Kakashi looked at the building approvingly. Sakura noticed that he was still standing there. "Would you like to come in?" she asked nervously.
"If it's not a problem, sure," he followed her down the hall to the elevator and watched her press the button for the sixth floor. When the doors opened again Sakura led the way down the hall and unlocked her door. She stood aside and waved him inside before her. He stepped inside, "Nice place."
She sighed in relief. "I'm gonna go change. You can make yourself at home."
As he went to sit on the couch and turn on the television set, she escaped into the peace of her room. She was having a mild panic attack. He thought she was pretty. And Naruto still had feelings for her. And Sasuke was so gorgeous. And she had to work with all of him. This deal was all hers. And she had no idea how she felt about any of them.
She quickly threw on a cute t-shirt and a sweat jacket and her fleece pants. They were comfortable. She left her room to see Kakashi looking around from his seat on the couch. "You want some coffee?"
"Yeah," he said. He stood up and walked over to meet her in the kitchen area of the apartment. "I'm sorry if I freaked you out. It's true though. You're very pretty. But if I can trust everything Naruto told me, then you just don't take full advantage of it. Why do you work so hard all the time?"
Sakura moved around the kitchen getting out the coffee and filling the filter with water and finding mugs. When she finally stopped and leaned on the counter, she answered his question. "Because it's the only way for me to feel accomplished."
"Really?" Kakashi looked interested. "Why?"
"Just because," she replied, pouring the coffee. She handed Kakashi one mug and held the other in both hands, sipping it slowly.
They drank their coffee with silence between them and the noise of the television in the background. Kakashi emptied his mug and placed it down on the counter. They both looked at it and then at each other. "Thanks for the coffee."
"No problem," Sakura felt that it would be better to keep things short and sweet. "I'll talk to you soon, okay?"
"Right. My superiors were wondering what kinds of things I based my decision on. And I know you had notes. Can I have them?" he asked bluntly.
Sakura sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yes…" She walked over to her briefcase and handed him a stack of papers. "I need them back. Ichiro will want to see them at some point."
"Ichiro?"
"My jackass of a boss," she made another face.
"Ah." Kakashi flipped through the papers, "Excellent. You really do work hard, don't you?"
"Yes. But now I need to do some of the work that I didn't do this afternoon. Ino freaked me out. If I had known it would be you, I wouldn't have been so worried, and I could've actually done some work," she sighed again.
"Mm…Yeah, Ino's good at that, isn't she?" Kakashi smiled again. He started heading towards the door and Sakura followed him. Before he opened the door he turned back to her, "Thank you, Sakura." He kissed her on the forehead. "Good night."
He didn't wait for her reaction. He just opened and closed the door. Sakura stood in her mini foyer, temporarily dumbstruck. Then she shook her head. She could feel herself being red. She took a deep breath and turned around, rubbing her forehead. That was weird. But she had other things to do.
----
Kakashi was pleased with himself all day. Even Naruto and Sasuke noticed that he was more smug than usual. "Why are you so happy?" Naruto asked bluntly.
Kakashi smiled. "I had a great night last night."
Sasuke rolled his eyes and continued looking over Sakura's notes, making his own. Naruto narrowed his eyes and looked suspicious. "Doing what?"
"The opposite of whatever you're thinking of," Kakashi replied, still smiling. He wandered over to Sasuke and stole a paper from the done pile. Sakura was really amazing. It was too bad she lived vicariously through her work.
Naruto raised his eyebrows. "So you were at a gay strip club and got laid later?"
Even Sasuke couldn't suppress a snort of laughter. Kakashi closed his eyes and slowly laid the paper back on the desk. He looked up slowly at his associate. He blinked. "No."
The blonde man smirked. "Then what did you do?"
"I went on a date," Kakashi replied guardedly.
Sasuke's interest in his boss's affairs had been piqued by Naruto's big mouth and wrong ideas. "With who?"
"That, boys, is none of your business." He remembered what Sakura had said about Naruto. He didn't want to break his heart. He didn't want to give her up either. But he didn't want to crush Naruto entirely. When he had met Naruto he had been pretty down. He still was, honestly. He just hid it.
Naruto laughed derisively and grinned at his superior. "So was it a one night stand?"
Kakashi rolled his eyes. "No."
Sasuke snorted again. He was starting to get an idea of what was going on. "Did Ino set you up with someone again?"
After thinking about it for a second, Kakashi decided that it was a harmless question. "Yeah. It was one of Ino's friends. She was really excited to tell her that Shikamaru finally proposed." He meandered back to his desk and sat down. He started writing out his ideas of how to advertise Little Faerie Bu.
Naruto looked up sharply. He had known Ino for a long, long time. About as long as he had known Sakura. He knew that Sakura was Ino's closest friend. And Shikamaru had been saying that Ino was setting something up to see Sakura. That was why he couldn't see her last night. Not that he had expected to see her at lunch.
But Naruto wasn't stupid. He knew how to put two and two together. He tried to sound nonchalant as he opened his mouth again. "So Ino set you up with Sakura?"
Kakashi looked startled. He looked between Naruto and Sasuke. Sasuke was focused on Kakashi, obviously waiting for a reply. He looked surprised, but not upset. Sasuke was good at hiding, though. Naruto's face, on the other hand, was absolutely blank; a sure sign that he was crestfallen.
He sighed. "Yes. She did. And we had a good time."
"Mm," Naruto looked back at his work. Then he stood up. He didn't look at either of them as he headed towards the door. "I'm gonna take my lunch early, okay?"
He didn't wait for an answer before he left the office.
----
A/N: Awww…I made myself sad now…I broke Naruto's heart. And for the most part, I'm a die-hard NaruSaku fan. Sorry SasuSaku fans. It's unlikely. Possible, but unlikely.
Oh well. It's an excellent cut off point. Hooray for angsty cliffhangers. Muahahaha.
I know that all of chapter one was Sakura's POV, but I decided that from then on was in need of multiple viewpoints. This is still a very Sakura-centric fic. My sister is my beta and when I asked if anyone was OOC (tell me if you think they are), she said Sakura got kinda weird. Which told me that I needed to hop into other people's heads.
Sorry I haven't been writing much. I'm just getting distracted by school (Who knew that art school would be so demanding of my time? And my mother wonders why I don't have a job…) and roommate problems. Mainly being kicked out of the house I'm living in now by one of my roommates. Her parents own the house, and she doesn't like that my other roommate and me are not the world's neatest people in the world. OCD to the max.
But now I'm ranting, and I shouldn't be. I should just shut up and let you wonder what will happen next time in the life of Sakura, Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke. Probably not much with Sasuke. I'm having a hard time feeling sympathy towards him at the moment. I just finished catching up in the anime, and the entire Sasuke leaving saga made me cry. EVERY EPISODE. Just like what the manga did. So I kinda think he's a jerk right now. It's why I haven't updated A Twist in the Mission lately. Sasuke is becoming important, and I'm feeling awkward writing about him. I might get over it soon. I dunno. I hope so.
In any case, after this enormously long author's note, I suppose I should shut up and let you wonder where Naruto's going, what Kakashi's going to do, how Sasuke's going to react to this whole thing, and what's going to happen with Sakura. Have fun! ;p
-- Sakura Kaijuu