Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Thank you for all your wonderful reviews!

As a note, I was going to make Sakura leave for two months because of her job, but I decided not to. Just thought you might like to know that little tid-bit. And also, this chapter will be going along fast. Keep in mind this is only a three chapter story. Though it might change to four chapters, I don't know yet.

He was her father's friend but could he be something more? Kaka/Saku. Not AU.

A Familiar Acquaintance
2 of 3

A month ago, a game began between Kakashi and herself, one that included avoiding the legendary Jounin at all cost. It worked. Sometimes. But most always he found her and asked her out for coffee which she would then respond with her ever strong why. It was tiring yet exhilarating having the Jounin follow her, a great distraction from the normality of her previous life.

"Yo, Sakura."

Sighing and smiling she responded, "Hello, Hatake-san."

The silver haired Jounin frowned a bit. "Tired?"

"You found me," Sakura stated slinging her work purse over her shoulder. He stood by her offering to hold it. Sakura merely shook her head. She could handle a simple bag. Really it wasn't that difficult.

"Trying to avoid me again, Sakura?" He asked, his tone blank, his face more so. Seems he'd caught on.

She shrugged giving him a furtive glance. "Maybe, then again I'm way too tired."

"I can carry you." It was his normal suggestion, so very copy-nin'ish of him. His eye crinkled in a smile, and Sakura laughed.

"I'm not that tired, Hatake-san."

A moment of silence passed as they walked down the street together, a slight breeze playing across their bodies. Sakura dipped her head back to feel the warmth on the sun on her face. It calmed her, relaxed her, and she loved it.

"Why do you always try to avoid me?" Sakura blinked looking towards her walking companion confusion in her eyes. His stance proved nothing; it was the same handsome, lazily slouch with his hands hidden in his pockets. Sakura loved his position, it too calmed her.

With pursed lips, she answered, "I don't avoid you."

A lie. He knew it as well, but she could not bring herself to care. His attentions though not horrible were just slightly uncomfortable. Never had she been the girl who was approached by the male sex, that was Ino's area. To be honest, she was unnerved by the Copy-nins attentions, but at the same time could not yield the growing feeling of bubbliness inside her heart.

She wanted to see him. Wanted to hid from him. And most of all want him to chase her. Her silly, vain thoughts disappointed her. She always cherished her independence, and her growing dependence on the handsome, white haired shinobi rubbed on her nerves. And so the question remained: What in dear heavens was wrong with her?

"You are a bad liar, Sakura." His voice was both firm and plain, almost a little angry.

She shrugged. "Is that good or bad?"

"I don't know, you tell me."

"I have no idea then, Hatake-san."

She laughed at him knowing just beneath his emotionless, bored surface annoyance and anger brewed. Over the past month, she had come to enjoy making him furious with her actions considering it payback for her growing dependence on him, but Sakura had yet to see him blow his carefully molded facade. Clearly a big disappointment.

"There is a cafe around the corner," a smile tugged at his one visible eye. "Want to join me for some coffee? - my treat, of course."

Sakura shook her head letting lose pink strands of hair before pulling them back behind her ears. "No thanks, Hatake-san. I have other plans."

Placing his hands into his pockets, Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Oh, mind if I ask what they are?"

"Nothing really exciting," Sakura waved her hand in a dismissive fashion. "Just a date with a fellow co-worker." She gauged his expression from her peripheral vision but concluded nothing. If anything Kakashi seemed more bored than before. He pulled out an orange book and she stifled her laughter.

"You know, Hatake-san, he asked me out for coffee too." She waited for a response - there was none, but he did glance furtively in her direction. Sakura was almost tempted to call the motion cute in a strange type of way.

"And I said yes."

He stopped and she along with him and stared at him. "Did you now?" He asked his voice monotone, but a moment later a deep laugh flowed from his masked face. "If I didn't know better, Sakura, I would think that you're trying to make me jealous."

She smiled sweetly back. "Oh no, Hatake-san, I would never do such a thing, because that would mean you would have to actually like me in that sense to be jealous. And," Sakura waved a finger, "as you say, you only come to check up on me."

"To which you always say, 'I don't need to be checked up on.'"

"Because it's true."

Kakashi smiled in response before looking back down at his risqué novel. Sakura held the urge to roll her eyes. The nerve of some shinobi was amazing, and she was glad that she would never have to marry one. She glanced at Kakashi, his slouched form pacing slowly next to hers, silver hair shinning in the sun, and sighed closing her eyes.

Well, hopefully she would not fall for one. That future though was growing very thin.

&&&&&&&&&&&&

Slinging her heels onto her counter, Sakura did not even try to repress her growl. As much as she loved her work, there were times when she wished to strangle her boss and risk being exiled from Fire Country. And on the matter of her heels, well, she hated them just as much as her boss if not more.

Tossing her head to the side, and after falling on her couch, Sakura locked her eyes onto the clock noting that it was twenty after eight. Her boss equaled slave-driver. For the hours she was pulling he should make her his boss, God knows that she did the only work around the office with the exception of a few scant others who she barely had contact with.

Her mood was bad, no, murderous. She felt as though she could take on five S-class criminals with ease. Bring em' on, her inner self screeched. Sakura laughed to herself releasing some pent up energy. She wished that she had bought that punching bag when it was on sale three months ago. Why hadn't she listened to her conscious then?

Walking into her room she began the process of changing her work cloths when the door bell rang. Her top was off exposing her white bra and so the only item of clothing her had on her was a slim-cut, gray business skirt. Slipping on a baggy shirt, Sakura cursed whoever rang her doorbell and was going to give whoever it was, S-class criminal or not, a piece of her mind and frustration when she swung open the door, her lips ready to curse, when she had a glimpse of Kakashi. Her mouth closed for an instant, and if she had had the chance to say something it would have been along the lines of, "No, I don't feel like coffee right now," yet sadly she never had the chance to because his lips closed around her own.

Like a man starving, Kakashi cupped the back of her head and pulled her length against his own. Sakura's eye were wide and she tried to struggle away from him but felt herself slowly becoming intoxicated by the warmth and pull of his lips against her own. The hand on the back of her head, his other hand placed gently across her cheek drew her into his spell, and Sakura felt her eyes close.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that she should be pushing him away. He was her father's friend. He should only be her friend. He was a ninja and she didn't want a ninja as anybody but a friend. Yet she yearned for this legendary ninja and hated herself for it...for reasons she could not understand.

Instinctively, Sakura pulled him close to herself, her arms wrapping around his back, moving up to his shoulder blades to hold him. Somewhere during the course of his kisses he had taken off his mask, but she did not look feeling no need to. His kisses were not gentle, but hungry and willing, devouring and all consuming and utterly wonderful. She had never been kissed by a man as he kissed her. A guttural moan escape from the base of her throat and her eyes snapped open...

...and reality came crashing in.

She was kissing Kakashi...Hatake-san...

...and he kissed her without permission...

...and she liked, no, loved it...loved him.

No. No!

Suddenly, she found the strength to push him away from herself. She didn't dare look at him. Instead she lowered her gaze to her hands still able to feel the warmth and muscles of his toned back. She had always found a man's back attractive. It was something about the strength of a man's back that let her see the burdens and problems he carried and how he carried them. Kakashi's back felt strong, able, and beautifully structured.

"Sakura," he sounded exquisitely breathless. Sakura fiddle with her fingers her own breathing muted and quite. She should be angry at his impertinence. She should strike him. But frustratingly, infuriatingly she felt not the anger she should have felt, and it was that in itself that irritated her.

Her hands started to shake. His own strong, hands come into view and tried to catch a hold of her but she back away. No, she wasn't ready for him to touch her; she was too vulnerable, too in love to resist him.

She was stupid and foolish. How had she fallen in love with a man, a shinobi of all people, in one month's time. She barely knew him and yet she loved him. Nothing made sense anymore, not since he walked into her life. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

He stepped back as quickly as he came, remorse in his masked voice. "I'm sorry, Sakura. I never-"

She snapped her head up and placed a quick smile on as her chest tightened. She didn't want his apologies; the fault for her feelings was not his directly. It wasn't his fault that she found him beautifully, perfectly flawed and precious. "Hatake-san, don't say that. Please don't say that."

Sakura found herself avoiding his eye unwilling to see any expression that might be on his face. She walked towards the door and stood silently for a moment. She felt his eyes bore into her back, felt the tenseness of the situation around them, and wished with all her might that he would not do anything to touch her. The flesh was weak, hers especially where Hatake Kakashi was involved.

"Still with the Hatake-san," he voiced moving closer towards the door. "Maybe I should go." His shoulders were straight and his voice firm letting no emotion out.

Oh, how her heart ached when he said that. What a paradox her heart and mind were to one another. What was wrong with her?

Nonetheless, Sakura was logical if anything and she found herself agreeing. "Yes, I think that would be best."

He left in a cloud of smoke and a little pop.

And Sakura was left alone, a dull throb and yearning in her heart.

&&&&&&&&&&&

Ino smile mischievously leaning over the counter. "Why don't you marry him?"

"Kakashi?" Sakura asked innocently.

"Who else, idiot - Gai?"

An image of a green outfitted man, hyper and flamboyant, sprung to her mind and she couldn't repress a smirk. Ino took her out to a bar two weeks ago where she had intentionally run into Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke, and numerous other shinobi. Kakashi had been by her side the entire night and offered to walk her home, a kind offer she declined.

Sakura sighed, "I barely know him, Ino, and he barely knows me."

"And your point is...?"

Sakura shut her mouth placing her head on the counter. "It's too fast, Ino...way too fast."

"Then marry the guy and make it stop." To Ino the solution was obvious. For Sakura, it was life changing.

"Ino," Sakura raised her voice a little, "Kakashi is fourteen years my senior."

"I always thought you needed a more mature guy," Ino's blond head nodded. "Yes, Kakashi will be perfect for you."

"I've only known him for one month."

"And you love him, you told me yourself." Ino stated as she locked up pulling Sakura out of the store with her. A sun lowered in the horizon, visible above the peaks of the surrounding mountains. A few citizens were strolling about, but Sakura did not take notice. Ino was not helping her to snap out of her dream-like opinions about Kakashi.

When Sakura did not respond, Ino took it upon herself to expound on the conversation. The woman didn't know when to drop a subject. "And since you love him, I think you should marry him."

Sakura snorted finding the unlady like reaction a catharsis of sorts. "So much for the supportive aspect to friendship." Sakura said throwing her hands up in the air. "Aren't you suppose talk me out of loving Kakashi, tell me I'm being silly and romantic? Besides the man didn't even purpose."

Ino shook a delicate finger. "I am supportive of you, and what's best for you is..."

"You think a man can make me happy?" Sakura stated with an angry glare. "That's just about the most stero..."

Ino tsked over her. "I never said that, Sakura. Listen to me. If you marry Kakashi, a great shinobi I might add, you'll be wonderfully happy, and that my dear, Sakura, is supportive of you."

"I don't need a man to make me happy. In fact, I'm perfectly happy right now."

Ino rolled her eyes at her pink haired friend and patted her shoulder as they came to a crossway. "You love him, don't you?" Her voice turned serious, and Sakura blushed.

Did she love him? Truly? Only one month had passed...could she? Her hearted pounded in its cage and a smile blossomed on her face as she thought of the white-haired shinobi. He was noble, kind and gentle, handsome and comical, mysterious and so much more than she could ever say. Her heart skipped a beat. She should take a chance, shouldn't she?

"Yes," Sakura admited outloud both to herself and Ino.

"See," Ino explained. "Take a chance with, Hatake. I'm sure he'll be worth your wild."

"So I don't have to marry him, then?" Sakura ventured to ask, a smile on her lips.

"I never said that." Ino turned to the right and started walking down the street. "Mark my words, Sakura, you'll be married by the end of the year."

And Sakura didn't know whether feel excalted or dread at that statement.

A/N: Yes, I know - a short chapter. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the grammar mistakes, but don't worry more chapters will come out soon. I don't know if I'll be able to finish this story by the next chapter, I may have to expand it to four chapters. Anyway, thanks for all your support! I'm truly grateful to all of those who reviewed.

Felix02