Disclaimer: This piece is created based on Naruto series, which is created and solely belonged to Kishimoto Masashi - no profit is made from this piece for it is used resolutely for fun. No copyright infringement intended.
Warning: Dirty words, twists, and a manic fic writer. Oh yeah, no Orochimaru.
Author's Note: To the two people I've promised the Sunday update to, I'M TERRIBLY SORRY! It turned out that I was dragged away for a two-day party out of town and I suddenly had to finish a forgotten job of translating and I know you don't want to hear all that lame excuses, I know it was still in my weekly or bi-weekly estimation but I am still sorry for breaking such a vow... Dedicated to ArishaGinkaze and SilverGhostKitsune and all of my readers out there. Huhuhu. Hope you enjoy the ride :)
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CATASTROPHE
By Silbi
Chapter Three
The moment his student pulled herself off her seat and stood, moving her limbs as if she had just reattached them and was examining how they worked, Hatake Kakashi did the only thing he thought was the safest: he remained seated and watched. Testing the words on his lips himself, since he thought he had just lost his voice of the odd occurrence, he replied after what he could call a really long pregnant pause.
"What... did we spend?"
To see those lips stretching and forming a smile was terrifying as well - an inch to the left, then an inch to the right, simultaneously creeping upwards into a wide arc that qualified itself as a wide smile, lips parted a bit, showing gleaming white teeth lined up perfectly.
It was true horror, really.
"Some quality time." Sakura replied uncannily. The lopsided smile was still etched on her gorgeous face, and that, to Kakashi, was more unnerving than hearing the breaking news that Gai wanted to have a change in his style of haircut and shave the bowl-head clean before shrugging off his latex attire and sporting a yellow Buddhist monk garb.
Her emerald orbs flashed red once, before turning back to clear green - and still bearing the smile, Sakura bent forward to rest her elbows on the table, said action stretching her clothes tight around her ample backside and streamlining her slim body, making a plunge in the front that gave the silver-haired jounin a rather... stirring... view, the slits on each side of her dress (which were showing the latex-clad thighs inside, and Kakashi blinked away his merry thought of what was more, hidden behind that dress) were not helping either...
There were two words of choice in Kakashi's head: "Hospital" or "Aspirin".
The first sounded friendlier - and he contemplated the possibility of nailing some fresh medic-nins on-the-job... he Chidori-ed his head gladly right after - thus he carefully asked the unstable girl before him to visit someone in the hospital with him, in fact meaning only to bring her to Tsunade and asked for help; for every trick in his head did not seem to apply to 'a state of unidentified senility on a victim of exorcism'.
Much to the silver-haired jounin's relief, his pupil stood up and stopped strutting her stuff; but that smile was never put off until they were right in front of the Konoha hospital, where Sakura acted like she had just come to her senses and looked at Kakashi questioningly.
XXX
"She's fine."
Tsunade turned off a small light, removing her thumb and index finger from Sakura's eyelids after a pupil examination. The young girl next to the fifth Hokage sat with legs dangling off the examination table, eyes cast nowhere, baffled. Kakashi, who had been watching the examination from the very beginning, seemed unpleased that his hunch was unproven.
"If I may ask for another examination - "
"Whatever you may accuse her of having, Kakashi, I can assure you that now it's gone and she's perfectly well physically and mentally..." she trailed off, and Kakashi raised a challenging eyebrow, "...though I cannot explain the partial disconnection she claimed she had." Tsunade finished with a tired huff, seeming unsatisfied herself that she could not remedy the anomaly at hand.
The silver-haired jounin stood in silence, contemplating a next move, and eventually (after tiring himself in such a poised pose, his back aching - Kakashi heard imaginary snickers in his head, sounding awfully like a duo from Team Seven, practically sniggering something like "Heh, you're old.") he decided to take on the matter himself and line up a set of useful acts - one was to bring the girl away from Tsunade, and the next was the pure, plain, simple act of Questions and Answers session between him and the unsuspecting girl.
"If that is the case, Tsunade." Kakashi finished the sentence in a rather too much of a cliffy way, but though so, it was a mean of his enigmatic way of asking for a full authorization of a serious case at the moment. A nod from the respected healer reaffirmed his will, thus he motioned for his pupil to walk out of the hospital alongside him.
XXX
Balmy air and clear blue sky surely didn't improve her foul mood - Sakura strolled back to her house like an unbalanced zombie with Kakashi, who had been keeping an eye on her like she was an asylum patient who'd just been caught after a runaway...
Okay, he's not that bad. I just feel like crap and I'm blaming him for all it's worth - he was just being nice and here I am, bitching about it.
Absentmindedly she twirled a lock of pink hair - but then she felt a chill when she felt not a silky texture, but something unlike hair, rough and weathered like dried grasses. She touched the top of her head with her right hand, soon feeling through her hair with her ten furious fingers. Her prided crown was a total mess! I really need to know what's behind the ever-staying bowl-cut hair of Lee and Gai-sensei...
Noticing the uneasy air around them not too long after, Sakura brought her gaze up and inspected Kakashi on her side. Eyes straight forward - is he straight? I wonder... he did wink at a cute male bartender... no, it was when he was drunk, plus it was Genma who told the story, he loved to spice up so-called 'bland' stories and rechristened them as real - and she saw fists balled on his sides. Suddenly reminded that she was the one who played around with classified potions and attempting to use it on her mentor, of all people, the pink-haired kunoichi kept her silence; though it was rather improbable that Kakashi with his guards high was a result of her underlying blunder.
Given such a journey of tranquility, the unsolved riddles sprung back into her brain: Why did Kakashi give such a reaction? What happened next? How come I woke up remembering almost nothing after the Soft-Spoken's appearance?
The book said the potion is easy to alter, right? Remember something suspicious in the process? Her inner self helpfully sang-song. Sakura actually considered bashing the nuisance with a gigantic mallet (despite her piece of advice did make sense) if she hadn't been lurking in her skull and if she hadn't been her another self.
What I did? I stumbled over the cursed book, knocked the ladle, and pulled my hair as I kept anything in place.
That didn't sound normal enough...
I know.
You're forgetting an essential part here, you're supposed to do it under the supervision of a teacher, right?
Sakura stopped trying abruptly. Enough for the guilty trip today.
Later on, crunching sound of trampled grass made itself known as she wandered away from the main path, her legs felt wobbly yet they made their way surely across the clearing to a darker path that went deeper and deeper she couldn't see the end.
Konoha village's outskirts were well surrounded by a wide range of untouched nature: forests, deserts, mountains, and all of them had several paths leading to if not other villages then to other countries. To be a ninja or kunoichi, you are expected to memorize all of the descriptions on the book, recognize it when presented, and know the ways in or out. The view she was seeing didn't fit anything described on the book or the map she had seen, though being such a smart pupil Sakura couldn't digest the fact that she had probably missed the information of the place she was artlessly walking into.
Sakura stepped on low and high grasses, dodging protruding tree barks and dead trunks everywhere surrounding her small feet confidently - she felt like something had taken over her limbs, as if her brain was suddenly switched to auto-pilot to a far coordinate - but the pink-haired kunoichi felt a sense of recognition that told her she had used the path many times since a long time ago...
"...Sakura?..."
The girl blinked owlishly and stopped dead on her track, taking in the eerie surrounding before her that was obscured lightly by silvery fog; again the déjà vu feeling washed over her thoroughly, the forgotten cells in her brain danced into motion yet bringing her no clue.
They were just... there. The shadowy shack with red shades, the bamboo trees rustling in the blowing wind, the fish pond lined by smooth dark pebbles, all taking most of her attention and helped her forgetting the voice that beckoned to her earlier. The light behind the deep red shades of the window flickered, and a shadow of a lady coming to her feet slowly came into view.
"Sakura?"
The startled kunoichi whirled back, searching eyes meeting Kakashi's bewildered ones; she was momentarily mute and her mouth flapped open-and-shut like a dehydrated fish. How could she get here - ?
"Sakura, where are you going? Where are you taking us?" Kakashi demanded furiously, gripping his flabbergasted student on her shoulders and shook her hard.
Haruno Sakura turned around in hope of giving him a more understandable explanation - and met an empty clearing, all that had been there had been gone with swirling silvery fog in their wake.
From under Kakashi's feet, a black shadow snaked upwards and attached itself onto the teacher's body, starting from his calves and upwards to the back of his head.
Sakura stared hard at the empty ground, wishing for the view she had seen to come back and be her evidence, her only evidence, a somewhat futile attempt - it was not brought to her brain as she received a hard blow just behind her neck, successfully sending her plummeting downwards to a pair of strong, waiting arms that looped themselves under her knees and around her shoulders, securing the unconscious girl in his hold and proceeded to swagger out of the maze of fog and darkness.
XXX
"Kakashi-sensei, why are you THIS late again? And where have you been? I'm losing bets here while you - Sakura?"
"Get off, dobe, you're blocking her air passage. Sakura, are you alright?"
"Today's class is dismissed; you can practice by yourselves while I take care of her."
Crickets sang and cows flew up high, Orochimaru passed by them wearing a pink tutu and slippers and nobody had seemed to notice (...that was an expression similar to 'a pregnant pause'), for they were too discomfited seeing the teacher's retreating back, taking the unconscious pinkhead away.
"Did he actually said 'I' before 'take care of her'?"
"Yes."
"Naruto, close that cavern before it attracts flies."
XXX
The 9-scale Richter earthquake couldn't rival the headache Sakura was having - she had a very weird imagination in mind, which showed that she had just visited an old house in a God-forsaken place, fog was everywhere covering the view, and collided with a silver-haired rhino that could do a thousand push-ups on its... one toenail... and after knocked her into oblivion it carried her out of the dark, unknown place, back to Konoha village if the bamboo forest hadn't been anywhere in that area... she didn't remember how she could lay there in the warm nest of crumpled bed sheets. Sakura opened her eyes as far as two identical slits and performed a technical task of identifying her position.
Current status: Sprawled on an unknown bed, looking up to an unknown ceiling.
Gosh. You do look very artistic, her inner self commented rather snidely, and Sakura winced as her wandering palms rubbed at the back of her neck - it throbbed painfully, and though her fingers had done their best to minimize the pain, she knew that it'd leave ugly bruises of blue and black.
At least it's on the nape of your neck - you got one and they'll actually think all that you've got is a goddamned hickey from your teacher.
A slip from her other self stopped her rubbing abruptly. My teacher - ?
She looked to her side and gasped at the sight of a silvery sweep wearing a Konoha headband.
Narrowing her eyes into millimeter-wide slits, the view presented itself clearly; it was neither a sweep nor a cactus wearing a headband, it was the back of her teacher's head, leaning back onto the bed slightly as he was sitting on the floor comfortably, one knee bent to support an extended arm.
Swallowing hard, her mouth feeling like it was stuffed with cotton to the throat, she managed to croak, "Kakashi-sensei?"
Her mentor inclined his head and gave her a hidden smile. "Already awake, now, Sakura-chan?"
Oh, no, not again...
Even from the back, Sakura knew that it wasn't anymore her Kakashi-sensei.
Her shoulders slumped visibly as she willed her body to be sucked into a deep hole, earning a low chuckle from the seemingly possessed jounin. He turned to face her and his right hand was raised towards her surprised face - Sakura held her breath, teeth digging into her lower lip, half-expecting some kind of a blow to be delivered, think motionless, she chanted inwardly...
...yet it was only Kakashi's big palm that made a move, and it was harmless, aimed to cover her forehead. Sakura lay still on her position - stomach flush to the bed, upper body off the bed and supported by her bent elbows. In the stillness of time, Sakura's other self saw a fat chance to pester her.
Ugh, now he'd realize it is wider than it seemed... Shutup you! See? He's astonished at the size of your forehead - Who gave you a permission to prance around anyway?
The feel of Kakashi's right palm placed on her forehead was almost forgotten as she battled life and death with her other self, yet every passing minute the sensation came back ten-folds - now fully aware of their close proximity and the hand on her forehead, blushing profusely, Sakura looked away in search of a distraction other than the dreadfully understanding gaze her teacher was giving her.
When he pulled his hand away, finished checking her temperature, she released a deep breath she had too long been holding in relief. Her head fell between her bent elbows to rest on the soft sheets, attempting to kill the tingling on her forehead, hot where it had been touched - it had been comforting, and she didn't know why she had expected the hand to be so - the sudden act pulled the aching muscles on her nape taut, and she groaned softly as it brought her eyes swimming in unclear haze. Her hand flew up to rub the sore spot, hoping to lessen the strain.
Good thing he is not a medic nin, the infamous Inner Sakura commented. He can set anything on fire with those pair of strong hands, I tell ya.
Stop being delusional, Sakura.
She raised a confused eyebrow at the odd exchange of words in her head.
What else those hands are good at - I'm not listening to you, lalala! - you can obviously imagine by yourself, just add some creativity.
Wild cackles accompanied the grand entrance of her unbound imagination, sent her blushing to the roots of her formerly pink hair. Okay. Now I look sick.
Hands, the back of his hands smoothing over her cheek, lower and lower, now to her neck, her hair stand on end -
"It seems that you are fine, Sakura. All that you need is a rest."
Fine? Don't try to check my temperature ever again, you - you mindless smut-reading face-hiding prick...
Sakura realized she ran out of colorful words to address her teacher, mostly because she hadn't meant them at all. He had been caring, not acting like a royal jerk like she was trying to accuse him of, and that supplied her an amount of control.
Kakashi spared her some time for herself, perhaps he thought she really needed some slack, and she used that to think some more - an activity she'd found entertaining lately. She needed something to keep her mind busy and working and leave nothing for her creative imagination, so to speak.
Something advantageous from her position now, cheek pressing to the bed and her face far from Kakashi's scrutinizing eye over her, she could imprint the view of Kakashi's so-called sanctuary on her brain (no one has never been here, I can tell...). Moreover, she could speak her mind out without having to look suspiciously guilty.
None louder than a whisper, the pink-haired kunoichi said, "Who are you?"
Argh, even my lips AREN'T cooperating with me! What else am I going to say, 'Are you my knight on a shining armor, ready to help me out of a mortal peril?'
If looks could burn holes, she must've been a chunk of holey Cheddar cheese right then; by the burning feeling on her back Sakura knew her dearest teacher was performing a thorough inspection on her, pondering her meaning and reasons behind that ambiguous question of hers. She did mean what she asked. She understood a hundred percent why she asked the question, and intended to get the truthful answer no matter what.
The pinkhead waited patiently for a generous reply as she looked about, smiling at the sight of a small pot of plant on the windowsill under the beautiful moonlight that filtered in, praising his tidiness (that made up for his lateness, but seriously, who had seen that extra point?), soon aware of the lack of furniture inside.
And soon she, too, was aware of a thing. Means of avoiding the question, the kunoichi could bear with; but she was not much of a silent person, thus his sudden abstinence from the whole dialogue made her saw it was fit to look him in the eye and demand for an answer. Yeah, she could bear with the trauma of having her lips called sexy, meant she had undergone a mild sexual harassment without much discomfort, and she could like hell demand for an innocent answer. Where's the harm in that anyway?
Haruno Sakura was a trained kunoichi, a genius and a hard worker at that. She could easily pass written tests and get easy perfect scores, no doubt at that. People, however, had unfortunately claimed based by various life experiences that all that you need isn't always in the book, which is so true on Sakura's case. You could say that she almost fell off the bed the moment Kakashi, again, caught her off-guard.
"Would you consider it true if I say I'm an assassin sent to kill the Fifth Hokage?"
HE WHAT?
"What about a secret admirer?"
Her inner self cooed and awwed, and fainted.
She was practically gnashing her teeth and chewing the insides of her cheek, carefully avoiding an opportunity for her to pounce on him and give him a few real good lessons. How dare he get kicks from messing with me, of all people in the world I've seen him messing with... hold on a sec, he doesn't even have one, Gai doesn't count...
No. Nonono. He wanted you to lose your calm, and I won't have that. Shame on you, pulling such a nasty trick on me!
Though, she conceded half-heartedly that the statement made her swoon a bit - of course, who knew what Kakashi's sexual preference was? A guy that mysterious could sweep anyone off his... er... her feet anytime - nonetheless, that's a negative quality to be pinpointed about her kunoichi-wise abilities. She was not supposed to react to such a small flirtatious act!
...ironic that she didn't remember giving Kakashi a small bending act that put his morality on the line...
Building up courage, ready to restart, Sakura opened her mouth -
RRRRRRRRRIIIINNGGGGG!
"Kyaaaah!"
In one ring of an alarm clock, a ruckus had arisen.
Sakura flinched, breathing erratic, and felt sooooo mortified that a mere alarm clock had made her overreact. "Who needs that kind of monstrosity?" she unconsciously whispered, fingers rubbing her abused ears lightly, "It's loud enough to wake a pack of napping elephants."
"You don't, since you're very punctual," Kakashi chuckled, spoke as he stood and tapped the alarm clock lightly, turning off the alarm in an instance. "I had an urge to play with this... machinery... when you were fast asleep."
Eyes narrowing back to slits, Sakura eyed her teacher suspiciously as if he had suddenly sprouted a second head, with a mask and a sloppy headband, too. It was too bad her imagination covered that gap as well, for though she would never admit it, she had times when she imagined how Kakashi's face would be - expressing seriousness, happiness, sadness, all the emotions that were well covered since the day she first met him.
Anyhow, she was proud that she couldn't see the hint of loneliness in that eye anymore.
Back in the present, the silence filled the room once more. The kunoichi's fingers itched, feeling a sudden urge of reaching for her shurikens and throwing them out for a bull's-eye through the crickets outside. They were getting on her nerves, those horrible crick-crick-cricketing machine.
Deciding that it was apt, the pink-headed kunoichi attempted to play along. "Well, then it takes you more than that one alarm clock to be on time! I'll buy you one on your thirty-something birthday - " as she spoke, her eyes caught the numbers displayed on the old-fashioned metal alarm clock, causing her words to be stuck on her throat, be pulled back and replaced by a new line. "Where are the others? Aren't we supposed to practice at this time? We're well an hour and a half late!"
She eyed the clock again.
"And by the way you set the alarm for an hour and a half late! No wonder you're never on time." she reprimanded sourly.
"I told them to practice by themselves, so I could tend to your injury as well as ask you questions in private."
She began regretting the position she had quickly loved before, since because of it she couldn't search his eye for a truth or lie. The last part of the statement finally made it into her system.
...is it the moment of truth already?
Guilt on the back of her brain sprung back into life. If it wasn't because of her and her attempt of feeding him the potion, Kakashi wouldn't have been somewhat split into two personalities, she wouldn't have to be suddenly examined for nothing, wouldn't have everyone worrying about her - in short, none of this would ever happened.
She glanced around, and finally her senses came to a conclusion.
She was in Kakashi's bedroom.
Just the two of them.
Holy crap.
"Give me an answer, and I'll give you one. You can keep my words. Now, what exactly were you doing?"
The offer was so tempting she almost came clean and finally solved the mother of all riddles that was Hatake Kakashi. However, if, just if he was just a very talented con designed to test her abilities, bending to such an offer was unacceptable. She just hated losing marks, since to her, scores were the proofs of her skills and were meant to be preserved. Planning on a counter-attack, she replied. "I asked first."
"That you did, Sakura-chan. If you want to change the question, take your time - you have had your answers for that first problem."
He was right. She had asked the same thing on their 'first' encounter yesterday night - she couldn't believe it was only twenty-four hours ago when she had been rejoicing in finally having him drugged and under her control, and found out that she was such a deluded moron. Sakura wasn't prepared to answer why she put that damned potion (backfired, it did, humph - need a superior to finish, it said!) into his tea, for she was beginning to ask herself that. Why? The truth lies somewhere in her mind, she knew it, but was it purely to lower his guards?
Or was it for something else?
Sakura took a deep, calming breath. "Okay, I surrender. Forget that I ever ask that."
"An answer to my question, then."
Eventually she nodded.
"The same thing as before, Sakura-chan - what were you doing back then?"
Her heartbeat didn't agree to tone down, hammering in her small chest in agitation. "About yesterday night... I was..."
"Pardon?"
"I'm trying to confess here, so stop making this any more difficult!" she said in outrage, shot a disturbed look at him. Funny, Kakashi this time was one to look miffed.
"Are we talking about the same matter here?" he inquired, and his utter state of bewilderment put a nagging discomfort on her heart, but it wasn't enough to reign her upcoming rage.
"You tell me! You're the one who's being ambiguous from the start!"
"No offense, Sakura-chan, but I was just wondering, and I wanted to understand the reason why you wandered into the forest this evening."
Like a chunk of butter under hot lamp her tension melted away quickly, and she let mirth took over her, dissolving into laughter. All of it now, in her eyes, looked extremely hilarious - the misunderstanding, her unnecessary anger, her foolishness, and Kakashi's confused face - the latter she found began to shift into one of an amusement, and in no time, they were laughing together, Sakura on the bed curling into a ball on her side and clutching her stomach, while Kakashi on her side, his back touching the bedside, was letting out pleasant laughter that tingled Sakura's skin.
When their mirth finally subsided, happy tears had been wiped away, the pinkhead was reminded of Kakashi's center of attention earlier. She mulled over it before answered quietly, "I didn't have a clue, Kakashi-sensei. I don't think I knew that place, but it felt familiar as I walked into it..."
Kakashi's face slowly went back to serious, yet a bit tinted with concern. "Then drop the subject, we should."
It was so Kakashi-like... yet it was not. Something was missing in his act and words, and her memories of the five years she had gone through with him and the rest of Team Seven members confirmed that. Then again, his way of showing his concern made her hung her guards in her closet and shut it.
Her silver-haired teacher turned and sat cross-legged facing her, leaning forward a little bit, but that was just a bit too close for Sakura's comfort. "Tell me about... Uchiha Sasuke?"
Her closet sprung open with a loud bang, the guards she had put away she hastily put back on, and with them carefully covering herself and her secrets, she saw something else in that visible eye that she had not paid attention to - a manic twirl, and that pumped adrenalines into her veins, her limbs ready to be used. Another thing she saw was her hurt face, reflected in Kakashi's only visible red orb. Sakura pushed herself off the bed, slowly coming to a sitting form.
Without a second thought, Sakura stood on Kakashi's bed (a spot under her feet still warm where she had been laying) and jumped slightly to the floor. Bending to fetch her discarded sandals, she chastised herself.
He was not Kakashi, and I knew it, and I have been so foolish enough to think this was the other him I wanted to see.
It was somewhat an egoistic way of putting things, but then again, she had never been asked that way about her concerns to the certain Uchiha heir, by her teacher no less; who was always there to lend his shoulders for her to cry on, to listen to all of her piling uneasiness and insecurities, and give her a heartening pat.
The silver-haired jounin sat still as the door slammed, followed by heavy stomps retreating to the end of the alley, out to the moonlit night in Konoha that should have been very beautiful - he doubted, or looked doubted, that she would realize that.
Standing up, Kakashi eyed the bed for quite some time, his muscles begging to be stretched over it - in the end, he clambered onto his couch on the other side of the room and dozed off silently.
XXX
On the other hand, Sakura, who didn't let go things as easy as her teacher (or now, highly undoubtedly someone else) seemed to do, stomped home with her heart and mind in turmoil.
She didn't have room left to memorize the road to Kakashi's apartment, or maybe at least remember how it looked like, just like what she had always wanted. She remembered his visible eye, reflecting the four tiny swirls that swiveled around his pupil...
Wait a minute - wasn't his Sharingan, his left eye always hidden behind that sloppy headband? Why was it in his right eye - ?
Pushed by an instant spike of fear, Sakura ran away, hugging her body as the chill of the night stole the warmth away from her small figure. As soon as she found a road she knew, she ran for her house and locked herself in, hiding herself from the vicious eye that reflected itself in Kakashi's eye.
XXXXX
TBC
Author's Note: It seemed that another knot has looped itself into the plot, hmm :) Well well, in the next chapters the puzzle pieces were coming into view ("What's the shack gotta do with Kaka and Saku?", "Why is Kakashi always changing, it's confusing!", "What the hell is wrong with this story?" and all that...). Ah, hehe... not all at a time, though, so stick around ;)
Okay, here's some kind of a notice: This story will be written in seasons (or arcs, whatever you call it it's basically the same), and the first season is what you're reading now, I estimate it to end at somewhere around Chapter Seven or Eight, followed by the second season. The first serves as the opening, where the catastrophe began and affected the teacher-pupil relationship, and the latter will be where the progression is really reflected. Hopefully that helps and clear any wonders on where this story is leading, considering the rather straying chapters...
By the way, thanks a whole lot for reading, and even bothering to read the ANs and the notice. The story stats made me grin uncontrollably, thanks to you guys :D Happy browsing and good day!