Kakashi walked along the dirt path, his eyes sharp. He was leading a team assigned to escort the daughter of Daimyo Sota Fujio. The woman, Tomi, had been on some sort of vacation in the western part of the Land of Fire, and her father had hired the Leaf to guard her on her way back to their home in the east.
What was supposed to be a four-week long trip turned into six. To Kakashi, it'd felt twice as long. Tomi was a spoiled girl, living up to the meaning of her name— wealthy . It was very obvious to Kakashi that Tomi was used to getting everything that she wanted.
She'd insisted on staying in hotels and inns every night, they had to take frequent breaks due to her insisting, and she refused to eat rations of any kind.
She also hovered around him every chance that she got.
Kakashi paid no mind to the woman's antics. He could admit to himself that she was a beautiful woman, but Kakashi's heart had belonged to another woman for a while. Though he had yet to confess to the object of his affections, he'd been unable to go to bed with another woman since he'd realized that he was in love with her.
Kakashi sighed to himself. Maybe one day he would have the courage to tell her how much he loved her, how badly he wanted to be with her. Every time he tried to express himself, he always got cold feet and let his fears of rejection overcome him.
As the small group made their way out of the thick trees and into the large clearing, Kakashi noticed the eerie silence around them. There were no birds, no rabbits or squirrels. Nothing. Experience told him that something bigger and more dangerous must have scared them off.
Keeping the small convoy at the same pace as to not arouse suspicions, Kakashi focused his senses on their surroundings. An ambush was coming and he needed to be ready. Then he heard the familiar sound of a kunai zinging through the air.
Kakashi turned on his heel and threw a counter kunai, catching a glimpse of the offender as he did. The man ducked out of sight, probably trying to bait them into chasing after him. Instead, Kakashi gave orders for two of his team members to guard Tomi, while he and the fourth member of their team took battle positions to fight off the attackers.
It didn't take long for the attackers to get impatient and rush their attack. Kakashi counted eight total. Kakashi's partner, Yamato, took out three of them while Kakashi finished off the other five with ease. Once the men were no longer a threat, Kakashi looked back to check whether Tomi was injured.
She was trembling and had latched onto one of the men guarding her. "Are you alright?" he asked her.
She immediately threw her arms around him and began to sob, "I was so scared!"
Kakashi had never liked people in his personal space. This woman was no exception, but it was his job to make her feel safe on the trip. He placed his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her back. "Are you injured?"
She shook her head. "No, it was just so terrifying."
"Alright. If no one requires medical attention then we need to keep moving. We are out in the open, and there could be more of those men out there," Kakashi commanded.
Tomi stepped closer to Kakashi, "Do you really think that there are more of them out there?" she asked him.
"I can't be sure yet, but it's a possibility," he answered honestly. "That's why we need to move from this area immediately."
"Can I walk next to you?" she asked him. "I would feel safer if I were close to you."
One of the other guards, a young, hot-shot Chunin, glared at the ground. He knew better than to glare at Kakashi Hatake, but he was clearly unhappy that Kakashi had unintentionally stolen the spotlight of the action.
Yamato just rolled his eyes; he was used to Kakashi receiving a lot of female attention. Kakashi had never really indulged in the attention he often received, but lately Yamato noticed that Kakashi was more uninterested than usual. He briefly wondered if his Senpai was secretly seeing someone.
Kakashi wasn't necessarily pleased by it, but it was his duty and so he shrugged it off. In a few more days they would be at her home in the East, he would turn her over to her father, and then he could return to Konoha, never to see her again.
Sakura was walking back to her office at the hospital while reading a patient file when she bumped into a nurse in the hallway. She lost her grip on the file and it fumbled out of her hands, the papers scattering across the hallway. Sakura let out a huff and bent down to clean up the mess.
"I'm so sorry, Sakura-sama," the nurse said anxiously.
Sakura realized that the nurse must be under the impression that she was the cause of Sakura's frustration. "No, it's fine, Yukki. I'm sorry, I just have a lot on my mind today."
Yukki handed Sakura the stack of papers that she had picked up. "Is there anything that I can do to help?" she asked.
"That's very kind of you. But no, it's personal. Thanks anyway."
"No problem, I hope it gets better for you."
"Thank you!" Sakura said as she started the walk to her office again. As she made her way down the hallway, her mind drifted from the file in her hand to the real reason for her frustrations. Kakashi had been gone for seven weeks now when his mission was only supposed to be four.
She knew he was probably the most capable shinobi in the whole village, but Sakura couldn't help but worry about him when he was out of the village.
They had grown close during the war and even closer since it ended. They spent most days together: training, eating, reading, small talk. They even had a few little games that they like to play with each other.
Sakura sighed. She missed him. She knew that she shouldn't; he was her former team leader and was more than a few years older than her. But she had found herself having a rather deep crush on her dear friend. She would never act on it, of course. She wouldn't risk scaring him away and losing their wonderful friendship over a crush.
For now, she was just happy she could love her life with him there. They got along well, talked about everything together, and they both seemed to genuinely enjoy each other's company. Sakura smiled to herself as she opened the door to her office.
As soon as the door opened, she was met with the very man in question sitting on her desk waiting for her, "Yo." He threw a lazy hand up in greeting.
"Kakashi, you're back." She smiled at him, having dropped the Sensei about a year ago at his request.
He nodded and put away the book he had been reading. Oh, how he missed seeing that smile. It was good to be home. "I just got in about an hour ago. I wanted to see if you were hungry."
Her heart fluttered with the knowledge that he had sought her out before anyone else when he got home. "I'm starving and I was just finishing up my shift. Let me put these files away, and I'm free to leave for the evening."
He nodded again and went to wait by the door. A few minutes later, Sakura was finished filing the papers and the two of them headed out of the front doors of the hospital and down the street towards the entertainment district.
As they walked, Sakura filled Kakashi in on her time while he had been away. Kakashi told her about his mission, leaving out any details about the mission itself due to confidentiality. Sakura understood and was just happy that he opened up around her enough to even talk about such things.
They stopped at a local food stand close to Sakura's house to grab dinner. Salted Saury for Kakashi and Tempura for her—their usual order. Once they had their to-go bag of food, Sakura tucked her hand in the crook of Kakashi's arm as they finished the walk to Sakura's house.
She didn't act on her crush often, but sometimes she allowed herself to do small things like this just because of the way it made her feel when she did. She sighed in mild contentment and leaned into him a little more.
Kakashi's heart always raced whenever Sakura would do things like this. It wasn't often, but he loved it when she did. Having his emotions so carefully reigned in, Kakashi never acted on his love for Sakura. So it was especially nice when she did little things to show him affection.
In those rare moments, Kakashi could imagine, if only for a moment, what it would be like if they were an actual couple. He knew that Sakura didn't mean it romantically, but it was still nice. So, he allowed himself to soak in the joy of having Sakura like this no matter how brief the moment was.
When they arrived at Sakura's house, they went through a silent routine of Kakashi setting the table up with their food, and Sakura making them fresh tea. They carried on with casual banter as they ate their dinner. When finished, they cleaned up together and both laid out in the living room to read.
When her watch alarm went off at 11:00 pm, Sakura looked over at her sofa to find Kakashi already fast asleep, his book laid open on his chest. She closed her own book, left it on the coffee table, and quietly made her way over to Kakashi.
She took a moment to smile at the sleeping man before she gently took his book off his chest. She carefully bookmarked his page before setting it on the coffee table beside her own, then grabbed the throw blanket and covered him with it. Taking one last glance at him, she walked down the hallway to her own room.
The next morning, they woke up and went to train together. After they returned to Sakura's house to clean up and eat, they ended up in one of their playful games when they got back to Sakura's house.
When Sakura had gotten out of the shower, all of the lights were off and she couldn't hear any sound through the house either. She knew it was Kakashi; they often played games like this. He was hiding somewhere in the house just waiting to catch her by surprise.
A few moments later she heard a floorboard creak and dogged Kakashi at the last second. Kakashi declared her the victor of that round and headed off to the kitchen to cook dinner as his penalty. Life went on as usual.
Two weeks had passed since Kakashi's mission with Tomi when he was summoned to Tsunade's office and given a solo S-ranked mission. Time was of the essence, so he was to gear up and leave out immediately.
On his way out, he stopped by Sakura's house, knowing that she wouldn't be home. They had plans for him to help her with some things that evening after work, and he wanted to leave her a note explaining that he would be gone for a few days.
When Sakura arrived home that night, Kakashi wasn't there. She walked into her kitchen to find a short note on her kitchen table. Picking up the note, she instantly recognized Kakashi's elegant handwriting.
I had a last-minute assignment come up, sorry I won't be able to help with your project. I shouldn't be more than a few days.
She giggled to herself. Short and to the point as usual with Kakashi. The fact that he had bothered to stop by and leave her a note explaining his absence was enough for her. It was small things like that that had made her start to fall for the man in the first place. It also gave her some hope that maybe he could one day care for her on a romantic level too.
It was the middle of the night about a week later when Sakura was woken up by the sound of something tapping on her bedroom window. She sat straight up in bed, staring intently at the window before her eyes could make out the bloody and broken figure of none other than Kakashi.
Sakura jumped from her bed and darted over to the window. She opened it and tried to catch Kakashi as he fell through onto the floor. He looked terrible. She immediately went into medic mode and began stripping him of his gear, then his shirt. After taking a minute to assess his injuries, she began to heal him.
Kakashi was fading in and out of consciousness. His mission brief had noted that there would only be three men guarding his target, but when he had arrived to carry out the mission, he discovered that there were six of them instead.
He was still able to complete the mission, but it had been more difficult than he had expected. He had sustained more injuries in the fight than he should have and had to limp back to Konoha with broken bones and heavy bleeding.
He had made it a habit a few years ago to come to Sakura to have his injuries treated, though he hadn't had injuries this bad in a long time. He supposed that was how he ended up on her floor without any real memory of how he had actually gotten there.
The darkness was fading away, and Kakashi could feel his senses coming back to him. He could feel the cold of the floor surface and he could make out the walls and ceiling. Everything was slowly coming back to him.
He could hear Sakura talking to him, and he could feel the warmth in her hands as she healed him. He reached out to grab her hand, but the flow of her chakra stopped when he did. She gave his hand a light squeeze.
"Stay with me Kakashi," he heard her soft voice say, "I'm almost done." She released his hand and went back to healing him.
A few minutes later, Sakura was finished and Kakashi could see and hear clearly again. As she pulled her hands away, he looked around and realized where exactly he had tumbled into.
He was in Sakura's bedroom.
"How are you feeling?" she asked him. He looked over to her and his face instantly went hot at the sight before him. Sakura was sitting next to him on her bedroom floor in nothing but an oversized T-shirt. Kakashi had to bite back a groan.
"Much better now. Thank you, Sakura," he answered. He sat up and Sakura was right at his side.
She put one delicate hand on his forearm. "Does it hurt anywhere?" she asked in concern.
Kakashi found himself lost in the depths of her big green eyes, and his body began to act on its own. The temptation of Sakura was too much, he reached up with a single hand and cupped one side of her face before bringing their lips together in a gentle kiss. His other hand found its way to her hip, while both of hers gripped his shoulders tightly.
Sakura wondered for a moment whether she was dreaming all of this, just before Kakashi swiped his tongue across her bottom lip as if asking for her to part them. She did, and he immediately deepened the kiss.
It wasn't long before the hand on her hip grabbed her thigh and pulled it across his lap and had her straddle him. She felt his arousal pressing against her and realized that she may be about to lose her virginity to Kakashi.
Kakashi wasn't sure what had come over him, but he knew he couldn't stop himself. He touched and kissed every part of Sakura that he could reach, but it wasn't enough. He wanted all of her, and the words tumbled out of his mouth before he could give the request a second thought.
"Sakura, let me make love to you," he rasped into her mouth.
She pulled back just far enough to lock eyes with him. In that moment she saw something different and felt something more than she ever had. It was what she had wanted for so long. She nodded her head, and then he was standing up with her in his arms.
He laid her out on the bed before him and looked down at her. She only had a split second to catch the expression in his eyes, something dangerously naked and hungry. Before she could think it over, his lips were on hers again and she gave in to him completely, allowing him to take over all of her senses.