Kakashi had been making his way to one of his usual hiding spots to spend the day reading in a tree when he had inadvertently drawn the attention of a fellow Jonin, Genma. He had apparently been looking for Kakashi for the better half of the morning—apparently, they'd been summoned to the Hokages office first thing that morning.

Kakashi hadn't gone back to his apartment last night after his encounter with Saki, opting to drop by his apartment just long enough to change clothes and head back out to one of his usual hiding spots. But it would seem fate had other plans for him. Oh well. Turning on his heel, he and Genma walked at a lazy pace to Hokage Tower.

When he reached Tsunade's office, he knocked twice before cracking the door open to poke his head inside.

"You summoned me, Tsunade-Sama?" he drawled.

"Kakashi, it's about time you showed up. You were supposed to be here over an hour ago," she snapped as she opened a small drawer at her desk and pulled out a mission scroll. "I have a mission for you."

"I assumed as much," he replied as he made his way into the office to stand in front of her desk.

"Don't get smart with me, Hatake," Tsunade warned with narrowed eyes. "You are to take this scroll to a town called Fukui and give it to a man named Hiro. It should only take the two of you less than a week to complete, there and back. You will be taking Genma with you on this mission. All the details you need are in here," she told him as she handed him the scroll and sat back in her chair. "You can leave in the morning. Now get out of my office; I have work to do."

"Understood, Hokage-Sama," Kakashi said before turning to the door to leave. Making his way down the stairs with his hands shoved deep in his pockets, he reached the doors leading outside where Genma was waiting for him. It had become routine for them to go to one of the local bars to discuss mission details before heading home to pack. With Team Kakashi being officially dismantled after the war, Kakashi was either doing solo missions or had Genma as a partner.

Sasuke had died during the war, and Naruto was out traveling with Jiraiya again. Yamato and Sai had both returned to ANBU and Sakura was a full-time medic at the hospital now, only taking missions that required a healer of her caliber. It left Kakashi with really only two options—retire or go back on the mission roster. Kakshi had absolutely no desire to retire: being a shinobi was the only life he knew. Besides, it wasn't like he had a family or even a significant other in his life. He really had no reason to stop taking missions, especially when there were plenty of other shinobi in the village who did have someone to go home to.

Sighing as he opened the large door leading out of the Hokage building, he pulled out his worn and faded orange book and started down the busying street towards the entertainment district, Genma falling in step beside him as usual.

When they reached the bar, they made their way to their usual booth in the back corner of the room. Taking a seat and stuffing his book back in his hip pouch, Kakashi pulled out the mission scroll and started going over the details and strategizing with Genma. When the busty dark-haired waitress arrived to take their order, it didn't escape the two Jonin that she was paying special attention to Kakashi.

Genma smirked at the overzealous woman, knowing full well what her interest was in his friend. Kakashi however couldn't help but internally cringe at the woman's antics. It wasn't uncommon for Kakashi to have women throwing themselves at him. He had never found it very attractive—if anything the forwardness was a bit of a turn off. He liked his women spunky, and strong willed, but women like this were just exhausting. After assuring the woman that they wouldn't need anything else and requesting to be disturbed as little as possible, she took her leave and finally left the men to themselves.


Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Sakura slowly sat up in bed. She squinted at the bright rays of light coming in through her bedroom window, then looked over to her nightstand to check the time. Ugh, 11:00am already.

She had barely gotten five hours of sleep, not arriving back home until the sun started peeking over the village wall. Good thing it's my day off, she thought. Memories of the night before and exactly why she had only gotten five hours of sleep immediately flooded her mind.

Shaking her head to clear the thoughts, she sighed and decided it was time to get up. She had promised Ino that she would go see her today to tell her about last night. She threw the blankets off her body and slid off the bed. Making her way to her closet, she quickly picked out a simple outfit, a red top with some white shorts. After dressing herself, she brushed through her pink hair then slipped on her sandals and was out to find Ino.

Ino was sitting behind the countertop reading a magazine when Sakura walked into the flower shop. As she approached the counter, Ino put down the magazine, sure that whatever brought her friend into the flower shop was going to be far more interesting.

Standing up and gesturing for Sakura to follow, Ino said, "Let's go in the back. Too many ears out here."

"All right Forehead, spill," Ino demanded as soon as they got to the back of the store.

"Nice to see you too, Pig," Sakura practically growled at her friend.

Rolling her blue eyes, "Sakura, don't clam up on me now!" she whined, "You promised me details. Dirty ones, preferably."

Sakura plopped down at the table to join Ino, "Okay, it was amazing," she squealed. "The man definitely knew what he was doing. From start to finish, there was never a dull moment. He was a great kisser and he did this thing, with his mouth, you know down there. Oh my god, Ino!"

It was odd to actually talk about this kind of thing. Normally Sakura was sitting in Ino's position, hanging on to every detail to live vicariously through her friend. Sakura was still fairly new and still very inexperienced in world of sex and pleasure, but at least she had something to contribute now.

"I knew it would work," Ino exclaimed, "It's always worked out good for me. So, when are you going to do it again?" she asked.

Sakura snapped her green eyes to meet Ino's blue ones. Her brows raised in slight surprise. "Oh no, Pig. I am not doing it again."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because Ino, it was a one-time thing. No offense, but it's not something I want to get into the habit of doing. I just don't feel right sleeping with someone while pretending to be someone else."

It was true. Sakura had never intended to try the one-night henge again. Hell, she wasn't even sure she could go through with it when she did it. She just seemed to get caught up in the moment with Sukea. With all his expert touches and talk, it helped her to relax and live in the moment with nothing but the feeling of the things he was doing to her. She got what she was looking for last night and didn't see any reason to go out looking for it again.

Besides, she really didn't like deceiving someone into taking her to bed, it was a big reason why Sakura had never taken on a seduction mission before. Even after realizing that her crush on Sasuke was just a little girl's crush, she still believed that sharing her body with someone should not be taken lightly, that something that brought two people so close together should not be taken for granted.

She had made it a point in life to only share herself with someone who deserved it. last night would be a ONE TIME THING.

"Fine," Ino huffed. "Well, at least go out with me this weekend."

"Ino, I just told you..."

"I know what you just told me, Forehead. I'm just talking about going out, a girl's night. You don't have to leave with anyone but me."

Sakura gave her an incredulous look. "Promise?"

"Promise!"

"Fine."

"YAY."


After Kakashi and Genma had finished laying out the details of the mission for the next day, they decided to order a few rounds and have a more casual conversation.

"Seriously, you should have been there. I'm telling you; the girls were absolutely delectable." Genma was telling Kakashi about a men's lounge he and a few other Jonin had gone to the night before. "I mean, these girls really knew how to entertain, if you know what I mean."

"I had my own entertainment last night, and I have to say, I can't complain either," Kakashi replied with his usual bored expression.

Genma's eyes went wide as his mouth formed a smirk. "So, that's where you were last night. Well, don't hold back. Give me the details."

"Well," he said as he leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest. "She was definitely... Entertaining." Kakashi had always been a private man, never one to share too much information with others. He felt it was disrespectful towards the woman involved and there were just some things that shouldn't be shared with others.

"That's it? What was her name? What did she look like? Is she worth a second round?" Genma bombarded.

She was indeed worth seeing again. He knew that fairly quickly. The problem was that he had not been himself when he had bedded that woman. The man she met and left the bar with was not Kakashi Hatake the Copy Ninja of the Leaf. No, the man she had given herself to was Sukea, something Kakashi had been battling himself with all day.

He would be lying if he said he didn't feel guilty for deceiving her the way he did. It hadn't been intentional; he had not been planning to take a woman home that night, it just happened that way. "She would be worth it. But no, I don't think that I will be seeing her again."

"If it's worth going back for seconds then why not?" Curiosity and confusion were clear on Genma's face.

"Honestly, because the man she went home with wasn't me. It was my henge."

Genma's brown eyes went wide. "It wasn't intentional Genma. It's not what I was going for when I went out."

Regaining his composure, Genma felt the need to clarify. "So, she has no idea who you really are?" Kakashi simply shook his head. "Did you even get her name?"

"I did, actually. It's Saki. She didn't tell me much more than that, but I'm fairly certain that she is a local."

"And what did you tell her?"

"Nothing much really, and what I did tell her wasn't exactly true. She thinks I'm a traveling photographer from Grass and only pass through Konoha occasionally."

Next thing Kakashi knew, Genma was in full hysterics over the situation. "Man, you really got the act down." He was laughing so hard that his senbon had fallen out of his mouth and now lay on the table top.

"It's not like I do this all the time," Kakashi defended. It was partially true; he had played the role of Sukea several times over the years, usually for semi innocent-purposes such as pranks and jokes and sometimes if a mission had a need for it. However, he had never used it to get a woman into his bed. It just seemed immoral. If a woman didn't want to give herself to him, when changing himself into someone else was just wrong. Last night had just been a fluke.

"Well, maybe you should. It's perfect, I only wish I had thought of it." Kakashi only scowled at Genma as he continued to laugh hysterically at the situation. "Speaking of beautiful women," Genma said with a raised brow.

Turning in his seat, Kakashi followed Genma's line of sight. There, shuffling through a crowd of people he caught sight of creamy skin and RED. He immediately jumped out of his seat to follow after the alluring colors. As he weaved through the crowd, he got close enough to reach out and grab a smooth creamy arm. When the woman turned to face him, instead of being presented with red hair and blue eyes as he had hoped, he was met with pink hair and green eyes.

"Sakura."


After Ino had finished her shift at the flower shop, she and Sakura were making their way back to Sakura's house when they passed by a local eatery. Ino suggested they stop in and get some food before heading back to the house so that they wouldn't have to cook.

As they made their way through the establishment with Ino in the lead, Sakura was secretly hoping to run into Sukea again. She knew it was ridiculous; he had told her last night that he would be leaving first thing that morning. She had just started to remind herself that even if she did see him there, it wasn't like he would recognize her. Then she felt a strong hand gently grab her upper arm. Turning around to meet the owner of the hand, she came face to face with a stunned Kakashi.

"Oh, hello, Kakashi-sensei," she greeted him warmly.

He stared at her for a moment before releasing her arm and shoving his hands deep into his pockets. Sensei. He hated when she called him that. He hadn't held that title in several years and he had never really been one to her in the first place. "Sorry about that, Sakura."

"It's alright, Kakashi-sensei. Did you need me for something?" she asked, a little confused. He never approached her like this. They had never been close, even when they were on the same team, and they had only drifted further apart after the dismantling of said team. Now they only saw each other in passing. If he even bothered to notice her, she would give him a warm smile and maybe a wave. In return, he would give her a short nod and they would both continue on their way.

"Uh, No. I actually thought that you were someone else," he replied, his face as unreadable as ever. He would be lying if he said that he hadn't been hoping that it was Saki he had seen, but then he figured it was probably best that this wasn't Saki seeing as she wouldn't know who he was if he had approached her.

SeeingSakura wasn't much better. He barely knew the girl despite having technically known her for several years. They had never really had any moments to share, neither one of them really seeking the attention of the other. That's partially why he pushed for her to train under Tsunade—he knew that she would be far better off with her than she ever would be with him.

He had failed her in more ways than one already.

Sakura couldn't help but be a little hurt. It was the first time he had spoken to her or even come within an arm's reach of her in over two years, and even then it was only because he thought she was someone else. She knew they weren't close, but she was a little surprised when he pretty much stopped acknowledging her existence after she left to train with Tsunade. She had always admired him and it stung a little that he was able to shrug her off so easily.

Sakura shoved all those thoughts and feelings aside, doing her best to hide them away from her former sensei. "Who were you looking for, Sensei?"

"It doesn't matter," he said with a matter-of-fact tone. "I should be going; I have a mission to prepare for."

"Oh. Well, it was good seeing you again, Sensei. Maybe we can spar when you get back?" Sakura asked sweetly.

Despite the tone in her voice, Kakashi noticed an emotion cross her face. It was only for a split second, but it held a striking resemblance to hurt. No, what reason would Sakura have to feel hurt by Kakashi? It's not like they were close or made a habit of spending time together. He convinced himself that it was something else, that he had misinterpreted the split-second emotion he had seen.

"Yeah, sure. I'll reach out to you when I get back," he told her as he turned on his heel and made his way towards the door. Giving a lazy wave over his head, he made his way out the door and down the street before she could say another word. He went home to pack his gear and supplies for the coming mission, determined to keep a certain red-haired spit fire woman off his mind.