The weather in Konoha was so beautiful this time of year. It was late September, the beginning of fall season. The sun was still shining but the bit of cool air they had made for great temperatures and beautiful scenery. In a few weeks, the leaves would start to turn. It was Saturday again and Sakura was strolling through the local market, stopping at little stands to look at trinkets and such.
One of the stands she passed by had a display of beautiful jewelry. Sakura didn't own much jewelry, she could never justify spending that kind of money on herself for no reason other than because she wanted to. She had always admired how Ino's boyfriends always bought her jewelry for special occasions.
She set her eyes on a necklace with a green pendant on a silver chain that seemed to match her eyes almost exactly. It really was a beautiful necklace but as usual Sakura talked herself out of getting it, by telling herself that the money could be used for more important things.
She sighed and made her way out of the market before she came across anything else to deny herself, she would be late to meet Ino if she didn't leave soon anyways. Meeting up with Ino always brought back memories of other friends too. Some were gone forever like Sasuke, some for a little while like Naruto and some weren't gone at all but might as well be like Kakashi.
As she walked she passed by Ichiraku Ramen, she thought back to the events that tore apart the original Team 7.
When the final battle of the war came, Naruto had faced off against Sasuke for the last time. Naruto, trying to protect the people and the home he loved. Sasuke had been one of those people but, motivated only by hate to destroy everything in his path, had been driven insane by the power of the Rinnegan.
It was just like the fight they had on the roof of the hospital in their Genin days. Only now they were a few years older and much more powerful. Naruto with his Rasenga and Sasuke with his Chidori, they had charged at each other at full speed. Sakura had tried standing between them in hopes of getting one or both of them to stop.
Kakashi had ran towards the three of them clearly intent on putting a stop to the fight. But to Sakura's surprise, instead of tackling one of the boys Kakashi had gone straight for her. Knocking her to the ground just before Naruto and Sasuke collided inburst of wind and lightning. Both hitting their mark in the center of each other's chest.
Both Naruto's and Sasuke's attacks caused fatal injuries to the other. Sakura couldn't save both of them and she had decided to save Naruto, knowing full well that she was essentially leaving Sasuke to die. Kakashi just sat there staring at the three of them wordlessly. Unbeknownst the three of them, he was silently berating and blaming himself for all that had happened.
It was a hard decision to make because Sasuke hadn't been evil; he'd just been lost. The weight of his death fell heavy on all three remaining members of Team 7, and they'd all taken different paths after they returned home.
Naruto had left the village again to once again throw himself into training.
He had felt like a failure for not being able to bring Sasuke back home alive. When he left, he had told Sakura that he needed to do this, that he could never accept the position as Hokage if he didn't. "How can I become Hokage and protect the whole village if I can't even save my best friend?" Naruto had told her, looking more defeated than she had ever seen him before.
That was two years ago. She often wondered when he would come back.
Sakura began working at the hospital full time. She didn't mind it—she preferred the hospital over field work. She had her fill of 'field experience' during the war, and she was happy to stay at the hospital to save lives rather than take them. She took missions when they required a highly skilled medic, but those were far and few between.
As for Kakashi… well, he was Kakashi. He remained as elusive and anti-social as ever. In fact, Sakura was pretty sure he was even more so since they had returned home. Sakura had tried to keep in touch with him after Naruto left, but he seemed to be purposely avoiding her.
He never stopped to talk to her when they saw each other, he never checked up on her, and last year he had even requested a different medic when he'd gone to the hospital. Sakura would be lying if she said that it hadn't hurt. Did he really hate her THAT much?
Sakura silently wondered if him pushing her away had anything to do with her choosing to save Naruto's life instead of Sasuke's. He was family to Obito, and Kakashi had always seemed drawn to Sasuke. Before Sakura could dive too much into that thought, she abruptly stopped in her tracks at the sight before her.
About ten feet away from her was Kiba, and he wasn't alone. He was sitting on a bench with a woman—a nurse from the hospital, Sakura realized, who had once shadowed Sakura on her morning rounds.
The two of them were obviously too involved with their activity to notice Sakura. Kiba had his hands up her shirt, hers were around his neck and she was in his lap with their tongues tied together.
Sakura was actually thankful for that. She and Kiba had not ended on the best of terms—he had broken up with her about four months ago, explaining that they weren't sexually compatible. When she had asked him to elaborate he referred to her as 'frigid.'
Detouring around the two, Sakura went inside the tea house to find Ino already waiting. She walked over to the table and immediately plopped down in the seat across from her friend.
"What's with you, Forehead?" Ino asked.
"That!" Sakura told her and tilted her head towards Kiba and the nurse.
Ino turned her head to see the cozy couple. Understanding her friend's distaste, she turned back to her friend and waved her hand dismissively. "Forget it, Sakura. Kiba is in for a rude awakening."
"What do you mean?"
"She has a reputation!"
"Ino, I think that's what he is looking for," Sakura said dryly.
Ino laughed. "Well, yeah. But she dips out after a time or two; she only does this to make her boyfriend jealous after a bad argument."
All Sakura could say was "oh" before the waiter arrived.
Both girls gave the waiter their orders and then he was off to give it to the kitchen and the girls fell into silence.
"Let's go out tonight," Ino suggested in an attempt to change the mood.
It had been a week since Sakura's night with Sukea, and she had been thinking about him and that night all week. She couldn't help but wonder when he would come through the village again and if he would look for her.
"Come on, Sakura. You need to unwind!"
It was true; Sakura had had a very long week at the hospital. There was a team that came on Wednesday that were barely clinging to life, it took her fourteen hours to save them both. On top of that she had a spinal reconstruction with Tsunade on Friday that took eleven hours.
While all of these things were good reasons for Sakura to unwind, they were also the majority of the reasons she didn't want to go. She was mentally and physically exhausted and the current state of things in her life was weighing on her.
Although, maybe this is just what she needed. Maybe she just needed a girls night out with her best friend. "Yeah, I think I'd like that Ino."
"Great, I'll meet you at your house at seven."
Completing the mission had been easy enough. The only interference they had was a run in with a small group of missing-nin on their way to Fukui. There had only been six of them and they'd all been near Chunin-level except for their leader. He was easily Jonin-level, if not stronger.
If it had been Kakashi alone on the mission, he might have had trouble with the missing-nin simply due to being outnumbered, but having Genma there with him made it an easy fight for the two of them.
Unfortunately, two of the men had escaped along with the leader. Kakashi had decided not to chase after the three since capturing them hadn't been their objective, but delivering the scroll on time was.
After dealing with the stragglers, Kakashi and Genma continued on to Fukui and made it there on schedule and without further incident.
Now Kakashi and Genma were making their way back to Konoha, leaping from tree to tree at top speed. The trees were flying by quickly, the leaves on them nothing but a blur of colors.
As they traveled through the trees, Kakashi couldn't keep his mind from drifting off to the woman who had occupied most of his thoughts this week. He had told himself that he would not seek her out when he returned from his mission, but the closer they got to the village gates the more she plagued his mind.
Almost every night this week Kakashi's dreams had been filled with Saki's responsive body and soft feminan moans. Her smooth creamy skin, vibrant red hair, and blue eyes… or were they green? In the dim light of the bar they had looked blue, but he seemed to remember them being bright green when he had looked down at her.
Kakashi and Genma quickly made their way down the empty streets of Konoha and up the stairs of the Hokage Tower. An hour later, they had finished the debriefing with Tsunade and headed towards the entertainment district. They were going to their usual spot, the Rusty Shuriken, to have a few drinks and unwind before heading home.
"Sakura, I'm here," Ino shouted as she made her way through the house towards Sakura's bedroom.
Looking at the clock on her nightstand, Sakura realized it was 7:00pm. "Shit. Already?" she grumbled in frustration. Ino was right on time, of course—she was never late to anything fun.
At lunch, Ino had suggested that they be in their henge forms when they went out tonight. Sakura agreed because she did enjoy blending in with the crowd. The problem was that now Sakura felt like she had nothing that looked right on her. She had bought all of her clothes for herself, not this body.
It really shouldn't have been this much trouble; she didn't look that much different from her usual self.
"I don't have anything to wear, Ino," Sakura told her in defeat as she flopped back on her bed.
Instead of comforting her, Ino simply walked over to Sakura's closet and began skimming through her clothes. After a minute or two, she grabbed a dark red flared skirt and a tight black top. It was perfect, and had taken Ino two minutes to throw together.
"How do you do that? I looked at that top three times over the past hour," Sakura huffed.
"You think about it too much," Ino answered with her hands on her hips. "Now, get dressed."
Sakura scrambled up from her bed, grabbing the outfit Ino had picked out and hastily dressing.
"Hurry up, Sakura! I want to go have some fun," Ino yelled from the doorway of Sakura's bedroom.
"Shut it. Ino; I'm coming," Sakura snapped back before grabbing her clutch and heading towards the door.
After Sakura had locked her front door, she turned to link arms with Ino and they headed off to the entertainment district.
"Where are we going anyways Ino? You never told me."
"We are going to The Rusty Shurinken," Ino answered with a suggestive smirk. Sakura knew what Ino was up to; they had been friends a long time and Sakura knew her well. She was trying to get Sakura to run into Sukea again. Oh well, what are the odds of him coming back only a week later?
Kakashi and Genma were sitting at a table close to the bar; they had been there for about an hour now and were a couple drinks in. Kakashi was sipping his drink slowly and trying to relax but it was hard with Genma drawing his attention to the door every five minutes while scoping out the bar for potential company for the night.
"Ohhh, that's what I'm talking about. Kakashi; check out the red head and the brunette that just walked in" Genma said getting Kakashi's full attention this time. Turning to look at the door, Kakashi nearly spit his drink out when he laid eyes on none other than Saki.
"Holy shit! It's her" Kakashi mumbled as he watched the girls make their way to the bar.
"Wait, it's who?"
"Saki, the red haired one is Saki," Kakashi explained.
"You mean your spit fire one-night stand from last week?"
Kakashi gave a short nod.
"Oh, this is great. Call them over here."
"No."
"What do you mean no? Just walk up and ask them if they want to join us."
"I can't."
"Why the hell not?"
"Because she wouldn't recognize me! I used a henge, remember?" He couldn't just casually call over a couple of girls who didn't know him. He would look like a creep.
"All you have to do is go to the bathroom, do the henge, and then on your way back out 'casually' bump into her as if you just saw her here."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, seriously."
"No!"
"Alright then. I didn't want to do this, but you're not leaving me much of a choice here. Do you remember that favor I did for you last month?"
Kakashi did remember. He had traded an overnight shift with Genma in exchange for Kakashi being his wingman for a night out. He knew where this was going and simply narrowed his eyes at his friend.
"Yeah, I thought you would. I'm cashing it in, right now!"
"Fine, but this is your one time. Don't try to 'cash in' again later," he said and pushed up from the table to head for the bathroom, casually passing behind the two women who were waiting for their drinks. He slipped into the bathroom, locked the door and quickly went through the hand seals for the henge.
Kakashi took a quick look at himself in the mirror and slipped back out into the main bar area.
Sakura and Ino were standing at the bar ordering drinks when a familiar head of messy silver hair passed behind them. Sakura momentarily froze at the sight of Kakashi but quickly relaxed. So he's back from his mission, huh?
Sakura wondered for a moment whether he would reach out to her in the next couple of days like he said that he would.
The bartender returned with their drinks and they turned away from the bar intending to look for an open table.
"I don't see anything open, do you?" Ino asked.
"I don't either. Maybe if we…" But her statement was cut short by the sight of a figure she recognized heading straight for them. It was Sukea; he was actually there.
"Ino, that's him. That's Sukea, they guys from last week," Sakura whispered to her friend.
Looking in the direction Sakura had indicated, Ino's eyes set on a man walking towards them. She and Sakura had been talking about him all week so Ino pretty much had his description memorized. That, and the fact that he was staring right at Sakura with a telling look in his eyes.
"Nice. You weren't kidding, were you?"
"Shhhh, before he hears you," Sakura warned just before Sukea came face to face with her.
"Saki! I didn't expect to run into you here tonight, but I can't say that I'm disappointed," he said with that handsome lopsided grin.
Sakura could feel the heat rising in her body and a deep blush that was now covering her face. Oh she was definitely in trouble tonight if he keeps up that charm he has now. "I. Uh, I wanted to see you too." She blurted out before she could stop herself. Why? Why did I say that? Now he probably thinks I'm some clingy girl who gets all attached after one night.
Her self-reprimand was interrupted by a loud and obvious throat clearing coming from Ino, who was still standing beside her. "Oh, I'm sorry. How rude of me, This is my friend Niko. Niko, this is Sukea." Sakura said, gesturing between the two.
"Nice to meet you, Sukea. We just got here and were trying to find an open table," Ino said while flipping her brown hair over her shoulder.
Kakashi's eyes went to the woman standing next to Saki. She was tall and lean with long brown hair and big brown eyes. She was wearing a skin tight black dress with an open back that was just a few inches shorter than Saki's red skirt.
No wonder she had caught Genma's attention so fast;,she was a picture of feminine sexuality and confidence. She was exactly Genma's type.
"We have some room at our table if you two ladies would like to join us," Kakashi offered.
"We?" Sakura inquired. He isn't here with another woman is he? Kami, I hope not. Shit! Maybe I am being clingy if I'm worried about stuff like that after just one night.
"Yeah, I'm actually here with a friend tonight; we have a table right over there."
"Perfect, let's go!" Ino said as she began walking towards the table.
"I guess that's a yes," Kakashi said, giving Sakura a pleased look. He was a little more pleased than he ought to have been that Saki had hoped to see him again as well. Plus, her having a friend along to hang out with Genma was perfect. Kakashi had a feeling that it was going to be a good night.
"Well, if she's okay with it, so am I," Sakura replied as she followed after Ino to the table.
When they arrived at the table, Kakashi quickly made introductions around the table. Sakura inwardly let out a sigh of relief when she realized Sukea's friend was another man and not a woman.
"Niko, this my friend Genma. Genma, this is Niko. She is Saki's friend."
"Pleased to meet you, Niko. Why don't you take the seat next to me and give those two some room, huh?" Genma asked, giving an appreciative tilt of his head to Niko and gesturing to the seat beside him.
Ino wasted no time before sliding into the seat next to genma, "Gladly."
Saki and Sukea both gave each other a knowing look; their friends were going to get along just fine it seemed.
Kakashi slid into the booth after letting Saki in first. As soon as he took his seat, Saki scooted in close enough that he could feel her smooth creamy thigh on his. He took this as a cue and wrapped one arm around her shoulders and she leaned in even closer to him.
Oh yes a very good night indeed.
