Chapter 23

The next morning Kakashi woke up feeling satisfied and happy. He turned to look at the woman sprawled naked next to him sleeping peacefully, and got up quietly to have a shower and get breakfast started.

As he reached the kitchen the lemon bars on the counter put a smile on his face. He distractedly made coffee thinking back to the events of yesterday. Once the band aid had been ripped off, they had repeated the exercise numerous times afterwards.

After that first time, they'd showered together, made themselves a light supper and fooled around like a couple of teenagers before moving the act upstairs to the master bedroom.

Kakashi took a sip of his hot coffee as a distraction to stop the racy thoughts.

"Hey" a soft voice called out and he turned guiltily to look at Hinata coming down the stairs. He hoped his thoughts weren't transparent on his face. "Good morning" he walked over to give her a hug. "How are you feeling?".

"Oh I feel great" she said and then flushed to a bright red colour.

Kakashi laughed at her reaction, poking fun of her and before long she came next to him to help with their breakfast.

The day passed by relatively quickly afterwards. They logged onto work that morning but agreed to take the evening off to go on a late lunch picnic. By the time Kakashi came out of his office Hinata had already packed a lunch basket for them.

They hiked 30 minutes to a nearby lake that Kakashi had wanted to show her for a while now. It was a beautiful small body of water surrounded by a thick forest covering. Other than the sounds of various birds, the area was very still and quiet.

"So they found a similar compound?" she asked as they spread out the picnic cloth on the shores of the lake.

"Yep seems like they just need to cross reference the sample against the poison to confirm whether this is a harmless variant of the poison or is in fact a neurotranqualizer" he said dryly.

Despite the serious nature of the topic Hinata was too happy to feel downtrodden about the news they were waiting for. Instead she started taking items of food from the basket and Kakashi sat down uncorking the sparkling peach juice they had brought along with them.

"This is so peaceful", Hinata looked out at the lake, taking a bite of her bun.

"Hmmm, yes… we used to swim here,"

"The Hataka clan?"

"And others too," Kakashi said, taking a swig of the juice. "Now it's a bit quieter, since there isn't a clan in the area bringing traffic here."

"When did you learn how to swim?"

"Um… when I was very young, I don't even remember the difference between swimming vs. walking to be honest" he said thinking back to his childhood.

"Want to go for a swim then?" Hinata asked with a teasing smile.

"Now… will you be skinny dipping?" he looked at her in interest.

She hesitated nervously looking around.

"There is no one around, you can check with your Byakugan".

Kakashi had already started taking off his shirt, pants, shoes and socks. Hinata was speechless, partly because she still wasn't used to seeing him undressed like this... It was a spectacular sight. And partly because of how scandalous this situation was.

But using her Byakugan, Hinata realized that he was right. There was no one around here, so after taking a deep breath for courage, she started removing her clothes. Kakashi had stripped down to his underwear, so she opted to do the same. When she was done all she had on was her red lace bra and panties.

Hinata slowly dipped her toe and then gingerly entered the freezing cold water bit by bit, ignoring the interested looks Kakashi was throwing at her as he floated by on his back. Ah that's better she thought finally getting acclimated to the temperature. She kicked out her limbs and started moving through the water swimming deeper into the lake.

Swimming was one of her favourite activities. She liked it because after the initial adjustment of entering the water, it didn't take long for one to feel one with the element, to float on it and move fluidly through it, like dancing.

Hinata had been floating and relaxing on her back with her eyes closed when she was grabbed around the waist and pulled down. When she came up splattering a second later, Kakashi swam out of her reach with a smile.

Oh it was on, she thought. Without a second thought Hinata conjured up a wave and sent it to Kakashi who rode it out like an expert. He countered with a spurt of water that shot up next to her sending her off balance. Laughing, Hinata regained her equilibrium and started throwing projectile water balls at Kakashi while he did his best to duck. Before long she had dunked him quite a few times. They spent hours frolicking in the water.

After tiptoeing around each other all afternoon, he eventually caught her up against him and kissed her, carrying her back to shore and onto their picnic blanket.

Hinata made desperate sounds as he kissed down the column of her neck and moved on to her breasts. Kakashi moved the cups of her lace bra aside, taking her nipples in his mouth and all she could do was close her eyes and give into the sensations of melting.

After lavishing her breasts with attention, he continued kissing and licking down her flat stomach. Before she knew it he had reached her panties moving it aside to taste her core. She gasped sitting up scandalized.

"W-what are you doing?" she asked with a flaming red face.

"Shhhhh" he replied and moved to lick and suck at her clit applying even more pressure. Soon he entered his tongue into her and she started shuddering from the simulation. Hinata couldn't register what was happening, but the familiar feeling of a fire started building in her core streaking up her legs. Soon her back bowed, and her muscles tightened as an orgasm ripped through her.

Kakashi was gently licking and nipping at her thighs when she calmed down. Without any comments he moved over and entered her gently. He moved slowly at first but soon her hands were on his butt encouraging him to move faster as she whipped her own hips in rhythm.

Thinking back to yesterday Hinata put her arms on his shoulder and pushed as she swung herself over him. Now he was on his back and she was seated on top of him. She'd come to realize that she rather liked this position and Kakashi seemed to enjoy watching her like this. Just as she predicted his eyes were heated as he glanced up at her moving on him. She increased her pace and he struggled to keep his eyes open at the onslaught of sensations. "Hinata...please" he muttered in a guttural voice as he moved his hand between them to strum her clit. With a cry Hinata ground down on him even harder as she came apart for him one more time. This time Kakashi followed along with a rough cry as he too stiffened and came.

Despite the fact she had been a virgin, Ino had insisted a few months ago that Hinata go on the birth control pill. As she collapsed in a pile of sweat to the picnic blanket, she sent a silent prayer of gratitude to her friend.

About an hour later they got dressed again and slowly trekked back to the house. They were so wrapped up in each other that they were stunned upon entering to find people buzzing about the compound without hazmat suits. Shizune was standing in the living room looking panicked.

"Oh, there you are!" she cried out after she spotted them, but her voice slowly trailed off taking in the wet and rugged appearance of the two.

Kakashi cleared his throat, "Is everything okay?" he asked calmly, pretending that it wasn't painfully obvious to everyone what they had been up to for the last few hours. Also he didn't have a mask on… wonderful.

"Uhhhhh" the normally self assured woman stared at him flabbergasted. But she recovered in a few seconds, "yes, we got the okay for you to come out of quarantine, the substance was confirmed to be a known poison in the Land of Iron, and we have the antidotes for you both here. The Kage tower is secure for you to come back and I'm sorry to say this Hokage-sama but we need you in as soon as possible".

Kakashi knew the political state of the nation had been eroding while he had been in quarantine so it was imperative that he get out and take back control of the situation.

"Right" he nodded to Shizune. "Can you give us an hour….I need to change and make sure Hinata-san is taken care of," he said.

"I can take care of things here with Hinata-san, If you can please go shower and get ready. The ANBU are here to escort you".

"I'm fine Hokage-sama" interjected Hinata. "This is wonderful news! Thank god we are going to be okay. Please go ahead and take care of what you need to. I am going to pack up and I'm sure Shizune-san can help me get home" she finished gently with a smile.

"Right….okay" Kakashi said as he nodded to both women and went upstairs. He wasn't comfortable leaving things with Hinata like this... he needed to find a moment to talk to her as soon as he could. Kakashi took the antidote, showered and made it out of the house in record time.

After a thorough debriefing, Shizune left Hinata alone in the house to pack up. She had learned from Shizune that Sai had identified the compound from the Land of Iron and they had sent over the recipe for the antidote in order for Konoha to develop it in house. That is how they had taken care of this situation so quickly. Sai was staying around the Land of Iron to investigate further why a deranged doctor had attacked Konoha in the first place. But for the time being this threat seemed to have been effectively neutralized.

Hinata was assigned a few Shinobi to escort her back home. She didn't need them of course, but arguing in these current circumstances felt unnecessary so she went with it. With Shizune gone Hinata had some proper time to say goodbye to the house.

This felt very bizarre. The events of the last week had been anything but normal… but it had allowed her to have more time than she ever thought was possible with the love of her life. She doubted she would ever forget the events that had transpired here and in an odd way she was grateful for how they had come to quarantine together.

It was easy to feel grateful once you make it through a situation like this, not while you are living it, Hinata thought with amusement. She shook her head at the turn of her thoughts and instead looked out at Kakashi's house saying a bittersweet goodbye to it.

Within five minutes Hinata had left the premise, taking with her all signs of her presence, except for the slight traces of her signature guava scent.

.

.

The next few days had been chaos for Kakashi. He went from living in his house with Hinata, to living in the Kage tower trying to get a handle on the situation brewing in Konoha. While he had been quarantining, there had been a few political power plays carried out by the elders of the Village. He was a progressive leader, and he did things a bit too modern for the taste of some, so they had been trying to leap on this chance to oust him from power. But now that he was well and healthy he was able to squash these efforts and regain control. On top of that, there was of course the day to day business that went into running a country. So for about a week after their release from quarantine Kakashi had been working around the clock.

He had been eager to speak with Hinata at some point, but he'd barely had time to sleep as it was, so that hadn't been do-able. Now a week and a half later things finally calmed down so he penned a note to Hinata and sent it along with a genin requesting an audience with her. They needed to talk about what had happened.

"What is going on with you and Hinata?" Shizune asked curiously watching the genin flee from the room.

"What do you mean?" he paused looking at her.

"I mean… what's going on with you two?" she said unafraid to challenge him.

"It's complicated,'' Kakashi sighed. "I think... I may have feelings for her".

"Really?" Shizune gasped sitting in the couches of his office. She patted the seat next to her and after a few seconds of hesitation he reluctantly got up and joined her.

"Since when have you liked Hinata?"

"...It started when we were assigned the Kirigakure mission. You know the one I mean?" he asked and Shizune nodded. She thought a few people had noticed something had been off with those two since they got back from that mission. But after a few weeks she had forgotten all about it. Kakashi and Hinata had not interacted much before the mission and after that mission they continued to avoid each other. There hadn't been anything bizarre about that, except for the longing looks she would catch them throwing each other when they thought no one was watching.

"So what happened with you two?" she asked.

"Nothing much during the actual mission… and after we got back home she told me she liked me, but you know… there was nothing new about that".

Shizune nodded, Kakashi has had a few of his past co-workers profess their love to him. So that wasn't anything new to him.

"The weird thing was that... I wasn't able to get her out of my mind after that. I haven't slept with anyone in two years Shizune… well… not until last week" he said, casting her a sheepish glance.

Shizune suddenly sat up not finding this situation so amusing anymore. "Did you play with her heart and sleep with her?!" she yelled.

"No… I mean she wanted to sleep with me… no strings attached".

She sighed, "you should know better than to take that seriously, especially coming from Hyuga Hinata".

"I know…" he said racked with guilt. "But I actually really enjoyed these last two weeks with Hinata. Since we got back from Kirigakure, I missed her... I just couldn't figure out why that was. I distracted myself with work and I tried to move on from her of course, but I couldn't get her off my mind. I thought a few years later it would be different… but to be completely honest I've never been happier than these last two weeks".

Shizune sighed and looked at her friend fondly. She knew what Kakashi had been through in his life… but she wasn't privy to what his childhood had been like. She knew enough to know that he used emotional distance as a prolonged defense mechanism. At the end of the day he was afraid of loving someone too strongly because of how shattered he might be if he lost them. So he kept people at a distance.

"So what's the problem?". She probled gently. "Go tell her how you feel!"

"What do you mean?" he asked confused.

"Well you clearly love her". She said matter of factly.

"Love!" Kakashi stood up as if that was a word that burned. "No…. this is not love, its lust. I mean I think of her as a friend and we have good chemistry and I love certain qualities about her, but I am not in love with her".

Shizune laughed and then quieted down at the look on his face, before adding gently, "What… do you think love is? I mean yes, the grand romantic movies make it a bit complicated to understand sometimes, but love is simple, it's being best friends with someone and wanting to be around them all the time. It's accepting someone for their good as well as their bad and wanting to grow old with them. I mean I'm not going to pretend that it always works out or that there is always a happy ending but the jist of falling in love is fairly easy. The hard part is staying in love. You are a well read man, do you mean to tell me you haven't read about the stages of love?"

"Somehow that never piqued my curiosity" he said sarcastically.

"Well there are stages of love... you may want to read up on it given your fear of commitment IF you want to give your relationship with Hinata a real shot." she patted his hand.

"I mean I warned her, when we got assigned this mission to Kiri. I warned her not to fall in love with me. That I couldn't give her what she needed…"

"Kakashi…" Shizune said patiently, "from what I am hearing, Hinata isn't asking you for anything. Maybe you should have given yourself that warning". With that Shizune rose up from the couch looking at her watch, she needed to head back to the hospital. "Are you going to be okay?".

"Yeah… yeah I am fine, thanks Shizune" he replied looking her in the eye and she could tell that he meant it.

Later that day Hinata stood outside of Kakashi's house nervously. He had asked her to visit her tonight but she had no idea what this was about. Hinata had heard from her father and sister what had been going on nationally while they were in quarantine so she knew that the last few days must have been rough on him. The situation with her clan however had been less dire upon returning home, her father and sister had done a great job of taking care of day to day clan business.

Ryoko had called her again recently, this time expressing his relief to hear that she was well. She had enjoyed talking to him again as a friend and was relieved to hear that he was getting engaged to a girl from Kirigakure. Hinata was truly happy for him. She had even promised to attend his wedding! After the complications of the last two weeks she needed to figure out the cluster fuck that was her own life of course... but that could wait for the time being.

Hinata straightened her hair one last time and then rang the doorbell.

Within a minute or so Kakashi came and answered the door maskless. He was casually dressed in a pair of grey sweats and a black t-shirt. She smiled upon seeing him and couldn't help but give him a hug. He looked tired but well. He was freshly showered as well so the smell of his body wash that she loved so much was clinging to him.

Hinata walked in taking her light jacket off, "I heard that everything was a huge mess politically, is everything sorted now?".

"Ummm… yes more or less" he said, giving her a nervous quirky smile.

"Is everything okay, you look worried?" she replied.

"Yes… I mean I expected you to be angry with me… about how we left things".

"Oh… of course not, I'm not upset with you. I know you had more than enough things to worry about". Hinata held up the bag she had bought with her, "I brought you dinner. If you've already eaten just put it in the fridge so you can eat later". It was some vegetable noodles and a chicken curry that she had made especially for him.

Kakashi took the bag from her hands like a man who was sleepwalking and walked over to the kitchen putting the food on the island. He was acting weird but she decided to ignore it for the moment, he must have really expected her to be mad at him.

"Have you gotten any rest?" she asked, observing him.

"Oh… no I've barely been able to sleep" he said over his shoulder finally snapping out of his stupor. "I umm…. I was too busy".

"Well you should rest, you look tired".

Almost as if that thought hadn't occurred to him, Kakashi ran his hand over his face looking a bit self conscious all of a sudden. She snapped her mouth shut observing this odd behaviour. The Kakashi she knew didn't care what he looked like.

"I need to talk to you Hinata, but maybe today isn't the best time" he murmured.

She watched him carefully for a few seconds before replying, "I can tell whatever it is, is weighing on your mind heavily. Hold on let me fix us up some drinks".

She walked over to his liquor cabinet and poured them both a splash of vodka with coke. "Here… liquid courage" she said, passing the glass to him with a smile.

"Right, thank you. Um… a couple of nights ago you told me that you had feelings for me".

Hinata paused mid sip of her drink and looked at him in surprise. "Umm… yes" she finally admitted with a deep sigh.

"I… I've recently had some realizations myself. Hinata… I think I might have feelings for you too?"

She looked up at him with a sharp inhalation, could this be true? This is what she had waited for the last two years to hear. With her heart in her throat she stared into his eyes. She stared deeply and instead of love what she saw there was... fear. Fear and conflicted emotions. Hinata released the breath she had been holding with disappointment and felt moisture gather in her eyes.

"Kakashi… you… you don't love me" she said in a voice thick with unshed tears.

"What do you mean?" he frowned.

"You… you talked to me a few years ago about lust vs love and how not to confuse the two. I think you… I think you might need that same lecture now".

Kakashi paused and looked at her guiltily.

"Hinata I don't know for sure what I feel for you I think… I think it's love, I… I think I can do it now… you know… get married. I think I can do it for you" he said finally.

She closed her eyes in disappointment and counted to 10 so that she could talk without crying.

"You… um.. That's great news Kakashi, that you've made progress and you aren't as afraid of commitment as before. But you don't want to marry me… you only think you want to because you want to do the right thing since we had sex. It would be funny if it wasn't so ironic" she muttered thinking back of the excuse she had given to Ariko years ago of why Kakashi had finally agreed to marriage. But upon that reflection she did break down and start crying.

"Y-you...can find someone else K-kakashi… you d-don't need to get married. S-start small.. maybe have a r-realtionship first and you know what… there are p-plenty of women out there who have the same views on marriage as you!" she sniffled.

He moved to come closer when she cried but she held her hand up asking him to stay away.

"I'm going to be okay," she said confidently. "I don't regret anything we did and I think I will be ready to move on soon as well".

He felt his gut churn hearing that, he didn't want her to move on from him. He definitely knew he didn't want her to date anyone else but he didn't know what to say to convince her that he wanted to be with her because whatever he had already said had been a horribly butchered attempt. He could at least see that much clearly.

Hinata turned and grabbed her purse to leave.

"Wait Hinata don't leave!" he said moving towards her in a hurry.

"No I should go… we have said everything we need to… I think you are confused Kakashi and you need to get some sleep" she went to the door. She grasped the handle and turned to him one last time to say, "Please take good care of yourself" before leaving.