Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer applies.
A/N: Wow, this chapter had a lot of errors. I found that I had changed tense midway through and I HAD to fix it. How embarrassing lol.
Revised: March 3, 2017
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There were many times in Sakura's life where she had thrown caution to the wind with a grand ol' fuck it and did things that were not wholly beneficial to her growth as a person.
It still didn't detract from the fact that most of these things were incredibly fun, though.
Accompanying her best friend Ino to an unbelievably popular night club had been one of these moments, as they always were. The blonde bombshell had barged into her apartment—using Sakura's well-hidden spare key, of course—and had declared with a flourish that they had the perfect cause to celebrate. When Sakura simply stared at her, dumbfounded, Ino had flicked her bangs out of her face with a sigh.
"You're about to graduate medical school, Forehead." she said slowly, "As a prodigy!"
Sakura rolled her eyes but couldn't help the large smile that split her face. Ino was always looking for an excuse to party, and though Sakura was tired from her last few exams, her upcoming graduation was something worth celebrating. Therefore, she mustered up plenty of enthusiasm as Ino turned on some generic, up-beat pop song before rummaging through her closet and accessories.
A few hours later they had pulled up to a high class night club that Ino had somehow gotten wristbands for and Sakura struggled to contain her awe and excitement upon entering. She supposed there was a reason why it was so difficult to obtain access to such a private venue, and it was made all the more obvious in the way the place was decorated and built. The loud music pulsed in her chest as her eyes greedily soaked in the sight of dancing bodies, strobe lights, and glimmering chandeliers. She only ripped her eyes away from the scene when Ino pulled her through the grinding mass by their joined hands to stop at the bar where they were given complimentary shots.
Ino raised her glass with a beaming grin and shouted over the music, "To Dr. Haruno!"
Sakura had laughed to cover her embarrassment and raised her shot as well.
"To Dr. Haruno!" she repeated and both women happily tossed their drinks back. She had just finished placing her empty shot glass back on the bar counter when Ino grabbed her hand once more and pulled her onto the dance floor to start bouncing and dancing to the music.
Ino's zeal was infectious and Sakura soon found herself dancing along, drinking, and having an overall good time. At some point during the night—they must have been there for hours, she didn't know—Ino had approached her with a handsome man on her arm to tell her that she was leaving for obvious reasons, and handed Sakura a one-way taxi card for when she wanted to go home. Ino had seemed reluctant to leave her in such a place by herself, but Sakura had smiled easily and encouraged her with a sly wink to go and have her fun.
After Ino had left, Sakura was left to her own devices and she spent most of her time alternating between getting drinks from the bar and dancing with strangers for the next hour.
And then a grossly overweight man draped in only a towel was shoving her to the ground and Sakura had watched in hazy irritation as he pushed through more people who were too drunk to notice.
That was before gunfire rang out and the entire club erupted into a frenzy.
Sakura had quickly picked herself off the sticky floor lest she get trampled, but was jostled and shoved by terrified club goers trying to escape. She had been scared out of her wits, her palms sweaty, and breaths coming in rapid pants. Her bottle green eyes flicked over towards the fire escapes and entrances only to see that they were crowded by panicked masses and inaccessible.
Wincing when a cacophony of shots sounded above the music, she pivoted on her heel and hurriedly pushed her way through people to find another exit. Dismay had filled her heart when she noticed that there was nowhere else to go, but then her eyes landed on a storage closet and the amount of relief she felt at the sight was nearly on par with the amount of adrenaline coursing through her veins.
She had run towards it and slipped in silently, hoping and praying that no one had seen her enter, and then she sat her pretty little butt down in the corner of the surprisingly large storage room and fished out her trusty can of Mace from her purse and waited until everything quieted down.
Now, in hindsight, Sakura cursed herself for not locking the door to the damned supply closet; because if she had locked it, then perhaps she currently wouldn't be threatening a terrifying stranger with her gently-used can of Mace.
Said stranger was looking at her steadily as though she were as threatening as a kitten, and Sakura grit her teeth at the unspoken insult. She knew that she wasn't the most intimidating person out there, with her short petite stature and all, but her temper was legendary among her peers. And this man would become intimately familiar with it if he didn't stop looking at her like he was trying to convince her not to eat cookies before dinner.
She opened her mouth to demand he kick his gun towards her (she knew he had more somewhere on his person, so he wouldn't miss it anyway) when the door to the supply closet was suddenly kicked open and a man was barging in with a snarl and a gun pointed at her face. Sakura stumbled back with pitiful screech, her back hitting the cold wall, and her shaking hands—devoid of her lovely Mace because she dropped it into her lap in surprise like an idiot—raised in the universal sign for mercy and innocence.
The man paused and then lowered his gun; he placed it into his struggling waist band as his eyes roved over her body lecherously and the nausea that churned in her gut melded with her fear to make an awful cocktail of misery. He took a step toward her with clear intentions and she curled into herself, hoping that her long hair would hide the slow movement of her hands.
But before they could find their objective, the previously unnoticed stranger sprang from the shadows and hooked his arm around the bigger man's neck. The man struggled for a moment before tossing the silver haired man over his shoulder and he landed on his back with a grunt. Then he was on his feet, stepping to the left as the man lunged for him. The silver haired man then charged and the larger man threw up his forearms on the defensive, but he slipped to the side, pushed the man's elbow down and away, caught his head, and rolled him into the floor. But the larger man was undeterred and, for some reason Sakura didn't quite know, the silver haired man stumbled and leaned against the wall for a moment with labored breath.
She couldn't suppress the gasp that spilled from her lips as the man pulled his gun from where he had placed it in his waistband even as he pushed passed some stacked chairs. But the silver haired man did not seem intimidated by the gun aimed at his face; in fact, he rolled his hand under the man's wrist, drove the man's arm over and back, and pulled him backward and down. He had the gun in his own hand before the larger man slammed into the floor, and he hit him on the forehead with it two hard times and rendered him unconscious.
The man shut the door to the storage closet and there was a stunned silence in the aftermath; the only sound that filled the room was the man's harsh panting. Coming back to herself, Sakura grimaced at the blood flowing from the unconscious man's head before her attention was caught by the silver haired man who was bracing himself against the wall with shuddering breaths. Her eyes narrowed at the crimson dripping from his gloved hands, and she sucked in a sharp breath through her nose.
He was injured, and badly at that! She bit her lip as her conscience fought with her survival instincts. She wanted to bolt towards the door and pretend the whole fiasco didn't happen (as if she could ever forget the night she was almost raped and died), but her stupid compassionate heart wanted to give him medical aid. Sakura sighed and resigned herself to her fate, because deep down she knew that even if she had left, she would have pondered over his well-being for the next month or two.
Ino would most definitely kill her for what she was about to do.
Sakura cleared her throat awkwardly in an attempt to gain his attention, and the man struck her with the weight of his bi-colored stare. She supposed it was the shock and the alcohol speaking, but she was instantly intrigued by the medical possibility of having an eye with a grey iris and then the other with a red. But curious medical observations aside, she was surprised at the air of utter nonchalance that surrounded him even as he probably bled to death in front of her.
Sakura suddenly felt shy with some measure of apprehension; what could she say to someone clearly dangerous who saved her virtue? Well…what was left of it, anyway.
She bit her lip as he continued to look at her expectantly, and she had the distant thought that the entire series of events occurred in under five minutes like some type of action movie. But time was of the essence if she wanted to help him, so she settled for what came to mind:
"Um…"
He rose a silvery eyebrow at her clear eloquence and she nearly crumpled in mortification. Of all things to say!
"I-I mean, uh…" At this point he was blatantly staring at her with both eyebrows raised and Sakura wanted to crawl under a rock.
"You're bleeding." she squeaked and her hands trembled as she reached out for him, but he stepped away from her and she heard the warning cocking of his gun.
Sakura felt her famous temper rear its ugly head at the sound and she clenched her jaw. Was this man stupid? What was the point of saving her if he was just going to shoot her, too? It was a waste of time if she ever did see one!
Years later, when Sakura told her unbelieving friends about this night, she would attribute her misplaced temper that followed to how done she was with the whole fiasco.
She didn't realize that she had been speaking out loud until he began to speak. Startled green eyes sought his face in the dim lighting and narrowed at his hooded stare.
"I don't want you touching me, strange person." He said lowly, as though he were discussing the weather and Sakura could only blink in the face of such apathy.
"Okay, sir, I understand that I'm a stranger," she said slowly, indulgently, "But I'm graduating medical school soon and you're bleeding!"
The silver haired man rose a perfect, sleek eyebrow (which wasn't fair because she would bet serious money that he had never tweezed them before in his life) and a sound fell from his lips that might've been a chuckle had he not had a mask obscuring his face.
"And why does that matter to you, soon-to-be-med-school-graduate?" He asked flippantly and she nearly pulled at her hair in frustration.
"Be-because you saved me and you need to stop the bleeding," each word was punctuated with a wild gesture that made her accept that she was borderline hysterical but she was too concerned and stressed out to care, "And you should just let me help you like you helped me or-or who knows what will happen to you?"
"O-kay," he drawled, "And how do you intend to help me?"
Sakura blanched at that because, really, how was she supposed to help him? She didn't have any medical supplies at her disposal and it didn't seem like he did either. The look he gave her as he watched the realization cross her face was somberly triumphant, like he accepted that she couldn't do anything for him.
But Sakura was nothing if not tenacious and determined; so, with a huff, she turned around and started rifling through her purse. She had lots of things in there: makeup, a cell phone, cash, hand sanitizer, a flask full of vodka at Ino's behest, and feminine products. Pausing at the feminine products, Sakura rubbed the sterilized wrapper in thought before a small grin appeared on her face. Grabbing her purse, she quickly made her way towards the man who was now sitting on the floor clutching a hand to his wound. He must have removed his armored vest while she was looking through her things as it was now set on the floor to his left.
He eyed her warily, and she tried not to feel unnerved by his eerie stare. They followed her hand's movement as she pulled out an Ultra! Tampon, a pack of wet wipes, her flask, a bottle of Motrin, and an opened pack of nipple adhesives. She set them beside her and the man looked at her curiously.
"Lift up your shirt," she ordered clinically, already set in what she liked to call her 'medic mode.'
When he didn't immediately comply to her request, the pink haired woman growled and yanked the shirt up herself. She ignored his hiss of pain and examined the slowly weeping wound. Her eyes flicked over to her supplies and her lips thinned grimly; she hoped they would work.
Pulling out a damp sheet from the pack of wet wipes, she set about wiping away the blood from his pale skin and smooth abdominal muscles—and wow what a set of muscles those were. His eyes followed her silently as she reached for the flask, only grunting when she warned him that disinfecting the wound would sting a lot, and she hid a smirk under the curtain of her hair when he hissed as it washed away bacteria and the like.
Serves him right for trying to be a super, badass manly man!
He was mostly mute as she worked, and Sakura tried very hard to ignore the weight of his gaze on the crown of her head. Normally she would cherish silence when she was doing something particularly engaging, but under such a tense and bizarre situation, Sakura wished she at least had Ino's idle chatter to fill the void.
Chewing her lip as she kept examining his wound under the bright LED light of her cell phone, Sakura glanced at his face from under her lashes, saw how she held his attention, and tried to fill the awkward silence.
"So, um, I take you're some hitman or something?" She remarked casually, focusing intently on his wound and missing his sharp glance.
Her question was met with silence and she sighed; oh right, how could she forget that this guy sucked at conversation more than a hooker on Two Dollar Tuesdays? Also, how drunk was she to blatantly ask if he were an assassin. Balls, thy name is Grey Goose.
Ignoring the fact that he ignored her, she poked around the angry puckered skin of the bullet's entry wound for a few more moments and frowned. "It looks like the bullet is still in there, I can't get it out right now."
The silver haired man grunted in response and she gave him a particularly hard poke for his lack of participation. He flinched away from her hands and she tsk'd at him as she reached for the tampon next to her leg. She unwrapped it and moved towards the entry wound when he scrambled away from her with wide eyes.
"What are you doing?" He asked dubiously, eyes repeatedly flicking from the tampon in her hand to her face.
"I'm going to stop the bleeding," she replied blandly, green eyes holding his own steadily, "With this."
She held up the tampon, and he shook his head furiously at the blunted end of the purple tube.
"With that you're not," his tone held no room for argument even as he edged away from her as if she held a disease. She tried not to feel affronted; she was clean, thank you very much.
Growling low in her throat, Sakura stopped his movement by grabbing his arm and cuffed him upside the head in agitation. He gaped at her audacity and she took the opportunity to plunge the tampon into the bullet wound. He yelped at the unexpected pain and she nodded to herself in satisfaction when it expanded as it absorbed his blood until it stopped flowing all together. He stared at it incredulously and he whimpered (she almost snorted at that) when she gently kept it in place with a small pantiliner and a flower shaped nipple adhesive.
Oh woe to his masculinity!
"Did you really just shove a tampon into my bullet wound, woman?!" He cried as his wide eyes took in the contrasting tan color of the adhesive and his pale skin.
Sakura rolled her eyes as she carefully disinfected her hands with the rest of the vodka from her flask. Picking up the small bottle of Motrin, she spilled two small orange pills onto her hand and thrusted them at him.
"Here," she began, even as he continued to stare at her like she ate his first born or something, "take these—it'll help with the pain for a little bit."
When he didn't move to take the pills from her, Sakura grit her teeth and roughly grabbed his gloved hand and pried his fingers open to place them on his palm. He yanked it back with narrowed eyes and rolled the two tablets between his fingers before tossing them into the darkness of the storage closet.
Sakura swallowed the indignant shout of "Hey!" that bubbled up in her throat when he set his strangely beautiful eyes on her face. Swallowing nervously, she leaned away from him and shakily began to gather her things.
She cursed herself for forgetting that the man before her was a stranger and also extremely dangerous—the unconscious man lying a few feet away from her would be inclined to agree with that observation were he awake. Her heart pounded in her chest as she lifted her beryl eyes to quickly glance his way and she nearly jumped when she saw that he had not moved from his position of wary scrutiny.
Her mind racing with thoughts of peril, she averted her eyes as she slowly grabbed her cell phone from the floor. Carefully holding it at an angle that would illuminate his entire person so that she could see his hands (and what it was doing with that gun of his), Sakura bit her lip at the ominous shadows the light casted over his face. Her good deed was done; it was time for her to go.
"So, um, stranger," she cursed the way her voice shook, "but ah—"
"What is your name?"
His smooth voice startled her out of her terrified stupor enough to make her drop her phone. It fell with a clang and the room was enshrouded in darkness once more.
"Shit," she hissed and began fumbling around for the smooth cover. A voice in the back of her mind dismayed that her phone screen was most definitely broken after a fall like that.
Her fumbling was cut short when she found the room alight once more and the strange man placing her phone down to light the space between them. Freezing at the way he nonchalantly brought his hand back to rest on the pistol on his lap, Sakura fought to control the panic worming its way into her heart.
I am calm,she recited to herself, I am the gentle river. I am a koi fish in a pond. I will not hyperventilate or cry. I will answer his questions and then leave.
"What is your name?" He patiently asked again, his voice unnaturally calm for someone who must be in incredible pain.
"S-Sakura, sir."
If Sakura could turn back time and tell Ino that she had explosive diarrhea today and therefore couldn't accompany her to the club, she would.
"Well, Sakura," her name fell like chocolate from his lips, and even though she was so scared she'd piss herself were she a lesser person, Sakura could acknowledge that he had a pleasantly deep voice, "My name is Kakashi."
Her pink head bobbed in that way that said of course it is, and her lips curled in a tremulous smile as she stood on shaky legs.
"Great! Nice to meet you, Kakashi, sir, um," she stumbled over her words as her body inched towards the door, "just remember to remove that bullet as soon as possible a-and clean your wound and you'll be okay. It-it seems like everything's quieted down out there, and yo-you don't need my help anymore, right?! So I'm just gonna go and pretend this never happened. Okay, bye!"
The last few words came out in a rush as she lunged for the door, but she found herself blocked by the very tall silver haired man. Sakura squeaked as she bumped her forehead into his broad chest and she scrambled to put space between them.
Kakashi held his hands in front of him in a non-threatening manner, before shoving them into his pockets. She noticed with a small ounce of dismay that if she were to go by the slight tension in his shoulders, he had no intention of moving any time soon.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Sakura," he said pleasantly and Sakura's heart dropped to her feet in a way that almost made her sick.
"Why not?" She whined, her voice sounding pathetic even to her own ears.
Moving away from the door and nodding at the light shining into the room from under it, Kakashi ordered lowly, "Watch."
Sakura set aside her terror and focused on the slip of light. If she could focus on something besides that gut churning fear, then she would be okay. The bass from the still playing music thrummed under her heeled feet in tandem with her heart beat, and her brow furrowed in concentration. After a few moments of nothing happening, Sakura chanced a look at Kakashi who was still focused intently on the beam of purple light. She didn't know what to look for; in fact, all of this staring was only proving that the club had been emptied and they could leave the closet!
She opened her mouth to say as much when a sudden shadow flitted in front of the door and disrupted the flow of light into the closet. As she watched, the words died in her throat as she heard the worrying sound of shoes shuffling on the other side and saw more shadows skimming in front of the door.
"You see," Kakashi started gravely, and her head whipped to watch as he began calmly loading his gun and checking his magazines, "if you leave, you'll be shot. They've been gathering outside that door for the last five minutes."
"What,"she breathed, eyes widening as they stared at the now still purple light, "B-but how did they know we were in here?"
Kakashi shrugged before picking his armored vest from the ground and walking towards her, "Your guess is as good as mine."
She flinched away from him when he came to a stop in front of her, eyeing the armored vest and then his masked face warily. Licking her lips nervously, she pointed at the dark vest draped over his arm, "What are you doing with that?"
"Put it on," he ordered and Sakura blanched.
"What."
Kakashi sighed, as if she were doing him such a disservice, and held the vest out to her, "Put it on."
Sakura's eyes widened in realization and she shook her head, "No! I want no part in this mess!"
There was a pregnant silence for a few moments before Sakura tried again, "You can just leave me in here! They won't even know I'm here after you leave! I-I mean, they'll be distracted by you anyway, so just…I can stay in here and then go home…"
Her sentence ended weakly when she saw the flat stare Kakashi was sending her way. Exhaling and raking a hand through her hair, Sakura asked dismally, "Why can't we do that?"
Kakashi's surprisingly gentle when he slips the vest over her pouting head, and he was strapping the Velcro on the vest as tight as it goes when he finally answered in a low voice, "Because, they will search the closet, and finding you, will question you about my whereabouts until you are dead. And if you are not dead, they will make sure you wish you were."
Sakura frowned, her eyes clenching shut as tears welled in her eyes. This was just her luck. She only wanted to have a good night full of celebratory fun, get raging drunk and maybe have a one night stand with a handsome fellow, but instead she found herself in a situation where the prospect of tomorrow was uncertain.
A voice that sounded suspiciously like Ino whispered that her night has actually just gotten more exciting. So suck it up, Forehead!
Sakura was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of a cocking gun and her eyes found Kakashi in the dimness of the closet. She watched the steady movement of his hands as he pulled knives from his boots and checked the amount of rounds he had left. Awkwardly shifting her weight, Sakura wrung her hands anxiously as he tightened his gloves and pulled a hood over his shock of silver hair.
"How many are out there?" she asked softly, and Kakashi shrugged in response.
"I don't know, ten," he replied distractedly, his eyes scanning the room, "Maybe more."
The blood drained from Sakura's face and she felt faint.
"Ten?!" She yelped, her hands coming to pull at her hair in dismay, "How are you going to get passed ten guys?!"
But Kakashi was already walking towards a corner of the closet where there were stacked chairs and a tall stand full of cleaning supplies. Sakura followed after him, the click of her heels drowned by the blood rushing in her ears.
"Aw," Kakashi cooed and there's a smile in his voice as he glances back at her, "Are you worried about little old me?"
Sakura's jaw slackened at his teasing; this was not the time to be cute! Of course she's worried! He's her ticket out of there! Clenching her jaw, Sakura opted to stare at him dryly in response. Coughing into his fist, Kakashi resumed his perusal of the objects in front of them.
"This will do," he mumbled softly and then straightened from where he was bent over examining the back of the tall stand to turn to her.
"I want you to hide in here," he said and gestured behind the tall stand of cleaning supplies, "Don't come out until I call your name, and try to keep quiet."
Sakura could only nod mutely as she settled down in the corner, her heart pounding and palms sweaty. She watched through gaps in the metal stand as he picks up her things—making it look like she was never even there, and Sakura has the distant thought that he must be very good at his job—and then quietly hands them to her. He was already turning away from her when Sakura swallowed the terror in her throat long enough to speak.
"You won't forget about me, right?" She asked softly. For all of her strength, and her ability to kick death in the face, Sakura was still awfully and irrevocably terrified of the thought of dying. Kakashi paused mid step before turning towards her to crouch in front of her until they were at eye level.
Taking her hand in his, he smiled at her with his strange eyes in a way that was oddly comforting, "I'll be back for you. I won't leave you behind."
She believes him.
Which is, honestly, insane.
And then he's walking towards the door and Sakura held her breath as he pulled a gun from his pocket. Kakashi inhaled deeply, shaking out the tension from his shoulders, and everything was a blur of movement after that.
Sakura only has the courage to watch him kick open the door forcefully before shutting her eyes as the piercing sound of gunshots filled her ears. Her mind supplied that this was nothing like the video games her cousin played and a whole lot scarier.
Gun shots and shouts echoed throughout the room for what seems like an eternity but in reality only lasts ten minutes before she heard the strong shout of, "Sakura!"
Scrambling to her feet, Sakura grabbed her bag and ran towards the door when her ankle was suddenly grabbed from behind. She fell with a cry, pink hair whipping at her face as she turned to see the unconscious man from earlier grasping tightly onto her slim ankle. He was groaning, and boy did he look pissed off. His eyes were bloodshot, and there was a nasty bruise blooming across his face courtesy of Kakashi.
His hands flexed as they dragged her towards him, and she screamed in terror. God, this all seemed like some horribly cliché movie where the girl falls and dies; but Sakura can't accept being that girl, so she screamed for Kakashi and started kicking at the guy's face with her heeled boot until his hand slackened. She kicked him one more time for good measure and then suddenly she was being pulled away from behind. She flailed in the unknown person's arms until it registered that her impromptu companion was the one holding her.
Her heart beating like the frantic flutter of a hummingbird's wings, Sakura shut her eyes as loud gunshots pierced her delicate eardrums before Kakashi let her go. He was already walking towards the open door when she deemed it safe enough to open her eyes and she followed quickly behind him, careful not to look back or lose sight of him. The loud sound of a dance song assaulted her ears and, for a moment, everything felt surreal to her, as if the music were providing a soundtrack to the current events in her life. Wide, gumdrop eyes took in the shattered windows and mirrors, the once beautiful pillars chipped away and riddled by bullet holes, and the collapsed chandeliers.
That stupid voice in the back of her head wondered who was going to pay for all of the damages, and she couldn't help but grimace.
She took a step towards where she saw Kakashi leaning against a wall and peeking around the corner, but her foot caught on something heavy and she tripped. That's when she noticed the bodies.
"Oh my god," she whimpered and bile rose in her throat. She was standing in a pool of blood and there were so many bodies that she might have to step over them—or, disgustingly enough, on top of them—to get to where her silver haired companion was. He said ten! There were at least fifteen corpses laying in various states of trauma all around her!
Dangerously close to hyperventilating, Sakura decided that it was best if she got herself far, far away from there lest she get incriminated when the police show up. Or she passes out, whichever comes first. Her back hit the wall next to Kakashi as she lunged towards him, her knees weak and he spared her a glance before turning back to look around the corner.
Sakura managed to calm herself enough to look him over for any injuries and she iwas surprised to note that besides the one wound from earlier, he seemed relatively unharmed—albeit a little bloody.
Whatever Kakashi saw beyond their spot around the corner managed to upset him greatly, because she heard him harshly spit a curse before turning to her.
"Have you shot a gun before?" His voice was sharp and very different from the way he spoke to her last. Sakura won't lie and say it didn't intimidate her at least a little.
"N-no," she stuttered, and bit her lip when Kakashi cursed again. On second thought, maybe she should lie more often.
Her mouth opened to ask him why it would matter if she's ever shot a gun when he so clearly knows how to, when he thrusted a pistol and a magazine at her. Fumbling with it, Sakura awkwardly shifted its unfamiliar weight until it felt somewhat comfortable in her hands. The gun was still warm, but she didn't want to think about where—or who—he got it from.
"Listen to me carefully," Kakashi enunciates slowly, and Sakura has a strong feeling that he's going to say something she's not going to like at all.
"You are holding a 9mm pistol," he began and she swallowed nervously; she had no idea what he's talking about, "To shoot it, you pull the trigger," Well, duh, obviously, "But you have to switch it off of SAFE first," Oh, she didn't know that, "When you run out of bullets, eject the magazine using the release button here," Kakashi touched the small button on the side of the pistol's grip and Sakura nodded, "Then take the spare I gave you and slip it into the magazine well, rack the slide back, and then shoot."
At that, Sakura gave him a blank look and Kakashi demonstrated for her. Now, normally, Sakura was a quick learner, but something about guns always confused the hell out of her. Her two best friends were obsessed with them, but Sakura would much rather use her fists of fury.
Noticing how Sakura wasn't quite understanding what he was saying, Kakashi decided to simplify it for her.
"Just remember these three words: Tap, Rack, Bang."
At Tap, Kakashi loaded a magazine into what she assumed was the magazine well, tapping the bottom of it hard enough so that she heard the click of it catching and locking. For Rack, he slid the top part of the gun back and then checked that a round was chambered.
"Bang is self-explanatory," he said dryly, "Keep your finger straight and off of the trigger until you are ready to fire, do you understand me?"
Sakura nodded but she still didn't quite understand why she had to know all of this; when she asked, Kakashi exhaled and suddenly looked a lot older than she what she actually thought.
"Because, Sakura," he said tiredly, looking world weary and resigned, "I can't protect you from the unknown. I'd rather you didn't do this."
Her pink lips tightened into a grim line and she nodded despite the way her heart stuttered at the thought of shooting a weapon to defend herself. Kakashi laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder and she smiled gratefully at him as they both began to pull away from the wall to cautiously walk down the abandoned hall.
That was until he looked back at her and said, "Remember, two in the chest, and one in the head."
Sakura nearly choked on her own spit and stumbled over her own feet.
"Oh my god!" she screeched, "I am not killing anyone!"
The sound of Kakashi laughing humorlessly—indulgently, as if to sarcastically say of course you're not—made the hairs on the back of her neck rise in alarm.
Something in her snapped at the sound and she stopped in the middle of the red-lit corridor.
"No!"
Kakashi turned in time to see Sakura fling the loaded gun at the floor between them, and his eyes coolly lifted from the gun to her angrily flushed face.
"Don't do that again," he warned as he bent over to pick it up and tucked it into the waistband of his pants, "I mean it."
"I don't care!" Sakura hissed, "I am not killing anyone! I'm supposed to save lives, not take them! I refuse!"
"Okay."
"There's no—what did you say?"
Kakashi scrubbed his hand over his masked face and she felt mildly guilty for stressing him out so much—but not by much, "I said that's fine."
"Oh," she supplied weakly, unsure of what to say now that she got her way, "Thanks."
His silver head nodded at her before he turned around and began walking once more, telling her to stay close to his side so that he could at least attempt to protect her.
"Oh, and Sakura," he said casually as they turned into another empty, but severely damaged hallway, "Don't ever throw a loaded gun at me. It could have misfired and shot you in the face."
Sakura managed to squeak out an embarrassed apology before pretending to look for threats, sure that the flush warming her face matched the shade of her hair, and plucked an abandoned martini from a curiously unscathed bench.
She was definitely going to need a healthy amount of liquid courage for tonight, Gods help her.
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tbc
Two Cents: "Two to the chest, one to the head" is derived from the Failure to Stop drill taught to law enforcement and military. There is also the Controlled Pair drill and multiple target engagement drill.
Each one is lethal, as they all involve shots to the pelvis, chest, and head.