Chapter 7 Love Triangle

The evening breeze was cool and fresh; it rustled the leaves of the trees that lined the street. The streetlamps twinkled on as Sakura stepped outside the door of her apartment building. She wore an aqua mandarin dress with embroidered cherry blossoms of the softest pink. It showed off her lean legs and hugged her feminine curves just so. She had opted to do her hair in a simple bun and placed two decorative hair sticks in it. It had been quite a long time since she had the chance to dress up. She enjoyed getting even though she knew this night would be filled with anxiety.

The tall dark haired man Sakura was waiting for approached. As he reached the steps where she was standing, his eyes glided over her and lingered hungry where her thigh was revealed by the slits in the dress. She could see the raw desire in his midnight black eyes. She suddenly wished she had worn a burlap sack instead.

"Hello, Sakura. You look stunning." Sasuke greeted her with a peck on the cheek.

"Thanks." Sakura straightened her dress tensely trying to avoid his eyes as much as possible.

"Shall we?" He placed a hand on the small of her back and motioned forward with his other. "I was hoping that it would just be the two of us tonight but I hear that we can't miss Kakashi's welcome home party."

"No, we can't." She said feeling a little better now that Sasuke attention was on the path and not her body. "He was our sensei and we were the ones to find him. It's expected for us to be there."

"Yes, of course, you're right. Seeing as we are alone now, I wanted to…" Sasuke started but was interrupted by a couple heading directly for them.

"Sakura!" The blonde Sand kuroichi yelled waving her hand and pulling the young man at her side by his arm. "Good, we won't be the last to arrive."

"Hi, Temari, Hi Shikamaru." Sakura said more happily than was warranted but she was thrilled with the timing of the pair.

"It took me forever to get this lazy bum out of the house." Temari pointed at Shikamaru whom just rolled his eyes.

"Yea, Yea. Better late than never." He shook hands with Sasuke and gave Sakura a smile.

The two pairs walked together through the lamp lighted streets to the Sake Lounge. Sasuke filling Shikamaru in about the mission and finding Kakashi while Temari told Sakura about how the wedding plans were coming along.

The Lounge had a modern sleek design with a long mahogany bar running down the wall on the left. Behind the bar were glass shelves filled with all kinds of sake, different colored lights up light the bottles. Tables and booths were scattered around the room. In the center of the Lounge was a large glass enclosure, which housed a traditional Zen garden. The mixture of the old and new and lively and tranquil had a yin and yang quality to it. It was quite nice.

Sakura looked around the crowded room. It seemed all of Konoha had come to welcome their copy ninja home. She spotted a patch of silver hair and a mask. Kakashi was sitting at one of the larger tables with a bunch of senior ranked shinobis as well as Tsunade and Jiraiya. Evidently some of them had been there awhile and had been enjoying the high-quality sake the Lounge had to offer. To Sakura's surprise even Kakashi, who wasn't a drinker, had a glassy eye look to him. Another shock came in the shape of attractive brunette sitting next to him. The woman was laughing at something he had just said as she did the masked jounin put his arm around her shoulders and drew her closer to him.

Sakura gaped at the twosome. "Who the hell is that?" screamed Inner Sakura. Suddenly there was this incredible urge inside Sakura to grab the woman by her long brown hair and pull her away from Kakashi. This desire was stopped from becoming an action by the appearance of Naruto.

"Finally, you guys made it." He said brightly. "Temari, I thought that you would have been able to light a fire under Shika and get him off his lazy ass."

Sakura noticed he was grinning wider than usual and that was saying something in Naruto's case. It didn't long to figure out the reason as a dark haired woman with white eyes walked from behind him.

"Hi, everyone." She said quietly.

Shikamaru's face contorted in anger. "Cut the crap, Uzimaki, I'll kick your big ass anyday."

"Name the date and time and wipe the floor with you." Naruto fired back.

Sasuke stepped between the two, putting up his arms leveled with the others chests." Guys, please stop this nonsense. I can beat both of you in my sleep."

The three girls sigh exasperated. "Boys!"

"Come on, Mr. Tough Guy, let's say hi to Kakashi-san." Temari tagged Shikamaru by the arm to main table.

The rest walked towards a smaller but that only meant that is was crammed with people. The others of Sakura's group from the Academy were there chatting loudly.

Sasuke pulled out a chair for Sakura. He pulled another vacant chair from the table nearby and sat next to her, leisurely draping his arm on the back of hers. She could tell it was his way of marking his territory. It irritated her. She hadn't accepted him and she wasn't an object that he could claim as his property.

Sakura spent next few hours talking and laughing with her friends. Even the tension she was feeling towards Sasuke faded and she began enjoying his company again.

Lee was standing on top of the table demonstrating a new taijutsu Gai-sensei had taught him earlier that day. He was trying to get Neji to help him better show how it worked. Neji adamantly refused.

"Neji, this technique needs two people to display its true amazing power." Lee explained.

"No. I will not make an idiot out of myself." Neji stated flatly crossing his arms.

Sasuke took the chance that the group was occupied with Lee's show to have his private tête-à-tête with Sakura. He leaned close to her ear and whispered. "Let's go into the garden."

"Umm, well…" Sakura was at a loss of words. Being taken by surprise hadn't given her time to think of an excuse to avoid this. Well she wouldn't be able to ignore him forever and it would just become harder and more awkward if she let the situation. "Fine." She conceded.

He took her by the hand and led her off to the secluded garden. They sat on a wooden bench that faced a koi pond. Sakura watched the multi-colored fish swim and swish in the water. Again she couldn't look up into the deep black Uchiha eyes.

"Have you thought about what I told you back in Border Town?" He asked turning to face her.

She gripped her knees. "I have. A lot actually." She spoke looking down at the hem of her dress. "I…"

"Wait before you say anything." Sasuke interrupted her. "I feel like I might not have expressed my feelings for you as they really are." He took her face in his strong hands and gently turned it so that their eyes met. "Before I said I was ready to restore my clan. That's true but my feelings for you go much deeper than just helping me achieve that goal. I know I've acted cold and when we were kids I was down right mean towards you. But, the way you loved me once and those last words you said to me that night all those years ago have left a deep impression on my heart."

He moved in closer. His lips brushed hers teasingly. "I'm in love with you."

He whispered it so softly that if Sakura hadn't felt his warm breath on her lips she would have swore it was her imagination. He kissed her for the second time in the last few days, actually in her whole life. However, this time was a much different kiss. It wasn't the sweet and innocent as before. This one was full of intensity. The feelings of a love-sink twelve-year-old girl came rushing back to her. Her body went limp as she gave in to the passionate kiss.

Kakashi kept his eyes on the pinked haired kunoichi sitting on the bench with the dark hair Uchiha through an opening in the thick bamboo trees that lined the glass that enclosed garden. Anger rushed through his body.

"Kakashi, what happened?" asked the brunette sitting next to him. " You look like you are about to kill someone."

"It's nothing." He mumbled through gritted teeth. "Keiko, please excuse me. I think I'm going to call it a night."

"Umm, ok." Keiko said. "I can go with you, if you like." She looked up at him hopefully.

"Thanks but my leg is feeling better so I'll be fine." He stood up and walked out, keeping his back to the garden.

Sasuke grabbed Sakura by the waist and pulled onto him, her lean legs straddling his lap. He kissed her harder. His hand traveled up her thigh through the slit of her dress. Feeling the warmth of her skin and the pressure of her weight on him, he began to harden with arousal.

His body instinctual reaction snapped common sense back to Sakura. She stopped kissing him, pushing him away with both hands on his chest.

"I'm so sorry but I can't do this." She said as she got to her feet.

"But why?" Sasuke looked up at her confused. "I could tell you feel the same way I do." He reached for her hand to pull her onto his lap again.

"I don't know what I feel." She moved away from his grasp. "My heart and head are all muddled with feelings." She shook her head as if that small gesture would straighten everything out.

"What the hell is there to be confused about?" Sasuke vented angrily. "I love you and you, supposedly, couldn't live without me. Oh God, I never thought you were still so stupid." He was on his feet now, his eyes blazoned with rage. Looking right into her eyes and pointing toward the table where Kakashi had been sitting, he shouted, "Come on, Sakura! You don't really think that you and him can be anything else than teacher and inept student."

His words were meant to hurt her and they did, deeply. Shock hit Sakura like a blast of ice-cold air. She stared at the black-eyed man standing before her unable to utter a word. Hot tears filled her jade eyes, burning her cheeks as they fell. He had opened a locked away fear that she had managed to suppress over the years but never eradicate. She did the only thing she could, she ran. She couldn't stand being near Sasuke anymore.

Naruto saw Sakura running through the Lounge. There was look on her face he hadn't seen in a long time and it worried him. "Sakura…" he called out to her but she didn't stop. He looked over at Hinata whom nodded. He knew what the nod meant and he was thankful that Hinata understand without him saying anything. He headed after Sakura but by the time he got out on the sidewalk there was no sign of her.

Sakura ran and ran, not knowing where she was going. All she cared about was getting as far from everyone especially Sasuke. The village was a blur she didn't notice what or who she passed. She finally couldn't run anymore. She stopped, panting. When she leaned on a stump to rest, she took in surrounds for the first time. She was in the middle of a clearing and besides the stump she was using for support there were two others exactly the same. She slid down the stump that she had been leaning on to sit down ground.

Looking around the training grounds, Sasuke's words came back to her. Inept, he had called her. Memories of how she hadn't been able to help in missions. Inept. Others had to save her. Inept, the single word kept running through her mind like annoying fly that keeps buzzing around you no matter how much you tried to swat it away. She cradled her face into her hands and wept.

Kakashi strolled the empty streets with only one thought keeping him from enjoying the cool breeze and the peace Konoha at night usually provided him. A pink haired, jade-eyed kunoichi occupied his mind. He shouldn't be feeling this way. She was a former student and now a fellow ninja nothing more. It was apparent that was how she felt anyways.

He normally would have loved taking his time in the walk back to his apartment but tonight he couldn't wait to get home. Unfortunately his leg injury wouldn't allow him to hurry so he decided to take a short cut.

As he hobbled on the grass regretting leaving the comfort of the paved sidewalk, a sound caught his attention. Someone was sitting at the three wooden posts and the person was crying. He got closer and caught sight of pink hair poking from behind the middle post.

"Sakura?"

Sakura jumped from surprise. She hadn't expected anyone to be at the training ground at this hour especially not the man who had just said her name. She tried to wipe away her tears. The last thing she wanted was for the copy ninja to see her crying. That would be one sure way to prove she wasn't strong enough to be a ninja much less a jounin.

"Oh hi, Kakashi." She tried to smile. "You left the party early. You were the guest of honor."

"Where is Sasuke?" He asked taking in her appearance. Her face was red and puffy from crying and her dress was rumbled. What could have happened, he wondered.

"Sa..suke?" Sakura ran her hand through her hair nervously trying to straighten it. This was not a topic she wanted to talk about. "I guess he is still at the party."

Kakashi stepped closer to her. "So why aren't you with him? Wasn't he your date?"

"The date is over." She stated bluntly.

He stepped even closer that she had to look up at him. His one black eye stared at her. She felt as if he was x-raying her it made her lower her eyes.

"You've been crying." The silver haired jounin touched the young kunoichi tear strained cheek. "Come on. I'll take you home." He smiled down at her reassuringly. "You never told me where you live."

She didn't have to force a smile this time. "That's right. It's a surprise." She put her arm in his and began guiding him towards her flat. Her spirits were lifting. Kakashi had always been able to make her feel better.

Five minutes later Kakashi was standing in front of his building arm and arm with Sakura. He turned to her confused and saw that she was smiling brightly.

"This is my place," he said.

"Actually it's both of our place," she laughed.

They walked up the stairs and down the hall. They passed Kakashi's door and reached a door-marked apartment four. Sakura pulled a key from her purse and unlocked the door. She led him into an airy apartment with a large picture window. It was decorated in a traditional Japanese style. On the right was a wall of books and on the left a doorway leading to the small kitchen.

"Well I'm surprised." Kakashi said as he walked to the window. It had a great view of the Hokage Monument. "Great view by the way."

"That view is why I picked this unit," she replied, walking into the kitchen. She came back out holding a tray with two cups of tea. She handed him a cup and sat on the futon.

"Thanks" He sipped the warm tea and sat down next her. He turned to her and focused his exposed black eye into her green ones. "Now, will you tell me what happened between you and Sasuke?"

She looked down into her teacup. "It was nothing," she said without taking her eyes off the swirling liquid.

"Sakura," he tilted his head to one side. "All the time I've known you never cry unless you have a good reason to do so." He put his index finger under her chin, lifting her face to his.

"Do you…" Sakura started when her eyes began to well up with fresh tears, "think I'm…um... inept as a ninja?"

"Of course I don't think that." Kakashi told her taking her face in both of his hands. "Sakura you have incredible skilled ninja."

"Honestly?"

"Yes." Looking straight into her eyes, the tears in them made his heart melt. He wanted to hold her and make all her pain go away. "You have trained really hard under the Fifth Hokage plus your affinity with genjutsu, you have become not only a more than accomplished kunoichi but also a ninja in general."

She flung her arms around his neck and buried her face into his chest. "Thank you, Kakashi. Your words mean a great deal," she whispered into his shirt.

"Now don't let me hear you questioning yourself again." He stroked her soft locks, inhaling her scent of vanilla. A smile crept onto his lips. Alas, so did the reality of the situation also hit him. He was holding a woman that belonged to another man, a man who was younger and could offer much more. He pulled himself back reluctantly. "I should probably get going."

"Don't go," her green eyes pleaded and she held his shirt tighter between her slender fingers. "Please, stay. I would feel better having company tonight."

He closed his eyes and nodded yielding to her request.

Sakura nestled herself in his arms and fell asleep. Kakashi rested his cheek on top of her's head. He was lulled to sleep by the sweet scent of vanilla and the melodious of Sakura's breathing.