Kakashi woke up in a very familiar room which was most definitely not his. Blinking away his confusion, he immediately recalled the previous night. He was at Sakura's, she'd healed his wounds last night. Perhaps I should've just gone to the hospital, he thought, remembering how tired she'd looked and immediately stilled. That was new, he'd never considered going there willingly before.

He winced as he sat up on the lumpy futon he'd been sleeping on, his hands immediately going to his side, where that angry bastard had hacked at him with what he could've sworn was an axe. He got up and took a few shaky steps towards the bathroom, he could see her bedroom from there and wasn't surprised to see that she was out, knowing how busy was, working as hard as she did. Too hard, he thought, remembering how haggard her appearance had been last night, but he knew he couldn't call her out on it, as he was no better. Work was a very welcome distraction for people like them. The door to her bedroom was ajar and he could see her bed, which was unmade and lots of clothes were strewn about on every available surface, messy, in stark contrast with the other areas of the house.

Chuckling, he went into the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror and immediately regretted it. He looked bad. Bags under his eyes..his hair was dirty, and he was dressed in what could only be called rags. The mission had been relatively easy, but it had taken longer than what he'd thought at first. He was to retrieve a very valuable scroll from a group of bandits. What had started out as an A-rank soon turned out to be an S-rank mission, as all four of the said group had been of at least elite jounin class. He'd recogonized them from the bingo book. Instead of stealing the scroll and falling back right away, he'd sent Pakkun back to Konoha with the scroll, and had taken on all four of them.

He probably should've just left with the scroll.

If he had, he wouldn't have been injured. No..that wasn't it. He was used to being injured. It came with being a shinobi. But in this instance, if he hadn't gotten injured, he wouldn't have had to come here, to her house, he wouldn't have had to meet her, and he wouldn't have had to see how she avoided meeting his eyes and how miserable she'd looked.

Kakashi could hear the fireworks in the background. He'd avoided going because, well, he hadn't really wanted to. Hearing a slight knock on the door, he opened it to find a blushing Sakura standing in front of him, wearing a very flattering yukata of different shades of green. She looked beautiful, and could smell the sake on her. Before he could say anything, she grabbed his face, pulled him down and kissed him. Once, twice and she stopped. "I think..I think I'm falling for you, Kakashi." she said in a low voice. She waited for a while and looking up at his face, she couldn't read his expression. He hadn't responded. She looked down with a horrified expression and after sputtering out an apology, she fled.

He knew how hurt she was by what had happened, his lack of response more than the actual rejection and he also knew what she thought, that he couldn't be bothered to answer. If only she knew.. He hated having to be the responsible one there. She'd said exactly what he'd been fantasizing about for so long. But it was wrong. He just couldn't do it. He was her ex-sensei. She was only twenty years, and deserved to be with someone her age, not someone fourteen years her senior.

But he couldn't help but feel like he had built her hopes up. Hadn't he asked her to stop calling him sensei? He had finally let Team 7 get past the defenses he'd built around himself. Okay, maybe he hadn't let them, they'd barged in without taking their shoes off. And he hadn't found them unwelcome. But she'd gotten so much closer to him than the rest of them, to the point that he actually missed her when they were separated due to missions and Kakashi had never missed anybody like this. She'd grown on him like a weed and he'd started to rely on her. He'd even given her her own copy of his house key for crying out loud! And he knew she felt the same way.

Misery loves company, he thought. She was almost as lonely as he was, all her friends were moving on, getting into relationships, getting married..That was the thing about being a Shinobi. They either did these things young, or not at all. Having no certainty about how long they'd live, and growing up too quickly, they tended to have the words "carpe diem" emblazoned in front of their eyes, with few exceptions. Sakura had accepted that she was one of the few a long time ago, when she'd gotten over Sasuke and hadn't felt the need to go boy hunting after that and was genuinely happy for her friends. She was content with having the old and jaded shinobi that Kakashi was as one of her closest friends, much to his surprise. She knew more about him than almost anyone else and he was happy..

But that was over now.

Sighing, he quickly stripped and got into the cramped shower. Eyeing the soap and shampoo, he realised that he'll probably be smelling like her for the rest of the day. Oh well, he thought with a shrug, if Pakkun can, so can I. Besides, it'll wear off soon. When he was done he found a fresh towel on the towel rack, drying off, he wrapped it around his waist and got out of the bathroom.

He found Sakura busy in the kitchen, cooking lunch. Looking up at him, she grabbed a cloth bag from the table in the small dining area and wordlessly handed it to Kakashi. His mask hid his surprise well as he discovered a few laundered and neatly folded clothes inside which he knew were his.

I can't believe she kept them.. He'd half expected her to throw them after he'd stopped talking to her but apparently he was wrong.

"I guess I'll get dressed then," said Kakashi, turning towards the laundry room beside the bathroom.

"Wait," Sakura said turning off the stove and wiping her hands, "I have to check on your injuries again to make sure I didn't miss anything last night, since I barely had any chakra left."

Kakashi would've felt guilty if he wasn't preoccupied with thinking that he would've preferred it if she'd spoken angrily or coldly, but he could barely stay composed listening to her detached and clinical tone, as though he was just another patient. A stranger.

All he wanted at that moment was to go out and get smashed, maybe I should take Genma along, he thought.

"Done," Sakura said after a while, interrupting his thoughts. "Your ribs might take a few days to stop feeling sore and you need lots of rest. You chakra reserves are obviously depleted, I thought you'd be asleep for longer," she said with a slight frown. "Anyway, I met with Lady Tsunade in the morning, she was a little peeved that you didn't go to the hospital, but said she's glad you at least had the sense to come here. She said you're to stay here till tomorrow. You can hand in your mission report the day after, I got you a form from the jounin headquarters, it's on my work table, you can start working on it after lunch. She said if you hand it in late, she'll make it mandatory for you to go straight to the hospital after every mission."

Saying this she got up and set a plate on the table along with the food beckoned to him to sit down. He willingly obliged, suddenly realising how hungry he was feeling. After quickly getting dressed, he put some food on his plate and looked up. Seeing her sit in front of him with papers in front of her instead of a plate, he asked, "Aren't you eating, Sakura?"

"No," she said after a moment. "I'll eat later, I've got some paperwork to do."

He frowned at this. "How come you're not at work today? Aren't you usually at the hospital at this time?" Kakashi asked her, having already finished his meal. "No, I'll wash the plate, you cooked, it's only fair."

Sakura vaguely nodded and replied, "Yes, I usually am, though I've been on night duty for the past few days. Lady Tsunade forced a week's leave on me. I'm not to go anywhere near the Hokage tower either." Sighing, she continued, in response to his puzzled expression, "she got mad after she found out that I had some trouble getting home after working a triple shift for the second day in a row. Anyway, when did you leave for the mission?"

"About a month back. It was quite simple, just the skill level of the group I was to take care was correctly given in the mission scroll. Anyway, it's good to be back.," he deadpanned, not happy about what she'd just said. He knew she'd taken to using soldier pills to keep up with the extra shifts she took at the hospital.

"Oh, well that's nice." She said getting up. "I have a little work to do, will be back in a while. Help yourself to anything you'd like. The television works, just don't accidentally touch the plug."

Saying this, she headed for the door and was knocked back with a loud "Sakura-chaaaaaan!"

"Naruto. There's this new thing you should try, it's called called knocking. I hear it's real fun." Sakura said, her expression softening as she saw Naruto entering her living room with Sai trailing behind. "Kakashi-sensei! when did you get back? And what're you doing here? I thought you and Sakura-chan had some sorta fight?!"

Sakura's face hardened a little, and she pointedly avoided looking at Kakashi. "Where did you get that idea, Naruto? Kakashi..sensei and I are not fighting at all." She said throwing a look at him.

"Yo." Kakashi said. He noticed the "sensei" she tacked on at the end of his name but didn't comment on it.

"Sakura, Dickless and I came here to ask you whether you wanted to join us for training session." Sai said, eyes flicking between Sakura and Kakashi's faces, he rarely missed anything. "Of course, now that Kakashi-senpai's here, we would like to invite him as well."

"Yeah! Come on Kaka-sensei! It would be fun!" Naruto agreed, "We never hang-out together anymore! Either you're busy or Sakura-chan is."

"He's still recuperating, Naruto," Sakura quickly cut in, "He just came back after a month-long mission. I'd love to join you, though." She added, seeing the sullen pout that was forming on his mouth.

"Sakura is right Naruto, I probably shouldn't be training, but I can always come to watch. If you'd like me there, that is." Kakashi said, giving him a happy eye crease.

Naruto whooped and pumped his fist in the air, running out of the apartment with a "You don't have to even ask Sensei! C'mon slow pokes!" Sai and Kakashi followed him, with Sakura trailing behind, no emotion showing on her face, but it was obvious on her face that this was a very unwelcome invitation.

A/N

1. Hola! Thank you for your reviews! I got more response for the first chapter than I was expecting.

2. I didn't particularly like this chapter, it was quite different in my head, oh well.

3. The first two chapters took place mostly in their heads, I'll probably be changing that in the next few chapters.

4. I have absolutely nothing witty to say right now, it's past 3 am again, and I've been up for twenty hours, so I'll be making a "helping an old lady cross the road" excuse now.

^_^ See ya next chapter!