Beginning note: The first section makes vague a vague reference or two to the Ino/Saku portion of this story that was posted separately. However, there is no explicit details.
More notes at the end of this chapter.
A mild pain in Sakura's right temple had been annoying her for hours. She had tried eliminating it by chakra redirection and healing, but nothing helped. Resigning it was probably a sign she needed proper sleep, Sakura did her best to go about the rest of day without being short-tempered with those around her. The last two weeks hadn't been kind to her overall, and her anxiety was always higher when Sarada was out on mission.
She sighed and plucked a plum for the food cart directly in front of her: After leaving the market, she'd have a light dinner, resist opening her work laptop, and head to bed at a proper time tonight.
She felt a presence coming near her and bit back the urge to growl in frustration. She wanted to shop in peace and then go home.
"Hey, Forehead," came Ino's familiar voice, though it had a foreign, kinder edge to it than normal. Sakura relaxed and turned in the direction of her voice to find Ino with her own bag filled with food items.
It'd been three weeks since they'd seen each other—three weeks since she had been a guest in Ino and Sai's bedroom. She still dreamt of it some nights, waking up warm and aroused and utterly alone.
"Hey, Ino." she greeted, plucking one more plum from the cart and carefully placing it in her bag with the other items for purchase.
"I haven't seen you lately," Ino prompted, and Sakura nodded in agreement. Aside from when away on a mission or when Sakura had traveled with Sasuke, it was probably the longest they'd gone without seeing each other.
Sakura could sense the tentativeness in Ino's voice and gestures, and tried not to match it. She wanted to be reassuring: she'd had fun, their friendship was intact, nothing had fundamentally changed. That's what she hoped.
"Work has been—" she waved her hand and sighed, lost about which word could describe the organized chaos she'd been overseeing. She offered her friend a small, apologetic smile. "I'm sorry I didn't reach out. Everything's okay."
Ino's face immediately reflected relief, and her wide grin filled Sakura with warmth and a bit of longing. She squashed the latter feeling and focused on the first as she listened to Ino provide her with a run-down of what she had missed while buried in work. Despite her earlier desire to be left alone, she found Ino's company helped ease her bad mood and head pain.
The two friends finished shopping together within the hour, eventually parting ways to their own homes.
Sakura ate and avoided her work as planned, but the universe did not deign to give her an early evening. She was washing the last of her dishes when there was a heavy knock on her front door.
Sakura observed right away there was something different about Kakashi as he stood at her doorstep, his eyes downcast and a slump to his shoulders that marked a heaviness no one could lift. It must have been an anniversary, though which she didn't know.
She pulled him gently into her apartment, chakra subtly sitting in her palms as she took stock of him. She sensed one drink—heavy liquor, but well within his limit, and no food—and shuffled him to sit on her couch while she got him water and some food.
"Drink. Eat," she commanded, putting the glass of water in his hand and the bowl overflowing with cut up fruit and nuts on the small table beside the couch. He wordlessly obliged, dipping his hand into the bowl and lowering his mask to eat a handful of the snacks.
"Did you come here to be coddled?" She asked, hand on her hip. She wasn't actually annoyed, but wondered why he had shown up in the first place. They didn't have an agreed method of communication when they wanted each other's company, and he wouldn't know when Sarada was away. Tonight, thankfully, Sarada was still away on a mission.
"I was hoping we'd fuck," he raised a suggestive brow at her, "but call it what you like."
She tsked at him. "I should make you deal with it yourself," she threatened, then smiled at his pout. "Keep eating. We'll see if I'm feeling charitable in a bit."
"I'm sober and can go days without food—"
"Don't push it."
"Yes M'am." He went back to pulling small handfuls of fruit and nuts out of the bowl and popping them into his mouth, and the sound of the quiet but distinct crunch satisfied her as she went about cleaning the kitchen of her earlier dinner prep.
"How are your explorations as a single woman?" He asked from the couch, and she understood he was trying to avoid talking about what was haunting him on that particular evening.
She sighed. "Enjoyable but overly complicated."
Kakashi hummed in agreement. "They often can be, especially when you're well-known in the village."
"Perhaps I should look outside of the village," she considered as she placed the last of her dishes on the drying rack. It hadn't dawned on her that travel might breed the benefits of coupling without any of the drawbacks attached with home.
"You won't have much luck unless you go to a rural area. You're distinct: pink hair, forehead seal, strong, incredible stats in medical circles and the bingo book."
"Sounds like you've had experience with this problem," she mused as she returned to join him.
Kakashi grunted and popped a grape in his mouth. After he was done chewing, he leveled her with a serious stare. "Inside of Konoha, you're offered a certain amount of reverence, which is annoying. But outside, you're at best a novelty and at worst a target."
Sakura frowned at the thought of unknown people taking advantage of her former sensei. Kakashi was such a private person in his own right, to have others exploit him in moments of intimacy made her anger flare.
"I saw the headline about you the other day," he told her with a humorless smirk. He carefully sprawled out along her couch, legs splayed wide as he leaned back against one arm of the couch. The ease with which he looked both sexy and effortlessly cool would be annoying if it wasn't such a turn on.
"'Haruno the Homewrecker': not very original, but I'm sure they'll use it as much as they can."
She scoffed. "You and Ino are terrible. Shikamaru and I were outside the Hokage Tower in plain sight, talking. Nothing happened."
"Mm, if Ino mentioned it to you, she may have been fishing for something more than gossip," Kakashi offered vaguely. Sakura felt her cheeks warm and looked away, but his eyes caught the silent confession. "And she succeeded."
"I think it was a mistake," she admitted.
"Fucking your best friend usually is."
"I know," she sighed.
The conversation fell away, and satisfied that Kakashi had some food, Sakura moved on to how else she could help. She sat down in the small space he left at the edge of her couch and touched his bicep.
"What do you need tonight?" She asked softly.
"To forget," he told her. It wasn't much to go on, but as he reached up and traced Sakura's bottom lip with his thumb, she understood.
She tapped his hip, encouraging him to sit up and relax against the back of the couch while she rid him of his pants. Even in retirement, Kakashi wore the same jounin blue pants and shirt, as though the outfit was part of his identity instead of a position he had long been promoted out of. She removed both but left the tight black undershirt he wore; she enjoyed the way it clung to his chest and emphasized his arms. He lifted his hips and helped her push his underwear down his legs, and then he was seated again, head tipped back and eyes more hooded than usual.
Sakura tilted her head to watch him for a few moments, a little unsure if having sex to deal with whatever occupied him was the right course of action. Still, she lowered herself on her knees and settled comfortably between his legs, encouraged when he spread wider to give her space and reached out to caress her cheek.
"I've got you," she murmured, leaving small kisses and caresses along his inner thighs and then up his length to the swollen head. He sighed and relaxed immediately under her attention, his hand settling in her hair when she finally took his head in her mouth and lightly sucked. She watched as his head tipped back further when she swirled her tongue, the column of his throat exposed and Adam's apple bobbing between his quiet gasps. Encouraged, she slid further down his cock, allowing her saliva to fall messily where she began to massage his balls.
She kept waiting for him to take control, to fuck into her mouth as far as he could manage with her other hand against his hip; instead, he remained docile and openly affected in a way she had never seen him. He whined periodically, and all the while his fingers remained tangled in her hair with surprising gentleness. The moans he let out were more desperate than deep in their timbre, and she could sense, even without seeing his face, that he was somewhere far away.
It was a complete departure from the man she had been with before, and instead of insulted, she was alarmed. She pulled off him and tapped his hip to regain his attention.
Almost immediately, she felt him return. "I'm okay, Sakura," he assured as he finally lifted his head and looked down at her.
"All right. Whatever it is, don't go there," she lowered her face again to nuzzle his cock with her cheek. "Stay here with me."
"I will," he promised, offering an affectionate tug on a few strands of her hair. "I'm sorry. It's because I trust you."
She nodded, pleased with the admission and understanding. She had trusted him, too, when she was starting over and knew what she wanted but unsure how to get it. He had taken care of her back then, and she was willing to return in kind.
She brushed another kiss against the head of his cock while their gazes were locked, then closed her eyes and enveloped him in her mouth. She heard him groan her name and offered a pleased hum as she pulled off almost all the way and then took him deeper with each downward movement.
He let out a cry, and this time rutted shallowly against her face with increasing urgency until his cum was coating the back of her throat, some of it spilling from the corners of her mouth even as she worked to swallow it down.
She released him with a wet and messy 'pop,' wiping her lips with her thumb and grinning up at him. Only, his head was tipped back again, his face out of view.
"Kakashi?"
Her only answer was a quiet snore. Sakura huffed a quiet laugh and carefully got up off her knees to stand. Kakashi looked peaceful in sleep, so she hoped he felt better.
It was tempting to curl up against him just then, to ignore the boundary he'd built their first night and listen to the loneliest parts of herself that wanted to comfort him even in sleep; the parts of her that craved a warm body in the quieter moments of the night.
But Kakashi's show of vulnerability and his willingness to trust her outweighed her selfishness, so she left him to sleep on the couch alone and slipped into her bedroom.
Sakura woke to the sounds of water running and the smell of something delightful. She crept out of her room, ignoring how her bare feet protested the cool floor. From the hall, she could see Kakashi's back as he moved between her counter and the stove. Curious, she continued out to investigate why he was making food (and, more importantly, what he was making.)
"Good morning," he greeted without turning when she stepped into the kitchen.
"You made us breakfast?" She asked, puzzled by the behavior.
"I made you breakfast," he corrected as he plated the food, then held it out to her. His mask was back in place, but so were all his usual expressions: whatever had been bothering him seemed to have left with the twilight hours.
"Sleeping over and breakfast?" She teased. "Careful, Kakashi. You don't want to fall in love with me." She took the plate and gave him a sly grin.
He scoffed. "Merely a show of my gratitude. And I cleaned up the kitchen while I cooked."
"If you're going to start my morning by critiquing how I look after my own home, then it's time for you to leave." Piece of mind shared, she shoveled some of the food into her mouth. It was delicious, of course. The bastard.
"I'll be on my way." He replaced her hand towel back on the handle of her stove, offered her a wink, and then leaned down into her space. She felt his lips brush her forehead in a soft kiss.
"Thank you, Sakura," he murmured against her seal, then pulled away. He was moving toward the door to make his exit before she found her voice to offer her sincere reply.
"Anytime, Kakashi."
End note: I'm sure this could be a long series, but this feels like a good ending. Eventually, Kakashi and Sakura probably end up together in a more permanent manner, but that would be years later.
I hope you enjoyed my little exploration, and thank you for reading.