Naruto and Sakura made it to the flower shop as the sun had set, there they saw Chouji and Ino talking at the front desk. When they entered, Sakura greeted them as Ino quickly made her way around the counter to give Sakura a hug. They broke apart as Naruto and Chouji greeted eachother and Ino began to speak.
"Well, Forehead, you're back sooner than I was expecting."
Sakura rubbed the back of her head as she moved beside Naruto.
"Yeah, there weren't any problems out there so it was a quick mission. No one got hurt, which is always good." She dropped her hand and addressed Ino and Chouji together. "Listen, I'm going to be assigned another mission tomorrow, so Naruto and I were going to have a training session tonight and we were hoping for a few more people to join us."

Chouji piped up from his spot by the counter.
"All right! I was about to take Ino out for dinner, but working up an appetite first will be awesome!"

Ino smiled to Chouji.
"Yeah, we're totally in. Shika isn't here, though. He has some clan things to deal with tonight, but the four of us will be fine."

Naruto grinned at the other three.
"This is going to be great!"

Out in the training field, the sun had completely set and the group was warming up. Ino was the one to lay down the rules.
"Let's make it two on two. Once you're off your feet then you're out of the game."
They all nodded in agreement.

Chouji was bending down to stretch when he spoke.
"How should we do teams?"

Sakura looked at the group.
"We could do girls against boys."

Naruto pouted.
"Aww, Sakura, you don't want to be teamed with me?"

Sakura smiled at him.
"Naruto, you and I have been a team since we graduated."

Ino chuckled and moved to stand beside Sakura.
"Yeah, Naruto. Let me have a chance with her."

Ino and Sakura giggled with each other as Naruto and Chouji moved to the other side of the training grounds.

Naruto was the one to call out.
"Are you guys ready?"

Sakura looked to Ino, then responded.
"Ready when you are!"

They all took their stances and someone shouted.
"GO!"

Sakura and Ino leapt into the trees as Naruto and Chouji rushed at them. Naruto went after Ino as Sakura leapt from the tree to Chouji's side. She began to throw punches at him that he easily dodged and he tried to counter with a jutsu that kept getting interrupted. He eventually made for a retreat into the trees while Sakura followed him. He didn't make it very far before the ground around him collapsed. Determined to stay on his feet, he pushed chakara into them and leapt off one of the boulders that was threatening to hit him. He managed to land on solid ground, then he ran at her. She jumped, landing on a tree branch before making her way back to the open training grounds.

Chouji kept her pace as she ran through the trees and they came to the field where they saw Ino and Naruto grappling with each other. Naruto had Ino in a head lock before she flipped him over herself. Naruto let go before he hit the ground and landed with a wobble before straightening to dodge Ino's fist. Sakura kept moving away from Chouji towards Naruto and while he had his back to her, she threw a punch at him. It landed directly before he disappeared in a cloud of smoke, her momentum was still forward when she felt a hand behind her head that pushed her straight to the ground. She fell with a roll.
"Haha Sakura! I got you!"
Naruto chanted from where she had tried to hit him before Ino kicked him in the head and he landed less gracefully next to Sakura.

They both sat and looked at each other for a moment before they started laughing at each other. Once they had calmed and Sakura puched at Naruto's arm playfully, they watched as Ino and Chouji continued the fight.

At this point, it was strictly taijutsu as Ino threw punches and Chouji dodged. Finally Ino thought she had landed a punch until Chouji turned himself to allow her to fall past him. He then took the advantage to grab her foot as she stepped forward and she fell with her arms out to break her fall. Chouji stood triumphantly as Ino sank to the ground panting.

Naruto cheered and leapt from his spot next to Sakura.
"Yahoo! We win! Believe it!"

Sakura shook her head and slowly stood as well. She made her way to where Ino had rolled after she landed. Her hands were on her stomach and she was breathing hard.
"I can't believe he got me, Forehead!"

Sakura held her hand out to Ino.
"Don't worry about it, Pig."

Ino grasped Sakura's hand and stood up with a grunt. They gave each other a quick side hug and complimented each other's reining before they made their way to the boys who were having a mini celebration. The four of them thanked each other before they made plans to get dinner together.
Naruto was the first to speak.
"Let's get ramen!"

Sakura rolled her eyes.
"No Naruto, let's let Ino and Chouji decide. We did kind of interrupt their dinner plans."

Naruto looked down.
"Oh yeah... I guess we did." He perked back up and looked to them. "Well guys, what will it be?"

Chouji looked to Ino expectantly and she nodded at him before he spoke.
"Well, Ino and I were going to get Korean Barbecue, if that sounds good to you guys."

Naruto pouted a little before agreeing.
Sakura nodded and adressed Ino.
"That sounds great. Are we going to that one place near the square?"

Ino nodded.
"It's the same place we went for Shika's birthday a few months ago."

Sakura smiled.
"That place is great! Let's get going."

They made their way out of the training grounds and to the restaurant without bothering to clean themselves up. They took their time through the village enjoying each other's company. When they got to the restaurant the servers greeted Chouji and Ino pleasantly, inquiring where Shikamaru was. After they were seated, they bantered about their lives and their teams when Naruto finally asked Sakura about Kakashi.
"It seems odd that Tsunade would send you and Kakashi out alone."

Sakura pondered as she finished chewing on a slice of meat.
"I've been thinking about that too. I mean, it's normally a four man squad, but it was just an escort mission to the boarder, so of course there wouldn't need to be a lot of reinforcements. But she could have sent you along with me, Naruto. Or literally anyone else." She shrugged. "Who knows. I'm not going to delve too deep into it. It's over and time to move on."

Naruto nodded and grinned at her.
"Well, maybe next time she sends you on a short mission, she'll send me instead of Kakashi."

Sakura laughed at him.
"Maybe she can just send you and Kakashi and leave me out of it."

Ino giggled at the two as the conversation changed and the four of them finished their meal. They left and proceeded to the town square for a short walk with each other before Sakura finally announced that she needed to get some sleep for tomorrow. They all said their goodbyes to each other, deciding it was a good time for all of them to call it a night.

Sakura approached her residence and as she made it to the door, she sighed. Turning, she made sure her back was securely covered by the wall before calling out.
"Kakashi, why are you here?"

There was no response from the night for a brief moment until she caught him out of her eye sitting in a tree. She frowned and made her way over to him. He was sitting casually with one leg up, much like he was earlier that day in the fruit tree. She stopped under the tree and put her hands on her hips as she looked up to him.
"Is this where the road of life lead you today?"

Kakashi was casually watching her with an unreadable face.
He was silent.

Sakura sighed and walked up the tree. She sat on a branch near him with her legs dangling as she looked to him. They sat together in silence for a few minutes before Kakashi finally sat up from his lounging position. He faced her and looked into her eyes before smiling at her and standing on his branch.

She looked to him with confusion.
"What are you doing?"

He looked away from her and gazed towards her place of residence. Then he looked back to her and spoke in an innocent voice.
"It's getting kind of cold out, Sakura. Do you mind if I come in for some tea?"

Sakura let out an indignant noise as she tried to suppress a laugh.
"You have your own place. Go make your own tea and warm up on your own time."

Kakashi gave her a hurt look.
"Oh, but Sakura. My place is so far away. I might catch hypothermia if I tried to go there all alone."

Sakura calmed her expression.
"It's not that cold out, Sensei. I think you could manage." She paused. "Unless you want to tell me the real reason you're here."

Kakashi's eye crinkled.
"I just want to visit with my favorite student."

Sakura sighed and hopped off the tree branch.
"I'm not your student anymore." She made her way to the door and unlocked it. She looked back to him standing on the tree and gave a defeated sigh before opening the door.
"Well, are you coming in, or not?"

Kakashi moved from his place on the tree and casually walked towards her. Once he was at her door he placed a hand on her head as he walked past her.
"I knew there was a reason you were my favorite."

Once inside, Sakura locked her door again and took off her shoes. Kakashi had made his way into her kitchen and started to fill up her kettle with water. Sakura found him and watched him from her archway.

She rolled her eyes.
"You're over here way too often. You just come in and take advantage of my kettle and tea, next thing you're gonna do is open my fridge and eat me out of house and home."

Kakashi looked to her from the stove.
"You're exaggerating. I'm not here that often."

Sakura scoffed and sat at a table in the room.
"You came over twice just last week."

Kakashi moved to sit across from her.
"I just want to make sure no one's been breaking in, Sakura."

She shot him a glare.
"The only one that's come close to breaking in is you, Kakashi."

A small chuckle escaped from his mask as his eye crinkled at her.
"Are you complaining?"

Sakura blushed as she looked to the table.
"Not really."

Kakashi stood as the kettle started to whistle. He poured the cups of tea and sat back down with Sakura as she sipped away at the scalding liquid. They sat in silence for a while before Sakura spoke again.
"I have another mission tomorrow."

Kakashi looked at her as she continued.
"I don't really want to do it because tomorrow's supposed to be my day off. All I want to do is lounge around in my bathrobe and drink coca and watch sappy movies, not go out and get dirty helping some sucker from who knows where find their lost dog, or what ever pointless thing Tsunade wants me running around doing." Sakura hit her head against the table while groaning. "I need to go shower."

She stood from her chair without waiting for Kakashi's acknowledgement and put her mug in the sink. Kakashi stood with her and followed suit. He hadn't drank any of his tea but he left it anyways as he followed her out of the kitchen towards her bathroom. She stopped in front of the open door and he stopped behind her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. She looked to his hand before placing her own on top of his. She turned her body towards his and looked into his eye before giving a sigh.
"You can stay, if you want. I won't be too long."

She looked around as if thinking of something she misplaced.
"You know where everything is. Make yourself comfortable."

Kakashi squeezed her shoulder slightly.
"Thank you, Sakura."

She smiled at him and let go of his hand before she disappeared into the shower.