A little short, yes... BUT... I hope you enjoy heh... heh...
The lyrics in italics below are by HIM btw... an awesome-ass band.

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I dream of the winter in my heart turning to spring
As the warmth of summer sunlight dances around me
And so I drown in the sun...

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A kiss was an expression of "I want to fuck you," to Tayuya. It always had been.

But as she stood there, as Kakashi kissed her away... that said something else.

Come back... It seemed to say.

When he kissed, there was no sense of greed or a simple hunger to fulfill some type of a lustful deed. It was a simple kiss of longing that was different than just to get inside of her body. It was more like a longing to reach out into her very soul. There was a passion for something other than a scene on the bed and his gentleness proved an emotion that Tayuya could not even comprehend. This kind of kiss was not what she was used to and now when she finally was getting a taste of a typical girl's "fantasy" kiss with the sweetness and the passion both mixed to a sweet caress on her lips, she grew immobile and thought her sense of even having a sense was being slowly shut off.

She was almost sad when he finally pulled away.

"You, son of a bitch!" Sakon yelled, throwing a shuriken at Kakashi.

Kakashi leapt into the air with Tayuya to safely land on a tree. He then swiftly ran back to Konoha.

"Kakashi-"

Kakashi silenced her with his fingers. "Don't talk."

Right... right... they were escaping right now.

Kakashi must have hit the other two in critical areas because they weren't even following them. He held her fragile form in his strong arms as if protecting something so precious to him, and Tayuya... never in her life had anyone treated her in such a way. She was powerful and ruthless. When she felt weak, she was expected to recover promptly before a mission was given to her by Orochimaru. She was expected to carry on by herself, if she wanted to live.

But as she layed there motionlessly, embraced by the man who had just kissed her, a calm soothing peace encircled her and she felt safer there than any place else she had ever been. He was actually carrying her back to her home for her sake and no one else's. She wanted to ask him why he was doing this. She wanted to ask him why the people of Konohagakure cared and protected each other more than they did themselves. She wanted to ask him millions of things but just for now, she had to be satisfied with the silence that hovered in the air with the winds whistling in her ear until that sound blended with the silence to become the silence itself.

Konoha was clearly in their view when Kakashi stopped for a breath. He gently placed her on a thick branch and slumped down next to her, breathing hard.

For few moments, silence still hung on the air, but Tayuya was glad when Kakashi broke it. "So... no "thank you" or anything?" He said.

"... Umm..."

"That's fine... are you okay?" He asked.

Tayuya nodded.

Kakashi studied her for a long time. "If I asked you a question... Are you going to answer it?"

Tayuya looked up at him. "Well... what's the question?"

"I asked first. Yes, or no?"

"It depends..."

"That wasn't one of the options... when you're taking an exam and they gie you two choices - true or false - you're not gonna put "it depends" on there, would you?"

"God damn it..." Tayuya muttered. "What? What is the question? I'll fucking answer it..."

Kakashi turned serious again. "What was Sakon to you?"

This question placed a thick cork on her air-pipe. After awhile, she managed to croak out a reply that was not the answer to the question. "Why?"

"Well... there are a lot of reasons why. It isn't pleasant to fight against someone you care about..."

"Do I have to tell you the answer or are you just... asking me?" Tayuya said.

"I'm just asking you."

"..."

Tayuya really wanted to ask a question. Why did you kiss me? He could have just shook her or something, or if it was a genjutsu, he could have just dispelled it... any jonin level shinobi should know how to or they should go be a genin again... Unless there was some mistake involved with Kakashi being a jonin... which - again - is highly unlikely judging by how many people know and fear him.

"Konoha... is an amazing place," She blurted out, instead, making Kakashi's gaze snap back to her strangely.

There was a questioning look but he only answered it with "Yes." He probably thought that one question was enough.

There was nothing like surgery or anything involved for Tayuya's recovery but she did have to be stuck in the hospital for two whole days, no exceptions. This made her a little uneasy. What was she supposed to do in the two damn days on a hospital bed?

Kakashi kindly carried her all the way into her hospital room.

"This is unnecessary..." Tayuya said.

"With all your energy at low, you can still talk... When does your 'voice energy' die?"

"..."

Kakashi lowered her onto the bed with much caution and care. Tayuya almost expected him to lay himself down as well for a split second but she snapped out of the thought and wondered why she even thought that. Or maybe she wanted him to? Maybe she wanted him to stay with her... just maybe...

"Tayuya," He called, with a serious tone in is voice this time.

Tayuya met his gaze. Was he going to... maybe tell her why he did what he did? He'd better...

"Listen to what the hospital says... Only when they're looking of course," He said, then smiled.

That's it?

"Get some rest. You'll be needing it. I am pretty sure I'll be going on a mission soon and who'll watch over my genin for me?"

Tayuya wanted to punch him in the face.

"Bye now," He disappeared.

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"Hokage-sama, Kakashi-sempai just returned with Tayuya. They're in the hospital," Shizune said.

"What? Are they hurt?"

"No... not really... Tayuya seems to be tired out though... She needed rest."

Tsunade sighed in relief then pounded the desk. "What the hell possesed that girl to run off like that? If I wasn't any nicer, I would have marked her as missin-nin. Anyway, tell me what hospital room she's staying in. I can't just sit here and wait for her to recover if she happened to find something out."

"No need, she's enjoying her sleep," Kakashi suddenly stood in front of Tsunade.

Tsunade was taken by light surprise. "Don't pop out in front of me like that!"

"Sorry," Kakashi said, scratching the back of his head, but not because it was itchy or anything. "Umm... I thought you might like to know what information that we were able to gain..."

"Spit it out."

So Kakashi told the hokage what Tayuya had told him.

"So that little rat Sakon is gathering the people with cursed seal to activate some jutsu? What's the point of that?" Tsunade said softly to herself... Although is the rumors of them being acquainted with Akatsuki made the reasons much more clearer but she didn't know if that was really it.

"Hokage-sama... Rather than gaining more information this time, I think we should just take them out... The reasons are not importatnt compared to the safety of Konoha," Shizune said.

"I wish we could too... but their base is located in some place that I don't even know of. It's either off of the map or not mapped at all. The Sound nin have a special jutsu that transport them from the mainland to their island it seems... With them having the advantage, we can't just attack... and that too is if we can find them. Chances are, they'll always find us." Kakashi said.

Tsunade sighed in frustration. "Shizune."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama?"

"Assemble all jonin and chuunin in Konoha except Sasuke, Anko, and Tayuya. Make this absolutely secret from them. Kakashi, give them an excuse to not wonder about. Substitute the two to watch over your genin or something since Tayuya is sick. You're good at making up excuses."

"Umm... thank you?" Kakashi said, contemplating if that was a real compliment or a read-between-the-lines statement.

"Get going," Tsunade said and they obeyed.

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Going to sleep was much easier than Tayuya thought.

All she had to do was shut her eyes and the world of dreams unfurled itself before her eyes so suddenly that Tayuya didn't even know that she was even dreaming.

The dream was repetitive.

She was basically floating in mid-air, staring at her former life as a kid, as a sound-nin and as now, a shinobi of Konoha. It seemed have been all a waste.

There really was never a time where she smiled a genuine smile, nor ever cried real tears of joy. There never was a time she let anyone reach inside of her personal space in feelings unless it was meant sexually with particularly two white-haired sound nins. No one really showed her any warmth with the exception of Anko, maybe. There really never was a time that someone promised her anything and the only promise ever made to her was just a way to manipulate her for Orochimaru.

Is this my life? Tayuya thought. Is this seriously the way I am?

The scene changed to her current life aka life as an assistant of Kakashi.

Oddly... it was funny.

It was funny as hell.

She found herself laughing until she felt like her rib was going to break for laughing so hard.

Kakashi... he was such an irresponsible bastard... for leaving his genin kids with a totally unexperinced, and hot-headed kunoichi who had ill-intent against kids. And to have them master the water-training in a day... Followed by the most ridiculous punishment which she still wasn't done with... What on hell did he do to the library anyway? It took fucking talent to mess it up that bad. But then again... Kakashi seemed to be talented in all areas... ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu... he even possesed a powerful dojutsu with his exceptional intelligence... With so many talents, it couldn't hurt to add one more talent right? But then again... he wasn't always an irresponsible, strangely talented bastard. Sometimes... he was a responsible... nice... somewhat a warm bastard. It was more subtle than the first impression she had of him but still.. it was there and it was unmistakable. And now that she thought about it... maybe he did mean it when he told her that he cared about her earlier on.

Then her dream faded back to where it had all come from and the reality sneaked up on her like a ninja under cover.

She cracked open her eyes and immediately cringed as the bright hospital light beat down as if it wanted to make her blind.

"Hey, she's finally awake!" A strangely familiar voice said.

"Took you long enough, sleepy-head..." Anko's voice...

"Well... since she's awake now... I'm gonna go..."

"Sasuke-kun, she's still not well enough to take care of anyone..."

"Kakashi did fine with us... why can't a one persona watch over these rascals?"

"Shut up, Sasuke. Your teacher asked you to do it and you agreed to,"

"No, he dumped it on me..."

"Tayuya-sensei!" The voice from before called.

When Tayuya was finally some-what used to the light, she opened her eyes to see Anko, Sakura and the three genin looking at her eagerly with Sasuke standing there with a face-full of complaint... which she was not all to ready for... it was kind of strange, having people surround her for reasons other than getting information on a mission or something.

"What are you all doing here?" She asked, dumbfounded.

"What kind of a question is that?" Anko said, tapping Tayuya's forehead hard enough to barely hurt her.

"Ow..."

"We were worried sick about you. Why on hell did you run off like that?" Anko said.

"Yeah, Tayuya-sensei!" Honda exclaimed. "What the hell was that? I should have known... learning from Kakashi-sensei is the worst idea, ever! Look at you! You're just like him!"

Tayuya couldn't help but smile. "Well... your teacher pissed me off so I was getting the fuck away from him." Not a lie, right?

"Why do you hate Kakashi-sensei so much?" Haruko asked.

"Well... I don't..." She didn't exactly hate him... well actually, she didn't... she uh... well she did hate him sometimes but... well...

"He speaks highly of you, you know..." Masato added in, sheepishly. He's not known to speak of good qualities in people. "Actually, quite highly of you."

Huh? He did?

"What?"

"Well," Said, Haruko. "To tell the truth..." She looked to Honda and Masato nervously. Masato nodded but Honda shook his head vigorously. "After our second day of training, we told Kakashi-sensei that we thought you were scary and well... yeah... but he said that you were a very elite shinobi and it would be an extraordinary event to learn from someone like you... he meant it in a good way too," Haruko said. "And a couple of other things..."

"Like what?"

This time, both the boys remained silent and immobile.

"Nothing," Haruko immediately shut up.

Oh... Well saying nice things about her was one thing but he couldn't have always said nice things...

"See, Kakashi isn't too bad!" Anko said.

"Whatever..." Tayuya muttered.

"Huh? I heard my name..." Kakashi entered the door.

"Kakashi-sensei!"

"Hello, Kakashi-sempai..."

"Well, since he's here now... we can resume on finding a misison," Anko said.

Sasuke walked off and Sakura followed him out after saying "Bye, everyone!"

Anko muttered "Get better soon," and left and the genin followed her all shouting their versions of good byes.

The door closed and they were alone.

"Well," He said. "How are you?"

"Better."

"Good."

Then there was an awkward silence that all people on the face of the planet dreaded no matter what age, race, gender, or even sexual orientation dreaded.

"Umm... you can go too, you know... I'm not a little kid who always needs someone to be with her..." Tayuya said, feeling almost bad for him.

"Oh, I thought you might appreciate it..."

I do... "What? Come on, you have better things to do anyway."

Just then someone popped in. "I'm sorry to bust in so suddenly but Hokage-sama asked for you again. Another mission, I think..." It was Genma.

"Yo," Tayuya greeted him.

"Hey," He said.

Kakashi chuckled. "Well... how perfect, then..." He joked as he got up to leave. "Take care of yourself," He said and walked to the door.

"Umm, Kakashi," Tayuya called, just before Kakashi closed the door.

"Mm?"

"Well... thanks... for... everything I guess..."

His eye lit up a bit in surprise. He seemed to want to say something cool in return but, "Don't mention it..." was his only response before the door hid him from her.

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I've been burning in water and drowning in flame
To prove you wrong and scare you away
I admit my defeat and want back home
In your heart
Under the rose...

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Little cheesy to add lyrics yes... but I like it :P...