A/N: Just wanted to thank everyone who has taken the time to read this story as it develops. I know that I have been updating everyday so far and I would like to try to update everyday until I finish this, but I just wanted all to be aware that IRL I have a 3 month old daughter so that might not always happen. Anyways hope you like this next chapter where some of the love triangle that is developing gets a little more intense.
Also I have realized as I was rereading this that it might be confusing to some when the characters are speaking, and when they are thinking so from now on (after I finish I will go back and edit the beginning) when a character is thinking I will use "" and italics. :)
"Goodnight beautiful".
Kakashi lay silently in bed just watching the woman beside him, the steady rise and fall of her chest indicating that she was asleep. He couldn't stop himself and before he knew it he was touching her. He didn't want to wake her so he simply folded her hair behind the crease of her ear. He froze as the woman started moving toward him in her sleep. She nuzzled up to him and he felt himself becoming immediately hard. "Stop it Kakashi, Sakura isn't one of your random conquest. She is one of the most important, well only, friends you have." Cursing himself for asking her to stay he turned to face the ceiling. As he did so the warm body beside him closed the remaining distance between them. He let out a sigh "This is going to be a long night old man."
Sakura woke the next morning surprised to find Kakashi not in the small bed. "Hmmm. Wonder where he slipped off too." She decided it wasn't important since he had just offered for her to stay so that she didn't have to walk home so late. She decided he wouldn't mind if she took a shower before she left and so she made her way to the bathroom down the hall. What she saw when she opened froze her in her tracks. Kakashi, the man who she was trying her damnedest to fight back feelings for, was sitting in the tub absolutely naked, completely naked. Seeing his member was nothing new to the medic ninja who had had to strip him bare before to heel wounds to his thighs and stomach. No, what took her off guard was that the famous copy nin was naked from the neck up. She couldn't help the gasp that escaped her lips.
Kakashi was sitting in the tub trying to forget the sleepless night he had had before, he figured that Sakura would be a few hours before she got up so he decided that it was the perfect time to bathe. Seeing the object of his predicament walk through the door nearly stopped his heart. He then realized that he wasn't wearing his mask and slapped a hand over his face quickly. Later that day he would remember that moment and wonder how telling it was that he didn't even try to cover his gentiles. "Sakura what are you doing?"
"I uh, I was just coming to take a shower. I thought you had left. Dear God I am so sorry!" With this she turned and ran out of the house as fast as she could. "Stupid, stupid stupid. Of course he was still there, it's only 5:30 AM!" She choose to jump rooftop to rooftop since that was the quickest way to get from the apartment she just left to her own apartment. She slipped quietly through her balcony window with different thoughts bombarding her. Seeing Kakashi without his mask was a childhood dream, one that she had never imagined would come true. Now that she had seen behind the mask a part of her wished she hadn't. He was beautiful there was no mistaking it, but there was something else. Tiny scars had zigzaged across the area of his face where his mask covered. Seeing them had made her want to hold him close and kill whoever had hurt that beautiful face. It was obvious that he had been tortured, and it was also obvious that he was ashamed. Thinking back she remembered that Kakashi had been wearing that mask since a few years after graduating the academy. "So young to have been tortured... who did this to you?" Shaking off the question she realized that it didn't matter. Kakashi would never open up and let her in. She knew that she was a good friend of his, but he had no feelings for her beyond that and something like that was only shared between the most intimate of relationships.
Kakashi felt like he might be having a panic attack. "Shit! She saw my face!". He rushed out of the bathroom and threw on his mask even though he knew that she was already gone. "She saw my face and now she will never be able to feel anything for me." The scars on his face were a constant reminder of his first mission out of Konoha. He could still remember every detail of that night like it was yesterday. Usually ninja were not sent out on missions unless they were on a 4 man team, but Kakashi had shown so much progress the third Hokage had felt that this minor problem could be dealt with with one ninja. He felt tears forming in the back of his eyes and he forced himself to shake off the memory. Standing before the mirror he pulled his mask down to reveal the scars that were hidden from the world. Running a finger them, each one deeper than the last he felt sick. He wasn't vain enough to think that the scars took away from his appeal, no his problem with them was that they showed how weak he truly was.
Sai, Sauske and Sakura waited for over an hour at the training grounds before they decided that he wasn't going to show up. Sai waved goodbye saying that he saw a birds nest outside his window that he would like to draw.
"Okay Sauske, I know you want to talk about what happened last night so now is as good a time as any I guess." Sakura was still thinking about what to do about Sauske's insane proposal that she marry him and have his children.
"Alright Sakura, how about we talk about why you felt the need to stay at Kakashi's house last night!" Sauske was clinching his fist so hard his fingernails were bound to draw blood if he didn't let up soon. "You belong to ME and I will be damned if I let you be touched by that perverted old man!"
Sakura was stunned. This is not where she imagined this conversation to go but even in her surprise she didn't miss how he had called her his and grabbed her arm almost painfully. She sent a burst of her chakra to that arm, not enough to harm him, but enough that touching that part of her would be painful. He didn't even flinch and she was sure that he waited a few more seconds to prove to her that she couldn't hurt him. Her temper rising she felt her teeth clinch together. "First off, who the hell do you think you are calling me yours? I belong to no one. You left me remember? Secondly, I don't know how you knew I stayed at Kakashi's house last night, but you have nothing to worry about. I will be honest, I was starting to have feelings for him but he made it clear that he wasn't interested. And lastly, I loved you for year and years and you repeatedly ripped my heart to shreds, I don't know if I will ever love you the same way I did before you left but I told you I was willing to try and I will, but make no mistake I am not the little girl that followed you around and worshiped the ground you walked on. That little girl and the crazy bitch you see in front of you is her replacement.
Sauske didn't quiet know what to say "Is this the same woman who would have done anything for me just a few short years ago?" He smiled to himself "Good, this woman seems even stronger". "Alright Sakura, we will do things your way and take it slowly, but I wont wait forever." He turned to walk off and couldn't help his thoughts. "She thinks that Kakashi isn't interested in her? That little fool, it's obvious that he is falling for you. That's why love is such a weakness." He turned back to the woman and grabbed her arm, pulling her close enough so that their noses were touching he whispered to his pink haired companion, "You might not know it yet Sakura, but you are mine." Without another word he mashed his lips to hers capturing the soft gasp that escaped her mouth.
Sakura knew that this kiss was not meant to be sweet or romantic, it was possessive and hard. She imagined the little girl who would have died on the spot after getting kissed by this man. She smiled to herself which must have been misread by the Uchiha who pulled her closer and ground himself against her. Sakura couldn't help but be slightly turned on by the man who was trying to make her bend to his will, he was a sexy specimen, but she didn't feel any flutters. Nothing.
Sauske finally ended the kiss. He pulled back to see the look on her face, but was surprised to find only a hint of desire in her jade eyes. He was certain that she had been pleased by the kiss, but her face showed only minimal amounts of satisfaction in her gaze. "Her feelings for Kakashi must have been stronger than I thought. I will just have to fix that." Sauske didn't give Sakura a chance to think before he turned once again and left the training ground.
Sakura didn't understand why she couldn't feel more when the man who she had loved for most of her life kissed her. She knew that she should have swooned at his feet and begged for more, but she couldn't help but wish that her first kiss was given by someone else. Sakura had been waiting for Sauske most of her "adult" life and now he was back, and wanted to start a life with her. She was so confused and upset that she threw her kunai at a tree absentmindedly before she realized that it wasn't a tree at all. She was pretty sure this day couldn't get any worse as she looked up and saw that she had actually thrown her weapon into the shoulder of her sliver haired friend.
"Well I can see that this is a bad time so I think I will just go before I incur anymore bodily harm." He started to leave but say a flash of pink run up to him before he could make the hand-signs that would take him straight to his apartment.
"Kakashi wait! I didn't mean to hit you, I had my mind on something else and just threw it." She felt her heart stop when she realized what she had done. She gulped when it came time to pull her kunai out of her friend. Just a few more inches to the right and it would be lodged in his heart. She quickly put the thought aside and began sending her healing chakra to the wound that she had accidentally inflicted.
Kakashi stiffened slightly as the object was pulled from his body. "So, I just came here to apologize. I knew you were in the house and I should have locked the bathroom. I'm sorry you had to see my shame, but I would appreciate it if you would keep it to yourself."
Sakura knew something like this was coming, she couldn't stop herself from reaching out to him and friend I have, the only one who didn't leave me in one way or another. I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but I am here if you ever feel the need." She left her hand there longer than she meant to and suddenly felt awkward as she removed it.
Kakashi didn't know what to say. He could see the compassion in her eyes and it was slowly chipping away at his resolve, without further thought he pulled his mask down bellow his chin and brought her in for a kiss.
Where Sauske's kiss was hard and demanding Kakashi's was soft and warm. His lips felt like silk on hers and she could feel a knot forming in her stomach. Her body practically melted against his own and she reveled in the new sensations that took over her. When the kiss was over she felt him hold her, she almost cried when he let go so that he could look at her. She could see the questioning look on his face and wondered why he had kissed her if he hadn't meant to. "That must have just been the only way he could think to thank me for what I said." Then it dawned on her, she had just decided to start a relationship with Sauske and here she was less than an hour later kissing someone else. "Sauske asked me to be his girlfriend... I said yes..." The words tripped their way out of her mouth and she almost wished they weren't true as she said them.
"I see. Well it was just a heat of the moment kiss anyway, nothing to worry about." He put on his most fake smile as he righted the mask on his face. "Better not keep you from Sauske any longer. I'm happy for you Sakura, you finally got what you always wanted." They words were meant to ease the pain he was feeling, to assure himself that his feelings were nothing more than in infatuation, but as he said them he could almost hear his heart breaking. He was in love with her. "God Damnit! How could I be so stupid?" He wished he could melt away forever and never have to look at her beautiful face again. She would never be his. Even if she didn't go running back to Sauske he had no illusions, she could never love someone like him. She wanted a family, she wanted children and he would never be a father. It wasn't that he didn't want children deep down inside, but having someone like that so close to his heart would be an even bigger weakness than the scars on his face. He didn't think she belonged with someone as cold as Sauske, but if that made her happy than he would learn to live with it. His whole heart wanted to kiss her again; to tell her his feelings and beg her to give him a chance, but he wouldn't do that. "Be ready to train tomorrow, we leave for Sand in a few days." with that he made the quick hand-signs that would take him far away from the woman who had penetrated his heart.
Sakura watched him go in a puff of smoke. "I had never been kissed in my life before today, and now I have been kissed by two separate people. What does that say about the future of my love life?" She couldn't help but wonder at the fact that she had kissed the man who she had loved for years and felt almost nothing, but she had nearly cried from happiness at being kissed by a man that she had had a simple crush on. She contemplated going home but she knew that if she would be leaving in a few days that she should really get some work done at the hospital, so she grudgingly made her way toward the building next to Hokage Tower. Sakura was a top class medical ninja, even surpassing her teacher in some ways, but she always felt more at home on the field. She was almost giddy at the thought of being sent back out on a mission.
_
Several mornings later the team of four made their way through the gates and headed off toward the direction of the Sand Village. The tension between the two sharingan wielders and the kunoichi was nearly palpable and it didn't go beyond the notice of the stoic Sai, wisely he kept his thoughts to himself and decided that he would ask Kakashi about it after they made camp. If this kept up he would have to watch all of their backs for them since none of them were as focused as they should be.
Somewhere in the back of his mind Sauske knew that he wasn't as focused on the mission as he should be. Since this was his first official mission as a returned Leaf Ninja he knew he should be giving it his all, but he couldn't help but grumble inwardly at the looks his "leader" was giving his woman. "Stupid bastard actually thinks he has a chance with her. Hmmp, not in a million years." Sauske was planning on slowly putting a wedge between the two but when he saw that Sakura couldn't hide her smile as she looked at the silver haired jonin he decided that he would have to work fast. He couldn't let Sakura see that Kakashi was falling for her, and he certainly couldn't let her realize that her feelings for Kakashi were more than just a girly crush. He decided that he would show Sakura exactly how the real Kakashi was around women. Then she would turn to him and give him what he wanted. "Yes, when she sees that he is just a lecherous man-whore she will come running." He had a feeling it would be hard to put Kakashi in a compromising position since he obviously was enamored with Sakura, but he would find a way, even if he had to pay some sand bitch to seduce the silver haired man...
A/N: I hope that this chapter illuminated just how possessive Sauske feels over Sakura, treating her like a spoil of war. Also I hope it was easy to see how I am trying to make Sakura's relationship with Kakashi a foil of her relationship with Sauske. Hope you enjoyed. I would love some input so I know if you guys like where this story is headed or not! :)