Author's notes: Hey guys I'm back, sorry for taking so long; I was at this leadership camp for about a week so I wasn't able to update any sooner than last week. But moving on, here I am again with Chapter Eleven. Just to let you know, it's a bit angst in this chapter, but I'm pretty sure it gets better. But enough spoilers, please read and enjoy

CHAPTER ELEVEN: BROKEN DREAMS

Kakashi awoke with a lazy and bored sigh, "day four already," he mumbled, rubbing his eyes and sitting up. Something wasn't right; Kakashi felt something was out of place.

Curious to know, Kakashi slides out of his bed and walked out of the bedroom; the living area was small, with only a small TV and couch. Kakashi knew something was up with Sakura. Last night she was quiet for most of the evening; Kakashi couldn't understand why.

Kakashi nonchalantly made his way past the couch and to the tiny kitchen only a few metres away. Right at the window, Kakashi hears slight movements outside. Ears twitching, Kakashi faces the sounds to find Sakura sitting on the branch of a tall tree reaching up to the windowsill.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan, and what on earth might've led you to sit on a branch," Kakashi started with inquisitiveness.

Sakura remained quiet and silence ensued. With no luck in getting an answer, Kakashi climbs up on the branch of the tree and slowly made his way to the medic's side, "so what was it that made you sit out here in the morning," he asked in slight desperation.

Still no answer, only the shuffling of Sakura's backside on the thick branch to sit more comfortably. Now that there were two people on the tree limb, Kakashi was a bit precarious about the weight limit the tree could handle.

Sakura blinked a few times, finally taking the time to pay attention to the other Jounin sitting next to her, "I was just thinking about something," she muttered, rubbing her nose tensely.

Kakashi nods, knowing the lack of answers he would get would be mute, "okay then," he shuffles his way back through the apartment window, but right at that point, Sakura had just changed her mind about her repeated and boring answer.

"Wait," she said curtly, staring at Kakashi with her now wide open emerald eyes, "something is bothering me," she deadpanned, trying to restrain any points of her having a cry over nothing.

Kakashi, who was now in thought of giving the closest person a high-five for his little accomplishment for his mocking routine; he sighed, getting back on the windowsill and sitting there and waiting for Sakura to continue, "then why didn't you just say so in the beginning," he responded in his dextrous ways to talk to the ladies.

He cocked his head to the side, watching Sakura's expressions turn blank, "I keep having flashback dreams where everything I've seen of Naruto's death comes back and it's five times worse than it was when it happened," she exclaimed, rubbing her temples frustratingly.

"I see," Kakashi looks down at his feet, 'poor Sakura-chan, the anguish she is going through is worse than I anticipated,' he said inwardly, only wishing he could do something about it to make Sakura exultant

Fun.

Kakashi despised that word just as much as the next person with the lack of teamwork in his skills. But Kakashi had to make sure they had fun for the rest of the mission. How hard could it be? All Kakashi had to do was keep Sakura happy for as long as possible and once they get back to Konoha, Kakashi could just lie a little that he had so much fun that he could do it again. But knowing Tsunade, she'll see through the incredulous tale and demand the truth.

But back to the problem at hand. Kakashi had to keep Sakura happy. It wouldn't be that hard would it? They could run around and go to other villages with so many things to do. Swimming was one of them, but Kakashi wasn't too keen in the water. They could train. Yeah, training was always fun; but Sakura always found it exhausting and boring after a while. Oh boy. This was harder than Kakashi thought it would.

He sighed and scratched the back of his head, wishing an answer would break into his head and take over. Of all the things Kakashi could and would do in a mission, it had to be one where he didn't have to kill someone or retrieve a sacred scroll from a mansion filled with elite ninjas; Kakashi would've preferred that better.

Not only that, but Kakashi had to spend the next two weeks with Haruno Sakura, his former student and not so close friend. Spending time with the gorgeous Kunoichi with the long smooth legs and the slim body with those sizable b-

Whoa, wait just a darn minute there.

Kakashi can't think of Sakura that way; she's his former student and he is her former teacher. Plus, he is many years her senior and being with her in that way would be stepping over so many lines. Not to mention Tsunade and her memo addiction; she'd be sending letters to everyone in the village with the headline 'Hatake and Haruno together; possible children,'

Just the thought sent chills down Kakashi's spine. He mentally shook his head in hopes of ridding himself from those images and returned to the worried Kunoichi on the tree branch.

Sakura stared aimlessly at her feet, dangling from the branch. She glowered at the distance from her and the ground below, deep in thought.

"Come on Sakura-chan, get inside so we can have an early day," Kakashi advised, getting inside the room and allowing Sakura to follow him.

In the latter, Sakura slowly made her way to the end of the branch, making sure she wouldn't look down from the reasonable height she was at. Kakashi reached out a hand to aid Sakura to her safe floor and subtly took it and stepped in.

Once on the safe side, Kakashi gave Sakura a composing smirk, letting her know everything would be okay. Sakura grinned back at him, though it was just to façade her true sentiments inside.

"So, what shall we do today?" Kakashi started, bringing his hands together in a single clap and waiting for Sakura to actually answer him.

Sakura tilted her head in thought, wondering too what they would do, "umm, lets see, we can go to the next village," she suggested, her finger on her chin in thought.

"Okay," Kakashi shrugged, walking back into the bedroom and started packing.

Sakura stood there with a bemused expression on her face; it spoke nothing but frustration and dismay. Something deep inside was troubling her, and she wasn't about to drop it like she always did.

Kitsune strayed her way to Sakura's side and nudged her on the leg. The medic glanced down at the brown fox, squinting like she always did, "I'm sorry Kitsune, but I don't think it will work this time," her grimace was constant and her voice sounded hoarse, making Kitsune frown deeply.

From the bedroom, Kakashi heard every word, and much to his dismay, he might not be able to help Sakura anymore with the state she was currently in. Kakashi remained silent as he listened to Sakura's harsh words.

"I don't think we'll be able to successfully complete the mission anymore," Sakura said softly, wondering if there was any hope left.

Kakashi was dumbfounded after those words and wondered if what she said was something that was inevitable. He ignored any other words from the medic's mouth and stared at his bag with Kuro ogling him with his cute blue eyes.

As a sort of contribute to Sakura's worries, Kakashi decided to pack her bag as well, just to be nice. While doing so, Kakashi picked up a photograph of the students he once taught many years ago and stared gloomily at the people in there.

Each of his students had a unique personality: Naruto was the mischievous one with the personality of a six year old. Sasuke was the lone-wolf one, who only sought to avenge his clan and always avoided conversation. Sakura loved to nag and always drooled over Sasuke whenever she got the chance.

Kakashi saw himself back then as the unlucky teacher who had to control little immature children. But he put one and one together and managed to like them. He had to live with them as the teacher until they were old enough to be called something other than a child. But of all teams to be dysfunctional, why Team 7? Sasuke ran off to Orochimaru for his lust for power and revenge, leaving only Naruto and Sakura.

Now, after another few years since Sasuke's betrayal, Naruto dies of some unknown accident and only he and Sakura are left. So what was he doing now? A reunion with his former and only student on a mission to have fun? Definitely not one of Kakashi's hobbies.

"Sakura-chan," Kakashi started, putting the picture away and closing her bag up.

"Hm," Sakura replied lazily.

"I know that you're already having a hard time this morning," Kakashi paused, wondering what to say next, "but maybe if you have a bit of hope, you can get the chance to enjoy yourself on the mission,"

Silence.

Sakura stormed into the room with a reviled glare, "how could you say that at a point like this," she snapped maliciously.

Kakashi backed away a bit before coming to his senses, "Sakura-chan I know what yo-"

"No, you don't know what I'm going through, you know nothing about me," Kakashi was cut off by Sakura's fuming rage.

Kakashi should've seen this coming; being taught by one of the Legendary Sannin, Tsunade was rubbing off on Sakura. She had a reputation for going off at people at random times, but this was not what Kakashi wanted to see from his students.

Before Sakura could continue on what she had said before, she remembered the very last words of that small argument:

"You know nothing about me," those words swam around in Sakura's brain, rewinding constantly.

Kakashi noticed the uncertainty in the medic's eyes and protested, "I do know what you're going through because I feel it too," Sakura glared angrily at Kakashi, wanting to say something almost hurtful but couldn't find the right words.

"This is a mission, Sakura-chan, and it's Tsunade's ord-" Kakashi was cut off again.

"Tsunade isn't here," she yelled, "this mission isn't working and I'd rather die than go through with this," Sakura started to weakly punch Kakashi in the chest, trying to find every way to fight back against him, "I'd rather die than have to suffer in all those painful nightmares and I'd rather die than be stuck with you in this mission," that was it. Sakura had literally snapped. She had lost it.

Kuro and Kitsune hid under the bed from the raging Kunoichi and waited for the fight to end. Kakashi stared ominously at Sakura and the words that came from her lips had hurt him more than a kunai stabbed in the back.

Sakura tried hard to both hit him and not hurt him at all, which certainly was the case. Kakashi didn't fight back, nor did he say anything that would help, "Sakura," he tried but Sakura refused to listen.

"No, no, no. I just want everything to stop," Sakura's punching ceased to mere nudges with her fists, with tears spilling from her eyes.

Finally Kakashi fought back with a subtle grip on the medic's wrists, stopping her from doing anything. Sakura sobbed as the uncontrollable tears rolled down her red cheeks. She rests her forehead against Kakashi's chest before slowly falling to the floor on her knees with Kakashi still holding onto her arms.

Sakura closed her eyes as her shoulders shook up and down from the sobbing and just let her sadness take over. Kakashi looked down at the crying medic with a regretful look in his only visible eye. He knelt down in front of the depressing Kunoichi and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Sakura…" Kakashi waited with his proclamation in case Sakura would yell at him again.

Nothing was happening, and Kakashi felt kind of glad that Sakura wasn't saying anything anymore and sighed deeply, "Sakura, I'm sorry you have to suffer like this, and I don't mean to hurt you by saying that; all I'm trying to tell you is that this mission is to help us overcome the problems we've had to endue in the past month,"

Sakura sniffed nasally and huffed under her breath, "I know," she sobbed, not making any eye contact with the Copy Nin. Sakura went back to what she screamed at Kakashi before and felt extremely guilty for saying such empty words.

"I don't know what I'm doing anymore. I'm losing it," Sakura wept in misery, ready to end her life on the spot.

Sakura wiped a few tears from her face but they just wouldn't stop flowing out. Kakashi reached out a hand to grab Sakura's but she tried to pull away, mumbling softly at him, "no, no, no more," she strived to avoid Kakashi's reach but she felt too weak inside to push away.

Kakashi now had both his hands on either shoulder of the Kunoichi, "Sakura, please, just look at me," he said, nudging Sakura lightly for her to listen.

Sakura finally made eye contact, staring mildly at Kakashi, who took his time to collect the right words, "Sakura, you are not losing it, all you have to do is try, and you'll be okay," he paused for a moment, sighing deeply.

Sakura tightly closed her eyes and bobbed her head down, "I want to help you Sakura, but if you act like this, then I can't help, so you need to trust me," Kakashi persisted, rubbing the medic's shoulder gently.

"Do you trust me?" he asked.

Sakura opened her eyes again, watching Kakashi's intent gaze of hope and finally said, "Yes," sobbing still, Sakura wiped more tears away before Kakashi pulled her closer for a tender hug.

Now with all the emotion coming from both Jounins, Sakura couldn't help but allow more tears to well up and stream down her cheeks, "I'm sorry about what I said to you before," she mumbled in a small weep.

Kakashi hushed her and placed his hand on the back of the medic's head. Sakura had her arms wrapped around Kakashi's neck and had her face buried in the man's shirt and shoulder.

"I was wrong to bring that up and I shouldn't have interfered with your personal life," Kakashi said softly, resting his head against Sakura's.

This intimate embrace made Sakura warm and fuzzy inside. Her crying turned to sobs and she just leaned against the other Jounin. Sakura felt Kakashi's hot breath on the base of her neck that sent chills down her spine.

"I'm sorry I judged you in the words I shouldn't have said," Sakura uttered softly.

Kakashi was a bit surprised at what Sakura suddenly said, but sighed instead, "don't worry about it, everyone snaps every once in a while," he grinned lightly, "and besides, I basically went through one ear and out the other," he stated lucidly and finally pulls Sakura away from him.

With his hands still on the medic's shoulders, Kakashi leans in a bit too close for Sakura's comfort and kisses her on the cheek. Kakashi smiled softly, getting up and leaving the room with Kuro following right behind him.

Still on the floor, Sakura took the time to think about what the hell just happened only a few minutes ago. Sure, Sakura woke up with another one of her horrible dreams and stayed up til morning. She stayed on the tree until Kakashi found her and asked her to get back inside.

Sakura gets angry and starts yelling at Kakashi, practically ignoring every word Kakashi tried to say. Sure, Sakura had a good cry and got a warming hug from the Copy Nin. But then a kiss on the cheek? Sakura had the feeling he went a little overboard.

Sakura was glad that she got that kiss but also scared that Kakashi would have the guts to try it again and end up chasing her out of the Fire Country. But besides all that, Sakura was flattered.

She touched her cheek where Kakashi's masked lips were and sighed in her famous shades of pink and red, 'okay…that was weird,' she thought, before a rather obnoxious Inner Sakura interrupted, 'what are you talking about Sakura, you just got kissed by the most wanted man of all fan girls in Konoha, you got to be proud of yourself,' as crazy as it sounded, Inner Sakura was had a point.

'I am such a dumbass, why the hell did I just kiss her?' Kakashi cursed himself to the nth time in the past two minutes and paced in front of the apartment door. Kuro sat there on the coffee table, purring lightly and watching Kakashi freak out over his own actions.

Kakashi stopped, staring thoughtfully at his feet, 'I just hope Sakura won't take it personally, nor take it seriously,' just the thought of Sakura wanting to come back for more made him shudder. Irks.

Kakashi shakes his head to rid himself from those disturbing images and sat on the couch to watch some TV. Surfing through channel by channel, Kakashi was bored already, so he pulls out his dirty reading material. Ah, Icha Icha Paradise, the book that makes every man's dreams come true.

Kakashi had to thank Jiraiya many times over for writing such wonderful novels; not to mention the annoying cliff-hangers at the end of each series, but that's what made Kakashi read them more. With a detailed plot and pictures to beat it, it made it almost irresistible to whoever read it.

Maybe Icha Icha Paradise was starting to rub off on him. Sure the novels Kakashi read were filled with erotic images of near naked women, but did it turn him into a porno crazed pervert? Not really; although he was mentioned as the Sharingan pervert from time to time, but it never really bothered Kakashi.

He read the books so much and for so long that he got use to all the nude images that would pop up in his head occasionally. Kakashi wouldn't be offended or spontaneously aroused if a real good-looking girl ran past him topless screaming his name right out of the blue.

With all those thoughts racing about in the Copy Nin's head, he had no idea that Sakura was standing at the door of the bedroom, with her bag by her feet. Uh oh, Kakashi's bad thoughts were truly cursed. Sakura wanted more? Oh god, Kakashi hoped not.

No words yet, Kakashi gaped innocently, waiting for Sakura to say something, "ready to go?" she finally enquired, staring nervously at the ground with Kitsune right next to her.

Kitsune was ogling the two Jounins before receiving a glare from the black fox on the couch, "umm, not quite, but I'll start now," Kakashi replied in his coherent manner and gets up, switching the TV off and making his way to the bedroom.

Once inside, Kakashi shut the door behind him and sighed in relief. He was ready to wipe the sweat from his forehead but he knew there wasn't much point since all this would most likely get much worse and intense.

Kakashi was glad that his little predicament was over quickly as he got down to his knees in front of his bag and stared lazily at all the clothes that were in there. He emptied his backpack and started to neatly fold everything to make room for other things, like himself if he was that desperate.

It was a good thing that Sakura didn't have her little vendetta held out for so long, otherwise Kakashi would've been on the receiving end of a painful threat, and knowing what Sakura was capable of, he didn't really want to be the victim here.

Another sigh escaped his masked lips as he folded another pair of shorts, but suddenly something struck him. An acquainted thought came back and his laziness changed to worry, "what if this mission really is meaningless," he wondered, waiting for an idea to crawl into his brain and waiting for the little light bulb to hover over his head with a 'ping'.

Kuro, who was sitting on his bed, gave off an incoherent meow, making Kakashi get his attention, finally. Kakashi stared at the black fox and patted him gently, smirking under his mask, "it's okay Kuro, I won't go off at anyone," he assured, returning his awareness to his clothes.

Kakashi had actually forgotten that he was still in the clothes he slept with last night and decided to change into something he could walk in public with. He swiftly dressed himself so Sakura wouldn't accidentally walk in on him with no pants on.

Author's notes: all I can say about this chapter (near the end of course) was "awwwww", this truley was a fluffy moment. I just had to make Kakashi kiss Sakura (only a soft, absent-minded, masked kiss) and I had to make Inner Sakura say something to make the mood better. I think this was probably one of my favourite chapters so far and I bet it will (should) get better. Well enough of my drabbling and nonsense, I really hope you enjoyed reading and once again, thanks for reviewing me on each chapter, but now I would like you to do it again as a favour winks , thanks