Author's notes: Woohoo! I love you guys sooooooooooooooooooooo(two minutes later)ooooooooo much, I think I'm going to cry (rubs eyes). So yeah, don't have much to say about this chapter, just noting out how close we are to the end actually, and sadly I'm nervous about the ending, just afraid to leave you behind (pouts). Nah, this is fun, for me and probably you guys. But anyway, I've kinda figured out what my rate thingy was (M), and I think I should change it to a little lower until the real juicy bits fly in, but you tell me. Just to warn you, there will be heaps of fluff, maybe that's why I rated it M; M for mature audiences folks hehe. Anyway, here's chapter twenty five, hope you enjoy it .
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE: TIL DEATH DO US PART
Kakashi strapped the note around the small pugdog, "get this to Tsunade-sama as soon as you can, Pakkun," Kakashi ordered, ignoring the rain as he stared at the dog.
"Hai, Kakashi-san," Pakkun replied and dashed off into the trees to deliver his message.
Kakashi watched as the pugdog disappeared into the trees and off he went. With a sigh, he walked over to Sakura, who was sitting under a tree with a bare expression clear on her face.
He could tell by Sakura's posture how shocked she was from the recent event. Kakashi felt bad himself for reminding Sakura what had to be done, but he couldn't blame her; Sakura was already in a lot of pain with Sasuke around to begin with and it broke her heart when he left.
Sakura sighed as she stared in a meaningless way at her feet and felt Kitsune nudge her side to return to the reality world, but Sakura chose to ignore it.
"Ready to go? The village isn't that far now," Kakashi inclined, rubbing his sore arms glaringly.
Sakura nodded as she got up sluggishly with her bag on and shuffled past Kakashi when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Tiredly she whirled her head to find Kakashi staring at her with a worried look in his only visible eye.
Sakura saw something in his eye that she couldn't quite understand; she had never seen Kakashi with so many emotions being expressed at once, it was unlike him to show these kinds of emotions. She gazed deeply into Kakashi's dark eye and pulled a soft smile, and knowing Sakura, she didn't really mean it.
"We'll get through this Sakura-chan, don't worry," Kakashi assured, squeezing his grip briefly on the medic's shoulder before smiling sweetly.
Sakura felt something after he smiled at her like that, but didn't know what it was. She felt herself again after Kitsune demanded cuddles when she climbed up on her shoulder. What she didn't quite notice was the rain finally coming to an end.
She sighed when she looked up and not having to squint when the rain hit her eyes, "finally," Kakashi grunted as he gazed up at the clearing sky to reveal the sun in the distance.
Kakashi glanced over at the rather silent medic and sighed. He slung his bag over to the front and stood in front of Sakura with arms out and his back facing her, "come on, we'll go find a place to rest for the night," he looked over his shoulder to find Sakura ogling him with a confused look and raised an eyebrow.
The pink haired Kunoichi nodded as she climbed up on Kakashi's back and had her arms gently wrapped around the other Jounin's neck. Kakashi had his hands securing under her thighs to keep Sakura's weight against him without letting her fall and began to walk on.
Kuro and Kitsune, who were now on the ground together, merely exchanged glances as they pondered over their masters' current situation. Without further ado, the two foxes followed Sakura and Kakashi and the mission went on.
Sakura relaxed herself as she was being piggybacked along by her former sensei and rest her head on the man's shoulder. Kakashi simply grinned, knowing Sakura was calm and not to mention very tired. He couldn't help but feel for her. Right now she needed him, and that's all Kakashi wanted to do: help her.
Soon enough, Kakashi found a place to rest, reasonably dry and spacious for them to move around. Before allowing his arms to relax and let Sakura down, he hadn't noticed that she was asleep. He felt Sakura's calm breathing tickle his neck, sending slight chills down his spine. He definitely noticed the way she was practically nuzzling her face against his neck. Though he didn't want to wake Sakura from her peaceful slumber, he had to because his arms were getting tired and he wanted to sit down and sleep himself.
"Sakura-chan," Kakashi urged, softly nudging the medic with his elbow.
"Hmmm?" came the voice of the tired Sakura.
Sakura blinked a few times before coming to her senses that she had been sleeping these past ten minutes. She stretched out her arms a bit and slid off Kakashi's back and stood sleepily as the other Jounin set up camp.
After about ten minutes, Kakashi had a fire going and laid out his sleeping bag against the tree they were camping under, "Sakura-chan, can you toss me your sleeping bag," he asked as he knelt down to prod the fire momentarily.
Sakura nodded as she pulled the sleeping bag from her backpack and handed it to the other Jounin. Kakashi smiled at her and spread her sleeping bag next to his. This was when Sakura was confused. Whatever Kakashi was planning right now, she was not in the mood and she wouldn't like it anyway.
Kakashi sat down against the tree while sitting on both his sleeping bag and hers. He motioned her to sit down as well and smiled. Sakura didn't know what to do at this point, but did as she was told, knowing how tired she was right now and she didn't want to ask questions; that could wait.
Slowly, the pink haired medic made her way to Kakashi and sat down next to him. She remained silent as she allowed Kitsune to make refuge on her lap and meowed for a cuddle. Kuro was already fast asleep next to his Jounin master, and Kakashi just sighed as he scratched the black fox behind the ear.
"You feeling alright?" Kakashi asked, placing his hand on the medic's shoulder.
Sakura bit her lower lip, "yeah…" she mumbled softly, before realising that what Kakashi had asked wasn't all he wanted to say.
"Did Tsunade-sama know?" Sakura knew he would ask that.
"Yes…" Sakura pushed the lump down in her throat and continued, "I told her shortly after you brought me to her office and left to deal with the problem,"
Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck and gazed at the fire before him and said, "why didn't you tell me you did it?" Sakura frowned deeply, "when I told Tsunade-shisou about what I did, she knew something like that would've happened because of the danger I was in whenever I was around Naruto," she replied and stroked Kitsune as she stared at her with her big green eyes.
"But why didn't you tell me?" Kakashi asked again, this time, in hopes of Sakura actually answering his question.
Sakura should've seen this coming. Slowly, she took a deep calming breath and finally spoke, "because I was afraid you wouldn't accept it if I told you. That you wouldn't believe it was an accident," Kakashi's eye widened in surprise. Did Sakura really think he wouldn't believe her?
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Sakura, whatever gave you the idea that I wouldn't believe you?" Kakashi spoke up, almost startling Sakura. She closed her eyes tight, thinking Kakashi was mad at her now.
Kakashi sighed at his own disappointment and took the time to absorb the information. Sakura sat there, ready to burst into tears from all the stress playing down on her, when she suddenly felt a hand on her forehead. She opened her eyes and looked at Kakashi, who had nothing but his masked emotions.
"Well?" he asked, this time in a more calming voice than before.
"I was just so scared, and I didn't know what to believe anymore and I suddenly began losing trust in everyone…I just…I was just so scared," Sakura began rubbing the tears from her eyes.
Kakashi removed his hand from the medic's forehead and rubbed her back warningly. Sakura absentmindedly rest her head on the other Jounin's shoulder and wrapped her arms around his upper body. Kakashi held his breath momentarily before letting his hand rest on her waist.
Sakura felt like such a child when she did that, but she felt so lonely ever since Naruto died, and now she had made it worse when she killed Sasuke too, "I hate this," she huffed under a few sobs.
"Hate what?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow, as he took in the scent of Sakura's pink hair, and strangely enough, it still smelt clean.
"Being weak…I hate showing my tears…it shows how weak I am," she muttered as she lifted her head and placed it on Kakashi's chest.
Kakashi sighed as he took in the words, "no one likes to be weak, and besides, you're not weak, you're strong. If anyone else was in your position right now, they would've probably killed themselves from depression," he grinned at the medic to reassure her.
Sakura was silent a moment more, she was too busy listening to Kakashi's steady heartbeat and feeling his chest rise and fall after each breath. She didn't know why, but she felt safe now that Kakashi understood what she meant and sighed blissfully.
"Kakashi," Sakura mumbled in thought.
"Hm?" Kakashi looked down at the drowsy medic and raised an eyebrow.
"Ever since I first met you, you've seemed like a total mystery to me…" Sakura trailed off, whether or not she should dawn herself on the subject at all.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "really? What makes you seem that I'm a mystery to you?" he asked, trying to get where this was going. Sakura tensed up a bit before relaxing herself again and answering his questions, "well you wear a mask, that's one thing, and basically the only thing I knew about you back then was your name and that you had the Sharingan and that's it," feeling a bit stupid, Sakura wished she should never have brought up the subject and that she should've just gone to sleep.
Kakashi chuckled, "so you want to know a bit more about me is that it?" Sakura nodded with a 'yes' and stretched out her arm across the man's stomach.
Kakashi thought about it for a moment, "well what do you want to know about?" he blatantly asked, allowing Sakura to ask the questions she probably had listed over the years they knew each other.
Sakura sat up to look at him and asked, "how about…what's your favourite colour?" she seemed a bit eager to know little questions like that, even Kakashi was a bit surprised, "I guess that would have to be navy blue," he replied simply.
Typical Kakashi. Sakura should've known what his favourite colour was, seen the fact that he wore navy blue clothes on a daily basis, "what about you?" he asked with raised eyebrows.
Kakashi inwardly guessed she would say pink; her hair and name just screamed pink, "mine would have to be…orange," Sakura said, making Kakashi think twice.
"You don't suppose your favourite colour has anything to do with a particular hyperactive blonde would it?" Kakashi asked in a sneaky tone and grinned devilishly at the pink haired Kunoichi. Sakura's face flushed a light shade of red before shaking her head vigorously, "no!" she spat, although not making seem like she was insulted by such a question.
Kakashi merely laughed at her and watched her curious gaze turn into an embarrassed pout. The whole question about knowing Kakashi better had slipped from Sakura's mind after having a long conversation about Naruto and his crazy antics, along with the good times in Team 7.
"I still can't believe Naruto had the instinct to prank you for being so late on our first day," Sakura said, trying to contain her laughter. The two Jounins were now lying down on their own sleeping bags and sharing the good times.
Kakashi nodded his head, "yeah, I also can't believe how desperate you guys were to see what my face looked like," he reminded, making Sakura laugh again.
"Yeah, and all the ideas were pretty good too, but somehow it was like destiny didn't allow us to see your face at all," Sakura had to bite back on the word 'destiny' she almost sounded like Neji just then.
Kakashi stopped laughing at stared at the medic with an intent gaze, "not exactly; you've seen my face before…but I guess that destiny thing only counted when all three of you were working together," he chuckled lightly and lay back.
"We were close though," Sakura added, smiling softly before making eye contact with the man before her. She felt her heart race suddenly at the way Kakashi was staring at her and wondered what he was about to do.
Kakashi himself wasn't too sure what he was doing, and by any chance he had to stop before he made the situation worse, "real close…but not close enough," he added to Sakura's last statement and rest his head on his arm with a small smile plastered on his masked face.
After a moment of silence, Sakura felt bad memories starting to return to her conscious and urged herself not to let them get to her. Kakashi noticed the way she was almost physically straining, making him question himself what she was doing.
"You okay?" he asked, sitting up and leaning against the tree again.
"No…" well that was honest of Sakura. What's next? A major confession? Sakura sat up and rubbed her arm tiredly, "I just can't stand my memories coming back to haunt me all the time. First Naruto…now Sasuke…" she felt the tears run down her face and cursed herself for letting them escape her emerald eyes.
Kakashi sighed and looked up at the clearing night sky, "after my other teammate went missing and heard that she was killed by a rogue S-Rank ninja, I didn't know what to think but that it was somehow my fault. It soon hit me that it wasn't my fault, but that I was only torturing myself because of my beliefs," he paused to clear his throat and continued, "I had realised how much she had cared for me when I needed her, and told myself that I didn't have anything to do with her death. I soon got over the loss and moved on,"
The silver haired Jounin sighed as he gazed at the night sky and listened to the crickets in the swampy patches of grass, before he felt a small amount of weight press down on him. When he looked over to see what it was, he found Sakura wrapping her arms around his body and snuggling up to him. This was creepy even for his standards, but he didn't want to ruin the precious moment.
Kakashi knew he would regret doing this, and no doubt could he get rid of the thoughts occurring at this moment. He didn't want to admit that he was starting to have feelings for Sakura. Wait a minute! Did Kakashi just admit he had feelings for his former student? Oh Kami! He couldn't say that, let alone think it. He was fourteen years her senior, and just imagine her reaction if he told her. He was scaring himself right now and he wanted to sleep peacefully and not being taunted with his thoughts over his precious former student.
'Get a grip on yourself, Kakashi,' he told himself and glanced down at the now sleeping medic in his arms.
He let his hands move down to Sakura's waist and sighed a bit and rest his head against the tree and allowed himself to sleep without scaring himself any further by pushing those thoughts aside.
Sakura, who was thought to be still asleep, pressed her face onto Kakashi's chest with a sigh. She knew how wrong this must've been for both her and Kakashi, but it almost felt so right to be with him. Sakura had to admit that she had grown feelings for him, but she wondered if he felt the same way. She hated these moments when she didn't know something about a person she'd known for such a long time; it made it feel like she didn't know the person at all.
Sakura pushed her worries aside for now to deal with later, or perhaps when she didn't feel so glum and depressed. Right now she just wanted to get some well earned rest. She felt Kakashi's hand make small circular motions on her waist, sending chills down her spine. The movements soon ceased and inwardly Sakura was a bit disappointed, but was suddenly brought out of her thoughts when she felt a soft pair of lips press on the top of her head. Was he wearing a mask or not? Sakura's stomach was suddenly filling up with butterflies and her heart beat began to thump harder. Of course Kakashi wouldn't kiss Sakura without his mask, that's just plain insane, but it made Sakura think.
Slowly, Sakura's eyelids began to weigh down on her and her limbs had already left her, all she needed to do now was relax the rest of her muscles and she was off. Slowly closing her eyes, Sakura found herself in a totally comfortable position and she was out like a light.
Kakashi didn't know what to think anymore, his thoughts were starting to get the better of him and he wasn't really liking it. His thoughts were so strong at this point that they were playing around in his dreams. Instead of dreaming nothing but what his life went through or random roll plays from his little orange smut books, he found himself in awkward situations with his former female student.
He found himself staring at Sakura wearing nothing but her bikini and sitting on what appeared to be his bed. What was the world coming to? What was Kakashi coming to? Good grief, Kakashi was going nuts. He knew he was a little protective of Sakura, but he was always like that, and it never really bothered him until now.
After Sakura started moaning in pleasure and calling his name, Kakashi had enough and forced himself to wake up. He opened his eye and blinked a few times to wake up properly before he found himself staring up at the clear night sky.
'What the hell?' he thought as he tried to take a look at his surroundings.
He was lying flat on his back, with what appeared to be Sakura sleeping on top of him, 'what am I doing on the ground with Sakura?' Kakashi was starting to get a little creeped out.
Thinking that he should probably get some sleep, he suddenly felt something move on him to somewhere he didn't quite want to think about at this point. Lifting his head, he saw Sakura's elbow shifting dangerously close to his crotch, 'not the crotch, not the crotch!' he hoped Sakura was asleep while doing this, otherwise it would be a strange story to bring up in the morning.
Fortunately for him, Sakura didn't move any further with her elbow. If she had done so, Kakashi would've felt even more uncomfortable than he already was.
Sluggishly, Kakashi took in a deep breath and sighed, watching how the medic reacted to his movements by moaning a bit in her sleep, which he wasn't really bothered by. Slowly, the silver haired Jounin returned his gaze up to the dark sky and closed his eye to return to whatever torture his dreams had to offer him until dawn.
The sun had risen and the birds were starting their morning song calls to each other and the first light revealed its cloud of mist hovering over the campsite where Sakura, Kakashi, Kuro and Kitsune slept the night.
Sakura was interrupted by the loud cry of a crow, 'not now…' came a groggy moan of Inner Sakura as she threw an arm up to shoo away the damn bird.
Sakura suddenly felt a warm breath on her face, 'oh, don't tell me…' Sakura, who still had her eyes closed to get back to sleep, had a thought of what and who was giving her those sensational warm breaths on her face.
She opened her emerald green eyes and was suddenly welcomed to the masked face of her former sensei. Her face lit up bright red like a tomato at the close proximity of their faces. They were nearly touching. She had to calm down right now, Kakashi probably slept lightly and would probably feel her tense up against him and most likely her reddened face would give off some heat.
The pink haired medic stared at Kakashi's sleeping face, she couldn't help but smile at such bliss. She gazed at the calmness of his face, and had the faint idea he was awake. Keeping her guard up, Sakura looked down at her rather intimate position and gulped.
'Geez Kakashi, what were you doing in your sleep?' Inner Sakura started annoyingly.
She abruptly felt a hand that was vaguely noticeable on her waist tense up and pull her closer to him. Now Sakura was completely flushed against him, but did Kakashi do that in his sleep, or was he awake this whole time?
Sakura finally decided to put a stop to this. Carefully, she managed to shift her weight a bit and moved her arm, which was wedged between her body and Kakashi's, but managed to squeeze it free. She stared at Kakashi's face before grinning lightly as a small blush crept across her cheeks.
"Umm…Kakashi?" Sakura whispered, staring at the man's only visible eye as it squinted at the sound of her voice and woke up.
The second Kakashi had opened his eye he jerked his head back because of the closeness between him and his former student. Sakura had an awkward smirk on her reddened face.
Kakashi felt so embarrassed when he noticed his position. Even though he may have found this somewhat comfortable, he didn't want to scare the medic, so he lifted his arm that was draped around her waist and sat up.
"Sorry about that…" he said whilst rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.
Now that Sakura was free from Kakashi's embrace, she sighed in relief to only get jumped on by Kitsune to greet her to the day. The brown fox rolled off her and landed where Kakashi was resting and demanded a cuddle.
"Good morning Kitsune," Sakura said happily and petted the brown fox playfully.
Kakashi looked over his shoulder to find himself blushing lightly for some strange reason. Good thing he was wearing a mask or Sakura would've definitely noticed it. He rubbed his face and sighed again and stood up, stretching out his arms and legs before his eye twitched at an uneasy sensation in his pants.
Quickly, Kakashi dove off into the bushes and away from Sakura so she couldn't see him. Sakura sat there with raised eyebrows after she was abruptly startled by the silver haired man when he dashed off into the bushes as if he had left something burning.
Author's notes: I like fluff, and I managed to throw in some funny fluff right there with the intimate position with our favourite couple. See? I am getting somewhere with the M-Rating, and I'm pretty sure it'll get even better (lemon included :P). Yeah, I hope you liked this chapter, because I sure did; I'm probably going to throw in a scene where Tsunade gets the message from Pakkun, but I'm not so sure yet, you tell me and I'll see what I can put together. Now reviews please.