2

In A While

"Anyone coming with me?"

Sasuke and Naruto both looked at her.

"You go wherever you want to," Sasuke replied without interest as he resumed throwing kunai and shuriken at a nearby tree. "I'm staying."

"Are you sure?" Sakura asked nervously. "He's really late today. What if something happened to him?"

Sasuke shrugged and flicked his wrist, sending another shuriken flying with a lethal accuracy. "He can look after himself. He's a jounin after all."

Naruto sighed and glared at Sasuke for a while before looking at Sakura again. "I'm sorry, Sakura, but Sasuke… has a point. Besides, we're waiting for him for, like, five hours! That's two more hours than usually! If he can't drag himself to us, I'm surely not helping him!"

"Naruto!" Sakura took him short. "He's our sensei!"

"Yeah, whatever," Naruto pouted. "I'm not going."

Sakura watched him resume his nap under the tree Sasuke used as a target, avoiding all of the shuriken sticking out as he leant against it.

She sighed. She was alone in that one.

T_T T-T T_T

Okay.

She was back in Konoha, standing on one of the roofs, looking around.

So… where can a jounin with an odd hair colour in his late twenties be on Monday morning?

Well… morning… it was noon actually.

She jumped down on the street, people not even startling as they were accustomed to ninja moving around the place.

The kunoichi started walking at a casual pace, looking all around her.

Passing by the Yamanaka flower shop, she remembered one of their usual fangirl quarrels they had over Sasuke yesterday.

She chuckled when she recalled it. It was funny, really. They kept fighting over a guy who just looked annoyed every time he saw Ino and once in a time acknowledged Sakura's presence. That was pretty harsh, actually, considering they were on the same team.

Sakura was aware of that all indeed. But she had a crush on Sasuke nonetheless, and having a crush on someone means hoping, getting up after being smacked in the face by reality and, in fact, also loving the other no matter what. Even if Sasuke hated her deeply, she would still love him.

Oh well.

What was she doing?

Oh, looking for Kakashi-sensei.

She was failing at that all right.

Then she noticed a woman with a Konoha headband.

She knew this woman, she realized. She saw her once chatting with her sensei.

Actually, chatting with him in the time he was meant to be supervising their training, and preventing Sakura, who got a little overexcited, from beating Naruto into a pulp.

She sighed and ran to her.

"Excuse me, ma'am," she said, making the woman turn to her.

"Yes, kid?" she asked with a small, lopsided smile.

"Do you know my sensei, Kakashi Hatake?" Sakura asked.

"Why, yes, kid. Why?"

"We can't find him. Do you know where he is?"

The woman grinned broadly. "Not really, but I guess I can give you a good tip. After yesterday's night, I'm pretty sure he is at his place curing a huuuuuuuuuuge hangover."

Sakura sweatdropped. "Oh. Thank you, ma'am."

"No prob, kid," the woman replied, turning again to walk away.

"Wait, please," Sakura called.

"Um, yeah?"

"You know where he lives?"

"Kid, I don't recommend that. Kakashi can be a bit… weird in the morning, especially after a drinking night."

"Oh." the sweatdrop reappeared after Sakura realized that there must be some way this woman found out how Kakashi acts in the morning…. oh kami, Sakura just wished that she didn't have such a fancy. "But I really need to talk to him."

"'Kay kid, if you insist…. just keep in mind that he's really not a morning person. He lives nearby, just walk down this street, take the third turn right, and turn left at the library. It's the tallest house with balconies. Second floor, door on left."

Sakura bowed. "Thank you, ma'am," she said.

"As I said, kid, no prob. Just be careful, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Fine. Bye, kid," the woman said, leaping up onto a roof, her light brown coat flailing behind her.

T_T T-T T_T

Sakura stood in front of the door on left on the second floor of the tallest house with balconies.

More exactly, staring at them.

They were open.

There was a narrow, short corridor seen behind them, with an open doorway to the living room and two closed doors on each side of it.

She took in a breath and stepped in carefully.

The flat smelled like her sensei. Like hair-gel, aromatic soap and books.

That could be easily guessed, given his hobbies and nature.

What Sakura really didn't get was the cherry soap.

She remembered she forgot to take off her shoes and removed them, leaving them in front of the door as she closed it.

Okay.

She just stepped into the flat of an elite jounin, uninvited.

Oh well.

Walking through the surprisingly neat corridor, she stepped into the living room.

There was a picture on a low table, a vest hanging on a chair and an empty mug standing on a rack full of various ninja weapons.

It was quite neat, organized, but cold. It lacked the touch of one's personality most houses have.

Sakura walked in, touching the vest.

But, maybe it was exactly like Kakashi.

Nice, composed, but under the thin veil of carefree leisure lay something cold and impersonal.

She looked around.

There were two more doors. One were open and led to the kitchen.

She walked toward the other one, tilting her head so she could hear sounds from within.

There was no sound… wait, save a steady breathing.

Sakura made her trademark "pissed off" face.

He was sleeping!

She almost broke down the door with the force she opened it with.

"KAKASHI-SENSEI!"

This voice was enough to wake up the whole house, really.

But obviously not enough to wake up Hatake Kakashi.

She jumped to him. "SENSEI!" she yelled into his face.

He murmured something and turned over.

"SENSEI WAKE UP!"

"Sakura…" she heard him mutter.

"YES, THAT'S ME, KAKASHI-SENSEI! NOW WAKE UP?"

Why was she still yelling to the fullest? Who the hell knows?

"You are… sometimes…" Kakashi turned to her again. "So cute."

"Whaaa?" she gaped, blushing.

The sleeping man continued his sleep-talk, obviously with the dream-Sakura. "Oh, stop…"

"Kami," Sakura muttered.

The pervert! He is dreaming about me, right? I'll kick his ass out of the bed!

Yeah, that was inner Sakura talking.

"Sakura…"

And then, the forementioned kunoichi did something incredibly stupid.

She leant over her sensei, until she was just inches from his ear and shouted at the top of her lungs.

"KAKASHI-SENSEI!"

And the forementioned log let out a cute little sound, turning and snuggling into her arm she had propped beside him.

Wait.

Kakashi… snuggling something?

KAWAIII! (Umm… scratch that…)

Sakura was blushing really badly now.

"Come now," was heard from below her.

She was trying to ignore the nice, comfy feeling Kakashi's warmth starting to give her.

He was palming her forearm lovingly, nuzzling it with his cheek as well.

Something very girly-girly moved in her.

He seemed so affectionate!

Then something made her blush even harder.

Was he really dreaming about her?

She suddenly felt very awkward.

"Um… Kakashi-sensei?" she said in his ear.

Nothing moved.

His hair smelled nice. Like lemon shampoo and peach gel.

By the way, it had the same shape it had when he was awake.

Sakura wondered for a second if she could hear an actual sound if she tried knocking on it.

Well, if loud noises didn't work…

"Kakashi-sensei," she whispered quietly, barely making a sound.

His eyes flashed open.

Sakura sweatdropped.

Really?

"Sakura?" Kakashi said, sounding a bit startled. "What are you doing here?"

"You're about five hours late for the training, sensei."

"Oh, sorry about that," Kakashi smiled sheepishly. "I had some serious business last night and I needed to sleep it off. You see… there was this woman hanging off a cliff and…"

"I know you were out drinking all last night, sensei," Sakura said darkly.

"Oh." Kakashi managed to look even more apologetic than last time. Somehow. "So Anko betrayed me?"

Sakura shrugged. "Obviously."

Kakashi sighed. "Oh well." he glanced her over. "Did she tell you you can wake me up by lying on top of me as well?"

"Uh…" Sakura just right now realized the position they were in. She jumped off of him in a flash, blushing tremendously. "No."

Kakashi sat up, scratching his head. "You didn't have to do that," he said. "I didn't mind it."

Sakura stared at him. "What?"

He sighed. "Forget it." he looked around.

Sakura did so as well. This room was a lot like the other ones, in the fact that there was not much of Kakashi's actual property there, and it looked pretty hollow.

Well, there was Kakashi's property there.

His headband lay on the floor at Sakura's feet, his jounin vest was tossed on the window-sill, one of his shoes lay on his bed while the other one was outside on the balcony, leant against the railing.

"Sorry about the mess," he said.

Sakura shrugged.

Wait.

He was wearing a mask?

"Sensei?"

Kakashi, who was positively falling asleep again, looked up at her. "Yes?"

"Do you usually wear your mask to the bed?"

He nodded lazily. Yes."

Another sweatdrop.

She watched as he sat up on his bed, slowly swaying as he didn't even bother to fight off the sleepiness.

"Sensei?"

"Yes, Sakura?"

"Are you going to go and train us?"

"Why, of course," he replied, shifting in his bed so he could lean against the wall. "In a while."

"In a while," she replied, of course knowing Kakashi was going to sleep again and let them wait as complete idiots for him for another three hours or so.

"Yes," he mumbled, already half asleep. "So you can go and wait for me there."

"Sensei, do you think I'm totally stupid?"

"Of course not, Sakura, you are smart. The smartest on your team."

She scowled at that. "Kakashi-sensei I know you're not planning to leave this bed."

"I am going to leave this bed," he objected. "In a while," he added.

"And that while means…?"

"A while," Kakashi replied.

"A while is a very objective conception."

Kakashi didn't reply to that.

Did he… just fell asleep?

"Kakashi!"

He rose his head, actually opening his eyes at that. "Sakura?"

"Get up finally!"

Kakashi crossed his arms. "Sakura, I think you have a problem with respect to your sensei."

"Yeah?!" Sakura shouted, pretty much pissed off now. "Well, Kakashi, you have a problem with your discipline!"

Kakashi rose his brows. "What happened to Kakashi-sensei?"

Sakura would blush and back off, but the wrath of the Inner Sakura was unleashed already. "HE GOT UP OF THAT DAMN BED AND WENT TO TRAIN HIS STUDENTS AS HE SHOULD!"

"Oh. So… then there's just me and you. That is, Kakashi and you."

This seriously made the Inner Sakura cringe and crawl back into the depths of Sakura's split mind.

There was a blush rising to Sakura's cheeks as she realized that indeed, she was alone in a bedroom with a man.

A good-looking man at that.

"Um… Sakura?" Kakashi asked after a while of silence.

"Yes?"

"Would you mind bringing me my headband?"

Sakura looked down at the piece of cloth at her feet. "Of course not," she said softly, as if apologizing for shouting at him that way.

She picked it up and walked over to him, handing it over.

But Kakashi's hand didn't catch the headband, but her wrist.

She looked at him in alarm.

He smiled and pulled the weakly struggling kunoichi to his chest.

She stopped fighting and froze when she realized her was hugging her from behind.

"Um… sensei?"

Kakashi took his time to answer, giving her enough time to somewhat get used to the feeling of Kakashi's strong arms around her, the feeling of his muscular chest pressing against her back, rising and dropping in a steady rhythm.

"Yes, Sakura?"

"Why are you doing this?"

He tensed for a split of a moment, then relaxed again and took his time to answer again.

It was almost comforting, the warmth and solidness he provided her.

"Because otherwise you would drag me away to the training," he replied.

She laid her head against his chest. "Sensei, you really shouldn't be doing this."

"I know," he replied more quickly this time. "That's why I'm doing it when no one is around."

Sakura didn't say anything more. She felt like it would break this moment and as wrong as it was, lying in a bed, being hugged by her sensei… it felt too nice for her to want it to end.

Kakashi sighed finally after few minutes, his grip on her loosening though he didn't let go yet.

"Okay. Shall we go and train, Sakura?"

He looked down at her student, who sat in his lap, nestled against his chest comfortably, almost asleep.

He smiled. "Sakura?"

Sakura sniffed softly, nuzzling his shirt with her cheek. "In a while…" she said quietly.