She hit like a brick wall. Being punched by Sakura literally felt like he had been smacked with a brick wall.

"You cheated." Sakura paused mid swig of her beer. She was sitting on a stool next to Kakashi in a dingy little bar on the outskirts of the fire country. They seemed relaxed, as if they had come to a nonverbal truce, but Kakashi did look a little sour.

"How did I cheat?"

"You healed every time I broke something."

"That's not cheating, that's a specialty. Not my fault you can't heal yourself as easily as I can. Plus, you have Sharingan."

"You watched my feet the entire time. Where did you learn that?" Kakashi said, as he sipped his sake through his mask.

"Lee, before I joined Anbu, my Taijutsu was weak so I trained with him for a year… geez, you really didn't keep up with your students, huh?"

"Well you three seemed to bounce around in different directions as soon as Sasuke came back. I don't have time to keep tabs on you three."

"You had the time, just not the urge." Sakura said bluntly as she went back to her beer. Kakashi chuckled slightly as he downed the last of his drink.

"Well, you grew up to be quite a ball of sunshine, huh Sakura-chan?" He said a little roughly, aftermath of downing his sake in one gulp.

"Calling it how I see it Ookami. Though I rarely see you anymore so how am I in the wrong for making that assumption?"

"You know what they say when you assume."

"Well we both already know you're an ass, Ookami. Anyway, we are going to continue on with this mission, despite what you were trying to pull earlier today. I'll help you upstairs to our room and heal your leg and we can get down to mission details."

"I hope you heal it, not much a walker with a broken leg." She grumbled as she put a few bills on the counter and dipped down to wrap his arm across her shoulders. He still couldn't get over the fact that she hoisted him up with ease, even without the chakra enhanced strength, she was strong. Though her smaller form being dwarfed by his larger, lanky one as she walked him to the stairs did look a little ridiculous.

"You're such a baby." She said with no ill feeling behind it. Kakashi gave Sakura a side long glance as she concentrated on the stairs in front of her.

Sakura had really caught him off guard. He never underestimated an enemy, he went into every fight seriously… though when he went up against Sakura he went into the fight expecting the sixteen year old, who was formidable, but still had many openings for him to choose from. Sakura actually went up against him as if she had trained years to kick his ass. If he hadn't been so careless he wouldn't be draped across her right then nursing a broken leg.

He smirked a little under his mask as he studied the side of her face. He hadn't notice till now, but she had a faint scar on her jaw that was only visible from close up. Other than that her skin was flawless. For a Kunoichi, anyway.

"What's the scar from? On your jaw?" She glanced at him from the corner of her eye, noticing he was staring at her face as they hobbled up the stairs. When she realized he was expecting an answer, he watched her roll her jade eyes in exasperation.

"Tried to pierce my own ears with one of my sai…"

"Bull shit…" He chuckled a little, before actually paying attention to her forehead and doing a double take.

"You have a focus on your forehead… trying the whole Tsunade approach, huh?"

Sakura gave him a disgruntled look. "I figured it might take away from the size of my forehead. Plenty of canvas to work with…"

"Your answers could rival mine."He gave her a half lidded, annoyed look.

"Why have you been grilling me all day?"

"Well, you only answer one out of five questions. So if I ask a bunch of random questions you will actually answer the ones I am genuinely curious about." A happy eye crease seemed to punctuate his sentence. Sakura hadn't realized how much she missed getting that look from him. It seemed like it had been years since the last time he smiled at her. She scoffed a little and didn't show her gratitude for his interest though. There was no way he was getting off that easy. Especially since more than likely when the mission was over it would be another three years before they actually sat down and talked. She sighed as she unlocked the door with her free hand and pushed it open, nearly dragging the larger man inside.

"You had time getting to know Sasuke, then Naruto when we were sixteen. It's not 'My Turn' for you to take an interest. Plus, after your tutoring people tend to go a little suicidal." With that, she deposited him like a sack of potatoes onto the bed. He winced a little, but didn't complain from being dropped. Sakura started undoing her armor as she walked toward the bathroom, leaving him to situate himself on the bed.

"I can't believe you had Bull carry me all this way just because you refused to heal my leg." Kakashi said through his teeth as he adjusted himself into a more comfortable position.

"Couldn't have you getting uppity again." Her response seemed muffled since she had disappeared to the bathroom.

"Uppity? All you need is a wife beater and a little woman who is barefoot and pregnant. Then you would be set."

"Shut up." Was Sakura only retort when she walked out of the bathroom drying her hands. She had taken her uniform mostly off so she was just in her black pants and a black tank top. At some point she had let her hair down from the tight bun it had been at the nape of her neck. Now he could see that it had grown almost to her elbows. He was surprised she had gone back to the long, but it didn't make her look younger anymore.

"Nice wife beater."

"I said shut up; now take off your armor."

"You really know how to sweet talk, don't you?"

"Knock it off, or I'll put you back together wrong." She crossed her arms to show she meant business.

"No sense of humor." Kakashi gave a dramatic sigh and began to undo his armor. "I'm sure this is how you woo all the men." Sakura made a face that Kakashi couldn't distinguish. Was it shame? Embarrassment? Shock?

She squatted down miserably so she could gently prod his leg.

"I didn't become an Anbu captain by the age of twenty without a bloodline trait or a Kyuubi by fooling around with men." She didn't even look at him when she said it, just look intent on the job in front of her. It was quiet for a moment as a soft green light illuminated the room.

"Ooooh…. I see what your problem is…" Sakura flinched a little and gave him a wide eyed look.

"What? What's my problem?"

"You just need to get laid."

"What?" The glow flickered and dimmed as she lost concentration.

"When was the last time you got a guy in sack- OW!" Sakura had pinched him, but went back to healing his leg quietly.

"None of your business…" Kakashi watched her silently for a while. She seemed defensive about the subject. Was she embarrassed about who she had been with? Look underneath the underneath, huh?

"It was Lee wasn't it? I bet it was, you said you had spent time training with him- I bet he taught you more than Tai-"

"Lee is my friend! I didn't sleep with him! Are you really going to stay on this subject?" She snapped, the soft green glow dimmed again as she glared at him.

"Was it Kiba then? I know he smells like a dog, but-"

"No."

"Chouji?"

"No!"

"Ino-"

"I'm not a lesbian!"

"Then why are you being so touchy?"

"No one, ok? I haven't been with ANYONE." She barked, and then diverted her glare to his leg. The green glow returned, more intense than it had been when she started.

Silence followed as Kakashi's mind went blank. If it weren't for the mask, his jaw would have been on the floor.

No one. A twenty year old Kunoichi that looked like Sakura was a… dare he say… Virgin? He looked at her Anbu tattoo on her shoulder as the muscle twitched underneath it. It had yet to fade like his, but it looked to be a few years old. She was an Anbu, yet she had never been with a man… or a woman for that matter.

"No way, you're yanking my leg."

"Keep on the subject, and I'll yank it out of the socket!" She almost hissed and he put his hands up in defense.

"Sorry, sorry… it's just…you're not half bad looking, and in your profession… Hell, I lost it at the age of eleven to a prostitute."

"Charming." She scoffed; he smirked a little at her reply. She finished up what she was doing and patted his thigh, checking to see if he flinched from pain. All was well it seemed by his lazy gaze fixed on her.

"I'm just saying, are you saving it for that 'Special' some one?" He did the bunny ears and everything. Sakura rolled her eyes but didn't make eye contact with him as she stood up.

"I just didn't have time to date and to get to know someone well enough to get intimate. Wasn't 'Saving' it, just been busy. Time flies when you are focusing on your career. "

"You always seemed like the type to expect it to be the magical moment where there was deflowering or music as you became a woman… or something like that…" He trailed off as she turned and gave him a look like his was silly for thinking such a thing. She picked up her pack and started digging around in it until she pulled out little shower bag.

"It's more of a hindrance now that Tsunade won't send me on certain missions because she cares more about me doing it 'right' than I do. I am a kunoichi. It's like having a weapon still in its packaging. Haven't gone out and had a one night stand in Konoha because even though it's a large village, gossip travels fast and I can't have that hovering around me like a gnat. Especially since I'm an Anbu captain now. " With that being said, she made her way into the bathroom. Kakashi stood up and bounced on his toes a little. Her healing abilities had improved over the years, he didn't feel the usual tightness he felt when she used to heal his injuries.

Sakura was an Anbu captain now, she was twenty. They were both adults.

"You know, I could take care of that problem for you." He said casually as he leaned on the door frame of the bathroom. He could hear the loud clunk of whatever she was holding hit the floor.

"You are such a pervert! I knew I shouldn't have told-" She came out of the bathroom, eyes blazing, holding her toothbrush like a weapon until she realized he looked completely serious. Well, from his nose up didn't give away that he was kidding. At least when Genma hit on her, he wiggled his eyebrows and winked to show he was only half serious. "…you're serious."

"We are both adults, you said yourself that it prevents you from getting certain missions that could compromise it, that it was a hindrance." He was being way too aloof with this conversation.

"Yeah, but… you were my sensei when I was a kid."

"My point. I was your sensei, now I'm not. You were a kid, now you're not. Though, because I WAS your sensei, you know me." Sakura stared at him for a little bit. He was making sense; it was making her a little uneasy that she wasn't beating the tar out of him for suggesting it.

"It would be weird."

"It would be weird if you went into it expecting an emotional attachment. See this as a colleague helping another colleague out. You would no longer be a virgin and it wouldn't be cycled through the Konoha gossip circles." Damn. He had a point. She brushed passed him slowly and eased herself carefully onto the bed. She digested it as she stared at the floor.

Being a virgin was kind of a pain in the ass with her job. When she was younger she had pictured her first time being special, and also with Sasuke, but THAT was never going to happen.

Ino wasn't a virgin, or on Anbu, and she got more missions than she did. This, in the long run, would help her career. Though she would always remember it was with Kakashi, her perverted old sensei.

She looked over at him, analyzing him. He was wearing his Anbu armor still. He had a nice body at least. He wasn't that old either, but he had been her sensei. Though that also meant she had known him for eight years. Yeah, some of those years were distant, but she at least knew him. That was better than some girls got in her village.

"I CAN'T believe I'm saying this, but… let me think about it."

So I am going to start writing this story again. It's going to be a long process, but I want to finish it. :)