( Disclaimer: I Don't own NARUTO! They belong to His Highness Masashi Kishimoto! )
Chapter Twenty - By Your Side
`Have I... Have I died...?´
Sakura opened her eyes slowly, only if was just half ways. She felt a warm thing on her hand, that stroke the upper side of her hand.
"Ah, you are awake..." a calm manly voice said.
"Am I.. Am I in heaven...?" she mumbled with a hoarse voice.
"No, you are not..." the manly voice said and it held a bit of laught in his tone. "Well, if you consider Konoha as heaven, then maybe you are in heaven..."
Sakura could feel the warm thing left her hand and she opened her eyes fully.
The sun was shining in to the room, making her eyes hurt and a mass of silver hair caught her eyes.
She could see that the silver haired man beside her, smiled down to her behind his mask. It was a soft and tender smile.
"...Kakashi...-Sensei..." she croaked and tried to push herself up from the bed.
"Don't strain yourself..." Kakashi said and pushed her down to the bed again.
"How long have I been passed out...?" she asked still with a hoarse voice.
"Well, almost three weeks." Kakashi told her and glanced at her. "We were worried you wouldn't wake up again..."
"Three weeks... But... But I should been dead... That was noway I could have survived that..." Sakura said almost in disbelief over that she still was alive and she looked up to her Sensei.
"Well, if I hadn't taken you to Uranai-San before your heart stopped, you should haved died..." Kakashi told her and she looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Uranai-San...?" she mumbled.
"Aaa... Uranai-San was a Kunoichi from Konoha. She was an excellent healer back then and she was also the one who supported Tsuande-Sama to become a medicnin..." Kakashi said and let his hand glide through his mass of silver hair.
"But... But if she is a Kunoichi from Konoha, then why do she live in ChimaChima then?" Sakura asked.
"She got tired of how the Shinobi system worked back then and left the village..."
"But doesn't that make her to a Nukenin*...?" Sakura looked at her Sensei.
"She left Konoha because she believed in something the rest of us didn't believe in back then... Sandaime knew that she wouldn't harm Konoha, that's was why he let her go without a fight... Anyway, when you got stable enough I took us back to Konoha..." Kakashi looked up at the white ceiling. "And Naruto almost went Kyuubi on me..."
Sakura looked away from him and she gripped the quilt hard.
"I thought... I thought you had died..." she suddenly said and let a flow of tears escaping her emerald eyes. "When I saw him stabbing you with his Kunai, I thought I had lost you as well..."
Kakashi glanced back to Sakura who started to sob.
"Sumanai*..." he said to her almost in a whisper and he could tell that she looked at him. "Sakura, we are both fine... So please... Stop crying..."
Kakashi did really hate when women cried. Well hate wasn't really the right word, it was more like he didn't know what to say to a crying woman. He had always done it worse or get a well deserved cuff. Why was he so bad with womens?
But he did what he believed was the right thing to do at this moment. He embraced her and pressed her head in to his chest, patting her hair with his hand.
She stopped sobbing and glanced up to him a bit surprised.
"I'm not crying..." she mumbled. "I'm just pissed, amazed and even happy..." Sakura rubbed away the few tears left on her cheeks, on to his Chuunin vest.
Kakashi looked down to her and smiled warmly, while (unnoticed) snuggling his nose in to her soft (nowadays) pink hair.
`So like her...´
Suddenly the door flung open.
"SAKURA-CHAN!" a loud voiced man shouted and entered the room, that suddenly fell quiet.
"Na-Naruto...?" Sakura said and looked at the blond man at the doorstep. She was somehow glad to see him.
"Ah, Naruto-Kun..." Kakashi said with a anxious smile on his face.
The blond mans eyes narrowed and he glanced at the silver haired Jounin, who still held the pink haired Kunoichi in his arms.
"Kaka-Sensei... Stop violating Sakura-Chan!" Naruto growled and Kakashi let go off her. "How can you believe she ever want to be near a man after what have happen to her!"
"Eh Naruto... You are a man too..." Kakashi told him.
"I know... But at least I didn't hug her..." Naruto said and looked away. Kakashi looked at Naruto quite dumfounded.
"Naruto... Kaka-Sensei were just nice to me... All he did was just comforting me. It was not like he took the advantage to voilate me..." Sakura told Naruto with a annoyed tone. Naruto looked back at her.
"But-But the reports sayed that you got sexual assaulted and you even had an old bite mark on your shoulder!" Naruto said. "The nurse said that you probably would take your distance to every male in Konoha after what you have been through..."
"You are overreacting, Naruto..." Sakura told him. "See..." Sakura pocked on Kakashis arm. "I haven't fled the room yet..."
Naruto bite on his lip. He didn't believe Sakura. He still thought that she had been affected about what she had been through. And he was her friend and he would protect her from every sick perv out there, even if that perv was Konohas (nowadays) Super perv No one; Kakashi.
Kakashi began to cold sweat and glanced at Naruto.
Why hadn't he asked Uranai-San to heal that bite hickey on her shoulder before they had left?
"Anyway, I... I did what was necessary for this mission to successed..." Sakura told him in a matter of fact voice. "That means even get 'sexual abused'... Now, leave me..."
"But-But Sakura-Chan...! I came here to talk to you..." Naruto said. "And why can Kaka-Sensei stay...?"
"Because he is not annoying the shit out of me right now. And I need to talk to him before I talk to you... I have some memory losses I want to clear up... Please Naruto... It won't take long..." Sakura said and saw how Naruto left the room annoyed.
The door closed behind him and Sakura glanced at her Sensei.
"Just so you know, no hugging... Even if it was just out of kindness..." Sakura told him and he looked at her.
She wasn't angry about it, like she had been the first time he had hugged her out of 'kindness'.
`Well, that is a good sign... I guess...´
"Anyway, why took you so long, before you even came to my rescue..." Sakura suddenly said and Kakashi sighed.
"Well, I first didn't think you would be in any harm..." Kakashi began. "But when Kujira told me you haden't been in the club for four days, I began to get a bit worried... I spyed at the hidde out for some time to see if I could see you, but I wasn't that lucky... So I began to get 'friendly' with a man I knew was on Shinkous side. After some days he began to spil about Shinkous little whore as he put it, had been imprisoned because of..."
"Because of, what...?" Sakura asked.
"Me... Because of me, you got imprisoned..." Kakashi told Sakura, who looked confused at him.
"I don't understand what you mean... Because of you? Please explain to me..." Sakura said to Kakashi, who fell back to the chair.
"I gave you that hickey and that bit mark too..." he said calm and she just glared at him with an open mouth.
"You... You gave me those? You must be kidding... I can't even remember that you have been near me, not after that time..." she mumbled.
"I'm not joking... You remember that day you woke up at the inn, that day Neikan took you with him..." Kakashi said and she nodded. "That night... That night you came to the inn. You were upset and I comforted you..."
"But I can't remember that night..." Sakura told him. "Gomen*..."
"Don't apologize... I should apologize to you... If I had know that you would suffer from amnesia, I would never have done it to you..." Kakashi dropped his face in to his hands.
What he said to her, made her really wonder what he had done to her. If it only had been those hickeys it wasn't that bad, or was it?
"Well as you don't remember a thing about that night, I can as well began from the begining..." Kakashi said still with his face in his hands. "As you know, Shinkou marked you with a Shizai* seal that was a bit different from ordinary 'Property' Seals. He could manipulate your body and even your mind. With that he ordered you to kill a family that I find out later on, was against him... Anyway, you came the the inn and told me what you thought you had done to that family, that was how I began to comfort you. But when I was about to leave you didn't let me go... Then you broke our promise..."
"What promise...?" Sakura asked.
"That promise we made that night in that forest..."
"Oh God... That promise..." Sakura smacked her palm in to her forehead. "Did I really brake it..."
"Aaa... Well, we both did actually... I kind of told you that it wasn't proper at that moment and then I remebered you about that deal... But you are as headstrong as always, so in the end I gave in to your needs..."
"God... So that was what he meant... Shinkou told me that he knew that I had been with another man... I should be angry with you, but I'm not..." Sakura said and eyed Kakashi who had taken away his hands from his face. "I'm sorry that I force you to do something you didn't want to..."
"Don't be... It was as much as my fault as well..." Kakashi told her and felt how his cheek become a bit pink. "And sorry about those hickeys... I got carried away..."
Sakura sighed and looked down to her lap.
"Well, you are a perv after all... So I guess I can't blame you for that..." she said with a bit of sarcasm in her voice. "Anyway, so after you had heard that I was imprisoned, you did what?"
"Oh well, I began to think out a plan to get you out of there, while weaking their guards... It almost took one and a half week." Kakashi told her. "And you know the rest..."
"And what about that seal...?" Sakura asked.
"I didn't thought you would ask... Shizune and I took care of it... But it was no ordinary Shizai-seal, as I told you before, so it was a bit tricky..."
"But how did you remove it?"
"We couldn't..."
Sakura glanced at him.
"You couldn't...?" she said and he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "But didn't you say that you and Shizune..."
"And so we did... We did take care of it... Unfortunately by adding a new Shizai-seal... The new one would take out the old one and you wouldn't get yourself killed either..." Kakashi looked at her.
"What do you mean...?"
"Shinkou had put a Jikai* in the seal. If he would die before you, you would..."
"Shouldn't I be dead then...?"
"Only if you got hooked up with another man as I was about to say... It was his way to tell you that you belong to him and forever... However, your new seal is a harmless one..." Kakashi told her and glanced through the window.
"A harmless one...? It's a Shizai-seal! How can a Shizai-seal be harmless...?"
"The one who perform the seal, is the key to every 'Property' Seals... Shizai-seals is usually used on things or animals, using it on a human is far more complicated. The one who perform the seal on a human, must consider every obstacle. If the seal is to weak, the person in question can brake it with just will power alone and if you don't 'add' things in the seal like a for an exemple; If you don't want other mans to touch your wife, you must 'wish' for that during the performance of the seal... The wife will automatically avoid other mans..."
"Okay, so you are saying that I can't have a normal life anymore..."
"No I didn't say that... I was just telling you how it more or less works... Your new seal will always be there, even if you end up married..." Kakashi said and looked back to her.
"I will never get married... By the way, can I ask who did the new seal...? I want to thank that person..." Sakura said and played with a lock of hair with her index finger.
"Then do so..." Kakashi said and catch his eye with hers. "And he will say that he did what was best for his precious student..."
"Did you- Did you perform that seal...?"
"Aaa, I'm the only one skilled enough to do such a seal, that will let you live a normal life, so to say..." Kakashi said and smiled down to her. "My wish was to let you find happiness... Nothingels..."
Sakura resist the urge to hug him. She felt so thankful to him, that he had thinking of her well-being and her happiness.
"Arigatou*..." she mumbled and tried to keep in her tears.
Kakashi lay a hand on her head like he had done so many times before.
"You are welcome..." he said and their gazes met again.
Something in his eye made Sakura get all hot and a bit weak to her knees. What was this feeling? She hadn't feel like this for so many years. What was it they called it? Love?
`Love...? No, it must be just some kind of affection... After all, he took care of me when I almost was about to die and he even 'sealed' Shinkous seal... It's just an affection for him, he have done so much to me...´
"Sakura, you should talk with Naruto now, before he go Kyuubi on the hospital..." Kakashi said and raised from the chair. "I think I can leave you now without being worried..."
He crinkled his eye at her and opened the door to let Naruto in, who glared with narrowed eyes at Kakashi.
Kakashi closed the door behind him and fell flat to his stomach on to the floor. Panting.
`So un-Shinobi of me...´
"Ah! Hatake-San!" a nurse called and walked towards the silver haired Shinobi on the floor.
~oOo~
Naruto looked at the door and wondered why it was so noisy outsaide.
"Did you want something special if you showed your Hokage ass down here...?" Sakura said and looked at Naruto, who turned his face to her.
"Must I have a reason to see my friend after she almost get herself killed...?" Naruto said to her and smiled, while Sakura turned her face away from him in annoyance.
"Well, no... But you always showes up when you want to tell me something annoying..." Sakura told him and Naruto smile turned in to a grin.
"Well, I have something to tell you, but I don't know if it's something annoying..." Naruto said and rubbed his neck. "I do have a proposal to you..."
"A proposal...?" Sakura glanced at him.
"Aaa... It's the same as the last time, but I can change Kaka-Sensei to Sai or Yamato-Taichou if you want..." Naruto said.
`That's right... It was that proposal...´
"So, do you accept it this time... I need to know..." Naruto looked down to her.
"Well... I do... And Kakashi-Sensei is fine. If you want him by your side is okay with me..." Sakura said and Naruto looked a bit surprised.
"That's great, Sakura-Chan! Therfore I need to tell you this as well... I need you to join ANBU, otherwise I can't have you to be my counsellor..." Naruto told her and Sakura blinked.
"I need to join ANBU if I'm your counsellor..." Sakura said. "Why is that...?"
"Well, the upper lords told Sensei and Shikamarus dad that I needed some kind of bodyguards and I'm not really fond of those counsellors that I have now, so I thought why not have a bodyguard/counsellor and choose people near to me... Like you and Kakashi-Sensei..."
"Okay, I get it... To be accepted as the Hokages 'personal bodyguard', I need to be an ANBU..." Sakura said and Naruto nodded. "Alright, I accept both of the offers. When do I start?"
"Don't rush yourself, Sakura-Chan... I will give you a month to rest and after that I will summon you... ANBU has a lot to do right now, so it will probably take a month or two look at your files anyway..."
"A month or two...? What are ANBU up to, if it will take that long to just look at some papers..." Sakura said.
"Well, I shouldn't tell you, but after all you are my friend and soon to be my counsellor... So I guess I can tell you..." Naruto said. "Right now ANBU is looking at the cases concerning the ANBU's from Root, just to see how trustworthy they are..."
"What about Sai?" Sakura asked.
"Sai is fine. He is trustworthy. He did more in the war then others from Root did..." Naruto told her. "They won't harm him, if they do they will be really sorry..."
Sakura smiled faintly and fell back to the bed. She felt suddenly so tired, like she had run a marathon.
Naruto looked at Sakura with his bright blue eyes.
"Have some sleep, Sakura... You are still recovering." Naruto said to her with tenderness in his voice.
She closed her eyes slightly. Suddenly the door swung open.
"Hokage-Sama!" Shizune called out. "It's about Kakashi-San... He has been put in to the intensive care!"
"WHAT!" Sakura and Naruto burst out.
"What happened, Shizune-Neechan?" Naruto asked.
"The nurse said that he just collapsed outside of this room..." Shizune told him.
Naruto raised from the chair and walked towards Shizune.
Sakura was about to get out of the bed to assist her Sensei.
"You stay put, Sakura..." Naruto told her sharply. "I will tell you later if he is okay... Shizune-Neechan, lead the way..."
Sakura watched how the door closed behind Naruto and Shizune.
`Baka Sensei...!´
~oOo~
"You need to take better care of yourself, Sensei..." the blond Hokage told the silver haired Jounin in the bed.
"Sumimasen*..." the Jounin said a bit exhausted.
"You got me worried and even poor Sakura-Chan, who should take it easy and not get troubled by things like this..." the Hokage scold the silver haired Jounin.
"You are begining to sound like your father to much, Naruto... I'm an adult, you know..." the silver haired Jounin said. "I can take care of myself..."
"Not if you end up in hospital every single time because of exhaustion and even dehydration..." Naruto said. "How long have you stayed by her side this time, Kakashi-Sensei?"
"Since she ended up like that... I felt so guilty, so I couldn't eat or sleep..." Kakashi mumbled.
"She is fine now, just tired... So you don't have to feel guilty anymore..." Naruto told him. "And while I'm here, I can inform you that Sakura has accept my offer and she will join ANBU as fast as they have read her files...."
"ANBU you say... Can she handel it though...?" Kakashi mused.
"Of course she can! She is our Sakura-Chan, she is Konohas strongest Kunoichi!"
"Aaa, she is strong... But ANBU may not think the same as you, Naruto..." Kakashi told him. "Let's talk about this somewhere else and in privity..."
"Hai,Hai... Anyway, have you done something to Sakura?" Naruto asked.
"Huh? Why do you ask...?" Kakashi said and glanced at Naruto with an anxious look.
"Well, she is... she is more like the Sakura I know before Sasuke was killed and even before the war... Not that I don't appreciate it, it just felt weird that I could talk to her without she throwing the door in my face..." Naruto said. "That's was why I thought that you had told her something or done something that made her behave like that..."
"I didn't do anything to her, not what I know of..." Kakashi lied.
`Well I just had sex twice with the woman you have loved every since you were little and are now almost consider as your sister... What a Sensei I'm...´
"Sakura will never forget, Sasuke..." Kakashi then told him and Naruto looked at him. "As longs as you don't give her something else to get obsess with, she will continue to chase something she can't have and never will have..."
"If you are talking about to find her a date, that will be a impossible task... Not even Genma would dare to date her..." Naruto said and shivered. "Her temper is even worse then Tsunade-Obaasan..."
Kakashi glanced at Naruto and sighed.
Well, it was true that Sakura had even worse temper then Tsunade-Sama and that even Genma (possibly) wouldn't dare to date her, but had anyone seen the tender side of her? That side of her that was an emotional and caring woman.
Kakashi was pretty sure none had noticed that side of her yet. He had seen it and it was the reason why he loved her.
"I will leave you now..." Naruto said and looked at his Senseis thoughtful face. "Take some rest and I will summon you when I hear more from ANBU..."
Kakashi looked up to Naruto.
"Huh? Did you say something...?"
"No... See you, Sensei..." Naruto said and walked out of the room.
`To like his father... He is even began to pick up Minato-Senseis annoying way of saying things... But he still is Naruto...´
~oOo~
Sakura combed out her pink hair and putted it in a pony-tail and looked herself in the mirror in the hospital room. She had been so happy when they have told her that she could leave the hospital today (one more day and she had jumped through the window) and she began to understand why Kakashi was not very fond of staying in hospitals for a longer time.
It had been nine days since she had waked up in the hospital and she had have some visitor during those days. Most of the visitors was her (rival) best friend Ino and her Team. Shikamaru had been so bored that he had fallen to sleep in the chair and Ino had been forced to drag him out of the room everytime. Then Naruto had showed up with Hinata on his side. Hinata hadn't say much during does visits and Naruto had been talking for non-stop. Most had been just crap, but sometimes it had been interested things like, how the rebuilding of Konoha almost was finish and some other places that had been destroyed during the war also was finish. And then Kakashi had showed up to see how she was doing and the he had left again.
She had wanted him to stay a bit longer so she could talk to him. He was more likely to have more interested news then Naruto had, but she didn't just want to talk to him. It was like something strange told her to grab him before he left the room and press him up against the wall and do something dirty with him, but she wouldn't dared to do such a thing. He was her Sensei after all.
Sakura sighed and sayed goodbye to the nurses (her former colleagues) and walked out of the hospital. When she came closer to the main entrance to the hospital area, she saw a mess of silver beside the gate pillar. She smiled.
"Didn't think I would see you here today, Kakashi-Sensei..." Sakura said and saw how the silver haired Jounin slapped his Icha Icha closed.
"I can't miss my cute student get out of the hospital..." he said and putted the book in his waist pouch. "Hungry...?"
"Starving..." Sakura said and looked up to him. There was that feeling again.
He began to walk and Sakura followed.
"So, what have you been up to...?" she asked him and Kakashi looked thoughtfully up to the sky.
"Maa*... Saving cats, saving childrens from that fearsome Iruka-Sensei and reading porn..." Kakashi said seriously but still with a hint of amusement.
"If I hadn't known you better I would have believed that..." Sakura said and shook her head. "You are a terrible lier and Iruka-Sensei isn't that fearsome..."
Kakashi smirked behind his mask.
"And you know that...?" Kakashi said.
"Know what...?"
"That Iruka isn't that fearsome..." Kakashi said and glanced at her.
"He was my Sensei in the academy... If someone would be fearsome it would be you..." Sakura said and watched him.
"Oh, is that so?" Kakashi said and stopped and Sakura stopped too. He turned around to face Sakura and bent just a bit forward so he almost was face to face with her. "So you think I'm fearsome...?"
"Eh, n-no..." she stuttred and began to blush slightly. "N-Not anymore, that is..."
"Good." was all he said before he turned around on the spot and began to walk again.
Sakura looked confused after him.
`What the heck was that?´
"Are you coming or should I carry you?" Kakashi said. "Naruto isn't the one who will wait forever, you know..."
"You invited Naruto?" Sakura said surprised.
"Aaa, and your not-so-fearsome Sensei too..." Kakashi looked at her and she just stood there, like rooted to the spot. He sighed. "Then I guess I will carry you..."
He walked back to Sakura and began to lift her over his shoulder.
"What are you doing?" she hissed.
"I'm carring you... We shouldn't make Hokage-Sama wait..." he said.
"Put me down... I can walk by myself..." she mumbled and looked embarrassed.
"Then stop spacing out..." Kakashi told her and putted her down and began to walk again. She followed behind him with pink cheeks.
"...I do really hate you..." she hissed and she could swear that she heard him chuckle.
"Even if you do, I will still be by your side..." he said and glanced back at her before he turned to looke at the sky again.
`Like I always have...´
Author note:
(This chapter is more to explain a bit of some tricky parts of the previous chapters (specially about how the Shizai seal worked for Shinkou) and how Sakura (finally) get to know how those hickeys appeared, she in for a surprise.)
Sakura is alive and kicking! (I can't kill the main character, not yet *joke* ;P) and she has began to develop some kind of feelings for her Sensei. But she can't really accept what she is feeling for him and she is absolutely sure that this feeling isn't LOVE. Will she ever found out what this feeling is? And Kakashi is still deeply in love with her and is taking small steps to show her in which way he care for her (even if it just really small unnoticed hints from his side).
It may contain some spelling errors...
And some notes;
When I writes the text 'like this' it means that the person in question is thinking. When I writes like thisthe person emphasis just that word and when I writes like this that means flashbacks.
Mini Japanese dictionary;
Nukenin* = Missing-nin
Sumanai* = I'm sorry
Gomen* = pardon (your pardon)
Shizai* = See Authors Note Chapter 18!
Jikai* = Self-destruction
Arigatou* = Thank you
Sumimasen* = Sorry
Maa* = Well
Do still feel free to ask me if something is bothering you.
And thank you all for your reviews! I also want to thank everyone els who read this and fav it! Thank you! ^-^
Take care!
Next Chapter: Changes (Beginning in Koigokoro - Awakening Of Love)