You should all know just how happy your reviews made me. I woke up at 7:15 and went and read them, and then thought about them, and then danced around the room singing that song in the laughing cow commercials (which actually isn't that weird for me). I'm sorry chapter two moved so fast, but that was because all I had to tell me where they were going was a map and I had no idea how long travel will take. I'm sorry if the mission they're on doesn't make sense; it's just simply them watching out for a possible issue in the future. Iwa and Konoha are pissed at each other and everyone is trying to avoid a war. I'll try to get that into it more.

Oh, and I won't usually be posting this quickly, I just already had these three chapters mostly done.

I could physically feel how Kakashi relaxed the moment we passed into bird country. He even went so far as to get us a hotel that night. The sun was still in the sky when he stopped, stating we'd been walking long enough, and that there was a very nice hot-spring in this area.

There were different changing rooms for the men and women, but then the baths themselves were co-ed. I was greatly relieved to find that the place was mostly empty, being so early in the day, and nearing the height of summer. People were simply more likely to go swim in the cool rivers. But the heat did wonders for ninjas across the five nations, any time of day, and any day of the year. Sore muscles liked hot springs. Kakashi was already half asleep in the steaming pool when I came out of the changing room wrapped in a short towel, but all the same I took care to avoid coming into his line of sight. Once I was in the water I eased closer to him, mirroring how he sat childishly. He's not wearing his normal mask, but a slightly lighter one, that hangs off his nose like a bandit in the western films.

"Knock it off," he mutters, reaching out to squeeze my thigh. I giggle loudly and have to work very hard to stop myself from thrashing about wildly. His right eye opens slowly, mischief shining clearly through. "Ticklish?" He asks, sitting up a little straighter.

"Don't you dare…" I warn, backing away.

He didn't listen. He dared. A second later I was under the water, screeching as he tickled me. I automatically lashed out, kicking him in the ribs. I was sorry the second I made contact, I could feel the stress I had put on his ribs with that knee-jerk reaction, and he pulled away immediately, hand on his side. I came out of the water quickly, following him to the edge of the pool.

"Are you ok?" I gasp, brushing wet hair out of my face.

"Yeah," he grunts. "I'm just still recovering… that's all."

"From what?" I ask quickly, wrapping a short towel around me and moving to his side.

"Three broken ribs," he sighs, taking shallow breaths. "Nothing too bad."

I laugh dryly. "Nothing too bad… Tsunade wouldn't have sent you with me if you were still healing."

"I may have smudged the hospital's records," he admits, touching the bandit mask.

"Kakashi!" I scold, trying to assess the damage my kick had done. I could scold him all I wanted, but truth be told he had been healing perfectly fine, and would've been fine in a few days at the most… if I hadn't kicked him. I do my best to mend the bone back together, strengthening it slowly.

"Thank you," he hisses through clenched teeth, watching my hands in fascination.

"Don't hide injuries from me, you know better," I sigh, pulling away. "Let me work on it a bit every day, we should be good." He eases back into the water, beckoning for me to join him. When I don't follow him, he reaches out to grab me, his wet hair covering much of his face.

I'm about to protest when a woman laughs at us from across the stream. She's gray, and her shoulders are bent with age, but her eyes hold a youthful sparkle in them. "That's quite a trick you've got there, sweetheart," the old woman's voice carries easily to us, and Kakashi turns slowly to look at her.

"It comes in handy with this one," I respond, ruffling Kakashi's wet hair. I suppose I should have expected it, but I still let out a small shriek when Kakashi grabs my arm and pulls me into the water, towel and all. When I resurface I smack him across the top of the head, or try, but he's too fast. The old woman laughs again, covering her mouth.

"I remember," she sighs after quieting down, "When my husband and I were young, we used to have those fights. Always end in me having to heal him. I'm a medic too, you know?"

"No?" I gasp in shock, edging towards her side of the pond. There weren't many outside of the five nations, and in all honesty, there weren't a hell of a lot within the nations. "Where are you from?"

"Kumo," she says proudly, "I moved to Iwa for my husband. When he died… I came here."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," I try to sound apologetic, but Kakashi's distracting me, his fingers grazing over my hip playfully. "How long has it been?"

"Two weeks," She says cheerfully. "Don't be sorry, sweet. I killed him. He wasn't a good man."

"Oh!" I gasp in shock. Even Kakashi pauses. "Well… good for you then."

"Are you two married?" She asks, making Kakashi prickle. Perhaps he thinks I might kill him off?

"No," I admit carefully.

"We're engaged," Kakashi says clearly, over me. "We're headed to Earth country to get married." Even though that's only our cover I feel a sort of pride in the fact that he would offer out such information, as if I've got him whipped or something.

"Oh, congratulations!" She cries, clapping happily. "You're from Fire country though, aren't you? Why come all this way? During such fragile times politically too?"

I glance at Kakashi and he kisses my shoulder, surprising me with the symbol for 'go ahead' pressed into my hip. He is a fast learner. "The Hokage refused to marry us… She didn't approve."

"Oh poor dears," the old lady mutters, shaking her head apologetically.

"Sakura…" Kakashi groans in my ear, the symbol for 'let's go' pressed into my skin. I scowl at him shortly, and then look back to the old lady.

"I'm sorry, it's been wonderful talking with you, but I think he wants to get back to the room…" a blush touches my cheeks at that, not really believing I had said it myself.

"Go, go!" She cries, waving us out of a pool. "Have fun!"

I smile and allow Kakashi to help me out of the pool. "What are you, seven?" I ask, pulling towards the changing rooms.

"I was very mature at seven, actually." He argues, but soon enough he's arguing to a door, as I've disappeared into the changing room. I growl in frustration to find my clothes gone. I'm so used to scaring people off from stealing from me I don't even lock my house. But I suppose people wouldn't know any better in a small town like this. Luckily everything important was upstairs in the room, but it's still annoying.

"Kakashi!" I call, and hear his muffle yell through the wall. "Give me your shirt!"

There's a knock on the door a few seconds later and Kakashi hands me his shirt without question, now wearing loose pants and his tank top and mask combination. I pull on the loose grey shirt easily, elated that it goes halfway down my thigh. Kakashi laughs when I appear in his shirt and raises an eyebrow.

"My clothes were stolen. We need to go shopping tomorrow." He laughs at my misfortune. I would've elbowed him in the ribs, but in all honesty it would've just caused more problems for me. So instead I settle with, "Shut up," as I brush past him to get to our hotel room. He stays a bit behind me as we climb the stairs and I just know he's getting a good view of my rear, but I ignore that and instead stomp nosily along to the room, fully intending to slam the door in his face, but he catches up before I can even open the door.

"Sakura," he sighs, catching my hand on the door knob, so I can't turn it. "What's wrong?"

"I'm tired; I want to go to bed. I want to take a shower, and I want to comb out my hair. I want you to stop making fun of me and start being nicer to old ladies. Mostly I want underwear." Kakashi sighs, moving his hand so I can open the door. He catches the door behind me, so I can't close it, and slips in after me. I go straight for the bathroom, washing the minerals from the hot spring out of my hair. I know I'm overreacting, I'm not stupid. But seriously, why the hell can't he just sit around for a bit while I talk to a nice old lady. Who, as it just so happens, killed her husband.

I realize I've left my clothes in the other room with a pang of annoyance. Normally I would just run out to get them in a towel, but with Kakashi's mood lately… that might not be the best course of action. Stupid book: putting ideas into his head. My head too actually, now that I think about it. I dry off quickly, and shake the water out of my hair, and then pull Kakashi's shirt on again. I Figure it's better than a towel, at least it won't fall. I peak around the bathroom door hesitantly, and find Kakashi reading said stupid book. With a deep breath I make a bee-line for my bag.

I can feel kakashi's eyes on me, and I couldn't be mentally chanting, 'Keep your mouth shut!' any louder if I tried. But, alas, Kakashi is not a mind reader. "You know Sakura, there's a scene in chapter three that starts off just like this."

I laugh dryly. "I'm gonna burn that while you sleep if you reference it one more time."

"I don't sleep," he clarifies. "Would you like to see the picture?"

"There's a picture?" I ask, actually curious how that scene would be depicted. At Kakashi's grin I pout, sitting on the floor with my hair brush in hand. "Don't tease me like that." The tile floor feels so nice and cool after being in the hot spring, even if it was only for a few moments.

Kakashi stands, setting the book to the side, as he comes to stand above me. "I really shouldn't be reading that now," He says with a laugh. I happen to agree. "He's got me as a character down to how long I keep my toenails, but I think he's wrong about you." I jump as Kakashi takes the hair brush from my hand, sitting behind me. "It makes me think things of you I shouldn't."

I can't turn to see his face, and I'm not sure how much it would help anyways, so I can't figure out what he means by his statement. "So do you think she was running from the law?" I wonder, thinking of the old lady in the hot spring.

"Definitely," He hums, carefully picking out each tangle in my hair. "That's one of the reasons why I wanted to leave, we can't chance being tangled up with criminals."

"Did you forget the sign for 'psychopathic old lady serial killer' or were you just anxious to get back here?" I ask quietly, pulling against Kakashi's too gentle hand.

"Was that a joke?" He asks with a quiet thrill to his voice. "Did miss sour just make a joke?" I'm so tempted to punch him it's ridiculous.

"I won't be fixing your ribs again if you make me re-break them." The warning isn't lost on him, but he still laughs quietly to himself. I wouldn't have been able to make good on the threat anyways, the feel of him brushing my hair was so damn relaxing I was having a hard time holding onto my anger. "Kakashi?"

"Yes?" his voice is low and soothing, as if he existed simply to please me.

"Why did you get the hotel?" It wasn't what I meant to ask.

I meant to ask what the hell was going on with our relationship. We loved each other, that much is true, but not like a married couple, more like siblings, like family. But now I was feeling something entirely new. Lust, I suppose. It's not like I had never thought of Kakashi as being hot, oh I had. While the boys wanted to know what was under the mask, I kinda wanted to know what was under the clothes. But when I became a medic and rejoined the team I reached a new level of comfort with him. A platonic level of comfort. So many times I healed injuries on his perfect skin and so many times he thanked me with a kiss on the top of my head. But now there was something else in his movements. Or perhaps just something else in my thoughts.

"I got the hotel…" he says slowly, "Because I was tired, and I didn't want to sleep on the ground."

"Getting too old for playing ninja?" I ask with a little grin. Point, Haruno.

He laughs dryly. "Sakura, did you know that red hair loses its pigment before any other color? I can only assume pink is the same. Soon we'll match!" I had known that, though I didn't like to think about it and he knew it. Point, Hatake.

"Maybe then we'll be sent on missions as father and daughter; that would be more believable." To my joy he hisses and that one. Point and game. Haruno.

"Do you want to stick around here tomorrow?" Kakashi asks thoughtfully. "I know you need to go shopping, and I don't want to rush you."

"It would be better if we got to Earth Country first, don't you think?" I know it doesn't really matter when we get there; the whole mission is kind of just an off chance that someone might be causing trouble anyway; as Tsunade if more of a fan of stopping things from going wrong rather than cleaning up messes. But still, I have this feeling we're going to be late.

Kakashi shrugs behind me. "We'll be arrested when we get there, so whatever you want."

"What? Why would we be arrested?" I scramble to think of any laws regarding rogue ninjas.

"We're from the leaf. They'll think we're spies and until someone of authority thinks otherwise, they'll have to keep close watch on us." I hadn't even thought of that. Kami, this is going to be hell. "It's not a big deal, they'll let us go in no time; I can be very convincing."

I glance down at my hands in my lap, knowing just how convincing he can be. On countless occasions he had blatantly lied his way out of situations I would've thought hopeless. The man was a story teller, and a damn good one. "What are we going to do… if they let us get married, I mean?" Kakashi pauses for a moment and I hear the brush touch the floor. He shifts behind me, so that he can sit on my side, facing me. He's the picture of ease, weight held up by one hand, legs sprawled behind me, and his left eye held closed, as if winking at me. He's also damn sexy.

He reaches forward and cups my cheek in his large hand. "Sakura, you're making this too difficult. What we do on this mission, whatever we do on this mission… No one will think anything of it. If we get married in Earth country… then we're simply a married couple who had to elope. We're not ninja's pretending to be married, we're not actors. We will be a married couple," he pauses watching my reaction carefully. "That is a role I'm looking forward to: husband. I've never played one before."

My heart clenched painfully at the thought. "I'll be your wife…" I whisper, my voice weak.

"Hatake Sakura," Kakashi mutters.

Shivers shoot up my spine. "I can't wait for the honeymoon," I say with a giggle. Kakashi raises an eyebrow at me, even blushing slightly. "Oh come on." I laugh. "I'll bet you're great in bed."

"You think so?" Kakashi asks; mischief in his eyes again. "Let's see if you're right, shall we?" he's suddenly about twenty times closer, centimeters from me.

"Now now," I begin, leaning back. "Perhaps I want to wait for the wedding."

Kakashi laughs, pulling away. "It's a bit too late to be virgins at our wedding, for both of us, my dear."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask, blush filling my face.

"I'm Genma's best friend, miss natural pink," oh boy.

"Being with Genma doesn't count!" I argue. "It's like getting a paper cut, everyone does it at some point in their life!"

Kakashi laughs, nodding, "That's true."

"You too?" I ask; eyes wide. Sauske and Naruto had always had their suspicions about him, but I had seen too many women distract him to think he was interested in any one of the same gender. I suppose he could be bi.

"No, almost… a few times, but no. I've been with his female counter part though." I knit my eyebrows in confusion and he clarifies. "Anko." Ah yes, that makes sense. I think about it for a moment, and then laugh softly, shaking my head. "What?" he asks in confusion.

"I think you may be another paper cut to the ninja of the hidden leaf, Kakashi," His eyes widen and he leans away from me, as if counting. "Three you haven't been with who are close to your age."

He's silent for a moment. "Kurenai," I hold up one finger. "How close to my age, exactly?"

I laugh, more of a giggle really. "You can't do it."

"Well I tend to forget people if I haven't had sex with them, that's all," he explains. "Why do you think I was always late to meeting you guys as kids?"

I punch him playfully in the arm, but he moves my hand to the side, so instead it gets trapped against his side. I smile as he leans back, pulling me on top of him. "You know, there's a very comfortable bed right over there, and I do intend on sleeping in it tonight."

"So do I," Kakashi mutters in my ear.

I'm quiet for a moment as I listen to his heart beat. Slow and steady. Not at all anxious or affected by my presence. "I still need underwear though," I mutter.

Oh his slow and steady heart is no more! It has a field day with that one, and for a moment I'm afraid he's going to have a heart attack… how old is he? "Sakura…" He mutters as he begins to calm down.

"Yes?" I ask sweetly, looking up at his masked chin.

"Please don't say things like that," his request is fair enough, but I still simply want to practice disobedience.

I work hard to make my voice breathy and full of desire. "Yes… sensei."

Kakashi groans under me. Bringing his head up only to smack it against the tile. "I'm serious, Sakura. You're lying on top of me-"

"And whose fault is that?

"Wearing nothing but my shirt-"

"It covers more than most of my clothes,"

"And were pretending to be lovers," he waits to see if I'm going to respond before he continues. "I'm not an actor Sakura, I'm just good at convincing myself something is true."

"Are you saying you're in love with me?" I ask after a moment.

He pushes me off of him, and stands up quickly, making me fall into a fit of giggles. "Come on Sakura, bed time."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you, lover boy?" I'm not trying to be sexy, I'm trying to make fun of him, but apparently I've achieved both.

Instead of waiting for my hand he leans down and picks me up, slinging me over his shoulder. Just before he throws me onto the bed he slaps my bare ass, making me squeal in surprise. "Stay," he commands as I bounce across the mattress, and then he disappears into the closet (which I now remember is a walk in). He returns a moment later with a small piece of purple cloth, with black lace. Underwear! He crawls onto the foot of the bed and carefully, keeping his eye on mine, picks up my ankle and slipping it into the garment, and then the other leg as well. His gaze doesn't move from mine as he pushes the cloth up my legs, running his hands over my legs as he does so. When he gets higher I lift my hips to help, and he snaps the fabric into place. "Better?"

No, because now there's nothing in the world I want more than for him to rip that stupid piece of fabric off me and make me forget a world exist off of this bed. But instead I smile nicely and say, "Much!"

He smiles softly and rolls over, so he's lying beside me. "You're so cute when you lie," he mutters.

"Go to hell."

"As long as I can take you with me."

I sigh in response to that, just staring up at the ceiling. "Kami, I'm tired…"

"Go to sleep," he says with a small chuckle.

"I'm afraid of what you might do to me," I jab, glancing over at him in faux suspicion. He snorts in laughter. "I wonder how Neji's doing…"

"Hey! Don't bring up ex boyfriends while in bed!"

I laugh quietly. "Fiancé, and you started it. With all your talk about Genma and Anko."

"That wasn't in bed," he argues childishly. "And neither of us was ever engaged to Anko or Genma."

"Yes you were," I mutter, rolling over to look at him.

"What?" The look on his face is priceless.

"You were drunk, and asked Genma to marry you. He said yes," He still looks oblivious.

"I don't remember this…" He muses. "How do you-"

"Genma," I begin, "remembers it quite well, he even got a pretty damn good look at your face too. He said that was why he said yes… you dazzled him."

Kakashi shakes his head slowly. "I need to stop drinking, and you need to stop talking to my friends."

I smile, staring at his closed eye. "I want to see your face."

"No," he mutters quietly.

"But isn't that the rule, whoever you're engaged to gets to see your face?" The argument is childish and stupid, but I can't help it. It still seems impossible how soft his lips are. He just glares at me. "Besides, you never ever proposed, if you show me your face it'll make up for it."

He stared at me for a moment, and the quickly rolled out of bed. In a moment he was on my side of the bed, pulling me to my feet and then kneeling before me. "Sakura… will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

"No," I respond easily. I give him a little more of an explanation at his confused look. "You didn't even get me a ring."

"Oh for Kami's sake," he mutters, getting up and moving away. He goes over to his bag and dig through it, pulling out a little box. He tosses the box to me and leans against the wall.

It takes a moment for me to recover for the surprise, and once I do I slowly open the box. "When did you get this?" I ask with a gasp. It's fairly simple, a thin silver band, but inside the silver are little diamonds that lay flat, so I could still wear my gloves, I realize.

"When I got to Suna. Tsunade suggested I find you one and gave me some… requirements. Gaara suggested the jeweler," I carefully removed the ring from the box, slipping it onto my finger, it was a perfect fit. "Will you marry me now?"

"Will you show me your face?"

I can see the smile in his eyes. "I see; you'll only marry me if I'm handsome."

"That's right," I confirm with a sloppy grin. The ring on my finger feels so natural, as if it was meant to be there.

"No, I won't show you my face, not tonight anyways," he says clearly.

I roll back into bed, pulling the covers over me. If he's not going to show me his face why the hell am I still awake? "Would you get the lights? I'm tired," He stares at me for a moment; I can feel his eye on me, and then the lights flick out. I listen to his move swiftly across the dark room, and then join me in bed. I reach out to touch his back, under the pretense of another sign, I suppose, but he flinches away. I stare into the darkness for a bit in surprise, and then roll over with a huff, keeping my back to him. If that's how he's going to be that's fine, but he's insane if he thinks I won't be angry in the morning.

So I was looking at the traffic graphs (those didn't exist when I was writing stuff for twilight…) and I'm rather surprised. To you reader from the Netherlands: I'm thinking of moving there… some friends offered me their couch but I'm thinking a more permanent residence is in order. Do you know a band called the ranch girls? Good friends of mine. To reader from Spain: you have a cool festival there that I'm always late to on the tickets… rockabilly rave I think it's called. No, the rave is in England. I donno what's in Spain? Some big rockabilly festival on the beach anyway. I've heard it's cool. Anyhow, you guys are awesome. Review?

PS- why does Hong Kong get its own section? It was part of China last time I checked… Paris doesn't have its own section, it's just France…