Sorry for my long author's notes guys, I'll try to keep them short after this chapter.
Also, I wasn't going to post this today, but then I got some fantastic reviews, and so I did. (I write quicker when you guys review)
"Sakura-san?" I glance up at Shinji's face, surprised to have him staring at me with puppy dog eyes. "Is something wrong? I hope I didn't upset you with any part of the tour: I'm not very familiar with Fire country customs."
"Oh no," I saw, shaking my head as I stare at the sun low in the sky. "Kinosaki is a very beautiful city."
"Then what's wrong?" He asks with a childish pout.
The boy was nearly nineteen, and he still acted like a five year old. It was rather endearing. "Shinji-kun," I tease. "Nothing's wrong, don't worry your pretty little head."
"Sakura-chan…" he mutters, glancing around sarcastically. "You're engaged, someone might hear…" I roll my eyes at him and refrain from laughing. "Ok, ok, I give in… meet me tonight in the-"
"So sorry, I didn't realize I was interrupting." Shinji glances up, frightened, but I just scoot over to allow Kakashi to take a seat next to me. "Where were you meeting my fiancé and why?"
"Tryst," I say, taking a drink of water and handing the bottle back to Shinji. "Very secretive."
"Ah, well I'll see you tomorrow then?" Kakashi asks with an understanding nod, preparing to walk away.
"Sit down, you numskull," I mutter, pulling him down next to me by the sleeve. "I have to go home with you first, or else it's just a date. Sneaking out makes it a tryst."
"Oh, sorry," he mutters, sitting down next to me. "So Shinji, did you enjoy my Sakura's company?"
"Very much, Hatake-sama," he says kindly.
"Too much, perhaps?" The look on Shinji's face is hilarious. "I don't have to kill you do I? That might strain relations between myself and Hiro." I elbow Kakashi in the ribs, scowling at him slightly.
"I doubt it," Shinji says with a snort. "Hironori doesn't care very much for me, I'm sure you understand why."
Kakashi just nods. "If you'd excuse us, I have a few things to talk to Sakura about."
Shinji gets up before I can protest. "Of course, I'll see you tonight, Sakura-san," he winks at me and I giggle.
Kakashi scowls as Shinji walks away. "Oh please," I mutter, rolling my eyes. "Don't look at me like that."
"Whatever you say, Miss. Recently-engaged." Kakashi reminds me carefully.
"He's just a baby," I sigh, shaking my head. "Already controlling and suspicious?"
"I am not! He's only a few years younger than you," Kakashi argues.
"I like older men," I respond, semi-truthfully. "But you know... he is very charming…"
"Oh shut up," he sighs, leaning back onto the soft grass Shinji and I had come to a rest on. "I've got a job."
"Oh joy," I mutter, thinking of Kakashi leaving to go on missions to help our biggest enemy. "What was that, earlier today?" I ask, biting my nail. "Why did you tell Lord Toriyama now would be a good time to attack our home?"
"Because I know Hiro very well, Sakura, and I know for a fact he would never include himself in matters of war," Kakashi sounds tired now, as if he just wants to go home and sleep for a few days.
"What makes you so sure?" I demand. "And how do you know him so well, Kakashi?" A bitter taste fills my mouth at the thought of Kakashi being friendly with leaders of Iwa. What if… "I won't allow you to hurt our home, Kakashi."
Kakashi turns towards me, anger in his eye. "Because, Sakura," he hisses, grabbing my forearm painfully, forcing me to look down at him. "Hiro's mother is from Fire country. She was a dear friend to my own mother. His mother was killed when he was ten because she was trying to stop a war from breaking out between Iwa and Konoha. She failed. Don't ever question my allegiance to Konoha again, you have no right. Do you understand?"
I try not to let tears touch my eyes, but the pain in my arm from his un-forgiving grip and the memory of exactly how many battles this man has fought to protect our home bring apologetic moisture to my eyes. "Y-yes," I whine softly, remembering a story I heard about his father once, and how he betrayed Konoha. "I'm… I'm sorry," I whisper, unable to speak any louder without my voice wavering. He doesn't let go. "Kakashi, please…"
He lets go of me then, getting up and heading back to the castle. I hurry after him, walking in silence beside him. He's silent for a long time, leading me through the city's streets. It's only when we've nearly reached the castle that he speaks up, so quiet I almost don't hear him.
"Are you ok?"
"I'm fine," I whisper back, ignoring the throbbing in my arm. It'll probably bruise.
He doesn't push it anymore and leads me past the guards at the front gate, without thought taking me straight to a large room, which is already holding our things that had been confiscated. There's a bathroom connected to the room, with a complete bath and shower, and even a little deck that led to a section of the hot spring that ran through most of the castle. There's only one bed in the room, which I suppose I should have expected. But there is a sitting area with a mighty comfy looking couch that is separated by a paper wall from the bed area. I suppose it would be suspicious if I stuck him on that couch too many nights though.
"I brought our things back here," he mutters, excruciatingly uncomfortable talking to me, "after Hiro let me go."
"You said you got a job?" I ask tentatively after a moment.
"He wants to sign me up as a ninja in his employ, official title 'body guard' but he'll just be sending me out to deliver messages and what not." Kakashi still seems uncomfortable, stumbling over his words and watching what he says. I want to ask him so bad how he can stand to help the enemy but I couldn't without him getting angry. He answers my unspoken question anyway. "I told him I wouldn't do anything to hurt Konoha, or any of its people. He just wants me for personal gain, I honestly don't think he even considers himself a part of Earth Country."
"Personal gain," I mutter. Not a good personality trait, but helpful to us. "That's… acceptable." Kakashi doesn't reply. "I think I'd like to go to bed," I mutter, "If you're done?"
He looks a little shocked, as if he expected more of a fight out of me, but he quickly recovers, nodding. "I'll leave first thing in the morning," He mutters. "I'm going to go see if I can find something to eat… I haven't eaten much today."
"Kakashi," I mutter before he leaves, I know a made up excuse when I hear one. "Please come back quickly."
He freezes, hand on the door, but then nods, leaving without another word. I change into pajamas quickly, brushing my teeth and crawling into bed. I'm not nearly tired enough to sleep yet, and my arm is still throbbing from where he had grabbed me. I could heal it, but only if a bruise arises. Until then I have to deal with the pain. I sigh and stare at the ceiling. Shinji was cute, that was no lie. But the mission came first, and in order for it to work I have to be in love with Kakashi. But there's nothing wrong with a little flirting… right? I wonder distantly what Lord Toriyama has against Shinji. The guy is kind and playful and actually quite funny. At times during the day he seemed like Naruto, at other times like Neji, on occasion even a bit like Genma. It was a little confusing, but at least he wasn't so no-stop that I couldn't stand to be around him.
Kakashi tries to come in quietly, but I'm still awake. I pretend to be fast asleep, keeping my back to the door, and the side of the bed he would sleep on. He pauses for a moment by the door, and then sighs heavily. I listen as he changes and slips into bed next to me, keeping his distance. He lies flat on his back, hands resting on his chest.
"Do you want me to take a look at your ribs?" I ask quietly, hoping he's not still angry with me.
"If you would," he mutters; his gentle voice cutting through the darkness of the room.
I roll over, putting my head on his shoulder and moving my hand under the blankets to touch his chest, trying to help the healing process along blindly. I run my hand down a long scar in his right shoulder, counting the ribs as I work my way down. "What's that from?" I ask quietly.
"When I was thirteen I blindly rushed into battle," he responds, offering more information than I expected. I got an age.
"Must be something about teenage boys," I mutter, almost teasing him. I hear him give a short breath of laughter. "That one, right?" I ask, touching the first broken rib.
"Ow, yes."
"I thought it didn't hurt anymore," I tease, letting my chakra seep into him and stitch the bones tighter.
"It doesn't when no one's poking it," he growls, his arm resting against my back as I work, the other under his head.
"I'm sorry, Kakashi," I whisper against him, almost hoping he doesn't hear it.
"You're sorry?" he asks, surprise showing in his voice. "What for?"
"I'm sorry I doubted you," I admit.
He's silent for a moment. "You have nothing to apologize for. My relationship with Hiro is sketchy. That's why I'm so defensive about it." How he admits it is even careful, as if he's ashamed of the fact that he knows a leader of an Eath Country village. It could potentially be very helpful to Konoha if he wasn't so stubborn about it, especially since it's a trading post. "I should be the one saying I'm sorry," he admits.
"What for?" I ask, able to think of several things he could be sorry for.
He sighs heavily, the sound echoing in my head since it is so close to my ear. "Everything."
"Well there's an apology I can accept," I joke dryly. I roll away from him, having healed him as much as I want to. "Don't get punched in the ribs. Good luck on your mission. Don't wake me up when you go."
He sighs, watching me carefully. "I'm sorry I can't make a proper apology," he whispers. "I'll make a list while I'm gone, and when I get back, I will apologize for everything I've done. How far back do you want me to go?"
"Very beginning," I mutter into my pillow.
"Please, Sakura," He mutters." Can't you just…" he sighs heavily, his hands coming up to grab his forehead. "I don't want things to be bad with you. I don't want to leave with you angry… you might run off with Shinji while I'm gone." I reach out and punch him, but Kakashi grabs my arm, pulling me so I'm lying on his chest again. "Got ya," he sounds just a bit too smug.
"Jerk," I mutter, nestling into his arms just the same. I've always liked sleeping in a man's arms. I must've woken up to Sauske pushing me away a thousand times when we were genin, and in later years, or even once or twice as children Naruto had served as a comfy, if not noisy, pillow. Recently Neji had been playing the role when we were both in the village. Once or twice I had even woken in Kakashi's arms, though that was usually handled by me trying to sneak away horrified, before realizing he probably knew I was there anyway. Last time that had happened Naruto had made a joke about how Kakashi should at least take me out to breakfast. The joke was short-lived since Kakashi had punched him the next moment. I had been a bit miffed at Kakashi for stealing my thunder.
"Everyone knows you'd wake up on top of me anyways," he says with a sigh, sounding as if he was ready to fall asleep any moment.
"If I remember correctly, 'snuggle bunny', it was you who woke up on top of me last time," I tease, poking his chest.
"Yes, but you pulled me there," he defends quietly. "See, isn't this better than being mad at me?" He rubs my arm lightly. "You get a warm pillow, I get a beautiful woman to wake up with. Everyone wins."
I smile against his chest. Beautiful woman. "Thank you," I whisper, closing my eyes.
He kisses the top of my head. "You're welcome."
Kakashi is gone when I wake up, and there's a little note on the bedside table, stating that he should be back in just two or three days, signed with a little smiley face with one eye with a heart coming out of his head. Definitely saving that to use against him later.
It's still early when I go outside and follow my nose to the kitchens. The same serving girl from yesterday finds me there and seems repulsed by the fact that I would venture down here. The "I was hungry," that I mumble around a piece of bread nearly makes her faint.
"If you go back to your room, Haruno-san, someone will be more than happy to bring you some food," she pleads quietly, flinching at harsh looks from a chef.
"What am I? A prisoner or a guest?" I complain, taking another bite. "Besides I'm already here… and what if someone poisons it before it reaches my room." I'd simply realize it's been poisoned and remove the culprit, that's what would happen, but she doesn't know that.
"I will bring it personally!" She vows.
"Yeah," I murmur, looking her over. "What is someone poisons it before it reaches my room?" She looks horrified at my insinuation, ready to drop to her knees and beg forgiveness, but just then Shinji saves me from that, coming into the kitchens and flying at me.
"Sakura-chan!" he calls out, wrapping me in a big hug, his mood shifting immediately as he grabs hold of me. "I missed you last night," he murmurs against my ear. He pulls away with a grin when I blush. "Now, let's get out of here and get you some real food."
"He means nothing by that," I say to the chef. "Your food is quite real, and very delicious." Shinji swoops me away with a girlish giggle, running down the halls with me behind him. "Where are we going?" I ask with a grin.
"Breakfast!" He chirps.
Breakfast turns out to involve climbing half-way up a mountain to a one room hut nestled in the trees, where an old lady sits throwing kunai at bugs. "Shinji-sama!" she calls out when we approach, missing Shinji's face by a hair when she throws the next kunai, Shinji doesn't even blink.
"Obaa-chan!" he calls out, smiling. "She's not really my grandmother, she's just old." He whispers to me with a grin. "Do you have any food left?"
Another kunai flies, cutting a stray piece of hair from Shinji's head. "Always," she cackles with a nearly toothless grin.
The woman turns out to be some master chef. Several courses and several hours later the three of us sit at her broken table, bellies full, bursting in Shinji's case. "Wow," I sigh, looking over at the old lady. "You are a wonderful cook…"
"Just call her Obaa," Shinji teases, laughing quietly.
"Please, please," the old lady says with a grin. "Obaa is fine."
"You are a wonderful cook Obaa-sama," I say politely.
She laughs, nearly falling back in her chair. "Where'd you find this one, Shinji-sama?" Shinji shrugs, a soft smile on his lips.
"Why do you do that?" I ask calmly, eyes half closed. "Call him sama?"
"Obaa-chan," Shinji warns, his nearly closed eyes watching her carefully.
"Because," she says, ignoring Shinji. "He is the rightful lord of this village, Hironori stole the title from him."
"What?" I ask slowly, piecing things together. "You're Hironori's little brother…" I figure out quickly. "Shinji-sama, why didn't you tell me?"
He flinches. "It wasn't important," he says with a shrug. "Please don't call me that."
"It's your proper title!" I argue.
"But we're friends, Sakura," he argues softly, begging me with his puppy dog eyes. "It's why I can call you Sakura-chan, and why you felt comfortable calling me Shinji-kun before you knew. I want to be your friend Sakura, please."
I sigh, watching him with pain in my eyes. "Your brother asked you to keep an eye on me, didn't he?"
"Of course he did," Shinji sighs. "But I told you that. He didn't ask me to come see you today, that was my choice." I sigh, looking away. "Forgive me?"
Being friends with Lord Toriyama's little brother would be most beneficial to our mission. "Fine," I mutter, smiling softly.
"Want to go back to Kinosaki?" He asks tenderly.
I sigh getting up. "Very slowly, if we could."
We say our goodbyes to Obaa-chan and help clean up the dishes, and the start the leisurely stroll down the mountain side. "My father had it in his will," Shinji begins after a moment, "That the title was to pass over my brother and go to myself. He used the excuse that my brother's mother was not from Earth Country, but that really has nothing to do with it." I listen patiently. "He saw bad things coming from my brother; he hungered too much for power, and to revenge his mother's murder. A pure accident, actually." Kakashi's story was shorter, but I do believe he didn't think it was an accident. Whether Shinji was hiding things from me or people were hiding things from him is debatable. Or it's entirely possible that Kakashi is lying, he does that… "Anyways, my brother didn't want the title passing onto me, so he had our father killed just a few days before my thirteenth birthday." I nearly choke at how blasé he is about it. "I suppose I should feel honored though," He says with a shrug. "It would've been easier to have me killed before I turned thirteen, teenage boys drown all the time. I guess he just likes me, or didn't want to wait." He laughs, smiling at me.
"Wow," I mutter. "That's pretty messed up."
"Well at the time I was just pissed my financial support was dead. I didn't care about the title in the least," he laughs. "Guess that's probably a good thing too."
"And now?" I ask quietly.
Shinji is silent for a long moment before he speaks up, voice weak. "I can see he's made some mistakes. But nothing intolerable."
"Don't you hate him?" I ask softly.
"Why would I hate him?" He seems genuinely surprised.
"He killed your father," I whisper quietly.
Shinji looks off into the distance, quiet. "No," he mutters. "Dad loved Hironori's mother, and only remarried and had me when he saw what Hironori was turning into. I was his insurance policy he had taken out on the village. Hironori didn't kill my father. He killed his own father." He shakes his head, biting his lips. "I didn't have a father."
I stay quiet after that, biting the inside of my cheek as we continue down the mountain.
The sun is beginning to set when we get back to Kinosaki, tired and, quite frankly, stinky, which Shinji so delicately points out when we collapse on the grass outside the castle. "Phew… Sakura, you stink."
"Shut up," I laugh, punching him softly. "So do you."
He laughs, wincing in faux pain. "I was just kidding," he says, panicky. "You smell like a rose."
"Then I really need a bath," I say with a chuckle, not at all intending to get up. "You know, I'm still full from that feast. It's been, what six hours? Why the hell did it take us so long to get down the mountain?"
"I took us the long way," Shinji admits with a grin.
"Jerk."
"Sorry."
We're silent for a moment before Shinji laughs, and then I do as well. I quickly get a whiff of myself in doing so and almost gag. "Oh Kami, you're right, I do stink."
Shinji laughs, getting to his feet and helping me up. He takes me back to my room, which I'm grateful for, because I don't think I could've found it on my own, and bids me a goodnight at the door. "I'd kiss you," he says with a smirk. "But your fiancé might kill me… and you still stink." I laugh, closing the door on him and yelling my goodnight through it. I head to the bath room, stripping quickly as I draw a bath. I glance over the thousands of shampoos and soaps they've provided us with, raising my eyebrows at a few of the scents.
I touch at my arm disappointed to see a bruise in the shape of Kakashi's hand, fingers and everything. Hopefully it will be gone by the time he gets back, it's actually not good to heal a bruise, and it hurts like hell.
I nearly fall asleep in the tub, listening to the soft wind out on the deck, and allowing the heat of the bath to relax me after the day of mountain climbing. Until I realize I'm not alone in the room. I sit up, reaching for a towel. "Kakashi?" I call, knowing it's not him, but the intruder would expect me to think it's him.
"Haruno-chan."
I shiver at the man's voice, freezing in my reach for the towel. "Lord Toriyama," I whisper.
You guys are making me resort to cheep tricks to get reviews out of you. Cliff hangers, that will get you to review! He he, any one ever watch Fruit's Basket? Yes, Shinji just became Momiji I think is the one I'm thinking of. Ah damn, now I want a Hatsuharu character… By the way, go look up the meanings of Shinji and Horinori. Those of you who do know what's going to happen later. Oh, and KakashiKrazed: I just printed off your review and put it on my wall. (Ok, no I didn't, but only because I don't have a printer) Ryuu: what self respecting female doesn't like chocolate? Yes, I like chocolate (except dark chocolate makes me sneeze, I still eat it). Will I get some now? Also, has anyone ever seen the movie Nine? I have Cinema Italiano stuck in my head, and it's mixing with Be Italian, and it's orgasmic. Go see it, everyone