"We should make camp here and travel back to Konoha at first light." Yamato said, adjusting his pack higher up on his shoulders. It was getting dark, which wasn't the best time to travel through the forest that surrounded the coast. Across the water, they could see the Hidden Mist, the village they'd just returned to the mainland from. Sakura was glad to get out of there; it brought a barrage of memories from her Genin years. Ones she didn't want to remember.

Tsunade had sent Yamato, Sai, Kakashi and Sakura on a last minute mission to take back a forbidden jutsu scroll from the Mist. The mission was relatively easy; the team was skilled after all and was quite familiar with the village itself, so they were able to infiltrate the small shrine that it was sealed in and steal it without any trouble. Sakura remembered noting the lack of guards that watched over the scroll itself, the Mist was getting lazy.

They set up camp on top of a cliff, partially tucked into the safety of the towering trees overlooking the coast. Yamato yawned and cracked his knuckles; he reached inside his pack and brought out the scroll. The parchment was an unimpressive beige colour and was crinkled and ripped at the edges, Yamato laid it on the floor in front of them as Kakashi started a fire.

"So, who's on watch first?" Yamato asked, "I'd be happy to do it if no one else does."

Sai looked up and shot Yamato a disturbingly fake smile, "I'm sure Sakura and Kakashi would like to be left alone for the first few hours. They did engage in intercourse after all."

Yamato, who had been drinking from his canteen, spat his water out in shock. Kakashi's hands were paused above the open fire and his fingers twitched at Sai's blunt words, he glanced at Sakura.

Sakura's face was a dangerous shade of crimson and as she stared into the crackling flames of the fire Kakashi had skillfully set up, she couldn't help but want to throw herself into it. Sai was a fucking idiot. He was so blunt too! That damn kid had zero tact.

"Oh? I seem to have made things awkward." Sai frowned, confused. "Was intercourse the wrong word? Should I have said sex? Or maybe fu-"

Sai was stopped by Yamato's hand as he gave him a short whack to the back of the head. "Go to sleep, you socially inept idiot." Yamato hissed, jerking his thumb over his shoulder to gesture to the tent they'd set up upon arriving at their camp site.

Sai looked back and forth between his team members and sighed, mumbling something about how he didn't understand what he did wrong as he dragged his feet to the tent to get some rest. Yamato, feeling awkward in the silence created by the remaining members, cleared his throat and followed after Sai, murmuring a quiet, "Me and Sai will take watch after you two."

The silence threatened to swallow Kakashi and Sakura. Neither of them knew what to do, what to say or where to look. For ten minutes straight, Sakura sat across from Kakashi with her eyes trained on the crackling fire.

"I'm going to go look over the coast." Sakura mumbled, rising to her feet and walking quickly to escape Kakashi's intense gaze.

Sakura arrived at the edge of the cliff and looked over it, wondering if she jumped off of it, would the seemingly endless string of embarrassing accusations come to an end? Forcing out an agitated sigh, Sakura sat at the edge, her bare legs dangling over it.

So, even Sai, the socially incompetent asshole, knew of her and Kakashi's supposed activities from the night Naruto became Chunin. Ino had told her that word travels fast; Sakura thought that the whole of Konoha and maybe the Land of Fire knew that she, Sakura Haruno, had slept with Kakashi Hatake, the deadly Copy Ninja.

Sakura tipped her head back to look at the stars. She'd always preferred to go on watch until late at night over the crack of dawn. She liked the sky this way, in its most beautiful and vulnerable form, dark and so bright at the same time. She particularly liked the shape of the moon; a perfect crescent, iridescent against its shadowy back ground.

She realized she must've been staring up at the sky for ages when Kakashi took a seat next to her, one leg dangling off the edge like both of hers and the other bent so that he could rest his forearm atop his knee. He wasn't as close as she would've liked, but he was close enough that she could feel the warmth of his side and smell his sugary scent. She braved a glance at him and couldn't control the parting of her lips.

Suddenly, the sky became the second most beautiful thing to her as Sakura stared at his unmasked face. He suited the moonlit atmosphere so perfectly, with his silver hair, fair skin and dangerously attractive combination of eye colour, one dark and the other a striking bright red.

She looked away quickly and frowned. Since when was she all mushy and stupid? When was the last time a guy made her think that he was the only thing in the world to her? It'd been years since she was that kind of girl and she wasn't keen on becoming the sniveling brat she was back then.

"I've got to run an errand from Tsunade to the Hyuga compound tomorrow, I'm sure I'll be able to catch Hinata before she leaves for her mission." Kakashi said.

Sakura nodded. She'd told him on their way to the Hidden Mist what Naruto had remembered, and he seemed just as puzzled and confused as she was. This whole situation was getting way too out of hand, not to mention crazier and crazier each person they went to.

For a while, they just sat in silence. It was comfortable and surprisingly nice and the first time since the whole ordeal that they didn't feel awkward. Sakura felt a small tickle on her shoulder, causing her to shiver and clench her jaw. She looked at Kakashi and found that it was his doing; his fingers had brushed the skin at her shoulder. "Kakashi…" She whispered, more as a half-hearted warning to herself than to the culprit.

"Hm?" His fingertips didn't stop; they kept on softly trailing down to her elbow, up to her shoulder and the curve of her neck, occasionally twirling a lock of pink hair between his fingers.

"Kakashi, stop." She heard herself say.

"You sure?" He asked, and when he spoke Sakura was acutely aware of his breath at her ear. She shivered once more as she nodded her head, but couldn't keep her eyes from slipping closed. "You don't look sure."

Damn him. She thought. For making me want him so bad…

She moaned lightly at his touch as his fingers left her neck to travel across her collar bones, his thumb caressing her throat lightly. His other arm moved off his knee to rest on the leg furthest away from him, his palm gently kneading the cold skin of her thigh. She tipped her neck slightly to the side, allowing him access to her neck as his lips touched it lightly; his mouth slowly following the curve of her neck up to her delicate jaw line. "Sakura." He whispered into her ear, his mouth closing over the shell.

She swallowed nervously as her heart sped up purely because of the blissful sound of his low smoky voice. She felt her breathing become uneven and wanted to slap herself for allowing him to turn her on this much and just by touching her shoulder and whispering into her ear. She felt like putty in his hands.

She gasped when she felt his tongue on that small sensitive place behind her ear and ever so slowly, he trailed it down the side of her neck, before coming back up and placing a kiss on her jaw. The hand at her thigh slowly rose to her hip, where he dug his fingers in hard enough for her to groan in excitement. His other hand travelled to the back of her neck, where he threaded his fingers through her hair and tugged her head back lightly.

His lips pressed to her cheek in a soft, chaste kiss before moving to her temple to do the same thing. She kept her hands fisted at her sides, but her thighs squished together as the hand on her hip moved more towards her middle, sliding down to rest lightly on her lower stomach. His lips ghosted to her forehead, where his they pressed a kiss that lasted longer than the others, before trailing down her nose and kissing the tip.

Both of their breathing was uneven and this close Sakura could inhale as much of his cinnamon scent as she wanted. He smelled so good, felt so warm and it was only a matter of time before his lips pressed to hers. She wondered how soft his pouty lips were, how velvety his tongue was. She wondered how skilled he was at using it and groaned at the thought.

She looked at Kakashi weakly and made contact with his eyes. He was so close to her and was looking at her with a lustful expression she'd never seen on his face before. "Why are you doing this?" She asked, her voice feeling like she hadn't used it in years.

Sakura saw Kakashi's lips turn up at the corners in a sexy smirk, "I just really," He pressed another kiss to the tip of her nose. "Really," he lowered his lips to one corner of her mouth which she parted in anticipation. "Want to kiss you," He murmured, his breath fanning out across her mouth.

This was it. This was what she's been craving since she woke up to his naked body that one morning. This is what she wanted to know. She wanted to taste him.

Her tongue darted out to moisten her lips as his neared. She was overwhelmed by the delicious sugary smell of cinnamon and the anticipation for what was to come.

"Kakashi? Sakura?"

No, no, no, no. Not now. Sakura thought, her eyes, which she didn't realize had closed, snapped open at the sound of the voice. Kakashi let out a breath and closed his eyes tightly. Reluctantly, he slowly moved his hands from Sakura before moving his lips from hovering no more than half an inch above hers. He ran a hand through his hair and turned to glare at the voice.

Sakura let out a shaky breath and turned to look at whoever it was that had interrupted what would probably be the most memorable kiss of her life. "What do you want, Sai?" She asked, annoyed.

Sai was smiling, and it was that damn fake smile Sakura had both come to hate and love at the same time. "Yamato is annoying. He forced me to come apologize."

*.*

Hinata grinned at Naruto as he opened the door for her, wrapping an arm around her waist. They'd left Kakashi's office in quite a mess and because of their intoxicated state did not care one bit. Hinata blushed deeply as Naruto leant down and pressed a sweet kiss to her cheek.

They entered the living room and wasn't at all surprised at the sight of Lee, Neji and Kiba playing cards with Akamaru leaning over Kiba's shoulder and Ino perched on top of Kakashi's kitchen counter with Genma between her legs.

At the sight of the young Hyuga and her blonde haired companion, Lee jumped to his feet with a goofy grin on his face. "Alas, my youthful companions have decided to grace me with their presence!" Lee stumbled over to Naruto, who looked at Hinata sourly, and wrapped an arm lazily around his shoulders. "Where, may I ask, is my youthful cherry blossom?"

"If you're talking about Sakura-chan, she's in the bathroom, but I wouldn't go in there if I were-"Naruto began.

"Bathroom, you say?" Lee smirked, his bushy eyebrows rising hopefully, "This is the time I grab my eternal youth by the horns and confess! I must be swift. Naruto, Hinata," He looked at the couple, removing his arm from Naruto's shoulders, "Thank you." He said; as if they were the last words he'd ever speak to them.

"Yeah… right. But Lee, she's with-"Lee disappeared before Naruto could finish his sentence, stumbling down the hallway in the direction of the bathroom, mumbling unintelligible things about youth.

Hinata giggled and tightened her hand in Naruto's shirt, causing him to smile down at her sweetly. "Hey Hinata-chan…" Naruto began, moving to stand in front of her to shield her from the view of the others.

Hinata's heart started to pound so fast in her chest she thought she'd feint, "Y-Yes, Naruto-kun?" Her stutter, not fully masked by the alcohol she'd consumed, had reared its ugly head, and it wasn't the first time that she'd wanted to get rid of it so that she could finally have a proper stutter-less conversation with the boy of her dreams.

Naruto reached up and with his fingers lifted her bangs away from her forehead so that he could see the smooth milky skin of her beautiful round face. "You're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen in my life."

Hinata's heart stopped. Those sort of words were the kind that every girl wanted to hear, and they'd come straight from the only boy she's ever loved and will ever love. She felt her skin heating up and she was pretty sure Naruto did too judging by the contagious grin that spread across his handsome face.

"N-Naruto…kun…"

She was silenced by an earth-shattering, heart-stopping, breath-taking kiss.

Sakura shot Kakashi a sour look. "Youthful cherry blossom?" She said, disgusted and embarrassed.

Kakashi grinned, she could tell by the crinkle of his only visible eye. "I think it's creative." He replied, words laced with sarcasm. He honestly thought Rock Lee was an idiot, it was common knowledge that Sakura hated to be described as her namesake. The only thing about her that tied her to her name was the colour of her hair. Kakashi knew all too well that she'd long since outgrown her sweet, little cherry blossom phase. She was a kunoichi now, a dangerous one.

They sat on a secluded bench, it was early in the morning and the sun had just risen. Sakura had just finished her night shift at the hospital and Kakashi had previously returned from one of the Hokage's many errands.

Icha Icha was perched on his lap; he'd been reading it while waiting for her and was just getting to the climax of the story when she'd arrived. He remembered grinning innocently at the look of disdain she shot the romance novel before returning the same look to him.

"And when did Hinata-chan say this happened?" Sakura asked, a yawn escaping from her pretty little mouth as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Kakashi did the same, yawning and stretching his arms over his head. "About a full two hours since Naruto saw us in the bathroom."

Sakura sighed, "I'm surprised you got that out of her. Normally, she's a timid girl, but get a little alcohol in her and she becomes…" A smile graced Sakura's lips, "Sex-crazed."

Kakashi laughed. He'd been surprised at the Hyuga heiress too, doubly so when Sakura had told her Naruto's recollection word for word. But, he never did keep tabs on the Rookie Nine except for his own team, so he guessed he didn't really know much about them aside from what he's heard from Sakura and Naruto.

The air became heavier as silence swept over them and it was obvious to Kakashi that Sakura was thinking about the almost-kiss they shared last night on the edge of the cliff. Hell, Kakashi was thinking about it too. He was so close. So close to finding out what she tasted like and felt like under his hands. But then that idiot Sai just had to interrupt.

Fucking Root, creating morons like that. Have they no shame?

Kakashi tried not to let the uncomfortable silence get to him and he picked up Icha Icha from his lap, contemplating on picking up where he left off, but thinking better of it. He wanted to talk to Sakura, not just about the whole mess they'd gotten themselves into, but really he just wanted to talk to her. He wanted to know how she was going at the hospital, if they've made any new developments in regards to the poisons and toxins she's been working on so diligently. He wanted to know if she was planning to stay at the hospital forever or if she wanted to join ANBU or something, she certainly had the talent for it. More importantly, he just wanted to know about her.

Of course, he wanted to know about her feelings towards him, because he certainly didn't know about his own and maybe having her clear it up for him would help a great deal.

But mainly, just about her.

Snapping his book shut, he turned to face Sakura like a man on a mission, but let out a tiny huff at her slumped form. As much as she tried to fight it, Sakura was slowly drifting off to sleep, occasionally jerking her body to stay awake. There were dark shadows forming under her eyes and her skin looked paler than usual. It looks like she'd been working a little too diligently.

Sighing, he pressed a hand to her shoulder, causing her to lift her head in alarm. "Hmm?" She mumbled tiredly, a yawn escaping from her mouth.

"You should be getting home, Sakura." Kakashi said quietly, his thumb rubbing absent circles into the skin of her shoulder, "You look like you're going to pass out any second."

Sakura looked at him lifelessly and yawned again, "That sounds like a good idea." She rose to her feet slowly and just as Kakashi rose after her to walk her home, she pressed a hand to his chest, smiling up at him languidly, "You should go home too, I doubt you look any better than I do."

Kakashi frowned, "Are you-"

"I'll be fine." Sakura patted his chest and then, seemingly without knowing, ran her hand up to his shoulder to trail her finger down his angular jaw line affectionately. "Go."

Kakashi sighed. This damn woman.

As Sakura walked away, so did Kakashi, occasionally sneaking glances at her over his shoulder. He walked to his apartment, his eyes trained on the ground thoughtfully, his favorite book tucked between his arm and torso. He guessed that getting to know Sakura would have to wait.

AN: Sorry this probably isn't the most interesting chapter, ahah but it's 3 in the morning over here and I was so determined to get it doooooonnnnneee! Chuck me a PM or something if you guys have any questions 3

heapscool