hehe updating 3 times in the same week... now im really scaring myself lol

thankyou as always to all people who review, u guys are seriously the best :) : Babybugichoo95, yukibozu, torakama, Merridaine, starlit.kiss7, you.broke.a.promise, Gothic Saku-chan, cutegerbilofdeath, PiratexNinja, Archerelf, angstar54, Aiyo Rei, Kotone111, soojinyeh, Queen-Cocaine and TellerOfLies, Archerelf, amy14, yukibozu, Queen-Cocaine, ScreamxforxmexBaby, .Wax.Butterflies, SnowySaku, Icha Icha Ramen (whose stories i am reading at the moment which rock!!!) and definitely dailyangel (whose strories always rock :) -- oh, and everyone who has alerted and favourited this story, ur so sweet thankyou!!!!

wanted to point out again that i deleted my survey which was chapter 7 so you may want to make sure uve read chapter 10 before continuing because i have updated twice but it would have appeared that i added chapter 10 twice which i didnt... ok that made no sense lol, just make sure uve read chapter 10 first k? - otherwise this chapter may not make sense XD

ok, unless ive forgotten anything, which i most likely have, onwards... :)

Masked Happiness

Chapter 11: Painful Questions

The week went quite quickly, or so Sakura thought on Friday afternoon as she lay with her head resting against the trunk of a large tree in her little clearing at the Team 7 training grounds.

While Sasuke and Naruto were off playing their usual game of, 'I'm better than you', Sakura was quite content to lie in the softly dappled light of the afternoon sun as it filtered through the leaves high above her head.

As she tried not to doze off, Sakura thought about how nice it was to not have to train. She was, of course, supposed to be training at the moment, but with Kakashi showing up so unusually at every training day since their little talk at the beginning of the week, she had been doing more than usual and thought that maybe she had earned a break.

Obviously not though she thought as a kunai flew within an inch of her head.

Jumping to her feet, Sakura looked up to see Kakashi high above her on the branch underneath which she had just been lounging. Grabbing her own kunai she threw it up at him which, of course he dodged. She had been expecting this and, summoning the chakra to the soles of her feet, she ran up the tree doing a clone jutsu on the way.

As several Sakuras appeared around Kakashi and held him, she grabbed a second kunai and thrust it directly into his chest, knowing that it was a log of wood.

'Bloody substitutions' she muttered as a kunai thrown from the ground passed so close to her ear that she could hear the whistle of the wind on the metal as it flew past.

Jumping down from the branch and landing with all the agility of a cat, Sakura flew at Kakashi and, pushing chakra into her fists, began her useless attempts of trying to pummel him. As he dodged each blow and she exhausted herself, she felt pain in her arm and hid her grimace. It had been happening at every training session since the day she told Kakashi everything.

Every time she overextended her arm, pain shot through it.

She knew that something must have changed since then, because even with the cuts covering her arm, she used to be able to fight and would only feel twinges. Now it felt like every time she used her arm at all, it was being stabbed with tiny knives. As she got more tired of trying to punch and kick Kakashi and him not even noticing her futile attempts to hurt him, she saw something in a tree branch out of the corner of her eye and stopped for a second, as she thought that Kakashi had done another substitution jutsu and that she was possibly fighting another log.

Noticing that she had stopped, Kakashi looked over the top of his book at her, puzzled.

'What's wrong' he asked.

'You weren't doing that?' Sakura said as she turned to look at him.

'Doing what?'

'Nothing, I guess' she mumbled as she turned back and began punching thin air in front of him again as though nothing had happened, and he continued to dodge as flawlessly as ever.

Left, right, left, right her inner monologue went as she soon got sick of trying to land punches while he dodged and weaved his way around the clearing with her in tow. It was like some kind of strange dance as they circled the trees around them, both moving fluidly as he twirled and twisted and she punched.

A few more minutes had passed and all thoughts of out-of-eyesight movements had disappeared as Sakura continued to try to land a punch. Just as she thought she might be ready to give up out of exhaustion and she threw what was left of her chakra with her fist at Kakashi, she felt a white-hot pain burst through her arm as though tiny knives where fighting their way out of her flesh.

Gasping, she dropped her arm and grabbed it tightly with her other hand, trying to stop the agony that was shooting through her and piercing her arm repeatedly, making her see stars. Dropping to her knees she vaguely saw through her watery eyes Kakashi put away his book and drop to the ground beside her. Placing an arm on her back, she barely heard him through the haze of pain saying,

'Sakura, whats wrong, what is it?'

Unable to concentrate long enough to answer, she felt Kakashi gingerly touch the arm that she was holding onto so tightly and she released her own grip on it a bit. It might have been her imagination or the sheer pain she was feeling that made her hallucinate, but she could almost feel something trying to get through her skin… from the inside.

It's definitely painful enough to be she thought, but just as quickly as the all-consuming pain had come, it suddenly stopped. Slumping against Kakashi, Sakura panted, suddenly out of breath as she realised she had been holding it the entire time. Wiping her eyes and looking down at her now throbbing but much less painful arm, she could only see the large white mark of her own handprint where she had been gripping her arm so tightly.

Touching the cuts and scars on her arm, she felt jolts of pain as though she was really pressing knives into it instead of lightly brushing it with her fingertips, so she contented herself to just leave her arm resting gently on her lap, as though giving it time to recover.

Eventually she sat back on her knees and looked up at Kakashi. Seeing his worried face she quickly stammered,

'I, I haven't done it again, I promise, I don't know why my arm was hurting, really I haven't…'

He looked even more worried now, and also annoyed which made her cringe inwardly and look down, almost expecting to be slapped and mentally preparing herself to be hit.

Seeing the fear that suddenly consumed her face when she had looked at him again and the obvious signs that she was steeling herself for a strike, Kakashi could have hit himself for letting his self-annoyance show on his face. Dammit…, I should've said something, now she thinks im annoyed at her… I should never have made her feel like I was judging her in the first place…

Quickly erasing all traces of annoyance from his face, Kakashi continued to look down at her soft pink head as he saw tear tracks glinting on her cheeks. Smiling, although still worried, Kakashi said quietly,

'I believe you, I didn't think for an instant that you had done it again, you're too strong.' She dissolved into tears at his words and the obvious understanding behind them, as he hugged her while she desperately fought her own thoughts. It was so painful and I don't know what caused it but… it just makes me want to do it again! How can I even think that?

After a few moments, she brushed the intrusive thoughts out of her mind and he pulled back but still held her shoulder,

'So what did cause the pain in you arm anyway?'

Looking down at her arm, she was just as puzzled as Kakashi.

'I have no idea, it's never done that before.'

'Yes it has,' As Sakura looked up at Kakashi, mildly shocked at the idea that he knew her body better than she did, he said, 'throughout training all week you've been wincing every time you punch, especially when you landed any, that's why I stopped letting you.'

As Sakura raised her eyebrows, he laughed and said,

'I do notice these things you know, im not blind… although you do a very good job at covering it up.' He added kindly as she looked slightly crestfallen at her acting abilities.

A voice broke the brief ensuing silence when Naruto strode into the clearing, saying as loudly as possible but not strictly speaking as necessary,

'I got him again, believe it!' He paused when he saw Kakashi and Sakura both kneeling on the ground. Kakashi's hand fell from her shoulder unnoticed by the blonde ninja as he stood and said,

'Well done Naruto, though does this mean you expect ramen?'

'What happened?' Naruto said, amazingly ignoring the prospect of ramen… or at the very least pushing it to the back of his mind for the moment.

'Is Sakura hurt?' he added when he looked closer and saw her holding her arm. Quickly covering it with her sleeve in a practiced movement she stood, slightly shaky, and said with a laugh,

'Course not, I'm fine, I just tripped over.'

Looking at her doubtfully, Naruto turned when he heard Sasuke approaching from behind,

'…and next time you do that, I'll kick your…' he trailed off when he saw Kakashi, Sakura and Naruto and felt the slight nervous energy between them that made the air feel almost prickly with tension. Instantly annoyed at being left out once again (but of course not showing it) he noticed the slight dusting of dirt on Sakura's legs and, even though they all expected to get at least a little dirty whilst training, it looked as though she had been on the ground, and now that he looked closer, her knees were trembling slightly too.

Looking up into her face he noticed the distinct lack of colour in her cheeks and her slightly shallow breathing, even though it was obvious that Naruto had already been talking to them for awhile… long enough to have gotten her breath back and to be breathing normally again at any rate.

Naruto broke the heavy silence by punching Sasuke lightly in the arm,

'What were you saying teme? What will you do next time I beat you?'

'It wasn't that you beat me, because you didn't… it was how!'

'You don't like being upside-down then?'

They continued to argue whilst Sakura, her knees still shaking despite her efforts keep them steady, took the few moments while they were distracted to put a hand onto Kakashi's arm for support which he gladly offered. After a few moments of loud shouts filling the clearing, Sakura took her arm away from Kakashi's and tried standing on her own, although he left his arm slightly at an angle in case she needed to grab it again.

After a moment of standing and having caught her breath properly she smiled at Kakashi and silently mouthed 'thank you' before calling to the clearing in general,

'Well, I'm off, time for a nice long bath, see you all tomorrow for lunch, Ichiraku's right?' and without an answer she had turned on her heel and was walking back through the forest, disappearing from view amongst the trees.

okie dokie, chapter 11 down... and first fight scene ive done in a while... what did you think? like or hate? undecided or couldnt give a crap? let me know :) -- still sick too (its just a flu or whatever but its making me seriously miserable T.T) - and also unbelievably behind with homework so i may take a little longer with the next chapter but ill try not to... :)

hope u liked it and thx for reading:)