Sakura walked toward the hospital, ready to begin another day of work. It had been three weeks since Kakashi had left for his mission to the Mist, and she had been waiting patiently. When arriving to the hospital, Sakura slipped on her white coat, and picked up her folder, looking through her patients for the day. It had been barely five minutes when someone rushed into her room, yelling incoherently.

"Sakura-san, there's an emergency, we need you in the emergency room, asap!" The young medic look bewildered as he pushed Sakura out the door. In moments, she was running, taking off her coat because it hindered her as she tried to run. Reaching the room, Sakura gasped as she saw the blood everywhere. She looked to see two ninjas on the examination tables with Shizune and Tsunade furiously working on the worse one. "Sakura, keep the other one alive!" Tsunade shouted over her shoulder as she fiercely concentrated on the task at hand. Sakura rushed over and quickly examined the ninja before her. She saw that he had a kunai dangerously close to his heart and she started there. Gripping the kunai with one hand, Sakura pulled it out and immediately covered the wound with her other hand, forcing her chakra to begin sewing up the muscles and skin. She winced as she heard the ninja begin to scream, and she yelled over her shoulder, "Get me some medics here, quick! Begin with the wounds on his arms!" Sakura threw the kunai aside and wiped the ninja's face with a wet towel. She gasped as she saw the face of Neji cringing behind all the blood. Before she had time to process his face, Neji began to shake violently, spitting out blood.

"Shit, I need someone to hold him down!" Sakura sent her chakra to find the problem.

'That kunai shouldn't have produced this sort of reaction…' Sakura furiously concentrated and she looked up in shock. Grabbing the kunai from the floor, she saw a glint of dark purple on the edge of the blade, mixed with the blood. Sakura sent her chakra within Neji's body, searching for the poison. As soon as she found it, she began to draw it out. Sweat dropped down from her forehead as she exerted herself into the task at hand. "Get me a bowl!" Sakura extracted the poison and let it out on the bowl and she sat down in exhaustion as she saw Neji begin to settle down.

Tsunade stepped to Neji and examined him and nodded once. "Nice work, Sakura. Go and take a break, the rest of the medics will take care of it now." Sakura nodded gratefully and stumbled outside. She kept walking until she reached outside and sat on a nearby chair, leaning her head against the wall. Closing her eyes, Sakura drew in the peace of the outside and let out a sigh.

"Yo" Kakashi sat down next to her and put his head in his hands. "I thought you were the one next to Neji…I thought you were a goner." Sakura whispered and placed her hand on his arm. She felt his hand wrap around her arms and pull her close, and she let herself be drawn in. Sakura breathed in his scent; through the sweat, she smelled his familiar scent. "I have to go back and fill out a report. Why don't you go take a shower and get changed, and I'll be at your house in an hour and half. We'll go get something to eat" Kakashi smiled through his mask, but it didn't seem to reach his eye. A burst of smoke and both ninjas abandoned the bench, allowing the seats to become cold again.

Sakura stepped out of the shower and felt replenished, but only by a little. She fell onto her bed and allowed the towel to fall off her petite body as she crawled under the blankets. Without noticing, she drifted off to sleep.

She was sleeping when he came in. He sat and looked at her motionless figure on the bed and ran a hand through his hair. She looked so tired and he could make out the dark bags under her eyes, marring her flawless skin. Kakashi pulled his mask down and slipped his pants off, and crawled into the space besides her. Draping an arm over her, he pulled her closer. He smiled as he traced her jaw line with his finger, stopping right underneath her chin. Running a thumb over her bottom lip, Kakashi reached over and placed a kiss on her nose and allowed sleep to conquer him as well.

She cracked an eye open to see his sleeping face, and she reached over to trace the scar on his left cheek. As her finger moved from his small scar to his bigger one on his eye, Kakashi woke up. He reached up and captured her hand between his hand and his face, and they stared at each other for a while, neither moving. Suddenly, Kakashi smiled the sheepish smile that Sakura came to love. "Cmon, let's go get some food. I bet you're starving." His eye crinkled up as his smile reached his eyes this time, and Sakura pushed herself off the bed. She went through her drawers and opted for black shorts and a plain white t-shirt. Tying up her hair with a red ribbon, Sakura stepped out of her room to see Kakashi lounging on her couch.

"What's cookin', good lookin'?" Sakura grinned as she took his hand in hers and pulled him up. Kakashi was laughing, "are you serious, Sakura-chan?" Sakura glowered at him as he teasingly added the "chan" to her name. "Very serious, Kakashi…sensei," Sakura grinned maliciously as she saw him cringe at the former title. Opening the door for her, Kakashi took her hand in his as they left her room.

Sakura could feel the stares before she took notice of them…she wondered if Kakashi could feel them too. She caught a glimpse of a woman or two sending her death glares her way, and so Sakura casually stretched to break her hand free from Kakashi's. Before she knew what was happening, Sakura ended up in a nearby alley with Kakashi looking at her with…distaste? Sorrow? "Sakura, I need to know what you want from me. Right now, not later. Are you just looking for a fling? If that's the case, I'll be leaving now. I'm a man not one of those boys you like to screw around with." His eyes hardened as he braced himself in case he got a negative answer from her. While his eyes had hardened, hers had softened as she took his hand back in hers and whispered, "I'm sorry. It's just…they're all staring, and I felt uncomfortable. Let's go." Without thinking, she dragged him out to the main street again. She threw her arms around him and pressed her lips against his masked ones, and laughed at the spectators. And so they began their journey towards the ramen stand again, fingers intertwined.

"Hey, where's your porno?" Sakura was astonished that he didn't have his infamous orange book with him

"Why? You wanna read it? There are some stuff we could try out, I guess…" Kakashi pondered to himself with a glint in his eye

"Perv… you're disgusting" Sakura shook her head in disbelief.

"Well I guess that makes you disgusting too because we're together now," mumbled Kakashi. He scratched his head and smiled brightly at the kunoichi.

A little too brightly because in an instant he was on the floor, clutching his stomach in pain. Sakura was bright red and resumed eating her ramen while the silver haired ninja was groaning on the ground, attracting attention. When he finally pulled himself up, he felt Sakura kiss him on the cheek and mumble something incoherent. 'Did she just apologize?' Kakashi looked at her… 'nah'

Sakura asked the waitress for the check and began taking her purse out.

"Do you honestly believe that I'd make you pay for our lunch date?" Kakashi stared at her

"Yeah…cheap ass."

"Ha, you're right. Good to know that you know me well!" Kakashi's eye crinkled up as he watched her stammer on her words.

"I'm just kidding," he ruffled her hair with one hand while taking his wallet out with the other. As he was about to slap down the money, a bright orange object jumped onto his back.

"THAT'S NOT EVEN FAIR. HOW COME YOU PAY FOR SAKURA-CHAN, BUT YOU FORCE US TO PAY FOR YOU?" Naruto pouted and ordered two more bowls of ramen to put on Kakashi's bill.

"Hey" Sasuke took a seat by Sakura and nodded towards Kakashi. For a genius, he was oblivious to the way both Sakura and Kakashi immediately tensed up.

"What are you doing tonight? Let's go out somewhere." Sasuke leaned over and whispered into Sakura's ear. He smirked as he mistook her shiver to be one of pleasure and anticipation.

"No, thanks. I already made plans with Kaka-sensei," Sakura turned away from him and began a conversation with Naruto.

The rage in Sasuke's eyes were as clear as day as he glanced over at Kakashi, who seemed to be enjoying his porno. Apparently, he had not forgotten it.

"Oh, Sakura! I forgot to tell you, Tsunade wanted to see us…but that was two hours ago." Kakashi pulled his hair with his hand as he judged pinky's anger on a scale of one to ten. Before she could whip out at him again, he put an arm around her and strolled her out and away from the ramen stand. Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he began to become suspicious. He didn't like the way Kakashi was being so casual with Sakura.

"Are you serious! Two hours ago?" Sakura was raging.

"Nope, but at least we got out of paying for the bill!" And with that, Kakashi walked away, whistling. Sakura stared at him in amazement until he turned around and called, "you coming, or are you going to stand there all night?" She shook her head as she caught up with him, linking her arm with his.

She found herself in front of Tsunade's office and she glared up at Kakashi. "I thought you said you were joking…"

"Well, she doesn't want to see you, but she wanted to see me two hours ago, so technically I was joking!" Kakashi's eye crinkled up in that familiar way as he opened the door…only to close it again quickly to avoid getting hit by the porcelain teapot.

"YOU'RE TWO HOURS LATE."

Kakashi shoved Sakura in first and hid behind her as he inched towards Tsunade.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME? YOU'RE USING ME AS A SHIELD NOW?" Sakura grabbed a scroll nearby and whacked him over the head.

Kakashi looked at her mournfully. 'Sigh, I can never win…'

Tsunade's temper lowered as she saw physical pain being inflicted on one of her best ninjas and she settled down. "Number 1…you're report on the mission was complete bullshit. Are you kidding me, Kakashi? 'Ask someone more responsible –smiley face-' THAT'S NOT A MISSION REPORT." Tsunade threw a glare as sharp as a kunai at the smiling ninja.

"Well I thought I was being rather creative! And it is true." Kakashi fidgeted under the cold glare of the hokage.

"Sigh. You are impossible, Hatake Kakashi. Moving on to number two…there will be a war with the Mist. I need you to be a commander. You'll be leaving the day after tomorrow at 8AM. I'm sorry, but I need the best out there early, so we can finish this quickly."

Kakashi nodded his head and began walking away, but stopped when he saw Sakura. She had turned pale and dropped the scroll she had previously used to hit him with. He frowned and grabbed her hand, whispering, "Cmon, we'll talk about it later." She let herself be pulled out, still absorbing the news.

Tsunade watched this interaction with great interest, and threw another teapot at the ninja. "Don't make her cry!" She called after them half heartedly, knowing full well it was her own fault if Sakura cried.

"Sit." Kakashi used the voice he had used on them when they were genin; the two of them had made their way to his apartment. Sakura looked down and rubbed her eyes and pulled her knees in. "This isn't fair…you just got back," she whispered. He could barely hear her, but the pain in her voice was clear.

"You know the life of a ninja, and we have to make most of what we can…" Kakashi brushed a stray hair away from Sakura's face. She looked like she was 16 again as she gave him the most forlorn eyes he had ever seen. "I'll be back soon. Do you trust me?" He rubbed the pad of his thumb against her cheek and tilted her head towards him. "Yes," but she refused to meet his eyes.

'Then trust me that I'll be back as soon as I can. Nothing's going to keep me from you, Sakura. I had to try too hard to get you, and I'm not about to let you go any time soon." He lowered his head until his masked lips touched her bare ones. He felt her resolve melt as she snaked her arms around his neck. Her legs wrapped around his torso and he carried her into his bedroom.

He drew back and looked at her. Sakura's eyes were half closed and her lips glistened. He could feel her breath getting shorter and heavier as he pulled at her shirt. Kakashi watched her as she pulled his shirt off and traced her fingers lightly across his scars…just the way she had their first time together. He closed his eyes as he leaned in to her for another kiss and let this night become the first night they had made love. Déjà vu.

He never wanted to leave her for a moment, especially after the way he saw Sasuke stare at her, as if she was a piece of meat. He thought about the promise he had made her.

'I just hope I was right. I'll be back soon.' He shook his thoughts away as he remembered he still had a day with her.

Note: Finals week is killing me, but this is keeping me sane...sort of ^_^