Chapter 14!
Title: "Sleepers and Peepers"
To take a look at the design of Yamato's building go check out Naruto Shippuden Episode 37! ^_^
Disclaimer: I own nothing!!
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"Sakura…." His voice was in my ear again.
And I knew what that familiar tone meant.
My arms wrapped around him tighter, I childishly refused to let go of him.
"Just a little longer." I offered.
His chest shook with each chuckle. "Fine…" he agreed too easily. "But let's at least go back inside, we'll get sick if we're out here in the cold too long."
Even though the cold air didn't affect me in the least while I was being held against his warm chest, I agreed silently, since I probably wasn't big enough to keep him warm.
I slowly pried myself away from him, getting colder and colder. His hand found mine right when I wanted it to.
We walked through the archway, into the dark building; it seemed even colder in here.
Maybe the moonlight really did give off heat? I thought curiously to myself, as I wrapped my arm over my chest, hinging my hand around my bicep.
He took the lead, guiding me to the darkest corner of the room, underneath the left staircase.
He stopped next to the wall, sitting down, pulling me down with him.
"We can stay here till early morning…." I listened to his voice, as I felt for the wall blindly, sitting up next to it. "We just have to hope that no one checks our futons in the middle of the night." He whispered from the darkness. I really wished there was some light, I still wanted to look at him.
"And if they do?" I asked, kind of worried.
"I'll convince them that they were simply too sleepy to see us there." He explained with his carefree voice.
I could almost see his cheeky smile in my mind.
"That's a little risky, isn't it?" I asked quietly. I felt my eyes getting a little heavier.
I was sitting to his left. My hand, holding his, resting on his knee.
"We're a little risky…" He pointed out too well.
I leaned my head down to his shoulder.
This is too surreal.
Being like this with Kakashi…
I knew I should get used to it already, but every time we were together like this, it never failed to amaze me that this was actually happening.
That he was really with someone like me…
His bare shoulder rose and fell with each of his slow-paced breaths.
I loved it.
I sleepily pressed my lips against his almost-hot skin.
I felt his muscle tighten under my lips, like he was flinching.
"You should get some sleep." He spoke up with caring tone, his hand squeezing mine for a second.
I shivered a little.
I guess he didn't like it when I kissed him on his shoulder for some reason… I didn't really think about it too much, every time I blinked it got harder to lift my eyelids.
It was getting really cold.
I tried to cling onto his warm arm for more heat.
My teeth started chattering.
"Do you want to go back upstairs?" He sounded a little worried.
"No, I'm good…" I tried to stop the chattering, but my words sounded like they were passing through a fan.
I felt him begin to stand up, he lifted me up too.
My heart sank.
I really didn't want to go back up stairs and just go back to normal life so fast.
I wanted to stay with him longer... when I was with him, it was litke I was in some sort of new and exciting world, and I was the only one who could be there with him... because he chose me.
I always felt like I was starving to be with Kakashi-sensei alone, even when we were alone. I always needed more.
I felt him slowly sit back down, dragging me down again, too.
I was confused for a few seconds, till I realized why he did that.
I wasn't sitting next to Kakashi anymore, I was in front of him.
His hand was still holding mine, propped up on his bent knee.
His other arm wrapped across my shoulders pulling me back to lean against his chest.
I could feel my face heat up.
Which was good… my teeth weren't chattering anymore.
I didn't feel cold in the slightest.
"Is this better?" He asked against my neck.
I felt so surrounded by him. It was perfect.
"A lot better." I told him as I took our hands, wrapping his other arm around me, too. "How about you?" I whispered.
He took a deep breath.
I felt his chest expand underneath me.
"Exactly what I needed…" His grip on me tightened warmly.
I smiled to myself a giant, girly grin. Thank god he couldn't see the stupid face I just made.
I leaned my head back, rolling onto his shoulder, I managed to kiss the side of his jaw.
"We need some sleep, now." He spoke up.
As if reacting to his words, my eyelids got heavier, I snuggled the side of my face against his chest, breathed in the scent of rain-washed forests deeply and let sleep take me over.
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"Sakura…." There was that voice again, saying my name again.
"Yeah?" I called out from the verge of sleep, already in a good mood.
"We have to get up now…" I felt a hand brushing back my hair. "They'll be getting up any minute, now."
I suddenly remembered where we were and what was going on.
I woke up with a start, feeling like I was falling out of my dream
I scrambled halfway out of his arms.
"It's okay…" He laughed softly, pulling me back.
I looked up to his face, he had on his trademark smile, but I was the only who got to see the mask-less version. My sleepy scrambling came to a complete halt.
I noticed that it wasn't dark anymore.
The pale-blue morning light was pouring through the archway.
I didn't want it to be morning yet.
I had just had one of my most comfortable sleeps ever.
"If we don't go back up now, they'll definitely tell something isn't normal." He explained, slowly picking himself off the floor, making sure that his hand never let go of mine.
I stood up at the same time.
He walked around the banister, turning the corner and leading me up stairs.
I rubbed my eyes, following him obediently with shuffling feet.
I crawled into my futon noiselessly after he had peeked around the doorway to see everyone was still asleep.
My eyelids closed again, I still wanted more sleep… but the floor was so hard, the blankets were so cold.
Nothing felt as comfortable as being with him.
"Good morning, Sakura…" He said softly, walking away too soon.
I dozed lightly, not really sleeping, more like staying in a suspended state of drowsy daydreaming.
I looked at the wooden ceiling for a few boring seconds.
I turned towards him, trying to get a look at him.
The moment my eyes fell on him I noticed that he had just turned over towards me, too.
I smiled at him, he returned the favor.
I hunkered down in that position, just to look at him… his mask was already on again, but that didn't matter.
His head was propped up on his hand, he was staring back.
Even though it was probably strange to only stare at each other....
....it was all we could do right now…
...look…
Yet, I still felt like I was right next to him when he stared at me with those eyes.
I don't know how long we just laid there, looking at each other.
Beep beep beep beep beep beep!
"Urgh…." I heard Yamato-taichou's voice grunted sleepily as he suddenly sat up, grabbing his little timer.
I saw Kakashi fall flat on his futon before my reflexes acted fast enough to close my eyes, and pretend I was asleep.
That was kind of close…
"Time to get up everyone!" Yamato shouted after a few seconds, with a voice full of annoying morning-cheer.
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Kakashi yawned quietly, trudging his tired feet along the dirt path.
He kept pace with Yamato, talking about the latest adult-drama at Konoha, trying to concentrate on anything other than Sakura's hand inside of Naruto's.
He was failing horribly. His eyes kept finding their hands without meaning too.
And each time he saw them smile together, he had this urge to walk up right between them and force them to break their linked hands.
Kakashi sighed at his own immaturity.
He was really thinking about actually doing it.
"It's tough, right?" Yamato's voice suddenly changed the topic from the typical Jounin gossip.
"What?" Kakashi whipped his head over to his fellow captain, feeling a little scared… 'tough?'
Kakashi stiffened defensively.
"I just imagine that it would be difficult to see those two together…" Yamato carried on, nodding his head in the direction of the obnoxiously grinning Naruto and his supposed pink-haired girlfriend.
Kakashi's heart stumbled with anxiety.
"Wh-why?" His words stumbled, too. He cursed himself for not keeping his cool.
"Well, I can just tell that you're probably not happy about it…" Yamato said quietly with an impish grin, staring into the sky.
"Why wouldn't I be happy for them?" Kakashi asked, staring ahead, trying to sound calm.
Yamato chuckled a little.
Kakashi glanced over to Yamato.
Does he know?
How could he possible know?!
Did he see us?
I was sure everybody was asleep last night…
I even stayed up the entire night to listen for footsteps!
Why didn't he bring this up sooner if he already knew?!
"It's always difficult for a captain to see special relationships bloom between two of his cute, little team members." Yamato turned towards Kakashi, smiling innocently.
. . .
…that's it?...
Kakashi felt like he had just been played a prank on by the universe, who then decided to shout 'Psyche!' at the last second…
"Ah… yeah… It's been bothering me a little." Kakashi understated difficultly.
"Well, those two do look good together." Yamato graded politely.
Kakashi wanted to punch him…. Or just kick him.
"Mm…" Was the only response he could offer. "So, how's Anko doing?" Kakashi changed the subject eagerly.
"Funny you should ask…" Yamato started, his voice implicative.
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I could hear Kakashi's voice behind me, talking indistinctly with Yamato-taichou.
I found myself paying more attention to the faint sound of his voice than I did to Naruto's, who was talking right at me.
"Ne, Sakura-chyan… what do you think?" his voice suddenly came roaring back into my ears.
I had no idea what he was talking about.
"Uh… it's good I guess…" I said, hesitantly… not really sure what he was asking, but giving a positive answer... couldn't go wrong, right?
"Really?!" His voice got all excited for some reason.
I didn't have enough time to ask him what I had actually agreed to before I heard Sai's voice shout out.
"Master Kimihiro!"
I immediately turned towards his voice.
"What's wrong?!" I asked, letting go of Naruto's hand, forgetting about our little charade.
"He's gone. He ran away a couple of seconds ago."
"What?" Yamato spoke up.
"Which way did he go?" Kakashi's stern voice came into the conversation. He ran up next to us.
"He went into the forest." Sai pointed to a general area.
"Everybody split up!" Kakashi commanded in a second.
It didn't surprise me that he took immediate charge even though he really wasn't captain.
Yamato didn't seem to mind.
We all rushed into the trees, scattering into different directions.
Why the hell would this kid run off like that?!
Was he really that stupid?!
I was only running for a few seconds until that Koichi-demon jumped out in front of me.
I bumped into him, knocking him and myself over.
I tumbled on top of him.
I groaned for a second before finding my angry-voice.
"What do you think you're doing?!" I yelled at him, trying to pick myself up.
I felt his hand fall on my face.
I paused in shock for a moment. He was underneath me, staring at me with conniving eyes.
I smacked his hand away from my face, trying to ignore those surprisingly cunning eyes.
"Why'd you do that all of a sudden!?" I asked loudly.
"I needed to talk to you alone…" He said quietly, looking around shiftily.
I stared at him incredulously for a moment.
"Then walk up to me and talk to me, like a normal person!" I tried to lift myself up from on top of him, hoping nobody would find me in such an awkward position with this kid.
"You're not one to talk about what normal people should do!" He said angrily. He grabbed my arm, dragging me back down on top of him.
I normally would've been able to dodge his hand, but his words distracted me.
"What are you talking about?!" I said even louder, scrambling away from him.
I felt his hand smack against my lips again, harder than before. I started to crawl away frantically; he kept up with my pace.
"Normal people don't do things like that with their sensei, right?!" His voice was too loud.
My back hit a tree, I stopped all my movement.
His hand fell from my face slowly, as if waiting for me to scream out at any moment.
My heart was beating too hard.
"Ho-How?..." I managed weakly.
This moment… I had dreaded it ever since me and Kakashi-sensei started this… this moment when the wrong person would find out… the wrong person who could completely destroy my personal life and do it happily.
"I saw last night… through the window…." He grumbled a little, looking away from me.
I guess we were being too reckless, weren't we?
If Yamato-taichou or, god-forbid, Naruto had suddenly woken up, then…
I looked down at my dirt-covered knees.
No…. No… No….
Why did this have to happen?!
Everybody will get so angry!
They'll separate us!
They'll split our, already broken, team apart!
I'll never be able to be around him without people staring and talking!
It's all my fault!
"What-What do you… want from me?" I asked quietly, my voice shivering with anger, frustration, desperation, anxiety, sadness.
I could tell he was planning on using this situation to his advantage from the look in his eyes.
"You caught on pretty fast." His voice was sly and oily.
I had no idea that that pestering little demon from yesterday was actually… like this.
"What do you want?!" I asked louder, clenching my fists.
I snapped my head up at him, I didn't know what my face looked like, but I could feel how angry I must've looked. Tears of frustration stung the corner of my eyes.
He backed away an inch, losing his calculating gaze for only a second.
Then he smiled a little… like he was having fun.
"Everything I ask of you." His face leaned closer to mine. I knew where he was going.
I lifted my fist to his face, pulling back slowly.
"You hit me, I'll tell your captain and your 'boyfriend' about what I saw." He said quickly.
My fists unclenched a little.
His face leaned in closer to me, his hands falling on the tree by my head.
"After all of this, I'm going to pummel you." I growled, backing my face away.
"Sure…" He said quietly, unfazed.
"Master Kimihiro!" Naruto's voice was loud and nearby.
I never loved the way Naruto always knew exactly when to interrupt more than I did in that moment.
I pushed Koichi off of me while he was still distracted by Naruto's voice.
I immediately stood up while he was still laying on the ground.
"You little bast-"
"If you tell your sensei about this, I'll tell your secret to the others." He cut me off loudly.
I couldn't say anything.
I didn't have enough time before Naruto walked into the conversation.
"There you are!" He announced loudly, pointing triumphantly at Koichi, who was picking himself off the ground.
Naruto ran off to get Yamato, Sai,… and Kakashi.
We were alone again.
I stared at the demon angrily.
I swung my head around furiously, trying to get away from him as soon as possible.
I heard him walk over to me quickly.
"You're my slave now." He whispered harshly as I kept walking away.
I was so disgusted.
I was so angry.
So frustrated.
So scared.
I wanted to run to Kakashi... to tell him everything…
No…
I needed to be strong on my own.
I needed to take care of this myself.
I couldn't let him worry over this. I couldn't let him feel this amount of disgust and fear.
This'll all be over after the mission is over.
Right?
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