Chapter 4: Floral misunderstandings
Sakura shut the door and leant against it with a heavy sigh. She loved her shishou, but the woman could be merciless and had run her off her feet. She honestly could not face the prospect of training right then but she had told Kakashi she would and as bad as she felt she knew she would feel worse if she didn't go. She sighed heavily and slowly made her way to training ground three. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't there yet. She sat down with a huff, eyeing the three wood posts to her left. That first bell test felt like forever ago. She smiled, remembering how obnoxious she had thought Naruto was. She still did, but if someone had told her back then he would become one of the dearest people in her life she would have probably punched them. She thought about Sasuke and how he had been before he left. Moody, yes, but always there for his comrades. She shook her head slightly. It wouldn't do to dwell on those thoughts, so she lay back and adopted one of Shikamaru's favourite pastimes and watched the clouds overhead.
She wasn't sure how long she had dozed off for, but she woke with a start as a shuriken landed three inches away from her head. She leapt up and into a nearby tree. She knelt down, trying to make herself as small a target as possible, looking around for her assailant. How the hell would an enemy get into the village without an alarm being raised? The wind rustled the leaves around her and she listened intently. She had a brief second to recognise the whistle of an approaching kunai before leaping away and racing through the trees. She leapt behind a tree forming the hand signs for a clone, and sent it off in the opposite direction, hoping it would prove a good enough distraction.
She ran towards the small river and leaped back into the trees, choosing a particularly leafy one to hide in. She crouched on the branch and focused on her surroundings. The area was quiet. She could hear birds in the distance and the wind had picked up a bit. Glancing at the sky, she noticed the sun was sinking closer to the horizon and a blanket of grey clouds was approaching from the south. The last thing she needed was to be caught out in a storm. A particularly violent gust of wind tore through the tree she was in and several things happened at once. Her eyes widened as she saw the shuriken flying towards her, and a stray strand of pink hair got whipped across her eyes. She cursed and did the only thing she could think of; threw herself backwards off the tree.
She felt the air shift above her as the shuriken went flying past and attempted to twist her feet under her before she hit the ground. Unfortunately, she misjudged the distance; as well as the ground. She gasped as the cool water enveloped her and spluttered as it flooded her airway. Not knowing where the next assault would come from, but certain the attacker would take advantage of her exposed position, she did the only thing she could think of and slammed her fist into the river bed.
Water exploded upwards and the ground around the bank collapsed with a roar. She stood up preparing for an attack, but froze in astonishment. She didn't know whether to scream in frustration or laugh. There, buried up to his chest in rubble and reminiscent of the second bell test, was the legendary Copy Ninja, with the most astonished look she had ever seen in his eye.
"Sakura.."
She put her hands on her hips and scowled. "Are you serious?" she demanded, "I thought I was being attacked!"
"That was the point. Besides, if I really had been trying to kill you do you think that first shuriken would have missed? You were asleep."
Sakura continued to glare at him and realised he was right. No self-respecting ninja would have missed that shot, and she had been expecting him for training. Trying to hide her embarrassment, she stalked over to him, grabbed him by the flak jacket, and yanked him free. He stood there, apparently still dumbfounded, and she smirked while dusting him off. "Thought you'd be used to that by now?"
"I'm used to seeing you doing it to other shinobi..."
She grinned and walked out of the crumpled earth to stand on the grass. "I tell you what," she said, eyeing him mischievously, "we'll just use taijutsu, and I'll refrain from using chakra. Wouldn't want to break you, sensei." He huffed and went over to join her.
"All the chakra infused punches in the world won't help if you can't catch me."
She shrugged nonchalantly, "I like my odds."
He flew at her, and she barely had time to suck in air before leaping away. She brought her elbow up to block his punch and was reminded as she always was while sparring with him that he wasn't considered one of the Leaf's top shinobi without good reason. His speed blew her away every time and always reminded her of the fact her perverted, irritating, withdrawn and sometimes goofy old teacher was in fact, lethal. She threw her own punch, making sure to bring her leg up in anticipation of his kick, but was back on the defence almost instantly. She leapt back, growling as he rushed her again, giving her no time to think. Just when she thought she was beginning to catch up to his level he would remind her exactly why he was so revered. She felt her temper rise and made an uncalculated swing at his head, resulting in a jab to her side she couldn't quite block quick enough. She jumped into a tree for a brief respite, reminding herself to stay calm.
"What's wrong, Sakura-chan?"
She heard the amusement in his voice and clenched her fist. No. She told herself firmly. This was how he got her every time. The fact was, she could keep up with him. Only enough to defend, sure, but they both knew he would tire before she did, so this is what he did. He riled her up and forced her to make mistakes as her temper got the better of her. She let out a deep breath and leapt lightly from the tree.
She smiled sweetly and beckoned him forward. His eye creased in a smile and he was on top of her. For ten minutes he reined blows upon her, and to her credit, she blocked every one. Her muscles were starting to burn but she knew her stamina was her advantage here, especially without putting chakra into her blows. This way she conserved energy until she had an opening. She managed to smack one of his fists away and grinned fiercely. He was slowing down. She faked a left blow and with a triumphant cry brought her right fist flying into his stomach.
There was a crash and with a gasp she found herself face down on the grass, blinking stupidly at an insect her forehead had narrowly missed squashing. She turned her head to stare in amazement over her shoulder at the silver-haired, masked jounin sitting on her back. He chuckled at her expression and got off her. She stood up and straightened her shirt, attempting to remain calm.
"You pretended to be slowing down."
"I pretended to be slowing down."
She had a feeling Kakashi was grinning at her behind that mask. She rubbed her temples soothingly and took a few deep breaths.
He held up his hands up in a placating gesture and gave her his best and brightest eye creasing smile. "I brought a snack?"
Her stomach rumbled in anticipation and she laughed apologetically. He beckoned her to follow him and they settled against the posts. She sat in front of the same one she had as a child, Kakashi taking Naruto's spot as if it would be bad karma to sit where Sasuke had. She put the late Uchiha to the back of her mind and accepted a sticky rice ball with a small "thank you."
They sat in silence while they ate, Sakura keeping an eye on the approaching clouds. When he finished Kakashi rubbed his hands together and leant against the post, clearly satisfied. She rolled her eyes, realising that her fretting over the weather had provided him plenty of opportunity to eat without her noticing.
"Damn," she sighed, wondering why she was even considering he would show her his face after all these years. Kakashi looked at her questioningly and she gestured to him with a flippant wave of her hand. She saw the material of his mask shift and knew he was smiling in understanding.
"Why is it so important?" He mused.
She laughed. "Honestly I'm not sure, but your face is like one of the great mysteries of our nation - probably most of the others too."
His eye creased in amusement and she turned to look back at the sky.
"Looks like I'm going to get real wet."
"Sorry?"
She turned back to a wide-eyed Kakashi. He seemed quite taken aback by her comment and she had no idea why.
"The storm."
"Oh." He gave a small chuckle as he eyed the fast approaching clouds.
"I don't get why-" Sakura gave a small gasp and tried to cover her blush by turning away from him. He wasn't seriously that perverted, surely? Then again, given his Icha Icha addiction, she wouldn't put it past him.
"Something wrong, Sakura-chan?"
"No." To her horror her voice sounded thoroughly unconvincing and she winced, hoping he hadn't noticed.
Apparently she wasn't so lucky.
"Ah Sakura, no need to be so mortified. A little humour between friends is fine." She had the feeling if she turned around to face him his eye would be crinkled merrily at her.
"There is humour and then there is being a pervert."
She heard him give a small laugh and she glared at the oncoming storm as if she could evaporate the clouds with sheer willpower.
"You were the one that said it."
"You were the one that took it out of context." She finally turned around to find him lying on the ground, hands behind his head, rather like he had been sprawled out over her bed last night. She felt her cheeks warm slightly. "You're getting too comfortable around me. I wouldn't forget how strong I am if you value your manhood." She growled the last part, hoping to add a little emphasis to the statement.
He cocked an eyebrow up at her and simply said, "My manhood, Sakura-chan?"
She looked away quickly. He had a point, what the hell was she doing saying things like that? Maybe she was the one becoming too comfortable around him? They saw a lot of each other being on the same team and all, but now that she thought about it, she never spent much time just with him. There were a few times where they would run into each other, but she was pretty sure today was the longest amount of time it had been just the two of them. Maybe she had been growing accustomed to him all that time without realising, because there was no doubt in her mind if any other man had said those things she probably would have just hit him by now. Although, Naruto was the guy she was closest to in the world and she would have hit him too. Confused, she shook her head and turned back to him. She had intended to apologise for being inappropriate, but the words caught in her throat as her eyes met his. He was laughing at her. Not out loud, but it showed in that dark eye. She stood, fully intending to punch the ground at his feet. The first rumble of thunder stilled her fist and she glanced at the rapidly darkening sky. She turned back to face him, a smile curving her lips.
"You're right," she said, feigning a sigh, "we probably shouldn't be talking about something so out of use, might get its hopes up; if nothing else."
Kakashi sat up so fast her eyes couldn't follow the movement. His voice was low as he asked, "excuse me?"
She gave a shrug, trying to suppress her burgeoning laughter so as not to ruin her pretend nonchalance. "Well you're no spring chicken. Plenty of younger, fitter boys in the world, wouldn't want to make it jealous."
He folded his arms across his chest and glared at her. "There are a lot of women in this village that would attest otherwise. Age procures experience, after all."
She snorted and waved a hand at him dismissively. "It's all down to stamina."
"I think I proved I have plenty of that earlier. You did lose our little spar, as I recall."
She glared at him then quickly fixed her face into a more indifferent expression. "That's not where it counts."
"And where does it count, Sakura-chan?" The amused lilt was back in his voice. She felt the first drops of rain on her bare arms and smiled at him as sweetly as she could.
"Wouldn't you like me to show you, sensei." She just had time to notice a flicker of emotion pass through his eye, the slight rise to his eyebrow, before forming the hand signs and vanishing in a puff of smoke.
Kakashi sat in the steadily increasing rain, dumbstruck. It had been a day. One day. How had he tapped into this side of Sakura in one day? How had she kept this side of her from him for so long? More importantly, why couldn't he shake the image page seventy-three of Tactics always put in his mind when the girl sits on the protagonists lap in the formal silk yukuta and whispers in her sensei's ear?
"Let me show you what I have learnt, sensei..."
Even more worrying, why did she suddenly have pink hair? Kakashi turned his face upwards into the downpour and found his mind clearing. Pink, the colour young girls loved. His former student, despite being a lot more feisty than he thought, was still that little, pink-haired girl he had helped train. Of course, she clearly wasn't thinking like a girl. She didn't particularly look like a girl anymore, either...
"She is not a woman," he scolded himself. You could make her one, the part of his mind that had Jiraiya's voice whispered.
"Mate, you could make her one." Kakashi's head snapped round and he was on his feet before he was aware of leaving the ground. He relaxed when a laughing Genma jumped out of a nearby tree.
He whistled above the rain and wind, holding his arm up to shield his eyes. "Little pinky seems to be getting to you then." Kakashi wanted nothing more than to punch his old friend in the face.
"She has pink hair," he deadpanned, as if that explained everything.
Genma rubbed the back of his head. "Well, yeah..."
Kakashi shook his wet hair out of his eye. "Why are you here?"
"Was on my way home when I saw you. What the hell are you doing lying in the middle of a field in this?"
Kakashi shrugged in answer before disappearing, leaving smoke and a flurry of leaves behind.
When he had showered and made himself some tea at home, he fell onto his couch and stared accusingly and the blue book in his hand. Somehow he couldn't bring himself to read it. After the third attempt it was obvious to him the woman in the novel was adamantly refusing to change her hair colour back to the soft brown Jiraiya described it as. He sighed, rubbing his head, and glanced at the clock. It was far too early to go to bed, but with the rain and wind lashing against his windows the prospect of going anywhere else was hardly appealing. He glanced towards his still door-less bedroom and decided it was too far. He sank down onto the couch and closed his eyes.
What was he going to do about Sakura? He had absolutely no idea how to approach the situation. Somehow he felt like the occasional cheeky spar wouldn't be enough to convince her that jumping into bed with her much older sensei was a good idea. Actually paying for her at Ichiraku would probably just make her suspicious. Which meant offering to take her out for dinner elsewhere would probably just scare her off completely. Flowers just seemed stupid to him and he wasn't keen on that blonde girl prying into his business if he went and bought some. She was quite a riddle. He had a feeling some of the expected romantic gestures would appeal to the girl in her but he didn't want to do that. If he started doing all those silly things she would both get the wrong idea and think he was after something more or pummel him within an inch of his life. Personally he would prefer the latter.
What he needed was some common ground. Something they could bond over. He had a feeling what Genma had said about engaging her in some medic talk would work, but his knowledge in that field was pretty limited and he had a tendency of letting his mind wander when he wasn't particularly interested in the conversation. Somehow he didn't think that would impress her too much. Plus he really didn't want to be admitting to Genma somewhere down the line that he followed the idiot's advice and got laid because of it. What he really needed to do was talk to the people in Sakura's life that knew the little things about her in the subtlest way possible. He suspected Naruto would be most clued in but the boy would be out of town for at least a week and he couldn't leave it that long before he even began; he was on a short enough timeline as it was. Tsunade would have been a good person to get information from, especially as she knew what he was trying to do, but he honestly didn't want to see the woman in fear of what he might say. Disrespecting the Hokage was not wise at the best of times, and the Godaime was in a league of her own.
Shizune.
He blinked up at the ceiling. She knew about the mission, had been supportive enough, and spent a lot of time with Sakura at the hospital. She'd be able to give him some idea's around Sakura's interests, things to do with her without coming on too strong, and could even give him a quick lesson in the basics of whatever Sakura was researching at the moment. It was brilliant!
He sat up, almost excited to be doing something, then paused as a particularly loud crash of thunder sounded outside.
"Ah, tomorrow."
He glanced again into his bedroom and deciding it still wasn't worth the effort, slumped back onto the couch. He would probably regret it in the morning.
He did.
He stretched, wincing as his spine cracked in a few places and scowling as he tried to massage the ache out of his shoulder. He cursed his laziness under his breath and trudged towards the shower. If he wanted favours from Shizune the least he could do was appear presentable. Yep, that was the only reason he spent an extra thirty seconds trying to fix his hair into some semblance of a style before sighing and leaving it in its usual stuck up, spiked position. It had nothing to do with the fact he may run into a pink haired kunoichi. He rolled his eyes at his reflection. He supposed if he was meant to be seducing he should be putting in some effort. Then again, that wasn't him, and if he was going to go through with it the Hokage would be damned if he was going to go out of his way. More so than what this so called 'mission' required anyway.
He closed the door, stuffed his hands in his pockets and traipsed down the stairs, pausing at the entrance of his building to pick up an umbrella. He ignored the surprised looks and the few smirks he got and shook off the umbrella as he stepped into the hospital. He sidled up to the nurses' station, creasing his eye in what he knew was considered charming and casually leant on the desk.
"Good morning," he smiled.
"H-Hatake-senpai!" The young girl before him gave a squeak of surprise before regaining her professional composure. "How can I help you this morning?" Her gaze flickered over him confused, obviously wondering if he was concealing some injury.
"Is Shizune-san available?"
"Um, she actually just started, should be around the staff room."
"Thanks." He smiled and waved, ignoring the curiosity in her gaze as he made his way to the staff room in the back. He leant against the door for a few seconds, watching as Shizune shut her locker looking bemused.
"Oh!" She looked startled as she realised she was being watched. "Kakashi..." she looked him over before asking, "are you hurt?"
"Nope."
"Ok... why are you willingly in the hospital then?"
He chuckled and wandered in, sinking into the couch with a comfortable sigh.
"You realise this is a staff room right?" Shizune asked with a roll of her eyes.
When he patted the couch next to her she wandered over, eyes wide. She gestured to a small vase next to the sink containing two deep orange roses and looked at him apprehensively.
"That wasn't you, right..?"
He cocked an eyebrow at her. "You wouldn't want flowers from me?"
She snorted. "Somehow I don't see you as the type of man that would leave roses in my locker."
Kakashi smiled in response and watched her shift uncomfortably.
"Orange represents sexual desire, huh?" he asked.
Shizune stared at him in disbelief. He chuckled, realising if he wanted a favour from her he probably shouldn't tease. "No, not from me."
She sighed, "thank the First..."
"Well, I suppose being that undesirable I should just go home."
She waved a hand at him dismissively. "Sorry, just a little uneasy."
"I thought women liked things like that?"
She shrugged. "It's kind of sweet, I suppose, but personally I prefer the direct approach, none of this tiptoeing around the point."
"A flower that says 'I want sex' is tiptoeing around the point?"
"A flower with no name attached is," she grumbled.
"I'll keep it in mind."
"So," she said brusquely, "what's with the visit?"
"Well," he scratched his chin thoughtfully, "I was hoping you could help me out."
"With Sakura?" He nodded and she gave him a small smile.
"I don't have too much time right now, but if you want we can head to the bar tonight and come up with some strategy?"
Kakashi gave her his best smile and she laughed. "Honestly Kakashi, what's the point of trying to win people over with smiles if they can't see your face?"
"If you know I'm smiling it still works."
She rolled her eyes and stood up, eyeing the roses uncertainly. "Do you know anything about those?" He shook his head, even though he had a vague idea. She hummed softly and waved over her shoulder as she left. Kakashi stood up and stretched, wondering what to do with the rest of the day.
Sakura grumbled miserably as she ran to the hospital. She hated rainy days, especially when she had to be somewhere. She supposed if she had just given in her progress report a few days earlier like she was going to she could have stayed in bed and read a book while the rain pattered lazily against her window, but no, she had gone out, got drunk and completely forgot about it until she had got home last night and noticed it spread out on her coffee table.
She cursed loudly as she ran into someone in the entrance, ducking around them with a hurried apology. They grabbed her arm to stop her running off, and she rounded on them with a snarl.
"What are-oh." She blinked water out of her eyes and smiled sheepishly up at her team captain. "Sorry, in a bit of a hurry."
"So I can see," he mused. She stared up at him, a little uncomfortable. Between breaks on her report last night she had been wondering if perhaps she had been a bit out of line yesterday. She had never initiated that kind of conversation with him before and she wasn't sure how he had taken it, not sticking around to find out. Deciding she should probably excuse herself, she paused with her mouth open, eyes on his umbrella.
"What is that?" She pointed, incredulous.
"An umbrella?" Kakashi held it up so she could see it better, and she continued to stare at him.
"I understand. Given the drowned look you're sporting, you've probably never seen one before," he said. She glared at him, scraping her wet hair from her face and huffing sulkily.
"I lost mine and haven't bought another yet, alright?" He grinned at her and held it out. "What?" She demanded.
"I don't mind getting a little wet," he said.
She felt a small blush grace her cheeks as her words from yesterday came back to her, and she took it from him gingerly, spreading the bright pink material outwards a little bit to see the pattern upon it. "A cartoon rabbit," she stated. "You stole some poor little girl's umbrella, and now you're giving it to me. If I get attacked by an angry six year old later I will be coming after you."
He chuckled merrily and turned to the door. "I'll see you at Ichiraku at lunchtime." She watched him step into the rain, hands in his pockets, before remembering why she was in the hospital in the first place.
She found Shizune, unsurprisingly, in the poisons division. "Heya!"
The medic smiled at her, putting down a sample and beckoning her towards the staff room.
"I got the progress report on those weapons."
"Oh yes, how's it looking?"
Sakura sighed heavily, slumping into a chair with a thoroughly defeated expression. Shizune sighed and sat down on the couch.
"Honestly, I feel like I said exactly the same thing in the last report. The only way of fixing it is to yank it out and hope we get chakra in the wound quick enough to heal it effectively and as for organ damage..." Skaura shrugged. A few weeks ago a chuunin had come into the hospital after a clash with enemy ninja with several kunai in his back. The first two were pulled out swiftly and with ease, however, when the supporting medic tried to speedily remove the third, the young shinobi was left with a massive chunk of his body missing. Everyone had frozen in panic until Tsunade had stepped in. It took seven medics and all of their chakra to bring him back from the edge of death, but it hadn't been enough to save his severed spinal cord, and the teenage chuunin would never be walking again.
The kunai had showed up in several other Leaf shinobi over the last few weeks, and several had died. These new kunai were longer and thinner than the usual kind, meaning they penetrated the body deeper. The worst part, however, was what they did after they entered the body. A mechanism was triggered on impact and half the blade would split, forming four prongs inside the body. Not only did this do considerable damage, but it created a barb like scenario and pulling the kunai out was treacherous. Tsunade had organised a few teams to do some recon in nearby towns and villages, and given Sakura the task of finding a safe way of removing the weapons from their injured comrades. It was proving much more difficult that she imagined.
"Nothing I think of would work without there being a bucket load of damage to the patients."
Shizune cursed quietly. The two women sat in a glum silence for a few minutes before Sakura decided she didn't want a think about it anymore. "Who are those for?" She pointed to some roses next to the sink and Shizune gave a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of her neck.
"Actually, I keep finding them in my locker."
"Really?" Sakura grinned at her. A secret admirer, how cute! Shizune was picking at her uniform and glaring at the flowers as if their very presence had wronged her in some way.
"You don't like them?"
Shizune huffed. "Orange. So whoever sent them is basically saying all they want from me is sex. That's hardly the romantic gesture a girl wants from flowers."
Sakura shrugged and stood up. "Boys don't do the flower arranging classes in the academy. Whoever it was probably just assumed all girls like roses and didn't think much on the colour."
"It's a pretty generic flower," Shizune scoffed.
Sakura giggled, making her way to the door. "All roses mean some kind of love, at the end of the day." She waved and disappeared through the door, giggling at the accusatory look Shizune was now giving the flowers.
She spent a little time with the Hokage, handing in a copy of the report for her too and discussing it thoroughly. By the time she stepped into Ichiraku ramen, shaking the umbrella, her brain was considerably fried. She sat down with a huff and ordered some pork ramen, partly because she felt like it but mostly because she was missing Naruto. She wondered how he and Yamato would be doing out in this weather, and hoped they weren't pushing themselves too hard.
Ayame set the bowl in front of her with a smile and Sakura took an appreciative breath, her mouth watering at the delicious smell. Not that she would ever admit it to Naruto, but she really did love ramen. It had grown on her over the years, the amount of times they had ended up here, but given her initial derisive attitude towards the stuff in the old genin days she kept it to herself.
She looked around as someone else entered, and smiled at the lazy wave Shikamaru gave her. He looked, if it was possible, even more fed up than usual.
"Hi, how are you?"
He grunted.
"Oook..." He ordered and they sat in silence, Sakura not entirely sure what to say. She was spared striking up an awkward conversation, however, by the arrival of Kakashi.
"Hi, sensei!" She smiled at him brightly and he faltered, clearly unsure of why she was being so enthusiastic. She rolled her eyes and indicated he sit down, which he did, eyes still on her warily.
"Relax, jeeze, I'm just happy to see you," she grumbled around a mouthful of noodles. He creased his eye at her, ordered, and fiddled with his chopsticks in silence. Sakura shook her head, not sure whether to be frustrated or amused. How had she ended up eating lunch with the two quietest people in Konoha? She settled on amused, and let out a small snort of laughter. Kakashi eyed her quizzically and she just shook her head.
When Shikamaru's food arrived, he nodded in thanks, breaking his chopsticks in half a little more violently than necessary, and began stabbing at a piece of egg. Sakura rolled her eyes and placed her bowl down.
"Wow, aren't we merry rays of sunshine." Both men looked at her. She suppressed another eye roll and decided she would have more luck with Shikamaru than Kakashi.
"What's your problem?" She demanded. He glowered at her before popping the mutilated egg in his mouth. "Look, either tell me, or I'll set Ino on you." She grinned triumphantly as his body tensed and he placed his chopsticks down with a sigh.
"I did something stupid." Sakura snorted disbelievingly. "No, really." He sighed heavily, hands stretched out on his knees, as if he wasn't quite sure what to do with them. He was glaring at his ramen as he spoke, as though looking for something to blame.
"Ok, what?" She had to admit she was pretty interested. Something she had picked up from Ino over the years. Ino liked to call it taking an interest in people's lives and stories, but Sakura didn't like to live in denial, she knew gossip when she heard it.
He shot her a furtive glance before heaving another sigh. "From a girl's perspective, if we had sex and I left before you woke up and then went out of my way to avoid you for two days, what would you do?" Sakura felt Kakashi shift behind her.
"Umm, if we had sex?"
"Hypothetically."
Sakura tugged on the ends of her hair, starting to regret even asking, but she had and if he was willing to share, she supposed the least she could do was to help him out.
"Well, I mean, I'd like to think we're sort of friends-" she paused in case she had presumed too much but Shikamaru nodded in agreement- "so I guess it would hurt a little that you wouldn't want to at least talk about it." She shrugged, unsure of whether she was being helpful.
"Ok," he was looking at the table thoughtfully. Sakura thought that must have been good enough, so she turned back to her ramen. After a few seconds of silence, however, he spoke up again.
"What if it was Naruto?" Sakura choked.
"What?" She demanded.
"What if you had slept with Naruto, and it was him avoiding you?"
She turned incredulous eyes on him. "That would never happen."
"He wouldn't avoid you?"
"No," she snapped, "I would never sleep with him!"
Shikamaru sighed, "that's what I thought too.."
Sakura stared at him. "You never thought you'd sleep with... Naruto?"
Shikamaru looked at her in condescending disbelief and she heard Kakashi chuckle softly behind her.
"I never thought I would sleep with the person I'm avoiding."
"Right, right," she giggled nervously. "Sorry."
He rolled his eyes at her and she resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him. Somehow she didn't think it was very mature.
"So you slept with a friend, regret it, and are now avoiding them," Sakura summed up.
Something soft passed through Shikamaru's eyes and he gave a small shake of his head. "I don't regret it."
"Then why are you avoiding her?"
He shrugged, "I don't know what she wants. Relationships are so troublesome, but she's going to try and force one because she wouldn't be a woman if she didn't."
Sakura's eyes became tiny green slits as she fixed him with her most poisonous glare. "Excuse me?" She ground out.
Shikamaru groaned. "Come on, you know what you women are like."
Sakura clenched her fists. Somehow punching one of Konoha's top strategists in the head would probably not be in the village's best interests, but dammit if he carried on...
"How do you even know she wants a relationship if you're too busy being a coward and hiding from her?" Her voice had risen a bit, and she bit the inside of her cheek in an attempt to control her temper. "At least women have the balls to face their feelings!"
Kakashi gave a bark of laughter behind her and she whirled on him. "YOU wouldn't know feelings if they bit you on the ass!"
He rested his chin on the palm of his hand and smiled. "Actually, Sakura, I was laughing at the whole women having balls part of your sentence."
She spluttered over her words. "You! What do you- sexist bastard!"
He openly laughed and she felt her body shake with rage. She knew this conversation needed to end soon or something was going to get broken. Wether her stool or someone's bones, she wasn't yet sure. He held up his hands in the familiar gesture of peace.
"I meant anatomically, Sakura."
She forgot her anger for a second and deadpanned, "not sexist, fucking immature."
She turned away from him unable to take the mirth pouring from his eye.
"Women are capable of having sex without wanting to get married," she snapped at Shikamaru, pushing her bowl away and glaring at the bench top.
He sighed and pinched his nose. "Sorry Sakura. To be honest she's the most troublesome girl I know, and I do not want a relationship, but with her..." He let the sentence slide and she just stared at him.
"With her?" She prompted.
"Maybe it would be alright."
Sakura gave a coy smirk. "What was that about girls mixing up sex with feelings?"
He glared at her almost savagely but she just grinned at him.
"I don't want it right now," he persisted. "Maybe in a year or two, but for now I just need to know how to tell her that I'm not ashamed of it, but I need her to be my friend, not my girlfriend." He mumbled the last word like it was taboo and Sakura shook her head, smiling.
"Well, you can either keep on avoiding her, or do the mature thing and tell her. Give her some flowers to placate it a little."
He looked at her. "I am not giving a girl flowers."
She waved a hand at him, rolling her eyes. "Girls like flowers but they don't always have to be given as a symbol of love or whatever. I mean something small that emphasises friendship. A yellow rose, some pear blossom..." She shrugged at his disapproving glare. "I'm just saying, kunoichi know the language of flowers, and if you can't say it in words..."
He looked at her thoughtfully, then shook his head. "I can't."
"Ino would help you-"
"I can't," he pressed, worry etched on his face.
"Come on," she scoffed, "you two have been friends for years, I'm sure she wouldn't-" Sakura gasped. She stared at him, waiting for some kind of denial, but he crouched in on himself and wouldn't meet her eyes.
"I can't believe she didn't tell me! That PIG!"
"Sakura.."
She shook her head furiously. They were supposed to be best friends, they had seen each other yesterday and she had no problems telling her everyone else's embarrassing stories from that night and yet she had kept something this huge a secret.
Kakashi tapped her shoulder lightly, and she looked up enquiringly. "A part of growing up is learning how to deal with these kinds of situations. Perhaps Ino is just trying to sort through her own feelings before she tells anyone?"
Shikamaru was staring intently at the other man. "What do you think I should do?"
Kakashi smiled, scratching the back of his head. "Well, I'm not one for long lasting relationships myself, but Sakura's right." She looked at him surprised. "You should talk to her; find out where her head's at, before making any rash decisions like defecting to another village or something."
"Where were you when I was twelve and in need of relationship advice?" Sakura asked. He just grinned at her. She noted, with disappointment, that his food had come at some point during the conversation and his bowl was now empty. She shook her head feeling fed up.
"Cheer up, Sakura-chan," he squeezed her hand gently and she resisted the urge to turn her hand around and grip his lightly, enjoying the warmth of it. Before anything else could be said, a small pop and a curl of smoke made them all jump.
"Katsuyu?"
The slug before her was tiny compared to the size Sakura knew her to be and she squirmed restlessly on the bench. "Sakura!" Her high, breathy voice seemed panicked. "You must get to the hospital quickly! Another team has come in and one of them has been hit by one of those kunai."
Sakura swore violently, jumping to her feet.
"I'm sorry, I have to go."
She raced out of the ramen stand, praying there would be something she could do.