A/N: Hi! I had no idea there was such an issue with my formatting, and I didn't get any notifcation about the comments. I have fixed it.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura stood around the refreshments table, yawning and sipping lattes. Mornings with Minato aired live at exactly 8am, and Kakashi had not let Sakura skip their morning training. He had only woken her up at 5am and hauled her downstairs. Literally. When she'd been too slow to get up, he'd tossed her over his shoulder and carried her like a sack of flour. She'd been made to practice in her pajamas. The babydoll nightgown. He insisted there would be no missing practice, no matter what.
Kakashi did not say anything about the kiss during practice. Or on the way to the studio. He remained aloof and nonplussed, as though nothing had happened. It made Sakura steam. Her emotions had been roiling inside of her ever since. He hadn't had to kiss her like that, but…he'd chosen to. She wondered if maybe he'd been jealous of her kiss with Omoi. That was a ridiculous idea. He'd seen her kiss men for shows and movies. She didn't think he'd ever been bothered before.
A small part of her hoped that was the reason. They had in fact been around one another for a long time. He could've decided it was time for him to stake his claim on her.
She squeezed her thighs together a bit at the thought, then mentally chastised herself for being silly.
Logic won out in the end. Her raging thoughts calmed. It was his job to help her put on a show, and that was all he had done. Besides, people kissed without a bigger meaning all of the time. Given how much older he was, and how attractive he was, Sakura didn't doubt he'd kissed lots of women. Casual make outs were a thing.
She couldn't help but glance at the ring she had put back on her finger, the gem catching the light. She looked away.
"Sakura-chan, good morning," Sakura looked up from where she had been intensely examining the foam in her cup. Naruto's father smiled gently down at her.
"Minato!" Sakura bowed low to the handsome blonde whose show they were intruding on.
"Dad!" Naruto exclaimed beside her. Minato laughed, deep and full of affection for his boisterous son.
Sakura straightened back up in time to see Minato ruffle Sasuke and Naruto's hair. The father and son duo were a force to be reckoned with, grinning at one another like fools. It was like looking at twin suns.
She averted her eyes from the familial love and wandered after the men onto the set. The coffee cups that were set in front of each of them were black, so she ignored it, uninterested. Her latte offset had been enough.
"Don't like black coffee, Sakura-chan?" Minato inquired, his eyes crinkled with amusement.
"I'm already-"
"Bitter enough," Naruto and Sasuke chimed in unison. The men laughed. Pink spread on Sakura's face.
"Yes, that." She looked down at her hands, laced together on top of the curved table they were all seated at.
"Minato, we're on in 5, 4, 3.."
Sakura brought her head up and smiled as the red lights above the cameras turned on, all facing them.
"Good morning, everyone. I am delighted to have with me on this early Saturday morning a very special guest: FireDrive!" Minato was made to be on television. All charm and good looks, Sakura knew people all over would be tuned in, their attention rapt.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all lifted their hands and waved, exuding pleasantness.
"Now I can't speak for the other two, but I would like to take credit for my son, Naruto," Minato slapped Naruto on the back, his fatherly pride apparent.
"We're grateful to you, Minato," Sakura tipped her head to him and flashed her teeth with her smile.
"I'm grateful for you two, for taking care of this knucklehead." Minato rubbed the back of his head. "I know what a handful he is."
"Hey!" Naruto objected indignantly. "Rock stars are supposed to be handfuls."
Sakura and Sasuke made eye contact and snorted, every bit the friendly bandmates.
"Actually, Naruto, I think rock stars are just supposed to be talented…" Sasuke smirked from his seat opposite Naruto.
"I'm talented," Naruto countered, his eyes narrowed in challenge. Sakura waved her hands as though to expel the issue.
"Boys boys! We're Minato's guests, please behave," She wrinkled her nose playfully at them.
Minato jumped in on the opportunity. "Actually, I think we should test some of your talents," His heartbreaking smile promised trouble. The members of FireDrive's eyes all widened. "I've had my team devise some challenges for you, and of course, for our lovely viewers. Should we see what you'll be facing?"
Internally, Sakura groaned. They'd all been given vague descriptions of what to expect this morning, the lack of detail on purpose. Reactions and performances were better when they were genuine. She couldn't begin to guess which variety show games they'd be made to play. It was too damn early for this shit.
Sasuke, known for his never back down attitude, met Minato's stare. "We can handle anything you hash out." He leaned back in his chair, a smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. Sasuke looked very handsome today, Sakura observed. His hair was falling in just the right way, his shirt fitting in all the right places. She tightened her fingers around each other until her knuckles were white. The men in her life were actively trying to kill her.
"First, we have a musical game, of course! Then we'll play Never Have I Ever! And last we'll play a final, secret game." Those ocean eyes were lit up with mischief.
"Those games sound dangerous, Minato." Sakura purred to the older man.
"I don't know if the world needs to know what we've all never." Naruto pursed his lips. "I don't know if you need to know, dad." Minato laughed.
"I don't think need is the right word. Want, is the better one. But, I think the world and I will be just fine." Minato turned in his chair towards the giant screen behind them. "So, do you want to play the first game, or not?" He lifted a brow at them over his shoulder.
"Yes!" FireDrive replied, all of them eager and competitive.
The screen turned blue, and displayed a virtual deck of cards, only the top visible.
"You'll take turns," Minato began. "A card will flip over. You will have 5 seconds to sing a song with the word in it. You get a point if you succeed, you will be punished if you don't. And they lyrics can't be any of your own." Minato gave each of them a significant look. The screen split, one half displaying the cards, the other displaying each other their names, with space underneath for points.
'MINATO' 'SAKURA' 'NARUTO' 'SASUKE'
An assistant stepped out onto the stage, carrying 4 toy mallets. The kind that made a squeaky noise whenever they came into contact with something.
Sakura groaned aloud. "Oh no!"
The assistant handed each of them a mallet before scurrying away.
"You miss, the person beside you gets to hit you." Minato said, picking up his own toy mallet.
Naruto and Sasuke's eyes took on a new gleam as they considered the toys.
"We'll go in seating order, starting with Naruto." That meant Sakura would go last, after Sasuke. That was fine with her. A cold focus settled in her head, her mind intently focused on the cards.
"Ready?"
"I was born ready!" Naruto spouted confidently.
The cards shuffled on screen, and the top one turned over.
'NOTHING'
Naruto's eyes opened wide with alarm. His face revealed the fact that his mind had gone utterly blank upon seeing the prompt. Admittedly, Sakura's had too.
"AH!" Minato mimicked a buzzer sound, then smacked his son over the head with the toy mallet, a loud squeak emitting from the contact. Sasuke and Sakura laughed while Naruto pouted and rubbed the top of his head.
The deck shuffled on screen again for Minato.
'STARS'
Minato grinned impishly. "Cause even the stars, they burn, some even fall to the earth," He sang, just slightly off key. Naruto lowered the mallet he had lifted, disappointed. He sighed loudly through his nose, as a tally mark appeared next to his father's name.
"No fair." Naruto crossed his arms, knocking the mallet on the tabletop in the process, a sad squeak emitting.
The deck shuffled for Sasuke.
'ROCK'
Sasuke laughed. "We will, we will rock you," He smirked. A tally mark appeared next to his name.
"Oh, come on!" Naruto threw his hands up.
Sakura laughed at his irritation, but stopped abruptly as she watched the deck shuffle. Her eyes were glued to the screen, her muscles tense in anticipation.
'TOUCH'
Sakura opened her mouth at the first thing that came to her. "I'd give up forever to touch you, cause I know that you'd feel me somehow. You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be…"
"And I don't want to go home right now," The men sang after her. Sakura blushed as a tally went up by her name. She couldn't help but steal a glance in Kakashi's direction. His eyes were dark on her.
The lyrics felt intimate, as they were written to be.
"Naruto, here's your chance to recover." Minato looked to his son expectantly. Sakura brought her attention back to the set.
'PURPLE'
"You've got to be... Purple rain, purple rain, I only want to see you, laughing in the purple rain," Naruto beamed, triumphant. Minato scowled and lowered the mallet he had raised in anticipation.
Naruto gained a point.
Minato's next word was 'SHARP'
His face fell as he stared at it. "AH." Naruto brought his mallet down on Minato's blonde head.
"Naruto, you've got quite an arm." Minato grimaced.
Sasuke got 'PLASTIC', and when his 5 seconds went by, Sakura was more than happy to bang the top of his dark head. He gave her a dirty look for it.
Sakura looked up at the screen with sparkling green eyes, her competitive nature taking over.
Her grin spread when she beheld her card.
'BROKEN'
"I like that you're broken, broken like me. Maybe that makes me a fool."
Sasuke whacked her on the head anyway.
"Hey!" She glared at him, then whacked him back.
"Just trying to be fair," Sasuke said innocently, his eyes anything but. Sakura smacked him again for good measure.
The game continued for three more rounds. Unsurprisingly, Sakura won, though Sasuke had smacked her again.
Mercifully, they went to commercial after the game finished.
Sakura slipped out of her chair and scurried to the lady's room. When she was done, she sat back in the makeup chair, her face being touched up to go back on air.
She returned to the set, and as she took her seat her eyes brushed over Kakashi. Lightning shot down her spine from the clash of her jade and his slate. He was standing by the refreshment table with Genma. He was dressed as he always was, and he looked as handsome as always.
Genma lifted his hand, his phone clasped in his fingers, and mouthed 'cameras came'. For a moment, she had no idea what in the hell he was trying to tell her. Then she remembered that Tsunade had ordered security cameras for her property, so that even when she wasn't home, and her guards weren't there either, the property was being monitored.
Minato called for their attention as a crew member began the count down.
"Welcome back, ladies and gentleman. You're just in time to catch our innocent game of Never Have I Ever!" He had the mischievous look in his eyes again, and it set Sakura on edge.
Minato produced 4 hand-held signs, each saying 'I HAVE' and 'NEVER' on either side. He handed them out to the members of FireDrive, keeping one for himself.
Sakura gripped the wooden stick tightly in her hand, nervous. She had seen other guests play this game, and she was worried about the potential questions.
"This time, the deck on the screen will reveal acts or experiences. All 4 of us must answer. There's a set number of questions."
Sakura frowned. It wasn't much of a game. It was more of a playful way to make others reveal things. What could possibly go wrong?
"Ready?" FireDrive looked to one another. Nodded.
Minato watched as the virtual deck shuffled, and a card flipped over.
"Never have I ever…called in sick to work because of a hangover." Sasuke read the card aloud.
All four of them flipped their signs to say 'I HAVE'. Relieved by the easy nature, Sakura grinned at the men sitting around her.
"I think most of the world has done that," Naruto tipped his head to one side. Sakura's eyes tightened as she watched the deck shuffle. A card flipped over.
She read it for the table. "Never have I ever…eaten an entire large pizza by myself?" She kept her sign facing 'I HAVE'. Minato and Naruto did as well. Sasuke flipped his over to the 'NEVER' side.
Sakura grinned widely.
"Sasuke, I think you just haven't tried hard enough," Naruto leaned forward in his direction. Sasuke made a face as the deck shuffled.
Minato read the next card. "Never have I ever…been skinny dipping."
Sakura flipped her sign around so fast a breeze stirred the hairs around her face. Sasuke's sign remained on the 'NEVER' side, as well.
Naruto and Minato stared at one another, wide eyed. Their two 'I HAVE's on display for the world.
"Dad!" Naruto exclaimed, at the exact same time Minato gasped, "Naruto!"
Sakura and Sasuke began to laugh. Apparently, the scandal was enough to make even Sasuke amused. Sakura's muscles had relaxed, and she leaned casually back in her seat, the sign twirling between her fingers.
The game continued, card after card turning over without anything too scandalous. Laughter and sly comments filled the set.
"Never have I ever…sent a nude photo?" Sakura's mouth dropped open. Through her shock, she turned her sign to 'NEVER'. Sasuke mirrored her.
They both whipped their heads towards the blond men as each of them turned pink, their signs remaining in position.
"You've sent- Oh my God!" Sakura pointed at the father-son duo in accusation. They went from pink to red. Sasuke chuckled darkly from beside her, his laugh building until it bounced around the room.
"I can't imagine anyone wants to see that." he gasped.
"Hey!" Minato and Naruto objected. Sakura held her hand up over her mouth, trying to suppress her laughter.
She knew who was probably receiving Narto's nude photos, and she did not want to imagine what that was like. Oh, Hinata, she thought to herself.
"We have one last card!" Minato announced, his hand dramatically raised to gesture to the screen behind him. "FireDrive, are you prepared?" His eyes sparkled, and Sakura felt the very air change. She couldn't help a glance at Genma and Kakashi, who were both watching intently, the shadows off stage unable to hide their expressions.
Time slowed down as Sakura watched the deck shuffle. Each card moved in slow motion, blurring along the edges. A bad feeling settled in her gut.
"Never have I ever.." Minato's voice was deeper than before, more dramatic. "Gotten frisky at work!" His mouth tilted up at one edge.
Sakura's veins iced over as the card flipped over. Not only was the card on screen, but as she watched the card slid up, making room for a photo to appear beneath it.
The color drained from her face. She stared at the photo of herself on Kakashi's lap, his fingers tangled in her hair, his other hand gripping her thigh. She looked like a woman at the beginning of a passionate exchange.
The image was incredibly intimate.
Heat surged up her face just as quickly as it had drained. She went red from the roots of her hair to her toes. She kept her eyes on the screen with force, and willed Naruto and Sasuke not to look at Kakashi.
Her hand flipped the sign without a thought to 'I HAVE'. The look on Minato's face was sly, and Sakura thought it wouldn't be so bad to hit her bandmate's dad in the face. The tips of her fingers began to tingle painfully.
"Minato!" Sakura's voice sounded too loud in her own ear. She hid her blush behind the sign. Seeing the images of the kiss, even knowing it was on purpose, made her insides twist around. "You're not playing very nice!" But Sakura couldn't be too angry. Minato probably hadn't been the one to decide to include that card, and the photos were her idea to begin with.
Naruto and Sasuke turned towards her, their mouths open. The boys hadn't seen the pictures prior to this moment and were distracted from looking at the other half of the photo. Kakashi had gone stiff as a board beside his comrade.
"Sakura..." Sasuke's voice was slightly strangled.
"Sakura!" Naruto's mouth was pulled back with his disbelief, his blue eyes lined with concern.
She waved her hands in front of her face defensively. She was conflicted between embarrassment and a little pride. She also wanted to string Minato up by his toes.
"Is this your lover?" Minato leaned forward over his collapsed hands. Sakura was pinned by those eyes.
"Y-yes." She stammered, her brain failing to find anything more intelligent, more biting to say. Minato leaned back, though, satisfied. She hid her eyes behind her sign.
"I think there's a number of people out there wishing this was them, eh, Sakura?"
She looked away shyly, the blushing bride. It wasn't entirely an act. "But it's only one person for me, Minato." She regained her composure and faced Minato steadily. She didn't look to see how Kakashi reacted to her sentence.
"Any chance you'd be willing to share more details about your new romance with us?" The entire room, including the crew off stage, seemed to hold their breath.
"A lady doesn't kiss and tell." She replied demurely. She flipped her hair over her shoulder, feeling more confident now that she'd calmed down some. Minato looked pointedly to her ring, which she held up for him and the others to inspect.
"That's lovely, Sakura-chan," The host said softly, his eyes crinkling. She preened under the attention now on her engagement ring. And off that photo.
When the commercial break finally came and saved her, Sakura stumbled off set. She hadn't been prepared for the turn of events. She had created the pictures, but she hadn't expected to be faced with them like this. And she had purposely avoided checking her social media accounts this morning, to avoid the rage of emotions she felt over the kiss.
Her head was clouded as they played the last game, Giant Jenga. It seemed anticlimactic after Never Have I Ever, even though the blocks had silly commands on them, and very little of her focus was required to get through it.
She could practically feel the heat of Kakashi's eyes on her as she forced laughter and pleasantries.
The end of the show left her nearly limp with relief. It was not the first time a viral photo had left her in a media storm, but this felt different. She'd never had anything close to a true scandal before. And certainly not on purpose.
Her relief was short-lived.
FireDrive exited the studio, only for their group of musicians and security to come to a halt. The gate to the studio's grounds was being swarmed with fans. Fangirls, to be specific.
The moment one fan caught sight of them, word spread through the crowd like fire. The mob pushed past the security, slipping under and around the traffic arm that controlled the flow of cars in and out.
Holy shit, those fangirls were fast.
Sakura stepped back, closer to Genma and Kakashi and watched in horror as Sasuke and Naruto were engulfed in the sea of raging hormones.
"Naruto!"
"Sasuke!"
The boys' own guards struggled to push them back. It was like watching waves on a beach. Push back, surge forward, push back, surge forward.
Sasuke looked thoroughly annoyed, his usual frown fixed on his mouth. Naruto looked mildly uncomfortable, but smiled through it, one hand rubbing awkwardly at the back of his head. Sakura tapped a foot against the pavement impatiently but froze when the first fan noticed her. These were not her fangirls. These were Naruto and Sasuke only fangirls. The malice leaking from them was all Sakura needed to be sure of that.
"Oh no! Naruto! Sasuke! You shouldn't spend time with this bitch!" Someone commented.
Another hissed "Yeah, this ugly girl isn't worth your time. She had no right to date Sasuke." If Sakura sighed any harder, she was sure her soul would leave her body. This was typically the way fangirls treated her, and was the reason she never looked in comment sections or at things she was tagged in. Ever since her breakup with the Uchiha, it had gotten worse. While all of the fanatic girls were pleased she wasn't with him anymore, they were incensed by her audacity to break up with him. Which wasn't what happened, but no one cared.
This was always how it was when it came to Naruto and Sasuke's more fanatic fans. They would gladly push Sakura off a cliff if they thought it meant defending their idols from her.
The mood of the crowd was quickly shifting. Sakura looked around for Tenzo and her SUV, fully aware of the dangers of mob mentality.
"And poor Omoi! He has to work with her for Night High!" A girl with outrageously purple hair added.
Oh good, they were going to tally up all the poor men Sakura subjected to herself.
Kakashi stepped in front of her, a silent show of support, and a physical barrier between her and the fans.
"Oh, Mr. Handsome Bodyguard, it's too bad you're stuck with her too. How come she gets to be around all the hottest guys?"
Sakura kept her face carefully neutral.
"Well, I feel bad for whatever man is going to marry her. She can't be that good in bed, so I wonder what he's getting out of it?" This time it was a girl with space buns, who couldn't have been but 4 '11. Sakura briefly considered drop kicking her, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly. She wondered how far the girl would fly.
"Oh look, she's got an attitude. Maybe we should take care of that for her?" Sakura looked on with cool indifference as the girl with the buns tried to reach by Kakashi, hand grasping for Sakura's flowy shirt.
His hand lashed out and gripped her wrist. Sakura could tell he wasn't holding back his strength as the sleeve of the girl's shirt bunched up under his gloved fingers.
"Hey!" She tried to pull back, but Kakashi held her in place.
"It is not kind to attack people." His voice was deceptively light, his eyes only half open in his usual, lazy way. "It's also illegal." The girl's face drained of color.
"I-I wasn't attacking her!" She tugged at her arm again. Kakashi let go, resuming an unbothered stance with his hands in his pockets, and she stumbled back a step, gripping her wrist.
Naruto and Sasuke both had stormy looks brewing on their faces.
"Please don't try to touch Sakura," Naruto's lips twisted into something unpleasant. "I hate girls who are bullies."
The crowd of girls looked torn between insisting Sakura deserved to be talked down to and apologizing.
Sakura didn't stick around to hear what they decided. Tenzo appeared, easing up to the crowd with her SUV, and she disappeared inside.
Seated across from her, Kakashi patted her on the head affectionately, ruffling her hair, but she didn't return his smile.
By the time she had arrived back at home, Sakura was twitching with pent up anxiety and frustration. She hated run-ins with angry fans, and after the week she'd had, she wanted to smash things.
She slid a 45 pound weight on either end of the bar she was deadlifting with in her basement. Even though she'd had quite a workout that morning with Kakashi, she needed to channel her anger into something productive. She couldn't seem to work it out as fast as it was building, which only added to her irritation. She was running a losing race.
Her music was playing at nearly full volume, to drown out the group of people upstairs. Chiyo had been waiting to take Kakashi's preferences and measurements when they got home, and her other guards were working on figuring out how to install the security cameras.
All those people, in her home, in her space. Apparently, since Tuesday night Sakura's house had become open to the public.
She gripped the bar, one hand forward, the other backward, aligned her back, and lifted, her hips coming forward, forearms straight. She slammed the bar back down and started over.
A set under her belt, she still wasn't satisfied, so she grabbed another set of 45s to add to the bar. She locked them in place with clamps and resumed her position to lift.
Deep breath, Lift. Down.
Deep breath. Lift. Down.
She lost count of her reps, keeping at it until her forearms begged for mercy from the bar.
With a frustrated noise, she dropped onto the mats beside the bar, and took a sip from her water bottle. She let her mind wander while she rested, but her thoughts only made her angrier.
Ugly Sakura. Bitch Sakura. She doesn't deserve to be with those boys. God, who does she think she is?
She went back to lifting, switching to squats. She put the bar back in the rack and began to load it again. She went through the motions of solo lifting, ensuring the weight didn't start at something she couldn't handle, and checking the height on the safety bars that would catch the barbell if she failed out.
She did set after set, increasing the weight without thinking about it. Sweat poured down her face and the burn finally began to feel like relief. Her reps were becoming strained, her quads shaking on the way up.
"That's a lot of weight,"
Sakura whipped her head up to see Kakashi standing at the bottom of the stairs, considering her, his hands in his pockets. She put the bar back, accidentally banging it against the rack as she did so.
"It's not that much." And she meant it. She wasn't bragging, just stating a fact. Women who were more dedicated lifted significantly more than her every day. She was just glad to make any progress at all.
Kakashi eyed the 45s stacked on either end of the bar. "That's 225. I'd say that a lot of weight for a petite thing like you." He raised his eyebrows at her. She couldn't tell if he was praising her or not.
"I've always been strong for my size." This time she was bragging a little bit. She'd always been stronger than her friends, and even than some of her male companions. But natural strength only went so far. If she wanted to be really strong, she had to work for it, like everyone else. It was something she took very seriously.
Kakashi looked on in silence, his face blank. Sweat continued to drip down her face. She knew if she looked down she would find little drops on the mat by her feet.
Sakura couldn't help but glance at his masked lips, her tongue darting out to wet her own, the salty taste of her perspiration meeting her. Kakashi's eyes devoured the movement. But still, he said nothing about the kiss. Not giving the disappointment time to consume her, Sakura told herself that it was fine if he didn't want to kiss her. This was arranged, it wasn't real. He did not have to kiss her. Or touch her at all, not any more than absolutely required by his job.
After several long moments, he turned around to return upstairs. "You've been down here for hours. Maybe it's time to shower. You stink."
She blinked. His words finally sank in, and she found herself throwing her water bottle after him, nailing him in the back.
His low laugh floated back to her while she stood at the bottom where he had been a moment before.