Chapter 7

A little over a month passed without a single repeat of what happened the day Kakashi and Sakura had gone into downtown Konoha. They had even taken several trips into the area since then, both for work and for pleasure, and there was not a single sign of the mystery man that had followed them.

Sakura knew not to allow herself to fall into a false sense of security now that the supposed threat had just vanished from their lives.

'That's what they wanted you to think,' she thought. 'Trick you into thinking that everything was fine and dandy and when you were vulnerable again, that's always when they struck again. When you were at your weakest state of being.'

It was now November and with the weather beginning to go south, Sakura began taking even more extra measures to ensure their safety. Namely, she always made sure that wherever they were had clear and open paths for them to escape now that the fresh snowfall often blocked a lot of the alleys and held dangerous footing.

They wouldn't be able to escape as quickly as they had before and she'd be damned if she wasn't fully prepared to take whatever threat head on in order to protect Kakashi.

Over the course and events of the last month had also caused Sakura to inadvertently get closer with Kakashi as well. Since they lived together and spent nearly every waking moment together, they often found themselves chatting about anything and everything and got to know each other on a more personal level.

They had fallen into something of routine outside their dynamic of client and bodyguard and it made Sakura oddly happy.

They were friends. Good friends.

She had never gotten the chance to establish any type of routine given what her job was. Most of her assignments never lasted more than a month. So, with this assignment being indefinite until they caught whoever was responsible for Sakumo's death and continued targeting of Kakashi, it was an oddity she got to experience.

And she realized she enjoyed it.

She enjoyed the stability of staying in one place. She enjoyed the fact that she was comfortable and often found herself relaxing with Kakashi when they were home from work for the night. Usually they'd do their own thing, but lately they had fallen into the habit of vegging out on the huge couch together, binging TV shows they both found out they liked.

She kept noticing Kakashi too. She kept noticing all the little things he was doing for her.

She had mentioned one day a couple weeks ago that peaches were her favorite fruit and now there was always a few fresh peaches in the kitchen. She even noticed her favorite flavor of tea was there and even her favorite brand of chocolate and sweets were in the little snack drawer he had.

She never imagined that he was actually listening to what she said, most of her clients only pretended to listen and care, so this was new.

Kakashi even had his personal cook, Choji, that came in twice a week start making her, her own lunches for their work week when he noticed that she often only ate a granola bar or a measly sandwich. He even began curating their dinners to things she enjoyed a lot and she couldn't believe how accommodating he was being.

She often commented telling him he didn't need to do any of what he's done and she always got the same exact reply from him.

"Don't worry, I want to make sure you're happy and comfortable."

The happy part of his reasoning always threw her for a loop. Why did he care about her happiness?

She even started noticing just how attractive he was as well.

Even with the fresh pink scar and new eye, she felt he was more handsome now than before. He had this perfect mixture of a sleepy and ruffled presence while also being extremely well kept and professional when needed that just made her appreciate him on a whole new level.

Sakura often scolded herself when she caught herself ogling him. She constantly reminded herself that Kakashi was her boss. That it was extremely unprofessional and not to mention unethical to develop any type of feelings for her clients other than friendly and professional ones. She was already dancing on a fine line in developing a friendship with the man.

Plus, she reasoned, that he would never hold such feelings to begin with. He was the CEO of a multimillion dollar company and could have anyone he wanted and she was obviously not a candidate in that area. She was just a bodyguard and doing a service for him. That the only reason he was being this nice and accommodating to her was because his life was literally in her hands. So of course he'd be extra nice, right?

Once her job was done and her services were no longer needed, she would leave. He would probably easily forget about her and move on with his own life and do whatever he did before all this drama began.

She refused to allow herself to think of it beyond that point. If anything, it caused her to invest herself more into her work to distract herself from the wandering thoughts.

Turning off the water to the shower, Sakura stepped out and grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself as she hummed along to a song she heard on the radio while she worked out earlier. She walked over to and stood in front of the giant mirror that hung above the sink and gave herself a once over.

There was nothing special to look at, she always thought, she wasn't curvy, curvy like a lot of women and didn't have the biggest breasts. She felt herself to be very average and she was content with that. The only things she thought were unique about herself were her bright green eyes and pink hair.

She silently noted that her hair was getting a little long as she twirled a strand of the damp locks between her fingers and she should go get it trimmed up next weekend. Giving herself a cheeky wink and blowing a kiss at the mirror, she turned to exit the bathroom to get to her room to get dressed for the day.

Opening the door and stepping out, she suddenly crashed into something hard and barely managed to catch herself from falling backwards onto her ass. Opening her eyes to see what caused this, she shriek in terror when she found Kakashi staring down at her stunned and wide eyed.

"Kakashi! What are you doing here!?" she yelled as she clutched the towel tighter around herself, "Stop staring!"

She watched as a bright red blush came to him as he jerked his head to the side and away from her.

"I was walking down the hall to the kitchen when you suddenly opened the door and walked into me!" he replied as he continued intently staring off away from her.

Sakura felt mortified at his reply. After they both completed their morning runs on the treadmills, they had both gone to take showers and get dressed for the day. Shaking her head furiously, she stormed passed him down the hall toward her room.

"Well, I'm sorry! I'll be ready in a little while!" she shouted back as she slammed the door to her room shut.

Pressing her back against the door, she threw her hands into her face and let out a quiet groan.

'How embarrassing!'

Kakashi stood speechless in the hall for a moment after she ran into her room. He wasn't expecting to run into Sakura in that moment, let alone run in to her practically naked and dripping wet from the shower.

He felt his face get hot again at the thought of her being naked and shook his head to try and get rid of the image.

'Don't do be stupid! You'll only make things weird if you go thinking about her being naked! She's got a killer body though… She's fit as hell. I wonder what she does look like under that towel… No! Stop it, Kakashi! She'd snap my neck if she knew what I was thinking right now!'

Letting out a low groan, he rushed into the kitchen and began making them breakfast and to distract himself from thinking any further about Sakura standing in front of him in just a towel that he wished had conveniently fallen open.

'Dude, stop it!' he silently berated himself.

Thirty minutes later, he heard the door to Sakura's room open and close. Seconds later he heard her quietly pad her way into the kitchen and grab the plate of food he just finished making and immediately go to the large island and begin eating.

Kakashi grabbed his plate made his way over to the island and took a seat at the island, making sure to leave a seat in between them. Taking a few bites of the breakfast burrito he made, he finally mustered up the energy to speak once the air between them became too awkward for his liking.

"Are you okay?" he asked as he turned to look at the bodyguard.

He watched her freeze up momentarily, her fork of the breakfast burrito pausing at her lips.

"I'm fine." she replied quickly before returning to her food.

'No, you're not…'

"I'm sorry for staring earlier… I just didn't expect to run into you like, uh, like that. I'm sorry if I offended you in any way."

Sakura stood up abruptly from her stool and turned to face him with a smile he knew she was forcing.

"It's okay, you don't need to apologize. It was an accident and accidents happen. I should've been more aware of my surroundings too."

Before getting a chance to even think up a reply, Sakura grabbed her empty plate and walked over to the sink to rinse it off before putting it in the dishwasher.

"I'm ready whenever you are. I'll be in my room taking care of a couple things before we leave. Come get me when you're ready to go." she added quickly, before turning and leaving him alone in the kitchen.

Kakashi stared intently down at the remaining plate of food. He felt more confused now then he did before he opened his mouth. Why was Sakura acting so odd? He apologized the best he could and she basically accepted it, yet she was still acting weird. Closing his eyes, he let out a sigh before finishing up the last of his food and fetching Sakura so they could leave for the day.

Two hours later, the pair found themselves walking around the bookstore he frequented often. Sakura was quieter than usual and Kakashi knew it had to have been from their little collision this morning. He tried to keep up small talk, but it was proving difficult when he would only get simple replies from her.

"You've visited this place four times in the last month alone." she suddenly pointed out.

Looking up from the book he was holding, he studied her for a second before nodding in agreement.

"I have, yes."

Sakura continued staring aimlessly at the books next to her as she spoke.

"Do you have an investment in this store or something?"

"No, I don't. I just read a lot." he quickly replied, "Why do you ask?"

He watched her half shrug at his own question back.

"I was just wondering. You seem to really enjoy this place and reading in general. It's surprising you don't already have investments in some bookstores or publishing companies."

Kakashi was left dumbfounded for a moment at her statement.

'She's absolutely right… Why didn't I think of this sooner?'

"I guess the thought never really crossed my mind before. I'll look into it and if it proves beneficial, maybe I'll work something out." he replied confidently.

"Plus, you could invest or donate money to reading programs. Spread your love for books and reading to help promote young readers and maybe even revive dying libraries in Konoha." she added on.

Kakashi watched on in silent awe as Sakura silently went along with her business like what she just said wasn't an absolute genius idea. It would not only benefit him financially, but it would give him amazing PR if he did those program investments and donations. He silently slapped himself for not thinking of this sooner and wondered how his advisors and board members missed something so obvious too.

A little while later after they browsed around some more, the duo left the bookstore with a bag full of books.

"I'd say that was a successf-"

"Kakashi! Get down!" Sakura yelled, interrupting him.

The next thing Kakashi knew was the sensation of being shoved down. He heard someone shout and then Sakura yell some more as he hit the cold snow covered ground and the sound of a scuffle taking place next to him.

The sudden sound of a single gunshot rang in his ears and then heard nothing but a deafening silence.

A/N: Another late upload. :( I seriously hate my internet provider...

But I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! We're slowly getting into the good stuff!

Please leave a review if you can! I'm excited to finally get into the actual story! Hit follow too if you don't wanna miss updates since my usual every two week update is unpredictable at this point...

Thank you to my beta, Taytay95, for being awesome and working with me through all these updates! Go check out her own KakaSaku stories!