Chapter 8

The moment they stepped outside the store, Sakura sensed something was wrong. Turning around to look behind them as they started walking down the street, her eyes went wide when she saw the mystery man from last month sprinting at them with a gun in his hand.

"I'd say that was a successf-"

"Kakashi! Get down!" she yelled, interrupting him and shoving him down and away.

Stepping to obstruct the man's view of Kakashi, she saw he was a lot closer than before. She didn't have time to pull out her own gun she realized, so she readied herself for a physical fight.

"Move!" he shouted at her.

"Like hell I will!" she shouted back as she lunged at the gunman, "Drop the weapon!"

She missed grabbing the arm that held the hand gun, but was able to get a firm grasp of his left arm as he tried to use it to shove her to the side. Using her full body weight, she threw herself to her right and yanked his arm to the side and pushed back, causing the man to jerk to the side and face away from Kakashi.

"I said move, you bitch!" he grunted as he swung his free arm down at her.

Sakura instantly felt something cold and hard strike her left cheek with such force it caused her head to snap to the right. Refusing to let the overbearing pain get to her, she continued her plan of bringing down and disarm the wannabe assassin.

'I can't let him get hurt!'

With her arms still firmly holding onto his left arm, she turned again and pressed her back against his chest. Using the momentum of her turn, Sakura braced herself as she leaned forward and used everything in her to pull the hefty man over her shoulder and flip him onto his back.

The sudden sound of a gunshot by her head caused her to move even faster. An image of Kakashi popped into her head in that moment and panic consumed her as her ears rang so loud it drowned out everything else. She was running on pure adrenaline at this point.

Sakura opened her eyes and found the gunman on his back gasping for air from having the wind knocked out of him. She kept her grip on his wrist and quickly moved before he could and stepped on his right wrist with such force that he released the gun he was holding with a cry. Kicking the gun away from his reach, she quickly twisted the arm she held and forced him to roll onto his stomach as she snatched up his other arm.

"Sakura!" she heard Kakashi shout out.

She felt a wave of relief flood into he hearing his voice and knowing that the stray bullet didn't hit him, but she couldn't focus on that right now. With her knee pressed into the man's neck, she held his wrists as she quickly reached into her jacket and pulled out a pair of handcuffs and subdued him for good.

"You good for nothing bitch!" the man grunted beneath her, "You're ruining everything!"

Sakura just rolled her eyes at the insults hurled at her.

The sound of sirens and bystanders shouting, pulled her out of the adrenaline rush she had been experiencing. With a tired sigh, she stood up as two police officers ran to her side.

"Ma'am, we can take it from here. Thank you for stopping him. Was there a weapon?" one of them spoke up and asked.

Sakura pointed to the handgun sitting a few feet away.

"He fired one shot, I don't know where it went though." she informed them.

"Sakura!" she heard Kakashi shout again.

Turning around to finally face him, he quickly moved towards her with fear clearly written on his face.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt? He fired a shot, it didn't hit you, did it!?" she frantically asked as he stopped barely a foot away from her.

"I'm fine!" he quickly replied.

"Oh, thank goodness!" she sighed happily as he watched her shoulders relax.

"Are you insane, by the way!? He had a gun and you threw yourself at him!" he scolded loudly.

She knew he wasn't angry with her. He was just concerned about her well being.

'She could have died! That stray bullet could've hit her!'

"Insanity gets the job done." she shot back with a cheeky smile and wink, "Plus, I didn't have time to get my gun out, so hand to hand combat is the next thing to do"

He stared at her baffled for a moment before he finally started to look her over and felt his heart drop at the sight of a bloody gash on her face

"You're bleeding!" he gasped.

"I am?"

Kakashi reached up then and tenderly cupped her left cheek to get a better look and assess her wound. He watched her flinch slightly at the motion and contact and he felt dread invade him.

'She threw herself in harm's way to protect me… She didn't even know she got hurt! She could've gotten killed…'

He watched as she brought her hand up and touched her face and winced again at the pain it brought her. Looking at her now red fingers, he watched her frown at the sight. She looked down then to her shirt and jacket and the frown she was sporting only deepened.

"Great, now I've ruined this coat and shirt!" she grumped quietly to herself, "I just got this shirt too! I really liked this one!"

Kakashi watched her with wide eyes as she stood there grumbling about ruined clothes when she was bleeding rather profusely from her face. He glanced down to where she was looking, he saw the cream colored tartan coat she was wearing had soaked up a lot of her blood and the white blouse under it was also assisting in the task.

"We need to get you to a hospital!" he interjected, interrupting her from her tangent of ruined clothes, "I think Konoha Sacred Heart is nearby. Come on, let's go."

He felt Sakura immediately stiffened under his hold. Her hand shot up to where he was holding her cheek and gripped it to prevent either of them from moving. She looked up to him with her own wide eyes and he found a genuine fear registering in those bright green eyes for the first time ever.

"No! Absolutely not!" she practically shouted at him.

Kakashi's face twisted up in confusion at her outburst.

"You need to be checked out! You got cut pretty good and your face is starting to swell. I don't want you to get an infection or something, Sakura!" he tried arguing, but the pinkette began shaking her head frantically in his hand as her hold on his hand tightened even more so.

"No! I will not go to that hospital!" she cried softly.

Kakashi froze at the tone she replied in. She sounded like she was on the verge of tears. He didn't miss the emphasis she had placed on the word "that." Instinctively, he let his thumb swipe across her cheek in attempt to bring comfort. She looked up to him again and he had been correct on his assumption. There were tears threatening to spill over and she was working desperately to hold them back.

'Why doesn't she want to go to that hospital?'

"Okay, we don't have to go to that hospital. Can we at least go to another one?" he bargained lightly with her in a comforting tone, "You need to be seen, Sakura."

Sakura looked away from him for a moment as she contemplated her answer and to get her emotions back under control. Her near death grip loosened some.

"Okay." she finally said as she looked back to him, "But we need to finish up here first. The police are going to need our initial statements before we can leave."

Kakashi stifled an annoyed sigh. He didn't want to argue any further with her right now. He was able to convince her to at least go to a hospital to get checked out, so he guessed he could wait just a little while longer before going.

When she released his hand, he let go of her and watched as she turned to go speak to the police. He looked down at his now blood covered hand and felt a cold shiver run down his spine as it registered inside him that, that was her blood and not his.

His mind flickered back to four months prior. The day his father was killed and he lost his eye. His hands were covered in a mixture of his and his father's blood. The urge to throw up washed over him, but he was able to stop himself in time and swallowed hard.

'I can't have anymore blood on my hands. I can't let her get hurt again…'

It took twenty minutes before they could give their statements to the police and were told that there would be follow up interviews before they finally were able to leave. Kakashi all but carried Sakura to the waiting SUV and quickly instructed his driver to take them to Konoha General, a hospital near his house.

"Kakashi, I'm fine. You really don't need to go to these lengths. It's just a simple cut. I've been hurt before in the line of duty and this is nothing." she spoke up, breaking the anxious silence that filled the treatment room they were sitting in, "You definitely don't need to be here either, you can go home."

Kakashi shot her a stern look as he sat in the provided chair with his arms crossed over his chest.

"I'm not leaving your side right now." he said flatly.

Sakura just rolled her eyes at him as she brought the ice pack the admitting nurse gave her up to her injured cheek. He felt some of his irritation leave at the reassuring sight of her acting normally again. He was also thankful that the bleeding had slowed down and pretty much stopped shortly after they arrived at the hospital.

He felt his hand twitch at the memory of her blood covering it. He had washed his hands when they got to the treatment room, but it felt like they still weren't clean enough and had washed them two more times since.

The smells of the hospital brought him back to night that he was admitted after the accident. One eye patched and blinded. His hands stained with the dried blood of his dead father.

Kakashi couldn't stop thinking about what happened since the moment he laid eyes on her injury. And, the fear and pain it brought to his core.

He shifted his eyes to the young woman on the small bed in front of him.

She had selflessly thrown herself in harm's way to protect him and took a grown man over double her size down in less than a minute. He felt like a complete idiot for ever doubting her skills and abilities. She had told him multiple times over the last month that she was more than capable and he was ignorant and didn't listen.

He suddenly felt exhausted. The events of the last couple hours finally sinking in. Glancing down to the wristwatch he was wearing, he noted it also slowly approaching three in the afternoon. The urge to be in the safety and comfort of his home was at an all time high. He just wanted to take Sakura and leave to make sure she was safe too.

He was sick and tired of hospitals.

Kakashi looked back up to Sakura and watched her for a moment. She was madly typing away onto her phone, working no doubt since she's mentioned a few times that she has no personal or social life.

Shortly after arriving to the emergency room, a nurse had given Sakura a scrub top so she could change of the blood soaked blouse and coat. She looked odd sitting there wearing the hospital blue top while also wearing black leggings and a pair of dark brown knee high boots. The nurse was even kind enough to give her a bag to put the ruined clothing in to take home with them.

"Thank you." he spoke up again, calmer than the moment earlier.

Sakura looked up from her phone and gave him a puzzled look.

"Why are you thanking me?"

"I'm thanking you for saving me. Saving my life." he explained, "I'm sorry for ever doubting you."

A small smile came to her lips at his words of appreciation.

"You're welcome. It's my job after all to protect you. I'll always make sure I do my job to the best of my abilities." she replied softly.

Kakashi pursed his lips at her statement and nodded. He knew she was being professional and courteous to him. However, he didn't want that professionalism from her in this moment. He thought back to the weak moment she showed him earlier and how quickly she managed to reel herself in.

'She's human like the rest of us. But she hides it so well.'

"I feel awful that you got hurt." he mumbled as he dropped his head and stared down at his lap.

"I would do it all over again if it meant that you'd be safe, Kakashi." she spoke again in that same soft tone.

'You could've died…'

"You could've died." he repeated the distressing thought out loud as he looked up and locked eyes with her.

They held an intense stare down for a few moments before Sakura broke contact and looked away into the room. He could tell she was struggling with what she wanted to say.

"But I didn't." she said in a serious tone, trying to mask the whirlpool of emotions he saw in her eyes moments earlier, "All that matters is that you're safe and that guy was taken down and arrested. Hopefully this will give us some answers and we can finally settle all of this."

Kakashi felt something pull at his heart at the mention of this possibly finally being resolved. He was thankful at the possibility of being able to go about his life in a normal way again. But once this was done and over with, he wouldn't need her as a bodyguard anymore and she would leave.

'I don't want her to leave… Not yet.'

Before getting a chance to reply, a knock came from the door and the doctor walked in and greeted Sakura with a warm smile. He was thankful for the distraction. This meant that they would get to go home soon.

It also stopped him from saying something he might regret later. But would he regret saying that he didn't want her to leave just yet? Not really, but he didn't know how she would react. She could be itching to leave for all he knew. To go to her next assignment and protect someone else. Sakura had mentioned that she was essentially a nomad and never got the chance to settle down into one place for long before she had to up and move to her next assignment.

Did she want to settle down in one place? He recalled the fact that she was a doctor and could probably fall back into that career whenever she pleased. Or did she want to continue on with this nomadic career? Why was she even a bodyguard to begin with?

Kakashi silently watched as the doctor assessed her cut cheek before she started to clean the wound. He made eye contact with her again as the woman gently tilted her head to the right to get a better look at the cleaned up damaged flesh. She shot him a dazzling smile and he felt himself go breathless at the sight. Even when injured and donning a half swollen face that was beginning to bruise, she looked completely beautiful he realized.

An hour later, Kakashi and Sakura finally walked back into his place and both sang a sigh of relief at the welcome comfort it brought.

"I'm gonna go work some more on my reports." she said as she started making her way towards the hallway.

Kakashi reached out and caught her wrist in his hand before she got to far away. Sakura froze for a second before turning to face him.

"That can wait, you need to relax right now." he said quietly, not letting go of his gentle hold of her, "Go rest on the couch and watch something. I'll make us something to eat and join you in a little bit."

Sakura's earlier confusion was replaced with an astounded look before it changed into a dirty look.

"I'm fine, Kakashi. You're my boss, you don't need to be doing this. I don't need to be pitied. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

Yet Sakura made no move to pull herself free from him, so Kakashi tightened his hold on her wrist ever so slightly to add emphasis on what he said next.

"I'm not pitying you, Sakura. I just want to make sure you're okay, alright?" he replied, trying to keep the annoyance from entering his voice, "And I don't care that I'm technically your boss either, that doesn't matter to me. You know it doesn't. I just want you to relax and get some rest. It's been a stressful day."

Sakura looked down to where he was holding onto her for a minute before he watched her shoulders slump in defeat.

"Fine, but I get to pick what we're having for dinner." she countered with as she looked back up to him with a half smirk.

A small laugh escaped him at the sight and negotiation.

"Alright, what do you have in mind?"

"BLT's." she quickly replied.

His laugh grew louder at the simple dinner of choice. They stood there for a few moments grinning at each other, before Kakashi reluctantly released her wrist and took a half step towards her.

"Okay, I can do that. Now go relax, missy." he said as he shooed her towards the living room, "I'll bring it to you."

"Now look at the who the bossypants is?" she giggled quietly as she walked away from him to the couch.

Closing his eyes while still quietly laughing, he shook his head as he turned and made his way into the kitchen to begin making their dinner.

A/N: Hello and thank you for being patient and not murdering me over that cliff hanger from the other week!

What did you guys think of this chapter? I've never written action/fighting scenes like this before so I'm hoping I did it some justice! Sakura totally kicked ass and Kakashi is just in aweeeeee.

Please leave a review if you can! I love hearing how you guys interpret this story!

Shoutout to Taytay95 for being THE BEST beta ever! She added some bits that made this chap flow soooo nice! Very thankful for her!