Chapter 9
After eating, Kakashi and Sakura changed into their pajamas and decided to watch a movie since it was still early and neither one really didn't want to do much else. However, Sakura fell asleep about thirty minutes into the film much to his amusement. Looking over to the sleeping woman who had managed to sprawl out on her end of the couch. He smiled to himself as he remembered how she tried arguing, rather passionately, that she didn't need to rest.
'You shouldn't have to work yourself so hard…'
Getting up, he walked over to the basket of blankets he kept at the other end of the large sectional couch near the fireplace and grabbed two. Kakashi turned back and noted just how small she was laying here in comparison to the huge piece of furniture around her.
'I still don't know how she took down a guy who was bigger than me…'
He walked back over to Sakura and sat down the extra blanket and tucked the other one around her so she could stay warm while she continued sleeping. He noted just how exhausted she looked while he tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear.
He froze in place when she began to stir at his touch. Worry flooded him that she might get the wrong idea with him being this close if she woke up, but he was stuck where he was kneeling out of fear. Sakura let out a soft sigh a second later before she shifted and cozied herself further under the blanket.
He watched as a small smile came to her plump lips and he couldn't help his own smile in response.
Turning back around, he grabbed the two empty dinner plates from the coffee table and brought them to the kitchen before running to use the bathroom. On his way out, he stepped across the hall into his personal library and grabbed the book he had been reading that week.
His eyes lingered on the paper bag full of books that sat on the table in the center of the little library. Kakashi reasoned with himself that if they would've never left the house today, she would have never gotten hurt.
His mind went back to the conversation he and Sakura shared earlier that day about investments and donations as he exited the room.
'I still can't believe I didn't think of that. She's absolutely brilliant. I'll need to tell Shikamaru about this tomorrow if I get the chance.'
Kakashi walked around the house and turned off all the lights except for one side table light next to the couch. Finally settling back down few feet from the sleeping bodyguard, he turned the TV down and back to a random show and leaned back into the couch and covered himself with the second blanket he had grabbed earlier.
He just couldn't bring himself to leave Sakura's side right now. Even if she was sleeping, he felt reassured knowing that she was safe next to him. He knew she was capable of protecting herself, especially so after watching her in action today, but he still had this odd instinctive urge to protect her himself.
'There's no way I could've taken that guy down myself that quickly… I may have boxing training, but I don't have any training to disarm a gunman like she does. Maybe I should ask her to show me a couple of moves?'
He watched her sleep for a while instead of reading like he planned to do. Everytime he started reading, he'd end up glancing over to check on her and never returned the book in his lap.
He watched as her chest rose and fell in deep even breaths. She looked so peaceful lying there.
He knew she was naturally beautiful, but this was the first time he actually got to look at her without worry that she was going to call him out. She had faint freckles peppered over her cheeks and nose. He noticed just how pink her hair was in the messy bun she had it pulled up into. His eyes fell onto a thin and straight white scar on the left side of the back of her neck.
'I wonder if that's another work related injury…' he thought with a slight frown.
He glanced over at the large bandage that covered her left cheek. He was so thankful when the emergency room doctor said she didn't need stitches and just used some weird tape to seal the cut after cleaning it up.
With proper care, she said that she probably wouldn't have a scar. Not that he cared, she would still be beautiful either way in his opinion. Plus, he had a huge scar across his own face as well and a new eye, so he couldn't compare or complain.
Deciding to give up on reading since he grew more and more tired as the time passed, he closed and tossed the book onto the coffee table. Leaning back, he scooted himself down and laid down onto the couch with his head a few few away from Sakura's.
"Goodnight, Sakura." he whispered as he dozed off himself.
Sakura woke up with a start from the sound of her phone ringing and found she was still on the couch from the night before. She stared down at the blanket covering her with confusion. She never remembered grabbing one for herself, let alone sleeping on the couch in general. Quickly jumping up and grabbing her phone off the coffee table to answer, she turned and realized that Kakashi was sleeping just a few feet away.
"Sakura speaking." she said into the receiver as she quickly walked away into the kitchen so she wouldn't wake him.
"It's Shikamaru. Tenzo and I are going to be there in about thirty minutes to discuss the events of yesterday." he informed her.
Confusion flooded her then at his matter of fact tone.
"Wait, what? Thirty minutes? It's so early, why are you guys coming up now?" she asked frantically.
There was an awkward pause from the other end of the phone for a moment.
"Sakura, it's ten in the morning. It's not early at all."
Whipping around, she looked at the clock on the stove and confirmed that was indeed ten. She was thankful she was only talking on the phone then, since she felt an embarrassed blush come to her.
'Oh my god, I slept that long?! How irresponsible of me!'
"Oh my, I'm sorry. I must've slept in later than I thought. Kakashi is still sleeping right now too, I'll need to go wake him."
There was another half pause from the advisor before he replied.
"That's perfectly fine, Sakura." he spoke in a more reassuring tone this time, "We understand that you guys had a very long and stressful day yesterday and you got injured on top of it. We'll come up in about an hour then and let you guys wake up a little bit. The detectives will be there sometime between noon and one o'clock too."
"Alright, thank you very much. We should be ready by then." she replied.
Saying their goodbyes, she threw her phone down onto the kitchen counter and rushed back out to the living room. Approaching the sleeping CEO, she knelt down next to him and reached out and nudged his arm lightly.
"Kakashi, wake up." she whispered.
Kakashi's eyes snapped open as he seemed to quickly register that it was her waking him. Sitting up, he turned and looked at her with worried eyes.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?" he asked as he reached out to touch her bandaged cheek tenderly, "You're not in any pain are you?"
Sakura couldn't help but smile as a faint blush came to her cheeks at the worried nature he was suddenly displaying towards her. Reaching up, she laid her small hand on top of his much larger one and gave it a light squeeze.
"I'm fine, don't worry." she spoke softly, "But Shikamaru just called. He and Tenzo are going to be here in less than an hour."
She watched as Kakashi's face twisted up in confusion like hers had earlier.
"It's ten in the morning." she added quickly to answer the question she knew he'd ask next.
"Holy shit, we slept that long?" he asked as he made to stand up.
Letting go of her hold of his hand, she stood back up with him and nodded at his statement as a small laugh left her. He was doing a slight stretch as she spoke to him.
"Yes, we did. I can't believe it either, but we need to go get ready. The detectives are going to be here for their follow up too shortly after the guys get here."
Nodding at her, they both made their way to their respective bathrooms and rushed to get ready. Sakura took a quick shower and rushed to her room, silently thankful that she didn't run into Kakashi again like yesterday, and threw on the first things she could pull off the hangers.
Rushing back into the bathroom, she brushed out and dried her hair and braided it before wrapping it into a low bun. She then quickly brushed her teeth and put on a clean bandage before making her way back out to the kitchen.
She found Kakashi already cooking them breakfast much to her surprise. His own hair still damp from the shower and dressed in his usual work attire minus the suit jacket and tie, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
'How can he look so attractive so easily?'
"You clean up quick." she teased as she walked by him to the fridge and pulled out the orange juice to pour them each a small glass, "We still have twenty minutes to spare."
He only chuckled as he plated the french toast he made and carried them over to the kitchen island. Turning around, he brushed by her as he reached next to her and grabbed the syrup and silverware. The smell of his cologne invaded her nostrils and she felt a warm shiver run of her spine at the captivating earthy scent.
'Oh my.'
"You look nice too." he hummed next to her ear before he turned away back to the waiting food.
Sakura halted her actions as the words registered in her.
'Did he just say I look nice?'
She quickly regained control of herself with a quick shake if her head and grabbed the glasses and made her way over to him. Sakura watched as he silently went about his business and eat his french toast while she mulled over his possible compliment.
"Thank you." Kakashi mumbled as she sat one of the glasses next to him.
"No problem." she quickly replied as she busied herself with her own food.
'Did he mean that as a compliment or…?' she silently thought to herself as they sat there together eating their rushed breakfast.
"We'll also be taking the upcoming week off." Kakashi said once they finished giving Shikamaru and Tenzo the rundown of yesterday's incident, "I'll be doing all my work from home, so please cancel any meetings and appointments I had for the week. They should obviously understand given the circumstances. I'd like for Sakura to be able to rest and heal up."
Sakura turned and looked at him with a bewildered expression. This was something that they had not discussed beforehand and she wasn't about to let him decide this for her.
"What? No! I'm fine, Kakashi. A stupid cut like this isn't going to prevent me from doing my job!" she quickly shot out.
Shikamaru watched with wide eyes as the bodyguard berated their boss. Tenzo remained expressionless as the scene unfolded further.
"I've already made up my mind. There's no point in arguing." he stated flatly.
"You do not need to take time off of work for me to heal!"
Kakashi shot her a pointed look before he replied in a deep and serious tone.
"It's already been decided. End of discussion."
It took everything in her not let out the annoyed groan that had been building up inside her. She needed to remain professional instead of wringing his neck in frustration.
'Completely infuriating! He's treating me like I'm some fragile doll!'
Shooting the CEO a dirty look, she let out a quiet huff and crossed her arms as they all sat there in his office. The sudden sound of the doorbell caused her to immediately switch back into a more professional mindset.
"That must be the detectives." Tenzo piped up when Sakura stood to leave.
Going to the front door, she opened it to find two men dressed in rather nice suits. One brown and one navy blue.
"Hello, you two must be Obito and Madara?" she asked as she studied the two dark haired men.
"Yes," the one in the brown suit said, "I'm Madara and this is my partner, Obito. You must be Mr. Hatake's bodyguard? Sakura Haruno?"
Sakura just nodded once to confirm her true position.
"Alright, if you two will follow me. Kakashi is in his home office with his advisors, Shikamaru and Tenzo at the moment."
She quickly guided the men through the house and down the hallway to Kakashi's office. Once everyone settled into the provided seats and pleasantries were had, the two detectives cut right to the chase.
"Thanks to Ms. Haruno's bravery the other day, we were able to arrest the man that had been following you the other month." Obito spoke first as he nodded and gave Sakura a warm smile in acknowledgement in which she returned.
"Did you get any answers as to why he did this?" Kakashi asked, not wasting any time himself.
"While processing him, we quickly figured out that he was not from the Fire Nation. That's why we were unable to find him in any of our systems. He's from way out west, from the Land of Vegetables." Madara was the one to reveal this.
"The Land of Vegetables?" Tenzo spoke for the first time since the meeting started, "We have no connections or business there though."
Sakura glanced over at the usually quiet businessman as he spoke and quietly noted he was right. She had been given a list of their investments and companies they were involved with and Land of Vegetables was not on any list she had seen. It was small country with no major industry besides farming and some mining.
"We've done three sit down interviews and interrogations with him since yesterday afternoon. He's been one hundred percent cooperative so far." Madara added.
"The man said he found an unmarked package on his doorstep one day nearly two months ago. When he opened it there was ten thousand dollars cash and an additional five thousand with instructions attached with it to use that chunk to come to Konoha and kill Kakashi. If he succeeded and was not caught, there would be an additional twenty thousand waiting for him at home." Obito continued to explain.
Sakura's mind was sorting through all this information at a rapid pace to figure out the next steps she would need to take.
'So the guy wasn't a trained professional… That explains why I was able to take him down so quickly. Whoever is after Kakashi is obviously impulsive then, they're probably desperate to get rid of him at this point since they failed to kill him back in July. That means there might be more random attacks like this… This isn't good…'
"So he knows nothing else? He hasn't spoken to anyone about this? No cellphone logs, texts, or paper trails? Partners?" Sakura asked her set of questions.
Both men shook their heads and frowns marred their stoic faces they had been displaying so far in this meeting. Sakura silently cursed to herself since this meant they didn't have the answers she was probably looking for. Her next worry was Kakashi because she knew he really wasn't going to like what they had to say.
"Nothing to point that he had any extra help. The package was unmarked so it wasn't sent through the mail. We already dispatched someone to his home to collect the package and check it for fingerprints. He said he used that five thousand cash to pay for his travel and lodging. Even his gun was paid for with cash. He's told us everything in hopes that we'll reduce his charges, which we aren't." Marada explained further.
There was a tense pause before Kakashi broke the silence.
"So you're telling me we've got nothing? Nothing at all? We're back at square one again?!" Kakashi interjected, his voice getting louder with every question, "We still don't know who is responsible for all this bullshit?!"
Sakura stared at him with wide eyes. She had never heard him get that loud before, let alone that angry sounding.
"Sadly, that's what it's looking like. But, what's good is we've taken out a threat and you're still safe." Obito spoke up in confident reply.
Kakashi stood up suddenly from his chair, the motion causing it to slide and skid across the hardwood floor, and slapped his hands hard down onto the desk in front of him before he pointed a finger at her. She flinched every so slightly at the action.
"Sakura was the one who took out the threat, this man! Not you! There is no "we" in this! I'm still safe and alive because of her!" he shouted at the two law enforcement officials, "She could've died and all you can say is "good"?! All you guys have done is sit around on your asses and figure out nothing!"
"Kakashi!" Sakura shouted as she stood from her own chair, "Calm down! They're doing their jobs the best they can! This isn't an easy process for anyone by any means!"
The two of them stared hard at each other as the other men in the room quietly watched on in horror as the CEO and bodyguard shouted at each other. She didn't know what overcame her then to have her own sudden outburst, but she couldn't stop herself once she set herself in motion.
"I'm not going to sit here and twiddle my thumbs! There's still a target on my back! Next time we get attacked, I could lose you! You already got hurt because of me, next time you might die!" he shouted back at her.
Sakura jerked back and froze at his words and was left speechless. Opening and closing her mouth a couple times, she struggled to get any words to come out. She watched something flicker through his mismatch eyes before he finally broke eye contact as he looked back down to his desk.
'Lose me…? Why is he saying that?'
She glanced down and away from his face and noticed his focus was on his hands then and that they had began to tremble ever so slightly. He must have noticed that she noticed and clenched them tightly.
"Mr. Hatake, please understand that we are trying our hardest. We've got a team working full-time on this investigation." Madara spoke up when the tension in the air was becoming too thick to handle, "We're just as frustrated as you are that we are getting no headway. But, we need to be thankful for the little progress we have made. Without Ms. Haruno, we wouldn't even have these answers for you now."
Kakashi just moved out from behind his desk and stormed out of the office and slammed the door closed behind him in the process.
"I'm so sorry for how he's acting." Sakura finally spoke as she turned to face the other men and bowed deeply, "I don't know what's gotten into him. He's been acting odd since this all happened yesterday."
She didn't understand why she was apologizing for his behavior, she had never apologized for any of her clients before. If anything, this whole interaction today has left her even more confused than ever before. Obito and Madara both stood then and gave her reassuring smiles and bows themselves.
"It's okay, Ms. Haruno. He's obviously still in some shock from the ordeal and definitely feels guilty that you got hurt in the process." Obito said, "So of course emotions are going to be running high."
"I still want to apologize for his behavior." she replied.
"Well, I'm guessing this interview is done since he left, so we'll be heading out." Madara spoke up, "We'll let you know if anything else comes up."
"Same for us," Shikamaru added as he and Tenzo both stood up, "We'll leave Kakashi in your hands. He's obviously not in the mood to deal with anyone at the moment."
Within a few minutes, Sakura saw all four men out and once the door was shut she let out a tired sigh. She looked back to the hallway and contemplated whether she should try to deal with Kakashi now or let him cool off some.
Her mind went back to what he shouted in the office about losing her.
'Why is he suddenly so worried about losing me?'
A/N: Welcome to the new Sunday update y'all! Now that AIFWHI is officially wrapped up (I'm still sad about it coming to an end...), I've decided to move this lovely story up from Friday updates to Sunday! I'm still updating every two weeks though because I want to focus more with this story and have more time to write, rewrite, and get properly inspired! Each chapter is precious to me and I want you guys to enjoy it too!
Okay, now to the story... What do you guys think of Kakashi's behavior then outburst in his office? He's so blind, lmao.
Please leave a review if possible! I seriously LOVE hearing from you guys! Hit follow too if you havent already because this is gonna be another long haul/slow burn story. ;)
Thank you as always to my wonderful and AMAZING friend and beta Taytay95 for all she does in helping make sure this chapters are just right for you! Go check out her own KakaSaku stories!