Naruto 1. Chapter 1

The streets of Blachna'al were transformed with delicate paper lanterns done in red and gold. Incense wafted on the breeze from a multitude of shrines set up on the streets to honor the golden dragon figure representing the god Kuryutsu. Music filled the air, and it seemed to Sakura that every intersection in the market district had become a dance floor with couples sensuously twirling to the beat in the sultry Wind Country night. From the table where she sat with her teammates however, the air was cool, and she was suddenly grateful for the soft black shawl that Kakashi-sensei had insisted she buy along with the full-skirted red festival dress she had procured earlier that day.

Sakura had despaired when she first realized that this covert mission to the distant Suna trading center would keep them out of town over her 16th birthday. They were to travel to Wind Country and drop off a few scrolls containing sensitive information pertaining to the movements of the core group of Hidden Sound ninjas left after the destruction of Orochimaru, then await the responses which Suna shinobi would not give until the illustrious and grand Golden Dragon Festival had drawn to a close. Sakura eventually changed her tune after Tsunade-shishou plied her with stories of the large and exotic city of Blachna'al and mentioned that since they were not to alert civilians to their status as leaf ninja, they would need to dress according to Wind festival customs. She filled Sakura's head with tales of streets cast in golden light filled with rich and varied food, exotic drinks and dancing until dawn.

It wasn't until later, once the mission was safely accepted and the plans for executing it had been made that Tsunade revealed to her apprentice that there was another task to be completed this week that was hers alone. Something that the others didn't need to know about, at least not yet. It was her birthday, after all. Sakura drank a bit more of the curious mint liquor that Sai had returned with from the drinks stall and contemplated her depressing situation. The socially inept artist appeared to be trying even harder than usual to understand the emotional undertones of the evening, having read that birthdays were important events to most people. He had asked her several tactless questions about her birthday so far--how did it feel to be closer to the moment of her death, was she sad because she was away from her friends and family for such an important birthday, would she be happier if she abandoned the mission and returned to Konoha in disgrace, etc. It certainly wasn't making things easier for her.

Sakura heaved a sigh and straightened the shoulder straps of her red dress nervously. She couldn't just sit here like a lump any longer sipping on mildly alcoholic syrupy drinks. Looking out across the square, Sakura envied the dancers who could so freely lose themselves in their motions. The music was calling to her, and she knew if she was going to be able to salvage anything from this farce of a birthday it was up to her to make it happen.

"So, who wants to dance with the birthday girl?" she asked, trying to imbue her voice with a bright cheerfulness she didn't really feel.

Five eyes turned toward her, not a one showing an ounce of enthusiasm for her suggestion. Somehow Sakura had expected a little more from Naruto at the very least. Where was all of the exuberance he usually displayed when the chance to impress her arose?

"You're joking, right?" asked Naruto incredulously. "Those people are dancing like crazy-perfect weird dances. I've never seen anything like it before! How would we know what to do?"

He gestured at the undulating people executing a synchronized twirl, first one way, then the other, the same way while clapping on the off-beats, then spin the other way, then double time then three snaps...so maybe the baka had a point. Sakura wasn't ready to give up however.

"Sai," she plied, "I bet you're not afraid of a little quick spinning?" She nudged him with her elbow.

"Why would I be afraid of moving in a circle?" asked Sai blankly. Then, proving that he could in fact string two thoughts together: "But I don't know how to do what they're doing."

Sakura felt like she was going to cry. She just needed to move--feel the air rushing around her. Even if just for one moment, she wanted to feel as lithe and desirable as the young women dancing around the square, being dipped and spun by strong and attentive partners. She needed to pretend to herself that one thing had gone right today.

This mission was a basic information exchange, with a seven-day lag period between dropping off the sensitive scrolls to the shinobi outpost in this prosperous city and the time the responses would be ready to return to Konoha. Since it was a three-day journey at top speed each way from Konoha, Tsunade and the elders determined it was worth the expense to put up the delivery team under the guise of being a band of traders visiting Blachna'al for the Golden Dragon Festival until they could return with the required responses. Since this particular group included Naruto, a masked man, a girl with bright pink hair and a socially challenged ex-ANBU member with a penchant for showing his midriff, it was less than ideal for a covert operation, but then, all manner of people were gathered for the five night long festival since it was only held once every eight years, giving them an amount of cover.

The team had already been in Blachna'al for two days, and Sakura could happily depart this second and run all the way back to Konoha without stopping if it meant not having to suffer through the desperately hot weather and antiquated customs. She had actually been forbidden from entering the building where the scroll exchange was to take place. And why? Because she was a woman. Even more infuriating was her male teammates' easy acceptance of the blatant sexism in every aspect of life here. This morning, she'd gone out early to the stalls to buy what she'd need in anticipation of this first night of the festival. Exasperatingly, she hadn't even been able to purchase her own festival dress, and had had to return to their rooms at a local inn with burning cheeks to ask Kakashi-sensei to come out and handle the transaction for her. Worse, he'd had the gall to look amused at the stream of righteous indignation that poured from her lips as they'd made the journey back to their rooms in the suffocating heat earlier that day.

Thus it was with some reluctance that she now turned to her sleepy-eyed team leader with a questioning glance. The extra moisture causing her eyes to glisten was not an act. Sakura was clearly reaching her breaking point.

"Sakura-chan, you know, I don't know how to do this kind of dance either..." Kakashi started gently, not wanting to further upset his young teammate.

Sakura turned her face away in order to keep a sob of frustration and disappointment from escaping. Why was she acting like such a baby? This was her sixteenth birthday, for crying out loud. Ninjas of Konoha were considered adults from their fourteenth birthday, or the day they passed their chunnin exam, whichever came first. That would mean two and a half years ago for this gifted medic. Sakura was deeply ashamed of her behavior, but all the pent-up frustration of being treated like something between a child, a possession, and an idiot had whittled away her patience to nothing.

All of this was more than evident on her face, causing Naruto to glance around for somewhere else to be and Sai to marvel once again at the strange and mysterious world of human emotion. Female emotion, in particular. Sakura pulled her small bag off the table, readying herself to retreat to their inn in despair.

"Oh fine." Kakashi pushed up the forest green scarf that he had been using to cover the sharingen in place of his hitai-ate. He kept his hand up, shading his eye from view as he rapidly scanned the movements and patterns made by the dancers.

Sakura's mouth was hanging open; she was completely shocked. A quick glance at her companions assured her that she was not the only one who had not at all expected this turn of events. Kakashi-sensei never used the sharingen idly! Sakura found herself following his churning gaze out to the dancers whose incomprehensible movements formed a sea of fluttering scarves and billowing skirts. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

"Okay." With his characteristic ambivalence Kakashi re-covered the sharingen and turned to Sakura. "I've got the gist of the motions and a few basic patterns, but even I won't be able to know exactly what's coming next. Are you ready for some practice in movement precognition? This is actually going to be good training in anticipating enemy movement, except instead of countering we will be mimicking them exactly."

During this little speech Kakashi had risen, straightened the gold sash on his black tunic embroidered with gold dragons and turned to his pink-haired teammate, holding out his hand.

Sakura stared up at him, and then at his outstretched hand, tentatively placing her fingers on his upturned palm. His skin felt rough against hers. Recent training for the jounin medic exam had kept her from all but the most rudimentary physical training, and she marveled that her callouses could have faded to the extent that they had. Of course, Kakashi-sensei had been working on his a bit longer than she.

"You two. Watch the stuff."

Her excitement and trepidation grew as her masked partner drew her through the crowd of spectators and into the whirling throng of dancers. When they were thoroughly surrounded, Kakashi stopped, made a short bow followed by a kindly eye crease of a smile, and waited for Sakura to perform the requisite curtsy. She did this to the best of her understanding, clutching the fabric of her full crimson skirt, and then they were off.

Kakashi spun her with a surety that belied his inexperience with this dance. Sakura could barely respond to the first few turns and dips, instead just allowing him to pull her and push her one way or the other. However, she gradually grew accustomed to the movements, and began to cast surreptitious glances at the other women in the crowd, noticing their graceful arm movements and the way their bodies always carefully maintained an awareness of the space between them and their partners. She found with every stanza of the rich music she was better able to anticipate the next series of claps or snaps.

She was concentrating so hard on this observation that she was startled into tripping up slightly when Kakashi leaned into her and said in a low voice, "That's probably enough staring Sakura. You should be able to keep it up on your own now. Just relax your movements, I'll help you stay on track with the steps. There's too much tension in your frame."

Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the mini-lecture, and instead tried to do as her former teacher asked. Even though it had been four years since she'd become Tsunade's apprentice and had last felt obliged to suck up to this particular genin instructor, old habits died hard. Sakura drew herself up straight and then forced her body to relax, as if she were suspended from a string at the top of her head. She allowed herself to be guided by the driving beat, reaching with her arms in the sinuous and snakelike motion that came so naturally to the other dancers. Sakura slowly started to move her hips with each motion, gradually gaining the kind of undulating momentum achieved by the others in the crowd.

Despite knowing that she should expect nothing less from the famed Copy Nin, Sakura couldn't help but be impressed by the confident and precise way he spun her this way and that, releasing her hands to clap or snap, and seamlessly whirled her back up into a turn or a small dip. His lithe movements contrasted with the rather bored expression that remained plastered on what little of his face was not covered by the familiar dark blue fabric of his mask.

Completely involuntarily, Sakura felt her pulse race as the music around them swelled in a fierce crescendo, increasing in tempo and forcing the dancers to whirl ever faster and more wildly. The tension rose until the build up to the final chord released and Sakura found herself pressed up against Kakashi in a dip far deeper than any during the dance thus far. She found her gaze trapped by his visible dark grey eye and was suddenly more aware of his body than she had been at any point in their dance. She felt his strong hands supporting her back, and the tensed muscle of his thigh against hers as one of her hands rested behind his neck, allowing her other arm to gracefully follow the arc of her back, just brushing the ground below her. Over the sweet clouds of incense covering the street, Sakura was aware of the smell of the anise liquor Kakashi had been drinking back at their table, and some other unidentifiable scent that she had always associated with the outdoors and possibly marathon training sessions. The blood rushed to her cheeks and she wondered if there had perhaps been more alcohol in her mint syrup drink than she'd been aware of.

* * * *

Shortly after the shock of their team leader whisking their medic off into the complex and foreign dance, Naruto and Sai had abandoned their table to get a better view of what Naruto was sure would be Sakura making a horrifyingly embarrassing spectacle of herself. He and Sai scrambled up on top of some handy crates to better witness the hilarity of Kakashi-sensei and Sakura awkwardly trying to blend in with the festival-goers.

At first, things went much as he'd expected, and Naruto had guffawed loudly at the way Sakura had snapped back and forth in her spins, much like the ping pong ball attached by elastic string to a paddle. After a little while though, things became less and less funny as Sakura caught on to the rhythms and flows of the dance and Naruto became accustomed to the weirdness that was his former sensei dancing. With a girl. With Sakura-chan. He'd actually remarked on how bizarre Kakashi looked to Sai and was shocked when a Wind Country woman who had overheard quickly interrogated him as to the status of the mysterious masked man with the shock of wild silver hair who was dancing so intensely with his crimson-clad partner. Though it took a little while for him to get it, Naruto eventually realized with no small amount of distress that the woman was asking in hopes of securing Kakashi for the next dance. He scowled over his shoulder when two men began arguing drunkenly about which of them would be the one to next dance with the foreign beauty with the outlandish hair the color of the cherry blossoms her country was known for. Attempting to make conversation, Sai remarked that the couple had caught onto the dance moves quickly. Naruto scowled even more intensely when he caught sight of the deep dip that ended the dance, with Sakura's arm draped gracefully beneath her, and one pale slender leg slipping from beneath her skirt to arch skyward.

Kakashi righted his partner, thinking that he had done his duty to the birthday girl and could now return to his table and his drink and perhaps the _Icha Icha_ novel that was tucked into the back of his pants under his tunic. Unhappily for his plans, Sakura was casting glances around her, and removing the black shawl from around her shoulders and copying the other women on the floor by tying it loosely around her hips in anticipation of the next song. Kakashi cleared his throat to suggest that they return to Naruto and Sai, but was immediately met with the hopeful and excited face of the team medic. She was just too precious to refuse, with her big wide-set eyes and full lips primed to pout at the slightest encouragement to leave.

"I suppose you want to dance the next one too?" he sighed, hoping to make his feelings on the matter clear.

"Yes! Thank you!" squealed Sakura, giving him a quick impulsive hug, before hesitantly finishing, "...Kakashi-sempai."

"Did she just call me sempai?" thought Kakashi. He couldn't recall her having done that before. But he was given little time to dwell on this development as the next song was heralded by a soulful violin solo. It was a slower-paced song, but no less challenging for the two to execute, especially since Kakashi hadn't had a look with the sharingen to ascertain the underlying patterns of motion. Both partners found themselves thoroughly occupied with figuring out the structure of the dance, as this one incorporated a few lifts that neither had any experience with. Thankfully, Kakashi had little trouble hoisting up his medic while slowly turning, and Sakura was too engaged in ascertaining what to do with her hands to worry about the propriety of her former sensei's hands on her inner thighs.

As they became accustomed to it, the movements became more natural, and Sakura and Kakashi found each other drawn into a kind of fluid intimacy that was impossible to ignore. Sakura felt drunk on the languid movements of the dance, and found herself wishing this feeling of freedom could go on forever. She was acutely aware of Kakashi's touch on her hips, and quite happily wound her arms around his neck. That was, after all, how the dance was executed, and Sakura was nothing if not an observant student.

The slower and more intense song wound to a close, but this time neither former student nor ex-teacher made to leave the dance floor. They were immediately assaulted by a driving beat, and Sakura looked around to see the some of the older couples leave the floor. The younger women, however, were making use of the curious ribbon ties that were threaded through their long skirts to tie them up as high as they dared. Sakura quickly fumbled with the four ribbons on her dress, which when cinched created fetching gathers in the material and trailed long beneath her. The gold ribbons in her crimson skirt matched those used to tie up the bodice of her dress, and the gold scarf tied in her hair.

She quickly abandoned fussing with her clothing as Kakashi swept her closer in a more upbeat dance that required more bodily contact than either of the others. Sakura hid her blush in Kakashi's chest, as she hoped that Naruto would not be able to see this from her table. She did not, however, entertain any notions of stopping. As one, all of the men on the floor picked up their partners and spun them clockwise, bodies pressed close to one another. Down, then the couples rocked apart and back together.

From his perch on the crate, Naruto watched in horrified fascination as Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-chan joined the writhing couples on the dance floor. As if the last song wasn't bad enough! Seeing his teacher and his longtime crush dancing like that would certainly have driven Naruto to some foolish action if they were not completely surrounded by couples engaging in exactly the same movements. Even so, he couldn't take any more of the standing and waiting on the sideline, clutching Sakura's purse like an idiot. As unpleasant as the realization was, it was dawning on Naruto that he could not possibly picture himself out there dancing like that with Sakura, and while he wished she wasn't dancing like that at all, he couldn't deny that her motions were expressing more happiness than he'd seen her have yet today. It was her birthday, after all.

"Let's get out of here," he said to Sai, who shrugged and followed him off of the crate and into the crowd toward the nearest food stand. He hoped he would find some ramen to help him think through the feelings he'd churned up.

***

They'd been dancing furiously for at least two hours without ceasing. The couples around them were starting to thin, but neither Kakashi nor Sakura could bring themselves to ask to stop. They had discovered a kind of rhythm or symbiosis between the two of them that neither had ever expected to find, and it was so new and fragile that it seemed impossible for it to exist past the dance. So they kept dancing. Sakura's eyes no longer strayed to the other dancers to try to find her way, and Kakashi's face had lost its usual sleepy expression. On the contrary, he felt compelled to hold Sakura's gaze with an intensity that was beginning to trouble him.

To Sakura, however, this development was the most promising thing that had happened to her on this mission thus far. She wanted to keep dancing forever, to somehow dance herself through the task that Tsunade-shishou had set before her and back home before she regained control of herself. She briefly allowed her eyes to close, focusing on the feeling of Kakashi's body moving against hers.

+AN: This is maybe perhaps a one-shot, the first part of a story about their trip, or the very beginning of a much longer and more complex story. Is this a good start? Is it confusing? Let me know what you think! Constructive criticism is always appreciated!+


	2. Chapter 2

_She wanted to keep dancing forever, to somehow dance herself through the task that Tsunade-shishou had set before her and back home before she regained control of herself. She briefly allowed her eyes to close, focusing on the feeling of Kakashi's body moving against hers._

Her action was instead reluctantly taken by her partner to mean that it was high time to get Sakura off the dance floor and back to the inn so that she could tumble into bed. Kakashi's eye widened as he realized how vividly he was picturing Sakura's tumble into bed--as if he were in fact the one pushing her, maybe after having unlaced her crimson dress and pulled it over her pretty pink head.

"I think it's time to quit while we're ahead, Sakura," he said, trying to make his tone as friendly as possible, as much to convince himself as her that his intentions were honorable. It was times like this that Kakashi almost regretted his penchant for _Icha Icha_ novels. He could swear this whole Wind country dancing thing, right down to the tender age of the girl in his arms, was right out of _Icha Icha Entanglement_. He would look it up when he got back to his apartment, he decided. Time to let go of the hentai thoughts. This was Sakura, after all, not some fictional character whose sole purpose for existing was to provide the action in Jiraiya's books.

Sakura's eyes snapped open, mostly in surprise at feeling, and not just hearing, the voice come from her partner as he slowed his movements. She pulled away from his chest slightly to look up with him.

"Yes," she said, with a little frown of regret at the cessation of their movement, "I suppose we ought to stop."

"But I'm not tired at all!" she declared, pulling him by his hand toward the edge of the dance floor. "Let's have something to drink please, I'm thirsty."

Kakashi eyed her a little skeptically, as if expecting her to keel over asleep on her feet, but followed her as she tugged him towards the nearest drinks vendor.

"Hey mister!" Sakura happily called to the vendor. "Give me something good--it's my birthday! One for my friend too!"

So they were friends now? Kakashi couldn't help but raise his eyebrows at the behavior of his teammate as the men ladling out drinks loudly congratulated her on the auspiciousness of a birthday on the first day of the Golden Dragon Festival. The drunken men at the counter were falling all over each other to pay for her drinks, at least until they caught sight of Kakashi's protective warning glare as he stepped forward to deposit some Suna coins on the counter.

"Thank you!" beamed Sakura, turning to hand Kakashi his drink so that she could pull him by his free hand toward a secluded section of tables in the opposite direction from the table where they had left Sai and Naruto.

"Sakura, shouldn't we go find the boys? I can't imagine that they'll be too happy at how long we've kept them waiting."

"Oh tcha, I'm sure Naruto got bored and wandered off in the first few minutes. He's probably off somewhere trying to buy ramen with the money in my bag," she said carelessly, plopping down in a chair next to a small table. "Anyway, they both know their way back to the inn, so there's really no point in wasting time chasing after them."

Kakashi figured her logic was sound enough, so he sat down beside her. While her eyes were drifting over the crowd of revelers, Kakashi took a quick gulp of the fizzy blue drink before him.

"Blech, I can't believe I just drank that! What's in this anyway, Sakura?"

Sakura turned to see her companion, mask perfectly in place, regarding the cobalt liquid with disapproval. She couldn't help herself, and laughter peeled out from behind the hand she'd placed over her mouth to stop it.

"It's good sen-sempai! It's got some kind of fruit in it. And some kind of liquor presumably. And lots of Sugarrrrr. Mmmm." Sakura picked hers up and finished it in one gulp.

"There, now I'll have yours, so why don't you go back and get yourself something you'll like?"

Kakashi eyed the smiling teenager next to him whose cheeks were as pink as her hair with some suspicion.

"And get me another one of these! It's my birthday!"

Kakashi resigned himself to carrying a passed-out Sakura back to the rooms later on, but since you only turned sixteen once, he got up to do her bidding.

As she stared at his back, Sakura's wide grin disappeared and she quickly began to ready herself for what was to come. She'd reached a decision about her objective, and that was half the battle, right? So now she just tried desperately to remember the directions her shishou had given her. Her mind flew about trying to retrieve all the scattered pieces of advice she had received over the past few weeks.

"Well, there's no sake here, so this'll just have to do..." Sakura picked up the remaining fizzy blue drink, pressing her mouth to the rim of the glass. She was suddenly reminded of how she and Ino had squealed about indirect kisses when as children they tried to pick up cups that Sasuke had drunk out of. But had Kakashi's lips even touched this glass? She had never actually seen him eat or drink anything, even when he was doing so in her presence. His mask never looked wet though...so just how did this work?

Kakashi returned to see Sakura giving the rim of her glass a probing gaze. She looked up at him with the same expression of adorably intoxicated concentration.

"I just don't get it," she said, shaking her head at him as he slid back into his seat and put both the drinks in his hands on the table. "I mean, I know I'm not supposed to. But that doesn't stop me wondering."

Kakashi raised his eyebrows questioningly, wondering if perhaps he shouldn't have bothered to get Sakura this third fizzy drink.

"You probably won't tell me anyway, but how in the world do you drink stuff in public? Do you do it the same way at home?"

Sakura looked up at him intently. It was pretty clear that she wasn't teasing or trying to invade his privacy. She was actually being pretty cute, unlike when she was twelve and had schemed along with the rest of team seven to catch him without his mask.

"I just do it very quickly, see?"

Sakura's eyes adjusted in time to see him thump his glass down on the table. He smiled at her bewilderment to see the glass empty and his mask still firmly in place.

"Sakura, don't worry about it. I'm very used to it, so just take my word for it that I can make it work."

"Okay, sen-sempai."

So, he'd been trying to let it go, not generally known for being the curious sort, but Kakashi found himself wanting to know what it was that had prompted this change in her manner of addressing him. He idly twirled the empty glass before him.

"Sakura, not that I'm complaining or anything, but what's up with the sempai stuff?"

Sakura turned away from him a little, and Kakashi suddenly found it difficult to read her expression.

"Oh, Tsunade-shishou had noticed that I still called you Kakashi-sensei and has been after me to stop, so I'm stopping. I hope you don't find it disrespectful, but you technically haven't been my teacher since I was twelve, and though you're my team leader now, it's not the same. Shishou has been very insistent lately about acting more appropriately, or should I say...more grown up."

During this speech Sakura had been struggling to seem indifferent, and was only given away by the nervous way she kept twisting the ends of the gold scarf in her hair.

"More grown up?" Kakashi lifted his arm to scratch the back of his head. "It's pretty hard not to grow up fast in a ninja village like ours. Nobody makes it through their teenage years without losing friends or family. That's one reason we come of age so early. Growing up faster than civilians is just part of our way of life, Sakura. But there's no need to rush it."

"Apparently I have managed to put it off pretty well. I even got special dispensation. But no longer..."

After making these cryptic remarks, Sakura downed the remainder of the second fizzy drink in hopes of explaining away her vivid red blush. She reached forward to grab the remaining glass of blue liquid, and was startled when Kakashi's hand clasped around her wrist, willing her to look him in the eye.

"What do you mean, Sakura?" Kakashi was more than a little uncomfortable with the turn this conversation had taken, but he needed to get this straightened out. He wished he were not caught up in trying to decipher what exactly his young companion meant by "growing up", but she seemed to need to get this out, and he couldn't deny he was a bit curious. Sakura was usually straightforward to the point of being blunt. That, along with the charming contradiction of the monstrous strength hidden in her slender form, was one of the things Kakashi liked best about her. He removed his hand from her wrist, but pushed the last fizzy drink a little bit out of her reach.

Sakura took a big breath. She knew that "be honest" had been high on her shishou's list of advice, but it was still hard for her to talk about this, especially with someone who she'd known for so long and who had taken care of her so many times as she'd learned to live her ninja way.

"Well, you know kunoichi have come a long way since olden times..." Sakura started vaguely, thinking about the sexist treatment she'd received since they arrived in Blachna'al. "Thank god it's different in Konoha than it is here. But we're still supposed to be able to handle traditional kunoichi missions--reconnaissance, poisonings, seductions..."

She'd tried, really tried to get that last one out there nonchalantly, but it seemed her throat went suddenly dry, caving in on her at the last moment.

"Yes?" said Kakashi, clearly determined to make her get through this herself, despite a nasty sensation in his stomach that told him he knew where this was going.

"So, we are supposed to be, um, ready to take these on by the time we come of age. Uh, as you know. But with me, somehow, well, I was apprenticed to Tsunade-shishou, and was really concentrating hard on my medical training, so I was kind of excused from...completing the final requirement for the time being."

"So what you are saying is...?" said Kakashi, hating himself a little for forcing her into talking about this, but more than that cursing the circumstances that got him stuck talking about kunoichi requirements with his cute but increasingly tipsy ex-student in the middle of the night in a major Suna trading city.

"What I'm saying is..." Sakura sucked in a big breath and let it all spill out in rapid succession, "is that Ihaveneverhadsex and the elders heard about this exception and Tsunade-shishou said I can't come back to Konoha until I've done it."

With that, Sakura lunged forward and grabbed the third fizzy drink, gulping it down noisily to staunch her mortal embarrassment.

Kakashi couldn't say he was surprised by her revelation considering the embarrassed way she'd danced around it for the past few minutes, but still, his heart went out to her. He guessed that the dramatic disappearance of the object of Sakura's desire when she was twelve had played a large part in the decision to excuse Sakura from the final requirement of kunoichi training. Usually the horny little fourteen-year-olds were more than happy to have an excuse to run off with whatever young shinobi had caught their fancy as genin, and likewise the boys were happy to have an excuse for a no-strings-attached roll in the hay. It was viewed mostly as a necessary service to the village, and something that everyone went through together. At the time Sakura should have participated in this little ritual, however, she was busy mourning Sasuke's defection to Akatsuki, and training her hardest to land a spot on the team that would go after him. He didn't blame Tsunade at all for not forcing it on Sakura, especially since she was being trained as a medic and would unlikely be assigned any missions requiring any of the traditional kunoichi arts. He would have been lenient himself, had it been his decision to make.

However, it was also no surprise that the elders had reacted the way that they had to their discovery of Sakura's failure to complete the requirements for a mandatory course of study. Besides having antiquated views on the purpose of the female sex in a ninja village, they would not want to see any one student allowed to be less than fully prepared for any type of mission that might come their way. They were invested in assuring that each ninja was as highly trained as possible so that they could take on a wide range of missions, thus insuring that Konohagakure would never have to turn down a mission request because the available ninja lacked the skills to complete it. It didn't help either that the old goats were constantly butting heads with Tsunade over her plans to train up enough medic nins to send one out with each team. Showing this kind of blatant favoritism to her apprentice probably had their blood boiling. He wouldn't put it past them to contrive to send Sakura on a mission requiring this type of...skill...just to prove their point. Tsunade was right to require this. Sakura had been given two additional years to take care of this problem of her own initiative, after all.

"Sakura-chan," Kakashi said, trying not to embarrass her further, "You do realize that we have this rule for some very good reasons. If, by some small chance, there was no one else and they had to send you on a mission that would require sex or seduction, it would be horrifying to have your first experience with an enemy or a target, never mind dangerous because you would not know what to expect. Ninjas must be prepared for any eventuality, and our training has to be comprehensive. It's not ideal maybe from a civilian point of view, but we've all had to do things we don't like in our service to Konoha, so you shouldn't worry too much about it. This really isn't a big deal."

Sakura's eyes were down, staring at the rough surface of the table before her. She looked up nervously through her lashes.

"And the other person, will they understand that?" she asked, with a slightly shaking voice.

Kakashi sucked in a breath, feeling a little sad that the innocence of the girl who had twirled in his arms so freely all night had to be sacrificed like so many lives and ambitions to the Hidden Leaf cause. But she'd make it through. Naruto was an idiot, and he didn't like to think about that oaf touching this beautiful blushing creature in front of him, but the cheerful blond had been there for her since the formation of team seven, and was the only other person besides Kakashi himself who could really understand what the loss of Sasuke had meant to her. Or...was she going to go for Sai? It had to be a leaf shinobi, or it was supposed to be. Sakura didn't seem the type to just pick up some guy off the street anyway. But Sai really was kind of creepy, despite the recent efforts he'd been making to understand emotions.

Kakashi sighed inwardly at having to get involved in this situation at all, but he figured he would have to do what he could to make Sakura feel more comfortable.

"I'm sure he'll understand. It is something everyone goes through, after all. Another service that we're expected to perform as ninja, right? Now, I'm guessing you told me this for a reason. Do you want me to arrange to get one of the boys out of your way to make it a little easier? We have two rooms, but I can imagine you'd like even more of an assurance of privacy than that, especially considering the idiots we are talking about here."

He was a little surprised when Sakura shot him a disgusted look.

"What in the world makes you think I am talking about either of those morons?" she asked angrily. "As if! Ooh I knew this wasn't going to be so easy."

"Sakura, you know it's supposed to be someone from Konoha, right? I mean, I guess I wouldn't tell on you if not, but Tsunade would probably know just by looking at you."

"You aren't listening to me Sen-Sempai! Tsunade-shishou told me that the most important factor in deciding who to ask is whether or not I trust them." She turned her large emerald eyes upon Kakashi full-force. He felt a little perturbed.

"I thought about it long and hard. All week, then all the way here. I haven't stopped thinking about it for an instant. I trust Naruto as a friend, and love him as a friend, but I don't trust him to do this with me without any weird expectations. And Sai is just creepy, really!"

She laughed a little, but then it seemed to Kakashi she somehow managed to turn up the volume or intensity or just greenness of her eyes, which were gazing deeply into his. He started to feel panicky.

"I realized that the only person I trust, wholly and completely, is you. The only person I want to do this with me is you, Kakashi."

+AN: So, is this a surprising place to take this story? I upped the rating just in case, but I'm still not quite sure how all this will play out and/or what sorts of things I will actually write. Comments, questions? I wrote most of this out at the same time I wrote the first chapter, so I had some trouble with the chapter break. I liked the place I ended for the first chapter, but I didn't like starting right afterwards for the second chapter. Let me know if anything was confusing or seemed off! Thanks so much to those who reviewed, I really appreciate your words.+


	3. Chapter 3

_"I realized that the only person I trust, wholly and completely, is you. The only person I want to do this with me is you, Kakashi." _

She lowered her eyes to the side at her own boldness.

"That had to be straight out of _Icha Icha Encounters_," thought Kakashi. "I would put money on it. Chapter 13 if I'm not mistaken." His mind couldn't quite seem to wrap itself around this situation as reality. Sure, he'd had a few passing thoughts about the birthday girl after she'd been rubbing up against him on the dance floor all night, but this! This was real. Reality. Kakashi couldn't quite believe it. He swallowed a few times and cleared his throat.

"Ah. Hmm. Well Sakura, you might want to rethink this," He placed his hand on the back of his head and gave a nervous laugh. "Usually, this is done with someone a lot closer to your own age, someone who you went to the academy with or a trusted team member."

"You are my trusted teammate. And Ino did it with Genma on her fourteenth birthday. I was afraid she was going to get a disease, but she said it was worth the risk."

Kakashi closed his mouth that had opened to voice more objections. He remembered this happening. Genma wouldn't shut up for weeks about having deflowered the buxom Yamanaka girl--all in service to the village of course. He'd wanted to get a tattoo to commemorate the occasion, but Ino had objected when someone suggested he get a tattoo of a pig instead of her name.

"Look," said Sakura, turning to anger as a break from her extreme embarrassment, "I don't care if you're thirty or whatever. That doesn't mean anything in this situation. If there's a real reason you won't do this, like you have a girlfriend you've been keeping secret from all of us, or you took a vow of celibacy at age seventeen that you haven't broken yet, then I'll just suck it up and do the emotionless freak with the nice abs. Don't go blaming me if I'm permanently scarred!"

Sakura blinked several times, trying to keep in the tears that were threatening to fall. This just wasn't going her way. What a shitty birthday. She'd known that the dancing was too good to be true. She'd thought there was something between them during the dance that confirmed what she'd suspected for a while: Kakashi was the only person she could ask to do this. He understood her, protected her, humored her, and if she wasn't totally mistaken, he'd proved he was aware of her body in a way that she hoped her first lover would be.

"Twenty-nine."

"Excuse me?" said Sakura, roused from her recent memories of the dancing that night.

"I'm not thirty til September."

Sakura looked questioningly at him, wishing she had a little more to go on than the small portion of his face visible through which she could gauge his emotions. He really wasn't giving her much to work with.

Kakashi couldn't believe he was actually contemplating having sex with his student. Sure, she hadn't been his student for years, and he was technically obligated to do this, since she'd asked and he had no valid excuse not to. But this was still innocent, flaky little Sakura-chan who couldn't get over her crush on the troubled Uchiha boy long enough to learn to throw a kunai straight. And this wasn't just sex! This was the first time for a disappointed girl whose romantic notions of love had failed to pan out in a rather spectacular manner. It wasn't everyone whose first crush turned traitor and collaborated with not one but two dangerous enemy organizations intent on wiping out Konoha and its people. Sakura was still struggling with the decisions that Sasuke had made and what that meant to her fragile understanding of the possibility of romantic connection.

On the other hand, Sakura was no longer a little girl. He'd spent a large portion of the night becoming closer acquainted with all the parts of her anatomy that were all grown up. This was like Icha Icha come to life. He was being offered the virginity of a pink haired green eyed goddess. For real. Had he won some sort of ero sweepstakes sponsored by Jiraiya?

But no! This was, like it or not, his former student and current teammate, whose well-being he was ultimately responsible for. If he hurt her, or made her feel uncomfortable in this endeavor or afterward, he would be failing her as surely as if he failed to protect her in battle.

Another thing was bothering him. Sakura seemed to have been given perhaps a little too much advice on this matter, all coming from one rather frightening blond sannin who looked on her as a daughter, and who'd certainly spent as much time and effort raising her as her birth mother had. Kakashi remembered seeing the pink-haired Haruno woman at Sakura's chunnin exams, and despite the physical similarity she bore to Sakura, the woman's vapid personality was a far cry from the caring yet forceful nature that Sakura had developed under the tutelage of the Godaime. Sakura had been much more like her mother when Kakashi had first met the girl fresh from the academy. He was proud that she had pushed past her shallow preoccupation with her looks and become such a skilled medic and ninja. Still, he worried that she was too much under the influence of Tsunade, who might have seen him as a safe choice for helping her apprentice through this. Goodness knows the Fifth was old enough to still think of him as a kid, so she might have unthinkingly pushed Sakura toward something that she'd feel awkward about later.

"Sakura, it sounds like Tsunade was trying to look out for your best interests here, but you don't have to make the choice you think she would make for you. Trust is important, but it's also important for you to feel comfortable with the other person. I know it's easy to forget, because she doesn't look it, but the Fifth is more the age of my parents and so might not have really taken into consideration how big the difference between us is. I'm sure somebody more your own age would be better suited to this."

The emerald-eyed girl before him remained unimpressed.

"Tsunade-shishou didn't tell me to pick you. In fact, she told me to ask Shikamaru last month when she was drunk. I think she has some...uh...good memories of Shika's grandfather. I thought about it, but really didn't want to put him in that position. Temari might have killed him. I'm pretty sure they do things a little differently in the Hidden Sand village. Ino told me she thinks Temari is ready to get more serious, and was considering changing her affiliation to Konoha so she could marry Shika if her Suna superiors authorized it."

Sakura shook her head, reigning in her drunken tangent. "But that's not the point. The point is, your name never came up with Tsunade-shishou until she gave me the ultimatum about this mission. She did say you wouldn't be a bad choice, but she didn't say much in your favor either. I think she thought I'd go with Sai. She thinks he's pretty. I think he's weird. And if you still want to talk about age differences, shishou has got to have almost forty years on Sai and I doubt that would hold her back."

"The age difference isn't really the point, Sakura." Kakashi sighed and rubbed his eyes. "It's more a question of authority. As your team leader, we'll still have to interact professionally after this, and I don't want you to feel conflicted about being with me and then returning to our normal routine. I know you still have some...ideas about sex and love, so you are likely to feel disappointed afterward. This could affect our teamwork. I don't want you to regret this later after you've had more time to think about it."

His heartfelt attempt to once again let her out of this situation seemed to be once again unappreciated. In fact, Sakura glared at him, clutching the edge of the table. He watched with fascination as the wood started to splinter under her grip.

"So you think I'm the same stupid little kid crying over her first crush that I was when I was twelve, is that it? You think I'm still pathetically pining away after some romantic ideal that could never actually exist?"

The tabletop started to crack loudly as Sakura positively growled at him. Kakashi shrunk in his seat a little as the sound started to attract attention.

"Let me tell you! That's not how it is! You think you know every little thing about me, but really Kakashi, this is just ridiculous. Sure it wasn't easy, realizing that someone who I truly cared about not only didn't want me, but would happily wipe me off the face of the earth along with the rest of the village if it suited his purposes. It took me a long time to deal with that, and maybe I'm still working on it sometimes. But believe me, that has nothing to do with this situation now!" Her voice rose, and Kakashi worried that they were being overheard. "I have to do it, and unless you tell me otherwise, it's going to be with you! Whether you like it or not!"

This couldn't be happening! Kakashi was really starting to feel a little panicked. This couldn't actually be happening, could it? Sure, they were both shinobi, and as such couldn't be too picky about how major life events unfolded, but this still seemed a bit dramatic. Why oh why couldn't Sakura just suck it up and do it with Naruto? Of course the little idiot wouldn't have the first clue of how to make it good for her, but wasn't that the point really? Everybody was supposed to go forth with their peers and figure this stuff out for themselves, not drag their teachers into it.

Glancing over at Sakura, he saw that she'd noticed the damage she'd done to the table and was trying to press the pieces of wood she'd pried off back into the rest. She was clearly not sober. Kakashi calmed down a little. He could just take her back to the hotel, put her to bed, and with any luck she'd have forgotten all about this by the time she woke up. At the very least she should decide to cut her losses and take Naurto or Sai while she had the chance.

"Well, sen-sempai? Shall we go home?" The emerald eyes that were turned up to him seemed a little lackluster, but if that meant that Kakashi was off the hook then he was willing to put up with a little unhappiness on the part of his companion.

"I think that's a wise idea, Sakura-chan."

Sakura rose to her feet a little unsteadily, and was glad that Kakashi did not object when she grasped his arm, ostensibly so that she would not lose him on the way back to the hotel. This was not Sakura's primary motivation, however. In the years since her first experiences with Team 7 as a genin, Sakura had learned that to get where she wanted to be, she needed to be twice as tenacious as her teammates. At the moment, she was working on implementing Tsunade's seduction strategy tip #7, engage in physical contact of an acceptable sort, and work up from there. Sakura started out by just barely touching Kakashi's sleeve, but in the two blocks they had covered, she had managed to thread her arm through his, and at the next opportunity to pretend to stumble she would steady herself by placing her other hand on his arm as well.

Though new to this, Sakura was fast learning that this touching strategy was nicely complemented by seduction strategy #5: always appear more intoxicated than you are. While Sakura truly had been quite tipsy at the moment of her outburst to Kakashi, she had quickly realized that she needed a little more finesse if this was going to work out in her favor. It was the work of a few seconds to metabolize the alcohol in her system, but she continued to feign drunkeness.

The real challenge would come later, when Kakashi would realize that she could not be drunkenly shepherded into bed and left without so much as a goodnight kiss. But for now, the prospect of holding close to his side as they walked through the still thronging streets was pleasant enough. Sakura noticed several other couples with their arms intertwined, laughing and stumbling back to whatever house or inn they were staying at for the night. She felt a bit odd to be lumping herself and Kakashi in with these happy people, since their situation was undoubtedly different.

An old woman, hand in hand with an old man turned to Sakura and smiled widely. "May Kuryutsu bless your union; she watches over those who honor her."

With a low chuckle, she turned and walked off with her escort. Sakura was a little puzzled, and found herself waiting for Kakashi to comment on the incident. He refrained, instead opting to walk straight ahead with that bored expression in his eye. As they made their way through the curving streets that lead to their destination, however, Sakura heard the same phrase, over and over, called between laughing couples and by the attendants of the many shrines.

"So, Kuryutsu's a girl?" Sakura blurted out.

Kakashi's lone eye rolled down to look at her in what might have been amusement. Sakura cursed herself for managing to sound so childish, and tried to recover.

"It seems strange that the deity they are worshiping with this festival is a female one, considering the way they treat women around here."

"Oh, and how's that?" asked Kakashi.

"You know, like not being allowed to handle money and the way I was refused entrance to the building where you dropped off the scroll'"

"Besides those two experiences, have you seen anything that indicates that women are not respected in this culture?"

"Well isn't that enough? Needing to defer to a man for a financial transaction means that women are completely cut off from the economic sector. They have no authority--no agency. And when we went to turn in the scroll I wasn't even allowed to do my _job._ How is that respect?"

"Sakura, did you read the mission briefing?"

"...I don't see what that has to do with anything."

"Then you didn't read that while you weren't allowed in the building where we turned in the scroll, we aren't going to be allowed in the building where you pick up the reply to take back to Konoha."

They had been ambling toward the hotel arm-in-arm as this conversation had been taking place, but at this Sakura pulled up short.

"What?" she asked sharply, with perhaps a bit too much clarity for someone who was feigning drunkenness. Thankfully Kakashi seemed to take her outburst as further proof that she was three sheets to the wind.

"The priestesses of the temple where they draw up the scroll for us to take home are certainly respected. Women are not really considered to be secondary to men here, just involved in different activities and areas of life for the most part. But most people here would tell you that those areas are the most important to their culture."

Kakashi refrained from commenting on the reverence for fertility in Suna culture. It could be awkward under the circumstances. He quickened his pace, pulling poor Sakura along with him. Ah well, at least she seemed ready to pass out any minute.

They arrived at the inn, startling Sakura out of her thoughts. Sakura found herself shaking a little as Kakashi guided her over the threshold and into the low light of the lobby. Everybody was coming in from the streets and despite still clinging drunkenly to her former teacher, Sakura was keeping a sharp eye out for Naruto and Sai. With any luck they were already upstairs asleep in their room. When they had checked in, the innkeeper had made a big production of taking Sakura up to "the room for the young lady" so she was relatively certain that even Naruto had gotten that hint and would not be sprawled across her bed, drooling on her embroidered pillows. Talk about a mood-killer.

Though when she thought about it, what kind of mood existed between herself and her former sensei anyway? He was being very careful with her, making sure that she didn't stumble or hit against any door frames as he guided her, but she still felt an overwhelming tension between them.

Kakashi helped her scale the winding staircase that took them to their third story rooms. When they reached the doorway to Sakura's room, Kakashi took the room key from his pocket and unlocked the door. The boys' room was around the corner, and Sakura could vaguely feel their chakra signatures inside, though it seemed like they were still awake. She mentally rallied her courage, and turned to Kakashi with a wide smile and pressed a finger to her lips.

"Don't disturb the boys," she said, as she pulled him over the threshold, applying just the tiniest bit of chakra to make her action a bit more forceful than Kakashi was expecting. He stumbled into the room after her.

"It's a good thing you had the other key," she babbled, wringing her hands a bit, "otherwise, we'd have to go in and get the key from Naruto, and I don't really want to have to explain myself to him tonight."

She turned her hopeful, luminous eyes up to Kakashi's face and smiled a little nervously. Kakashi's silence was beginning to unnerve her.

"Sakura..." he started seriously.

"Shh." She shushed him again, this time pressing her finger to where his lips would be under his mask. Maybe his silence wasn't so bad. At least as long as he was quiet and still standing in her room he was listening, and hadn't entirely discounted her plan. As embarrassing as this situation was, it would be hundreds of times worse if she had to march into Naruto and Sai's room and proposition Sai right there in front of Naruto. That would be unbearable.

Sakura looked back up at Kakashi, advancing slightly into his personal space. She reached up and softly pulled off the scarf that was covering his sharingan eye. With nothing covering it, the lid fluttered and the perpetually red eye opened. She knew that she was making him nervous, and decided to press her advantage by laying out her terms.

"Thank you for taking me home sempai. I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable, but I need this. I need you, and even if you can't accept me as a potential lover on your own, please consider the circumstances. You will not be doing anything wrong, but only helping me out of my difficult situation, and by doing so helping the village become stronger, right?"

Kakashi just looked at her, the tomoe of the sharingan spinning idly.

"You don't have to worry about the consequences of this--I promise that our relationship will remain strictly professional. I won't have any expectations of you, and I won't tell anyone. Not even Tsunade-shishou. I'm very serious, so please help me."

With that, Sakura closed her eyes, reached up on her tiptoes, pulled down Kakashi's mask and pressed her lips to his.

The kiss was impatient and a little poorly aimed, catching Kakashi on the corner of his mouth. Still, it affected him greatly. Tentative, but forcefully delivered, the kiss seemed to completely embody the girl before him. The honesty of her touch was painful, and impossible for him to push back. It was too much. In that moment Kakashi knew he couldn't back down from this. He breathed out slowly, and began to press his lips back against Sakura's. She had all but completely stilled after making contact with him, so she tensed involuntarily as he began to slowly take control of the kiss. Not wanting to startle her, he softly realigned their mouths, being sure to keep his movements subtle. With surprise, Kakashi noted that he felt nervous. At this point in his life he'd certainly done a lot more than kiss plenty of people, on missions and off, so it came as a bit of a surprise that overpowering the embarrassment and discomfort he felt about engaging in these acts with his much younger subordinate was a fear that this would somehow be upsetting or traumatic for her. Why? Kakashi could barely remember his own first experiences. His first time had been a horrible ordeal, a last-ditch effort at not being executed on a mission when he was twelve, and after that Kakashi had understandably not shown much interest in sex. He'd reluctantly given in to his surviving teammate Rin when she'd all but demanded he be with her, and their fragile relationship had never been able to come back from the guilt he'd felt at doing that with her and still not loving her the way she needed to be loved. When she finally received the wound that took her off his team and out of his life two years later he could only feel a sort of guilty relief.

Kakashi snapped out of this little reverie as Sakura hesitantly brushed his lip with the tip of her tongue. He laughed a little. Sakura would keep things moving at her own pace. All he really needed to do was to gauge her readiness and help her navigate this new territory. She would steer for herself. Kakashi returned her action with a more confident touch of his tongue to hers. He could play this game, he thought, his competitive spirit surfacing in a characteristically odd way. Kakashi loved to play games, as long as no one knew that he was actively participating. He'd copy Sakura's every move, just with a little more depth. She shivered a little bit with his invasion, and put her hands on his biceps, steadying herself. Kakashi took this as permission, and wrapped his arms around her gently. She tugged on his upper arms a bit, attempting to get him to deepen the kiss, but with the unintended effect of making him chuckle as he pulled back a little bit.

"Sensei!" she said sharply, eyes still closed, "stop being so _passive_."

Her eyes popped open to glare at him, but she immediately lost her scolding air as she realized she was looking into his uncovered face. Her petulant scowl was replaced by shock--apparently she had forgotten her earlier removal of his mask in her haste to kiss him. As quick as understanding dawned a furious blush washed across her cheeks and raged down her neck and across the part of her chest that her dress left exposed. Kakashi rolled his eyes a bit. She didn't have to be so dramatic.

"Is it that bad, Sakura?" he teased. Contrary to the impression he'd given his students, wearing a mask was only something he did when he was likely going to be in public. "In public", for Kakashi, was being around people who had never seen his face. At the grocery store, he wore his mask. At the grungy pub exclusively inhabited by Konoha's jounin elite, a mask would only pointlessly inhibit getting trashed. The quick-drinking masked style that he'd developed was really only for use around his excitable little teammates.

Sakura seemed to consider his teasing a personal affront, but seemed still to be taking the sight of his face badly. Her cute little mouth was hanging open and her face was a study in shock and dismay. She looked down into the space between their bodies.  
"Sorry," she said hurriedly, "Suddenly I just feel really embarrassed."

Looking at Kakashi's face had jarred her out of her carefully laid plans. This whole time, Sakura had been assuming that this was the safe option for taking care of her little dilemma. If she had to be with someone, let it be the person who had carefully watched over her an protected her for the past four years. Seeing his face in the soft gas light of the exotic room brought home to her that there were far more things that she didn't know about her sensei and team leader than things she did know. Looking into his face, she saw a stranger gazing back at her. That's not how she wanted this to be. Sakura chose Kakashi because he was close to her, but she suddenly wondered if she was at all close to him.

Screwing up her courage once again, Sakura looked up. Kakashi was gazing at her with a fairly typical bemused expression. If she just looked at his left eye, she recognized it. Relief flooded through her, and then wonder at finally seeing the whole picture. Kakashi smiled at her as she relaxed, her reactions predictably exaggerated. Really she was just too cute.

"So that's what the whole smile looks like," she said, staring hard at his mouth. She moved her gaze back to his eyes. "It's still you."

"It's still me," he echoed, as she reached up to kiss him again.

+AN: oops oops! I was all excited to stop fussing and just post the third chapter, and in my haste I incorrectly judged where I needed to start it. So, you'll notice that there is a whole bunch of stuff at the beginning of this chapter that wasn't there before. Please forgive me! It's not vital, if you don't want to read it, but it shapes the dynamic between K &S a little more. Once again, drat and sorry. +


	4. Chapter 4

Warning: Mature Content. If that is a problem, don't read it.

Chapter 4: Stops and Starts

Sakura didn't want to appear too pushy. In kunoichi class the girls had had it drilled into their heads from a very young age that you couldn't rush into a seduction. Seven times out of ten the order of the day was to be demure, retiring, and faintly resistant. Let the man think he's in control. In other cases the target might enjoy a woman taking a dominant role, but even then she should appear aloof and unhurried. She should never seem to rush, even if the mission was time sensitive. So Sakura waited, kissing Kakashi just inside the door of her room at the inn. The kisses were more than just nice-they were wonderful-but Sakura, true to her nature, was starting to get impatient. She needed to get this show on the road. Or at least over to the bed.

Kakashi hadn't actually agreed to anything, so unless she took full advantage of his presence in her room tonight he might leave, and she would be facing the same dilemma tomorrow. This thought alone was enough to make her tug at his arms a bit in the direction of the bed. She'd just have to hope that didn't count as pushy and that he went willingly.

Thankfully, he allowed her to break the kiss and tow him across the dimly lit room to where the ornate dark wooden bed with its plethora of gold and crimson pillows lay. Sakura thought she had never seen a more intimidating sight, though she knew from experience that it was very comfortable. Kakashi just sailed along behind her, forcing her to position him like a doll until he was sitting on the edge of the bed. While it was exciting to get to touch him so much without resistance, Sakura didn't quite like the blank expression on his face or the aloof look in his eye.

Sakura warred with herself, wanting to just be happy that she had him where she wanted him. Why did he have to be this way, all obnoxious and barely there? Was he doing this to mess with her? If he thought he could get by with this act he was sorely mistaken! She'd show him!

With a little growl, Saukra pushed her team leader backwards onto the bed and leaned over him menacingly, holding tight to his biceps with chakra at the ready in case he tried to resist.

"I _told_ you, sempai, stop being so passive!"

With this she leaned down, pushed the collar of his tunic aside, and bit his shoulder, hard.

"Ouch!" he cried, sitting up despite her position and trying to keep from laughing. She'd actually bit him! What had he gotten himself into with this crazy girl? Kakashi rubbed at his shoulder mournfully. "If that's your method of getting targets into bed, I think you have a long way to go!"

Suddenly the fierceness was gone from Sakura's face, as she replied teasingly solemnly, "You're right. I have so much to learn. You'll just have to teach me until I understand what to do. Please take care of me sensei!" she finished with a little bow that brought her head almost to his chest, since she was straddling his lap on the edge of the bed. She looked up and gave him a cheeky smile.

"You're not drunk at all, are you?"

She just continued to smile, burying her head in his shoulder. She channeled chakra to her lips, and literally kissed the bite mark better. As the healing chakra dissipated, she gave him a few more kisses just to make up for it, enjoying the shudders that went through him at her touch.

"There," she said, "all better."

Kakashi just looked at her with eyebrows raised, not sure quite how to react to this little act of contrition. On the one hand, this just confirmed that Sakura was still immature and childlike, which made him feel old and dirty because on the other hand, all of this biting and playing and healing was really turning him on. He somehow managed to get a grip on himself, and pushed Sakura away a bit so that she was sitting on his knees, and not really touching the rest of his body.

"Sakura, be serious for a minute. I had my annual checkup last month, and it came back clean. I haven't engaged in any high-risk sexual behaviors since then, but I haven't had any anti-conception jutsus done in a while either. What about you?"

Sakura swallowed a bit at this suddenly serious turn. Was he finally taking her seriously? Her heart began to beat rapidly as the implications washed over her. She quickly stuttered out,

"I was checked out by the head Nurse-Healer at the Konoha hospital the day before we left. Everything was clean, obviously...and I had a full complement of contraception and anti-disease jutsus performed. Tsunade-shishou was so insistent everything be perfect she almost came in and did them herself-I thought she and Nurse Cho were going to come to blows for a minute there," Sakura snapped back to the present and finished, "so I am all clear."

She looked up into Kakashi's mismatched eyes and waited nervously for his reaction. His eyes shifted to the side and Sakura could tell now with his mask down that this was an expression of guilt. She smiled a little bit at being able to read him for once. He had absolutely nothing to feel guilty about.

"Stop looking at me like that."

"Looking at you like what?"

"Like I'm some vase you've just broken. It's annoying and hardly sensible. At least wait to see whether I actually break." She looked up at him with a mischievous little laugh and a rather hard punch in the shoulder.

"Watch it, or you'll break me."

"Oh I think you're tougher than that sen-sempai."

"There you go again."

"What should I call you then?"

"How about 'Kakashi-sama'. I always like the sound of that."

"Shut up," and with that exchange over with, Sakura got back down to business, knocking Kakashi back onto the bed and eagerly capturing his lips with her own. She tried to rein herself in a bit, but too much was at stake for Sakura to hold it in for long.

Truth be told, losing her virginity would be a major relief for Sakura, and not just because of the pressure from Tsunade and the Elders. At the time her classmates had all been going through their first experiences, Sakura had never thought that she wouldn't be joining them. She never spoke up to proposition anyone, mostly because she couldn't for the life of her think who to ask. Sure she was disappointed and miserable that Sasuke wasn't around, but she had never been certain that he wouldn't flatly turn her down, tradition or not. When Kurenai-sensei had taken Sakura aside and told her that she was excused from completing the assignment she had felt a little relieved, but mostly confused. All her friends could talk about for a good six months was their emerging sex lives, and it had been more than a little awkward for Sakura. She'd found herself spending a lot of time with Hinata, who was also excused due to her status as clan heir. The Hyuuga would never allow Hinata to be compromised before marriage, and were also quite paranoid in the extreme about someone managing to get pregnant by a male Hyuuga and "steal" the byakugan. No less than three matronly Hyuuga elders attended Tenten's physical to be sure that every anti-conception jutsu known to man had been placed on her. She'd been pretty freaked out about it, but afterward decided it was worth the embarrassment. Sakura had been surprised that Tenten had been allowed to choose Neji in the first place, but Hinata said that even the Hyuuga clan could not prevent their members from taking part, though they were of course strongly encouraged to only do so with other Hyuuga. Watching Tenten and Neji and their other friends stumble around in a blissed-out state for weeks had only made Sakura feel sadder and more excluded.

As she remembered that difficult time now, however, all Sakura could feel was excitement. Thrills went through her at the thought that after so long she would understand just what all the fuss was about. That she would be discovering this not with a peer but with someone who used to be her teacher did make things a bit more intimidating in some ways, but at this point beggars could not be choosers. Sakura felt so lucky to be able to have sex with someone who was not like a brother to her that she kissed him rapturously in gratitude. Nope, that did not feel even the slightest bit familial.

She opened her eyes and grinned at him.

"Somehow that smile makes me feel a bit nervous Sakura," he laughed, "what is going through that devious head of yours?"

She looked up at Kakashi with her arms still wound around his neck. "I was just thinking how glad I am to be with you and not with someone I consider like family."

"Uh thanks, I think."

"It's a good thing. A very, very good thing." Sakura returned to practicing her kisses on her less-than-resistant partner.

Time to get things started.

Or, that's what inner Sakura was insistently telling her, but apart from continuing to kiss Kakashi with all the ardor of a repressed teenager, twining her legs around his and running her hands encouragingly up his sides and over his shoulders, she wasn't quite sure what to do to get things moving. A sudden wave of anxiety rolled over her and she pulled back and stiffened. Unconsciously she made a little mewl of frustration.

"What is it now?" Kakashi asked, turning onto his side and spilling Sakura over onto the bed next to him as he propped his head up with his arm. This was slightly uncomfortable because Sakura was still clinging to him with her legs around him, but he pried her off and looked at her face.

"I just…wanted to know when things were going to, um, get going," she admitted. "I mean, really get, er, good…"

"Sakura you are quickly becoming the most difficult lay I've ever had, and you were the one who propositioned _me_." Kakashi put his hand to his forehead to regroup a little.

"Well _sorry_ if I'm a little new to this," she said, her annoyance and embarrassment finally bubbling out. She quickly covered her mouth, regretting her sharp tone. Antagonizing the target was absolutely on the DO NOT DO list to the left of the blackboard in kunoichi class. She should know; she'd aced the written exam. Why did things have to get so messy in real life?

To her relief and chagrin, Kakashi just chuckled. "Obviously." He tried to remind himself that this particular kunoichi was used to being at the head of the class but was struggling to keep her inner overachiever in check. He could relate. After all, it had taken him years to loosen up and get it together socially after his trainwreck of a childhood.

He took a deep breath.

"Let's try something else."

He sat up and settled himself cross-legged on the bed, taking off his boots as he went. He leaned over and pulled and pushed until Sakura sat herself up on the bed mirroring him, her full skirts pushed up above her knees. Her expression hovered dangerously between mortified and pissed off, so he hurried to explain.

"Occasionally I have had to…" He trailed off; not really liking the personal direction that sentence was taking. It was late, he was tired. He tried again. "As I'm sure you know, sometimes ninja have to go on undercover missions together that require them to be very comfortable with each other physically—posing as a married couple or lovers for example. Usually before starting such a mission, there are a series of exercises designed to break the ice. It might be a little easier if we start there."

Sakura opened her mouth to protest—was he trying to weasel out of actually doing it?—but Kakashi held up his hand.

"I promise, we will get to the . . .," he rolled his eyes a bit as she squirmed; "good stuff, but please just bear with me for a few minutes."

He inched slightly closer and raised his hands, palms toward her. She tentatively reached out and placed her own hands against his since that was clearly what he was expecting. Kakashi once again slipped into the comfortable role of detached teacher.

"The point of this exercise is to familiarize yourself with your partner. Just follow what I do for a few minutes."

Kakashi began to move his hands back and forth through the air, in random patterns as she allowed her arms to relax and her hands to go along with his.

"Like when we were dancing," she said, face heating a little at the thought of how a mere hour or two ago she had been exactly where she wanted to be now-in his arms.

"Dancing is actually one of the other exercises," Kakashi said softly as he changed his movements to fluidly run his hands up her arms as she did the same to him. He ghosted his fingers past her underarms, eliciting a soft giggle.

"Of course, _you_ would be ticklish."

Sakura was slightly offended at this, but was concentrating hard on following his touches, which were running all across her body now. He wasn't touching any particularly erogenous zones, but she couldn't deny that the feeling was both good and calming. It was much easier following his lead until she knew what she was doing. If only he hadn't been so passive earlier, they wouldn't have had to stop. She was about to mention this to him, when he reached for her face.

"Feeling better?"

"Yes," she breathed, and decided to let it go for now, since he'd seemed to change his attitude. Maybe backing off for a bit had helped him as well as her.

"Good. Let's keep it slow for a bit, shall we?"

He took a breath, and then pulled her toward him as he leaned forward and gently kissed her mouth. She sighed into his lips, kissing him sweetly and as best she knew how. Kakashi brought his other hand up to her face and smoothed over her hair, pulling the scarf from her hair as he went so that he could run his fingers through her hair. Kissing her all the while, Kakashi brushed his hands slowly through the pink locks as if making up for the countless times over the years that he had carelessly ruffled them. Sakura sighed and shivered from the feeling of his fingertips on her scalp. She was extra glad she'd packed and used her hair rinse. Then Kakashi shifted, and her thoughts rushed away. He knelt on the bed, bringing her up to kneel in front of him. She slowly let her arms drift around his middle to steady herself as he bent his head and kissed a trail from the corner of her mouth to her neck. She gasped when he kissed her more deeply under her ear, running the tip of his tongue over the smooth skin.

Kakashi allowed his hands to drift down from her delicate shoulders to around her waist. He held her firmly with one arm as he cautiously ran his fingertips down her silk-covered hip. Instead of tensing up, she leaned forward into him, tracing her lips across the skin of his neck and jaw.

With infinite care, Kakashi exhaled and slid his arms up Sakura's body, up until he could feel her breasts through her dress and undergarments. He pulled back, mismatched eyes trained on Sakura's face where her eyes were tightly shut. His fingers dropped to the ribbon lacing of her bodice, poised to undo the bow.

"Sakura, is this ok?" he said in a low voice.

"Hmm," she hummed distractedly, before her green eyes snapped fully open. "Oh, of course. Let me just…" And before he could say a thing she'd untied the ribbon and raced to unlace it through one, two, three, then all the sets of eyelets, and _whoosh_! She had completely whipped all the layers of the swirling crimson and gold concoction up over her head and tossed it carelessly behind her where it slithered off of the bedcovers and onto the floor. Kakashi watched its progress as he remained stunned at the rapidity of the action. Well, the girl certainly did have _some_ ninja skills. His eyes drifted back over to the sight in front of him. Sakura was still kneeling, wearing a matching bra and panties set in white with rather understated little ruffles. Not bad. She'd clearly had some idea that someone might be seeing them, and Kakashi found that the idea of her thinking of him as she'd put them on earlier that afternoon caused some tight hot knots to coil deep within him.

He leaned forward to resume his exploration of her body, but found Sakura was already tugging at the bottom of his tunic, trying to lift it past his bent arms. He shifted to help her remove it, but the second he'd pulled it clear of his head she had hold of his shirt and was pulling on that too. He let her pull that one off but then sat back on his heels in case she got any bright ideas about undressing him any further. That girl was incorrigible. Ah well, the best defense was a good offense, thought Kakashi as he surged forward to place lingering kisses on the newly-bared skin of her chest. For her part Sakura seemed subdued enough by the sight and feel of Kakashi's torso that she probably wasn't going to do anything too drastic just then. Sakura's eyes drank in Kakashi's shoulders and back where she could see them as he pressed into her from a low angle. He looked too good to be true. All shinobi had amazing bodies—that was a given for their profession. However, seeing underneath the underneath as it were of one of Konoha's elite as he held her trembling body in his arms was overwhelming. She was transfixed by the play of his lean muscles under his pale skin. More than one little scar stood out, attesting to his aversion to hospitals. She opened her mouth to say something about it, but Kakashi preemptively leaned up to kiss her mouth once again. Sakura swooned a little at the heat of his body and his kisses, but happily began exploring his stomach with her fingertips.

Finally faced with a compliant Sakura for a moment, Kakashi found himself imagining what to do with her next. All sorts of scenarios veering from the vanilla came rushing to his head. He groaned slightly, pushing them away. All that was required here was a single act, and so that is what would occur. He would do it, but he would do it in the most inoffensive and nice-guyish way possible. No one would have anything to reproach him with. Not Sakura, not Tsunade, and hopefully not even himself. Kakashi would love to say that his sexual performance had never been included in a mission report before, but at least in those cases it had been incidental. Knowing his overachieving teammate felt the need to report every event of every mission in her lengthy writeups, Kakashi suddenly envisioned this one getting bound and making the rounds of the ANBU locker room despite her assurances of discretion. He had to keep this simple. Simple and boring. The kissing and foreplay up until now he excused as necessary to get her comfortable and ready, but reaching a hand down her shuddering body to press between them he realized that excuse could last no longer. He inhaled quickly as Sakura ground herself into his touch, spreading wetness across his fingers through the material of her underwear. Gods, she was so responsive! This overwhelming eagerness of hers was making it difficult to follow the plan and not just throw her down and take her hard and fast. Everything about her body language seemed to be begging him to do so, but Kakashi stubbornly refused to let that happen. With a deep breath and a will to prevail and do the right thing as he saw it, Kakashi set out to follow the most basic sexual progression he could think of. He reached up and unhooked her cute ruffle-y bra. Then he ran his fingers over her breasts and tried to think only in a detached way about how they were actually slightly larger than he had expected.

Sakura, in the meantime, wanted to get back to the part where his hand was between her legs making her literally perspire in anticipation. Giving him little room to maneuver at her chest, she wrapped her arms tightly around him and reached her hands down his back, not stopping when she reached his waistband, but slipping her fingers right under and raking her nails across the taut skin and muscle she found there, relishing the groan Kakashi tried to bite back as she dug her nails deeply into his ass. He pulled back suddenly and looked at her in perplexity, panting all the while, trying to remember reasons why bending this little vixen over the pile of pillows at the head of the bed and giving it to her hard from behind was a bad idea. Oh yeah. Wrath. Of his boss. Ridicule. Of his coworkers. This pink haired slip of a girl was going to kill him. With great effort, Kakashi stubbornly got a hold of himself. Breathing heavily but with control, he returned to touching Sakura, but ran his hands down her sides rather than returning to her breasts. They were great, but if he didn't make some progress soon he was not going to make it.

Kakashi grasped Sakura's long legs and pulled them down the bed so that she was beneath him. Staring determinedly into her eyes he pushed the slip of fabric down her hips and past his knees. He felt her shift to kick it off the bed as her hands came to his waist to do the same with his garments. Kakashi helped her to pull his remaining clothing off at once and lay close atop her, not giving her a chance to take any action. He looked at her, tying not to think too much about the heat of her gaze, and slowly pressed himself between her legs. Sakura wrapped her legs around him, feet tight to his thighs and toes grasping at him as she urged him forward. With another monumental display of self-control, Kakashi inched himself inside of her. She was everything he had braced himself for and more. Tight, wet, and again so incredibly responsive to his every move it was hard to believe she'd never done this before.

Sakura's eyes went wide at the sensation as Kakashi stretched her open. Inner Sakura was doing some sort of victory dance, but the girl herself found she was oddly touched by how careful he was being. Though she hadn't actually done this before, she was a kunoichi, and knew what to expect. It was unlikely that there was still anything to actually break, though she expected to find some blood in the morning. After taking a kunai to the gut it was hard to act like having her incredibly attractive team leader pressed up inside her was much of a hardship. Then he started to move, and his strong jaw caught her lower lip in a kiss as she moaned beneath him. Sakura couldn't stop running her hands over his body, feeling the definition of every muscle as they moved together. Thoughts became blurry as they moved together. Sakura kept grinding against him, savoring the friction as she arched into his body. Supporting his weight on his elbows, Kakashi held her against him as he allowed himself to pick up the pace. Needing to change the angle he pushed up and looked down at her sprawled on the bed beneath him with her eyes clenched shut. That was a mistake. Looking at Sakura this way it was impossible to ignore how beautiful she was, and he was hit again with the weight of her trust. When her eyes snapped open and broadcast to him how much she wanted him, Kakashi felt himself tighten. To have no other option he could understand, but Sakura was clearly enraptured and the thought that he was causing these feelings in her was more than he could stand. Determined not to finish without her, Kakashi reached down with his hand to meet Sakura's bucking hips. As he found just the right spot, Sakura's heavy breathing turned to moans, becoming higher and higher as she came closer to release. The thought that they must be audible to anyone on the floor crossed his mind but Kakashi couldn't bring himself to care as his body surged into Sakura's. Suddenly she started gasping.

"Kakashi! Yes!" The words tumbled out of her mouth again along with her panting breath and he changed his rhythm to short quick thrusts that sent Sakura into oblivion. As she clenched and flailed beneath him Kakashi finally let himself drive into her with a few wonderful painful strokes as he emptied himself into her. As he quivered above her with release, Sakura pulled him down to her and they turned to the side still joined. She pressed little kisses to his brow, and through the haze of satiation Kakashi feared vaguely that she might say something. She didn't, just replaced her mouth with her forehead as their breathing gradually slowed. The late hour and the night's exertion finally caught up to both of them and they fell asleep

A/N: Well, you can probably tell by how long it took me to update this that I went back and forth many times about how to write this chapter and whether or not to do it at all. I'm still not totally satisfied and might do some editing but right now I'm all "OMG I wrote that! Yikes!" so I think I ought to post it before I lose my nerve. Reviews might make me feel better about my decision. Just sayin'.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Teacher Teacher

Kakashi shifted in his sleep, eyes closed as he nestled closer to the squirming heat source until he was effectively wrapped around it. For once he felt completely comfortable and could not for a moment remember whether he was at home or on a mission. Usually Kakashi had no trouble shifting between his home routines (laziness, indolence) and his mission protocol (first one up, always on the alert) but this whole mission he had been fighting to keep himself from spacing out. Between the fact that they had absolutely no objective for the next few days besides playing tourist and the ridiculous level of comfort they were being kept in, it was hard to get up the effort to be his usual no-nonsense team leader self. This morning he was particularly foggy on why he should be up and at 'em when all he wanted to do was plunge back down into the haze of blissful slumber. The room was quiet and the smells around him were comforting, like home, but something nagged at his consciousness as he felt something shift in his arms.

Oh yeah. A naked girl.

A naked _Sakura_. As soon as the thought that he should quickly extract himself from this situation and leave the room came to him he realized it was too late. She was awake, though she hadn't seemed to realize that he was as well. He decided to try to wait her out. Likely she would get up to use the bathroom, giving him a chance to collect himself and possibly flee. Kakashi kept his breathing slow and even and resisted the urge to slit his eyes open to see what she was doing.

Sakura shifted in Kakashi's arms again and propped herself up on an elbow. At some point during the night she had grabbed up one of the soft crimson throws artistically arranged at the foot of the bed and pulled it up around them, so they were at least somewhat covered. Still, Sakura took her time examining Kakashi's visible parts, especially his uncovered face that she was just now seeing in the light of day for the first time.

It was so strange. His face was such a mix of familiar and unfamiliar. She had always had a pretty good idea of what he must look like under there, since she had seen him plenty of times with his hitai-ate off and his mask really only covered the bottom half of his face. It also was tight enough not to obscure his profile too much, so it wasn't like he could possibly have had buck teeth or fish lips or any of the other ridiculous deformities her preteen teammates had come up with. Still, there was something a little unsettling about looking at someone who she'd looked at on a regular basis for the past five years and seeing him in a completely new way.

His brow was uncreased in sleep and his straight nose led down to a perfectly acceptable mouth. Sakura blushed hotly thinking about all the kisses she had given and received from that mouth last night. Overall he looked rather pretty without seeming girly, but mostly Sakura was impressed by how much younger he seemed without his mask. She had always known exactly how old he was, but with his silver hair it was still easy to place him in an age bracket above where he belonged. His unlined and relaxed face did a lot to counteract that, though his body was surely that of a grown man and a seasoned shinobi. Sakura flicked her eyes back up to his face to be sure his were still closed and then peered down as far as she could see into the valley between them. While she had enjoyed every moment of their last night, Sakura still hadn't gotten enough of a look at Kakashi for her satisfaction. Not that she hadn't seen plenty of naked men in her capacity as medic, but still, it was a very different thing to be conducting a physical examination in a professional environment and to be panting under your lover. She smiled and squirmed a little at that word. Not one she would ever have imagined connecting to Kakashi before this whole situation snowballed. It still wasn't applicable in the sense that he had not chosen to be with her, but was only accepting her request out of duty to Konoha. Hmm, that was a downer. Still, Sakura was determined to complete her mission to the best of her ability, and so with that thought in mind she slipped silently off the bed and walked to the ornately carved wardrobe dominating one wall of her room.

Though she hadn't bothered to put anything on yet, Sakura wasn't cold, since though it couldn't be more than an hour or two past dawn the city was already heating up. Stretching a bit, Sakura leaned over and pulled her pack from inside the wardrobe. It was already quite untidy from pulling out various clothing and toiletries, but Sakura quickly found the scroll she wanted and spread it out on the floor beside her. She returned her pack to the wardrobe, pulling on a grey cotton slip she had brought to sleep in. Sakura then knelt over the sizable scroll, making the hand signs to unseal it. She had put a more complex seal on it that usual, mostly because she had worried about Naruto unearthing it and trying to unseal the contents in search of food. With a quiet poof two file storage boxes appeared, neatly labeled "kunoichi class"—"genin" and "chunin" levels respectively. She had briefly looked over her notes before departing along with writing down some of the more sensible and useful advice from her shishou, but she hadn't yet had time to really go through all the training materials again. Hopefully she would have enough time before Kakashi woke up to scan some of the more pertinent ones. Sakura found one of the exam-prep outlines that she'd made and looked over it thoughtfully. She had made a point of starring techniques that had been mentioned as the most useful, but there were lots of other things included in her notes that really needed practical application to be mastered. Suddenly this mission was looking like it was too short for all she hoped to accomplish. Should she make up a schedule? She snickered at the thought of what Kakashi's reaction might be when presented with an itinerary. Oh-eight-hundred, engage in oral sex; oh-nine-hundred, massage; 10:00, positions B, D, and E from page 256 of your textbook; eleven-hundred hours, break for lunch. More snickers escaped, and she clapped her hands over her mouth to keep in the nervous giggles.

While she knew he would probably be horrified, Sakura did like the idea of a schedule or checklist, just so that she could be sure she was on track with learning the most important skills. She glanced over to the bed to be sure that Kakashi was still sleeping. He seemed to be, but it was a little odd for her team leader to be sleeping so late while on a mission. She'd like to think she'd worn him out, but much more likely he was lying in bed, biding his time until he could escape. In fact, now that she stopped to notice she could feel his chakra flow was no longer slow as it was in sleep. Well, too bad. He'd promised to help her out with this mission, and there was no turning back now.

Sakura casually stood, stretching up to her tiptoes with her fingers laced above her head. She made a bit of a show of going over to the bathroom, knowing Kakashi was most likely listening carefully and possibly peeking to see when she would leave the room. She shut the door, not bothering to muffle the sound, then turned on the shower and leapt back over to crack the door to listen and see what he would do. As expected, as soon as the tap turned on Kakashi sat bolt-upright in bed. Now would he try to take off immediately, or would he be too curious about her file boxes to leave right away? She was taking a bit of a risk on this, as she probably couldn't catch him if he did decide to bail, but it was unlikely he would do such a thing without finding his clothes first. Still, you never knew with Kakashi. Sakura held herself perfectly still through force of will, waiting one beat, two, and then with a lunge she sprang out into the main room and pointed toward her boxes.

"HA!" she cried. "I knew you were awake!"

Kakashi cringed. She had caught him red-handed and wasn't about to let him forget it. He had picked up his pants on the way over to investigate Sakura's little project, but he still hadn't put them on. His mask was nowhere in sight.

"Good morning Sakura," he said carefully. "What have you got here?"

"The rest of the materials for my training mission," she said, nervousness tingeing her casual tone slightly.

Kakashi just looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Now that he was awake and she could see his facial expressions Sakura felt like couldn't stop staring. Actually, now that she thought about it, Kakashi's face was kind of attractive. She'd known that objectively, but still she hadn't really gotten to see much of it thus far. Hmm. The more she let herself think about this realization the deeper a blush stained Sakura's cheeks. Had she really had sex with this man? Sakura knew she wasn't too bad off in the looks department, but the more she saw the more it was dawning on her that while she was passably good looking for a fit teenage girl, Kakashi was much further on the spectrum of good looks for a man. And she had actually done. . . that with him, and was planning to do much more. These thoughts were slowly tying Sakura's intestines in knots as she squirmed before him in the morning light.

"The rest? Training mission?" Kakashi narrowed his eyes at his guilty-looking kohai. "What are you not telling me Sakura?"

"Well, sempai," Sakura schooled her features and tried to project her earnest will to succeed in hopes that Kakashi wouldn't make too much of a fuss. "It's true that the minimum final requirement is now met, but we're supposed to use this chance for practical application of everything that we've learned in kunoichi training."

"And those boxes over there are. . .?"

"Everything that we've learned in kunoichi training."

Kakashi's eyebrows rose once more.

"Sakura, we're only going to be here for a week—"

"And that's why I've been prioritizing and working out a rough. . .schedule?" she interrupted hopefully reaching down to hold out her notebook.

Kakashi groaned and ran his hand over his face and through his hair roughly. He took the notebook from her outstretched hands and scanned her "itinerary" with increasing horror.

"Ten a.m.- what? Sakura, I'm only human you know. There's no conceivable way. . ." He paled further as he kept reading. "What are they teaching you girls? Some of these things. . . argh."

He trailed off, feeling extremely uncomfortable about the vulnerable position he was in. Sakura was the sixteen year old recent virgin, and he was the elite ninja in his late twenties, so why was it that she seemed to have all the power in this interaction? He decided to take a stand before he got any deeper into this mess than he was already.

"No, Sakura, I won't do it. You asked me to do my duty to the village and I did. This is. . .too much. You will just have to find someone else to-to practice on- when we get home. I'm not doing it."

Instead of getting angry and destroying some property, as he'd been half-afraid she'd do, Sakura seemed to kind of fold in on herself. She turned away from him and wrapped her arms around her middle. She actually sniffled a little and then squared her shoulders and turned back to him. So melodramatic.

"Please sempai?" She turned those green eyes up at him with all she had. "The truth is, there's no one else I can ask. I spent the past two years trying to take care of this on my own, but every time I tried it broke down one way or another. Everyone I know – at least every guy I know- it entangled one way or another, and I just couldn't find a way to make it work. There are the older nins, but I never really got to know anyone outside of my year at the academy and since my parents are civilians most of the people I grew up around would be shocked if I tried to bring up anything like this with them. Worse, they might tell my parents about it. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't understand, despite living and working in a hidden village."

Sakura paused, casting her gaze downward.

"When I got the ultimatum from shishou I was nervous, but also a little relieved. I have this chance to finish up my training and prepare myself. Please allow me to make the best of it. At least until we return to Konoha."

Kakashi was silent, processing her words. He forgot sometimes how different life was in the civilian sectors of Konoha. Two different worlds existed on top of one another and yet still managed to be so different. There wasn't really anything he could do about this situation but accept it and try not to get in over his head.

"Fine. You can practice on me – uh, with me. _Within reason._ That means more than a fifteen minute break between. . . well, more breaks. And I want you to be discreet about this. There's no reason to jeopardize team dynamics with Naruto and Sai. We'll just have to work this out together. Until we return to Konoha."

"Thank you sen-sempai!" Sakura rushed forward and embraced Kakashi in her usual exuberant fashion. The effect of her hug was a little different this time, as he was still only half-dressed.

"Uh, Sakura, can I get dressed now?"

"No."

"What?"

"It's already 7:30!"

"You remember what I said about breaks. . ."

Sakura slid her arms down low around his back and grinned up at him.

"But we haven't even started training yet sensei."

This was going to be a very long mission.

-o-o-o-

"Sakura-chan! Wakey wakey! Time to eat!" The command came accompanied by enthusiastic banging on the door. "I'm counting to three. . ."

"Oh no," Sakura breathed.

Kakashi tensed, ready to spring up from the bed, but Sakura remained above him, just grabbing a scarf at random from the pile on the nightstand and covering Kakashi's face with it. She snatched the sheet up to cover the rest of him and pressed his head back down into the pillows, willing him to follow her lead.

"One. . ." and with no further buildup the door sprung open, the lock no obstacle for Konoha's number one most mischievous prankster.

"Ready or not!" cried Naruto, stepping across the threshold to collect his teammate for breakfast. "Have you seen Kakashi-sensei?"

"He never counts past one. . ." Sakura explained under her breath. In a louder but no less irritated voice she called, "He's over here Naruto. And do you mind? Sheesh. I could have blinded him with you barging in here while I'm working."

Naruto took in the sight of Sakura straddling their team leader's prone form, glaring up at him as her fingers glowed green with healing chakra. Kakashi's sharingan was uncovered, though his face was disappointingly still concealed.

"Oh," he said. "Hey sensei."

"Yo."

"No talking," Sakura snapped, bringing her fingers to his sharingan eye and holding open the lid as she peered into it, tracing its chakra pathways lightly with her own.

"Whatcha doing Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto, coming around the side of the bed to get a closer look.

Sakura sighed and sat up a bit, her hips pressing into Kakashi's and making her shiver a bit. She cleared her head almost instantly though and turned to her longtime teammate and best friend. And prepared to lie to his face.

"Working. Tsunade-shishou gave me a secondary mission to carry out this week. You and Sai may get to slack off all day but some of us still have to stick to a schedule."

This not-quite-lie elicited a choked off laugh from under her, which Sakura quickly shushed. "I said no talking!"

She turned to Naruto with a huff. It was easier to lie when she sounded annoyed.

"I've been doing some extra research for shishou on the sharingan, since Kakashi's causes him so much trouble. Obviously, since it's not his own and it's on all the time it is more of a chakra drain than for an Uchiha, but using it is especially taxing. We theorize that if we can get it so that he can turn it on and off as if it were his own, this might prevent the pressure from building up in the ocular nerve. While this may or may not prevent chakra exhaustion after using the sharingan it would hopefully at the very least allow him to retain usage of the eye's normal functions when the sharingan is inactive."

As she had expected, Naruto's eyes glazed over somewhere in the middle of her explanation.

"So you can't get breakfast?" he asked.

Sakura looked at Kakashi, who rolled his eyes and shrugged, which Sakura tentatively interpreted to mean that it would be suspicious to avoid their teammates too much.

"Of course we can get breakfast. Just let me finish up and get- just let me finish up this exam."

She had almost said "let me get dressed" which would have clued Naruto in to the fact that she wasn't actually dressed, but still in her slip which was significantly less coverage than her normal sleeping attire while on missions. Of course he could see that for himself if he looked, but Sakura was banking on his natural obliviousness to get her through the week without any awkward confrontations. So far it seemed to be working, as the blond was already headed back to the door.

"Well, come down as soon as you can. Me and Sai will be in the dining room!"

And with a slam of the door, the jinchuuriki left them alone.

"Phew that was close!"

Sakura released her healing chakra and rolled off of Kakashi onto her back next to him. "I thought for sure we were sunk."

Kakashi pushed the green sash from his outfit last night off of his face and sighed with relief.

"Me too. Quick thinking with the cover story there."

"I just knew I had to make it sound medical and uninteresting enough and he would be out of here in no time."

Sakura pushed herself up on her elbows as Kakashi did the same next to her, revealing his chest and abdomen. Sakura surreptitiously eyed his abs, cursing Naruto for interrupting them. Who knew now when she would next get to touch them.

Kakashi shifted a little to look at her, smirking slightly when he noticed the direction of her glazed stare. He reached over and shook her shoulder.

"Sakura, you should get dressed."

"What? Oh, you're right." Sakura shook off her earlier daze and went over to her wardrobe to get some clothes from her pack. While her back was turned, Kakashi rooted around for the rest of his clothes, happily donning his undershirt and mask. He started toward the door with his other clothes in hand, but paused before he reached it.

"You know, Sakura, that little story wasn't so uninteresting to me. I don't suppose there's anything to it though," he said trying to sound casual.

"Huh?" Sakura turned toward him, half dressed, and Kakahsi could not help but take in the sight of her black bra and short-shorts as she pulled her shirt over her head. He may have seen her like this before on a mission, but the thoughts in his head now were so very different.

"Oh, you mean about the sharingan?" she pulled up her medic skirt over her shorts and sat down to pull on her boots.

"Tsunade-shishou and I have talked about it on and off for a while now. We weren't going to say anything to you about it yet because there's still so much research to be done, but theoretically we should be able to make it so that you have control over the activity of the kekkai genkai. I mean, if you can use the different techniques of the sharingan at will it only stands to reason that there should be a way to deactivate it when you aren't using it."

"Hmm." Kakashi's noncommittal response got her attention. Sakura got up and walked over to him, wishing he hadn't been so quick with the mask so that she could read his expression better.

"Does that bother you? That we've been talking about it? Or are you worried that we might endanger your ability to use it?"

"No, no. Actually, to tell you the truth, I'm just trying not to get my hopes up." The small smile Kakashi gave her touched her heart and made her want to rip off that infuriating piece of fabric so that she could enjoy the whole thing.

A/N:

Yay I finally wrote something! Sorry for the omission of interesting details in the middle there, but I'm sure there will be more situations to describe before this little story is through. And who knows, I might get around to going back through and adding something in. Anyway, please let me know what you think! BB


End file.
