Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ 14 Gifts ❯ True Love ( Chapter 11 )

February 11th - True Love

AN: I apologize for the OOC portrayals here.

Sakura wasn't one to look forward to Monday's. However, today she made an exception.

The overwhelming scent of the roses had permeated her apartment and probably everything she owned. She had to find a way to get rid of some of them. The only problem was that she was irritatingly attached to the blooms.

Each color meant something to him, which in turn meant something to her. To part with any of the colorful blossoms was not an option.

So she decided to split them up between home, her office at the hospital and the nurses station, where she could see them every time she passed by.

Keeping the crimson ones at home near her bedside, Sakura chose to take some of the stranger colors to the hospital. Deciding on the green, the white, the cheerful yellow and orange, Sakura put them all in a box to carry to work that morning with the hopes that someone had a spare vase or two that she could use to house them.

She managed to garner a few strange looks on her way to work that morning but she ignored them knowing it was more jealousy than anything. Even as she walked through the halls of the hospital, many of the employees that knew her eyed the box full of roses, all forty-four of the all totaled ninety-nine, and she just smiled as she went on her merry way.

Arriving at her office, Sakura placed her burden on the desk and began the search for a few random vases. It was fortunate that she didn't have to go far as some of the nurses and medical nins were more than happy to help her find homes for the colorful flowers.

Instead of separating them by color bunches, she mixed them together and was pleasantly surprised at how the mix of green, yellow, orange and white worked together. When her bouquets were arranged she placed one on her desk, another near her open window that looked over Konoha and two were placed on opposite sides of the nurse's station.

Now that she had reduced the number of flowers at home and found places for the balance at the hospital, she was ready to begin her day.

Sakura had just left a treatment room after seeing a patient and was passing by the nursing station only to be stopped by the sight of gravity-defying silver hair and Jounin attire.

Unable to stop the smile that came to her face, Sakura greeted him warmly. "Kakashi," Sakura acknowledged the male as she approached the station to drop off the paperwork from her last patient. "Fancy seeing you here."

Kakashi turned his eyes away from the bouquet of roses he was admiring and smiled at the woman before him. He was unsurprised to feel the warmth of affection flow through his entire being at seeing her again. "Yo. Sakura," he addressed the pink-haired Kunoichi with hidden regard and his trademark wave. "Fancy seeing you here."

Now Sakura knew that was a lie and called him out on it. "You know I work here, Kakashi-sen… oops!" she stopped herself by physically covering her mouth.

She smiled sheepishly after dropping her hand. "Wow, I haven't slipped up in a while," she said almost apologetically.

"So I know that you know that I work here, so it shouldn't be a surprise that you'd run into me," she lightly admonished. "So, what brings you here anyway?"

"You," he replied honestly.

Stunned, Sakura blinked her beryl eyes and flushed a little. "Me?" she squeaked out.

"Mmmhmm. I thought you'd be hungry and might like to join me for lunch," he invited and smiled at the sound she made.

"Um, wow," she blinked again, surprised by the invite. That would be twice in one week, right?

"I mean, that is, if you're not too busy," he backpedaled. He would understand if she couldn't, but he wasn't sure he was ready for her to outright say 'no.'

Sakura saw the slight hesitance and a flash of insecurity through his extremely expressive face. She now knew then that there was another reason he wore the mask in the past. Though he had many years to perfect his aloof expression, he couldn't hide everything without the piece of fabric.

"Actually, I just saw my last patient for the morning and would love to have lunch right now," she told him with a bright smile. "I just need to go to my office, first."

Kakashi smiled lightly, internally jumping for joy that she agreed to join him for the afternoon meal, though his face was calm and gave little away.

Sakura led the male to her office and entered, removing her lab coat and hanging it on the coat tree near the door. She went to her desk and grabbed her wallet from the drawer before walking back towards Kakashi to leave.

Kakashi recognized the flowers in her office and had to comment.

"So, nice roses," he said nonchalantly. "I noticed two bouquets on the nursing station and there are two in your office. An admirer, perhaps?"

Sakura blushed lightly which was not missed by the Jounin next to her. "Yeah. Would you believe I was delivered a total of ninety-nine roses yesterday?"

Kakashi played it up. "Ninety-nine? Really?"

"Yeah," she confirmed. "I had to get rid of some of them so I brought a bunch of them here to the hospital where I can still see them."

"So you haven't given any of them away?" Kakashi had to ask.

"No," she told him. "Honestly, I couldn't part with them and refused to give them away." She paused as they left the building. Sakura followed his lead. "They just mean too much to me to just give them away," she said quietly.

Kakashi hummed at that confession and inside he was very pleased by her words.

"Whoever sent them to you must hold you in very high regard," he commented.

"Yeah, I think he does," was her only response.

Sakura was surprised to be led to a small café nearby and continued to follow Kakashi's lead as they were seated. Looking at the menu, Sakura wasn't sure what to order since she'd never been there before, but made a decision quickly. She only had an hour and didn't want to waste time waiting on her food.

They ordered and begun talking about different things and Sakura was really surprised by the fact that she and Kakashi could speak so openly about many things. He'd opened up to her about things in his past and in turn, she confessed certain things about herself.

By the end of the meal, Sakura knew more about her ex-sensei than she ever had and it warmed her heart that he was sharing so much of himself with her. It made her question why.

As they made the journey back to the hospital, Sakura decided she needed to understand why Kakashi was sharing his past with her.

"Kakashi?" she began. "Why are you telling me so much about yourself? Now, after all of these years?"

He knew it would be a matter of time before she would ask this question and he really wasn't sure what to say without revealing too much.

"I trust you, Sakura. I feel like I can tell you anything," he told her. "I'm very comfortable with you and I think you feel the same way?" he asked.

She thought a moment and then answered truthfully. "Yes."

They stopped before the doors to the hospital and faced each other as they readied to part from each other. Kakashi stepped closer to her and looked down from his height and into her green eyes. Slowly he brought his right hand to her cheek and caressed it, rubbing his thumb against her high cheekbone as he looked at her.

With his left hand, Kakashi gently grasped her chin and held her before slowly dropping his head closer to hers. He took his time, making sure to allow Sakura to pull away if she was uncomfortable or disinterested in his attentions. Sensing a little hesitance from her but noticing that she wasn't pulling away, Kakashi closed the distance between them and gently caressed her lips with his own.

The spark was instantaneous follow by incredible heat. Sakura was stunned at first by the fact that Kakashi was kissing her but it was blown out of her mind by the overwhelming surge of desire that seemed to permeate her body.

Though the kiss was chaste and short, both parties felt the same energy and heat surge between them. The relationship between them would be irrevocably changed.

Parting from Sakura's lips, Kakashi placed another light kiss to her forehead before smiling at her glazed eyes.

"Would you like to have lunch again, tomorrow?" he asked, a hopeful look in his onyx eye.

Sakura, dazed from such a simple kiss, just nodded in agreement.

Kakashi grinned, pleased that she wasn't immune to his attentions. "I'll see you tomorrow then," he told her and then disappeared in another cloud of smoke.

Realizing that she was standing in front of the hospital still and receiving a few strange looks, Sakura awoke from her haze and realized she was late getting back from lunch.

'Damn Kakashi. It's all his fault,' she thought to herself. Then she smiled a small secret smile.

Sakura focused on her work the rest of the day, trying not to think about the small kiss that had seemingly knocked her socks off. Sure, she'd been kissed before but none of them had ever made her feel the blinding fire that Kakashi's simple one had.

When her shift was over, Sakura walked home and reflected on things a little more and she was starting to see something rather interesting.

She had begun receiving the notes and gifts the first of February. The little facts and traditions had to have come from someone that was highly intelligent and possibly even from a clan. This person seemed to be traditional as well and very romantic. He also knew of her love of daisies.

Looking at the recent turn of events with Kakashi, he had begun taking her to lunch, sharing different stories and facts about his own life around the same time. He had to know a lot about her, having trained her as a genin at the age of 12 and been on many missions together over the years.

"Hunh," she muttered as she approached her apartment building. Things were starting to parallel but she still wasn't positive that what she was thinking could possibly be true.

It then came to her attention that she hadn't received her gift yet that day and would most likely see something waiting for her at her door.

Sure enough there was.

There was a small stuff dog sitting at her doorstep, strangely resembling a certain ninken that was summoned by none other than Kakashi. The little pug look-alike even had a small hitai-ate and vest with a scroll holder. Since she didn't see a note or envelope, Sakura checked inside the little holder and sure enough, there was a small note that had been rolled up to fit there.

Sakura carried in her new little friend into her apartment after having unlocked and opened the door. The smell of roses greeted her but fortunately it wasn't overpowering today. Leaving her windows cracked opened that morning had been a good idea.

She sat at her table after having removed her shoes at the door and unrolled the note.

'My dearest Sakura-

Do you believe in love at first sight? I don't. But I do believe in true love built on a strong foundation of friendship and trust.

Please accept this little token of friendship. May he keep you company until I am able to do so.'

It had to be Kakashi. There could be absolutely no doubt about it. He had completely given himself away with this latest gift and she wondered if he was just as anxious for this game of guessing to be over with.

Thinking that it might be Kakashi warmed her entire being. What she knew of him, his odd habits, the good and the bad, weren't things that bothered her all too much. He'd stopped being late to everything and she hadn't seen hide nor hair of the little orange books in ages.

Kakashi had changed a lot over the last few years and for the better. He was telling her about himself more and more, sharing those secrets that he never would have shared when she was younger. He trusted her. He obviously held a great deal of affection for her judging by the kiss he gave her earlier that day.

Honestly, if her secret admirer turned out to be Kakashi, she would be absolutely thrilled.

And if it wasn't? Sakura didn't know if her heart could take it.