Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Kakashi's Research ❯ Nothing to Eat ( Chapter 6 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Micaru 
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Comedy | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 10.13.2007 | Pages: 5 | Words: 4.7K | Visits: 662 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Comedy | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 10.13.2007 | Pages: 5 | Words: 4.7K | Visits: 662 | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters in the series! I simply borrow them to do my bidding is all...
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Kakashi's Research
Chapter 1: Nothing to Eat
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“So who is he!”
“Hm?”
“Who’s the unlucky dog?” Ino giggled as she playfully elbowed a very confused Sakura in the ribcage.
“Who’s who?” Sakura asked, blinking ever so slowly as she rubbed at her abused side.
“It’s him, isn’t it?” Ino chimed, successfully cutting off Sakura’s route to the kitchen.
“What’re you talking about, Pig?” Sakura said bitterly, finding herself becoming rapidly annoyed with this here nosy Ino. This nosy Ino that was always nosy. “Now move it, I’m starving! Today’s the only day of the weekend that I have completely off and I intend enjoy every minute of it!” she growled as she tried pushing past the stubborn girl.
“Not until you tell me!” Ino protested, refusing to budge until she got her desired answer. “Is it him--Takahashi?” she questioned brightly, merely grinning when her question stopped her frustrated friend’s struggles as if she were put on pause.
“What? Takahashi? What the hell are you-- ew, no!” Sakura said, a little too quickly for Ino’s liking.
“The lady doth protest too much,” Ino snickered, cocking her head to the side mischievously. “So it is true. I knew it!”
“Knew what?” Sakura bristled, decidedly uneasy with the tidbit of information her friend seemed to be holding captive.
“Your boyfriend.”
“My what??"
“You heard me, Forehead. Boyfriend.”
“You’re delusional! I don’t have a--”
“Word has it that Sakura has been going out with some unknown boy,” Ino said, smiling cattily.
“You’re crazy, Ino! Who told you that?”
“Oh, everyone knows, Sakura.” It was common knowledge, really. Lee told Neji who told Tenten who told Ino… And now, naturally now the entirety of Konoha had caught wind of this. “I get it now! So that’s why you were all pissy the other night… because this Takahashi guy dumped you! And now that you two have made up with each other, you’re seeing one another, right? It all makes perfect sense now!”
“But he never dumped me in the first place!” Sakura piped up when she finally got a chance to get a word in.
“Ah, so you admit it?” Ino smirked wickedly. “You are dating him!”
“What? No! That not what I--”
“Heh, hee hee! I haveta’ go tell Tenten and the others! Later Billboard Brow!” she squeed, darting around Sakura and making a beeline for the door. Sakura could have the kitchen for all Ino cared, now! Ino had gotten her answers! And there was a flock of gossipy girls waiting with their ears pricked for the latest bit of news to digest.
“Ino!” Sakura screamed.
But it was too late. Ino had already vanished out the door, her wild cackles in the distance like nails on a chalkboard to Sakura’s ears.
“I don’t… believe this,” Sakura said as she buried her face into her hand. Who in the world would start up such a rumor? What demon on earth would say such a stupid, stupid thing!? About Sakura and Takahashi?
No, Sakura and Kakashi.
“If I ever find out who started this, and so help me God I will, I’m going to destroy them!” she said, seething. It was then that her stomach gave a curious gurgling sound, effectively throwing off the mood.
Before destroying anything, she’d shut her tummy up…
Sakura trudged to her fridge, opened it and despaired. She’d forgotten! There were no more groceries! Sakura sifted frantically through random bottles and jars. Condiments. Condiments. And more condiments!
Nothing to eat. Nothing to eat. Nothing to eat.
“Waaah… That mustard is even starting to look delicious,” she mumbled, her stomach agreeing. “Damn you Naruto!” Sakura cried, slamming the fridge door shut with a wail.
Well, it seemed she’d be making a last minute trip to the market place. Sakura sighed as she dragged on over to the door and slipped into her sandals. This was not how she planned on spending her day…
-
On her way, Sakura happened to run into one know-it-all pessimist and his chubby sidekick, equipped with none other than a bag of potato chips. “Oh hey, Shikamaru… Choji.” Sakura’s stomach clenched when she saw the chips… which was surprising. Usually the mere sight of Choji inhaling any kind of food was enough to thoroughly rid Sakura of her appetite all together.
“Yo,” was Shikamaru’s response to her as he threw her a glance that said, ‘what the heck do you want?’
It was better than Choji’s greeting though. His which consisted of “He--Mmngh--ll--mrrgh--o--mrengh” as soggy chip crummies sprayed from his gaping pie hole. Sakura mostly figured that that simply translated to ‘hello’. That or he said ‘go to hell’. But she’d have liked to think it was the former.
“So…” Shikamaru said at a weak attempt at conversation as he stretched his arms up and over his head. "I hear you’ve got a guy now,” Shikamaru murmured offhandedly and as if expecting this, Sakura was quick to deny.
“Well, I don’t!”
At this Choji stopped chewing for half a second. “That’s not what I heard,” he said, generously dousing Sakura with some more potato tidbits. “Ino says you’ve got some secret sugar daddy.” Or something else equally ridiculous…
Sakura’s brow twitched. Ino?? She’d managed to tell everyone that quick? Sakura was sick of hearing this already! Who hadn’t Ino told? Should Sakura honestly have been surprised? With an oinker like Ino’s, this was virtually inevitable… “Well, whatever that pig's been telling you guys, it’s all a lie!”
“Alright,” Shikamaru muttered, wincing with Sakura’s shrilling, “you don’t have a boyfriend. I get it. Just stop squealing already. All we said was that we’ve been hearing that, okay? No need to get so touchy-girly over something that is obviously not true.” Shikamaru sighed. “I could care less who you’re going out with. For I care, you could be going out with Naruto.”
“Don’t you even say that, Shikamaru,” Sakura growled. “The name ’Naruto’ and ’going out with’ don't even belong in the same sentence together.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said, his disinterest in the discussion as well as anything else productive becoming increasingly apparent. There were a million and one other useless things he could think of that he’d rather be doing… “Whatever.”
“Where’re you headin’, Sakura?” Choji muffled. Sakura had by now learned to take a step back every time he spoke…
“The market place.”
“Guess you should be on your way then,” Shikamaru said, taking the first opportunity to squirm out of the conversation.
“Guesso.”
“Mmmngh. Can I come wi--”
“No. Sorry, Choji.”
-
When Sakura arrived at the market place, it was flourishing with life as usual. Much too crowded for her likings though… She even had to squeeze past several groups of people that situated themselves right in the middle of the street especially for hers and everyone else’s inconvenience.
Zigzagging from food stand to food stand, Sakura haggled like crazy. She had never thought herself poor, but Sakura had often found herself quibbling with old coots over things for cheaper than the original low prices. She hadn’t been on a mission for two and a half weeks straight and the demanding rent on the apartment alone had already been wearing her pockets thin as it were, even when halving it with Ino…
While making her way over to the jelly bun stand, Sakura nearly dropped all of her groceries when two very giggly men shoved through her, joining what seemed to be a mob of others gathered at the book shop. Sakura scowled. By the look of it, Jiraiya had just published another novel. He’d always racked in quite a crowd when his latest smutty piece of literature hit the book shops. But still, they were never this large.
“I always knew that man would try something like this one day!” Sakura could hear one man titter as she started again for the jelly bun stand.
“Yeah! I hear it’s a goody too!” another one giggled.
Sakura rolled her eyes. Pigs. All of them. Nattering about a new sequel to porn…
But, the next particular comment did however make her briefly wonder... “Reading porn in broad daylight will do that to you, ya know?”
Reading porn in broad daylight… That almost sounded like…
“Mmhm. That Kakashi always did strike me as the pervert type.”
Sakura froze, both bags of groceries making an unfortunate encounter with the pavement.
What did that guy just… say?
"Looks whose talkin', Kiro-- Uwaagh!"
Sakura plowed through the flock of men, sending them stumbling this way and flying the other. “Excuse me! Coming through!” she cried as she made her way to the source of everybody’s attention, earning a few indignant glares from some of her victims and some snickers from others who witnessed her decidedly eager behavior to get her own copy. But Sakura didn’t care! She had to see this for herself! Did that man… did that that pervy old man... actually publish… that disgusting piece of trash he called brilliant!?
And then she saw it. There, perched on the foremost rack in columns in all its filthy glory of R-ratedness, was rows and rows of…
“Kinmotsu no Koi!? By Kakashi Hatake…” Sakura read as she snatched a navy blue novel off of one of the shelves. “What. The. F--”
-
“-- uck… I spilled it all over me,” Kakashi muttered as he peered down at the milk that had spilled splendidly on his vest and lap. He sighed as he stood from his seat, bringing one hand to trace the damp material abouts his mask. “Hm, wonder if that will come out…” Kakashi began to tug down the zipper of his jonin vest to maybe give it a wash(as it was one of the few of them he had that weren’t somehow shredded or stained with his or some other ninja’s blood) when…
BANG! BANG! BANG!
“Mm?” he blinked, his attention suddenly on his apartment door. “Wonder who that could be…” he said quizzically.
BANG! BANG! BANG! Crack… BANG!
Kakashi’s eyebrows raised slightly. This person seemed as though they were intending to break down his very door. And by the sound of it, that would be in no time if he continued to let them go at it… “Who is it?” he called over the jack hammering and the splintering sounds of the poor wooden boundary that separated him and this evidently upset individual.
Crack… BANG! Crunch… BANG!
“Kakashi-sensei!” came a very, very pissed off voice and for the longest moment, Kakashi considered not opening the door at all. If a person sounded that angry, it probably wasn’t in his best interest to face them. But if he didn’t, they’d not only break down his door completely, but they’d probably still make a lunge for his throat. And probably succeed if it was the person that he thought it was… And oh how he had hoped that it wasn’t.
Unlocking his door, he tentatively opened it. And lo and behold, there she was... the object of his dread, panting and red-faced… “Howdy, Sakura-chan. What a pleasant surpri--”
“--WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING, KAKASHI-SENSEI!?” she screamed, sending Kakashi’s hair blowing back with the sonic blast of doom. And as if the mere volume of it wasn’t enough, it echoed down the many levels of the staircases…
Yay. Now everyone in his building probably had their ears pressed to their doors, ceilings and walls.
“Thinking? Well, if you must know, I was just thinking how I’ve been craving dangos lately…”
“I can’t believe you! You actually went out and published this crap!” she cried, shoving the blue book into Kakashi’s face as though he’d had a sight impediment.
“Oh, that. Did you come by for an autograph?” he chuckled as he massaged his ear, trying but being unsuccessful with his attempt of ridding himself of that funny ringing sound at the back of it. He was quick to shut up though when Sakura’s un-amused ‘I’ll-fucking-kill-you!’ aura flashed at him with her glare.
“Did you even think about how this would effect your students, asshole?!”
“Students wouldn’t ever think to call their teachers an asshole…”
“People are going to see us as ‘the kids whose sensei writes porn’!”
“Jiraiya has students… and they all turned out fine.” Yes, if Akatsuki spelled fine.
“People are gonna laugh, sensei! People are gonna laugh!”
“So let them. Your popularity statuses will rise.”
“I don’t want to be popular like that! People are already rumoring stuff about me having a boyfriend!”
“Huh,” Kakashi said, fingering a splinter in his doorframe distractedly. “Are they really?” he asked, schooling his voice to be disbelieving without much effort.
“I don’t even have a boyfriend! If I ever find out who started that rumor… I’ll… I’ll…!” Sakura threw her hands into her hair and for a moment, Kakashi thought she’d tear it out.
“Don’t you think that perhaps you’re making too much of a big deal about this?” he asked quietly, pausing his picking ministrations at the door as his eye peered over at her.
“No, I don’t!” Sakura replied hotly, her green eyes narrowing. She opened her mouth to say something else… when she suddenly quirked an eyebrow at him. Kakashi quirked his in return. “What… have you been doing?”
“Mm?” he blinked, bemused.
“Your vest is unzipped… and oh God. What is that white stuff on your mask? Is that…?”
“…Oh. It’s milk,” Kakashi said, his eye crinkling as he rubbed at the indicated ‘white stuff’ on his facemask. “Why…?” he said, his voice curious, “what did you think it was?”
She was silent for a few seconds. “I… I thought it was milk.”
“Sure you did,” he said, though Sakura didn’t have to have x-ray vision to know that he was grinning. And she knew that he didn’t need her to tell him for him to know what she’d originally thought it was…
“Don’t change the subject!” she growled.
“You changed it… thinking that your sensei has been doing naughty things…” he smirked. “You’re such a pervert.”
“I’m not a pervert! You’re the one who wrote this!” she said, skillfully side-stepping more pervert jibes while simultaneously keeping the topic on the subject at hand. “You actually had the gall to publish it, too! I didn’t think you’d actually do it! I figured you at least had some inhibitions! But ap-par-rent-ly I was wrong!”
“Inhibitions… now why would anyone need those?”
“Oh. My. God. My teacher… is an idiot.”
“I think you mean genius.”
“No! I mean idio--”
Grrruuuuwwwwrrrggggh.
Kakashi and Sakura both blinked. “Are you… hungry?” he asked, though by the sound of it, he was asking the obvious.
“Oh, stop it…” Sakura’s stomach gave another embarrassingly loud groan. “The word ‘hungry’ is even starting to sound appetizing.”
“You haven’t eaten?” he asked, a bit concerned.
“I… well, Naruto… and I went to the… and I… but then I saw the… and so I ran all the way…” And then she gasped. “I forgot my groceries!”
“You could always just… buy more?” Kakashi suggested weakly.
“I don’t have any money left. I spent the last of it… on those groceries and that book… and I… I,” she swallowed as if it was becoming increasingly hard to speak because of a persistent frog in her throat. Her stomach growled again and she was starting to look as if she might break down and cry any second.
She was the very picture of miserable. The only things missing now were sad music, rain, and perhaps a blind puppy…
“Sakura-chan…” Kakashi sighed softly, tilting his head to the side. She was giving him one hell of a guilt trip. And she was doing it without even realizing it. And the guilt trip probably would have worked on Kakashi like water off a duck's back like it usually did… had he not felt as though he was the indirect cause for all of this. “Come on. I’ll take you to get something to eat…” he said, scratching at the back of his head as he inwardly cursed himself for being a sucker.
“You’re paying?” she snuffed.
“Of course, I’m paying. My treat.”
“Do you mean it?” she asked, narrowing waterlogged eyes at him. “Sensei, do you really mean it? I told you, I’m broke… I wont be able to pay for anything if you decide to pull one of your disappearing acts and dump the bill on me… And it would be really, really mean. I don’t have any money-- not a single ryo to my name right now, and I’d never forgive you if you did, not ever! Not to mention, how would I get enough money to pay for--”
“Sakura. I’ll pay for it,” Kakashi said, planting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
Sometimes, it almost stung how it seemed his students had no faith in him. None whatsoever. He was sorry that she felt that she had to clarify the terms of the meal before accepting an invitation to eat with him. Kakashi was surprised that she didn’t force him to sign some contract of some sort in blood. But then again, he couldn't blame her. He supposed that he could be undependable at times. Okay... who was he kidding? All the time.
And he hardly cared to mention the several ways that came to mind that a cute girl might possibly get the money…
“Now, where does my favorite girl want to eat?” he asked pleasantly.
“You’re paying and letting me pick the place, Kakashi-sensei?” Sakura smiled while rubbing her eyes and Kakashi couldn‘t help but to smile in return. Her smile was contagious.
“Mmhm. Any place. I can afford it.”
Oh, how could he resist…
-
He should have resisted, he should have resisted.
“You want to eat… here?” he asked her and when she nodded, smiling from ear to ear as she gazed excitedly at the restaurant with big, green, googly eyes, he found that he didn’t have it in him to tell her that this was perhaps going a little bit overboard. Originally when he’d offered to take her out, he had meant to a place like Ichiraku or that barbeque shop down the road. But this… this...?
Damn. Now this was going to be a certain bite out of his wallet. Trust Sakura to pick the most pricey restaurant in the immediate area… And he was sure she’d have picked more expensive had she had the willpower and energy to do so.
But, Sakura by now was probably on the verge of gnawing off her own foot. Heck, he didn't doubt that she'd eat him if only she'd had a fork.
“Come on, sensei! Come on, come on, come on!” Sakura looped her arm about his and frantically tugged the unwilling Kakashi through the classy front door. His deadweight didn't seem to faze her though.
“Sakura…” he sighed, peering around cautiously as though some swarm of money-sucking mosquitoes would assault him. But, as much as he didn’t care to think so, she’d had him from the start when she flashed him that adorable little smile that before seemed to have become sparse.
“Seating for two!” Sakura chirped ecstatically to the receptionist at the front desk.
“Oh… right this way, ma‘am,” the woman said before she led the reluctant Kakashi(still in tow behind Sakura of course) into a particularly fancy area.
As they were assigned their seats at a small and swanky white-clothed round-table, Sakura practically flew to her seat. Kakashi was a bit more hesitant to sit though... He couldn’t help but to notice how this was the kind of couples restaurant that men took their gals to when they were about to pop the big question. Kakashi threw one more glum glance around the room as though he were willing a hurricane to smash through the restaurant, but seeing as how none ever did, he accepted that he didn't have magic powers and took his seat. A waiter instantly supplied them both with menus, which Sakura took all but three seconds to look at…
“I’ll take the tempura tendon, some eggrolls, and miso soup with tofu and spring onion…” she said, before adding on with a smirk. “Oh, and some sake, please!”
“I didn’t know you drank,” Kakashi commented, arching his brow.
“I don’t,” she smiled.
“Then why…”
“Why not? You’re paying after all.”
“Ah. Exploiting the situation?”
"Of course."
“And for you, sir?” the waiter asked.
“I’ll just have water, thanks,” Kakashi said politely as he promptly closed his menu and held it out for the waiter to take. Kakashi hoped their water was free...
“You’re no fun at all, sensei!” Sakura chided him before she looked to the waiter and smiled. “He’ll have some sake, too!”
“Trying to get me drunk on the first date, huh, Sakura?” Kakashi teased, a single crow’s foot in the corner of his eye forming with his telltale grin.
Sakura blushed a tad and narrowed her eyes, but was smirking all the same. “Of course I am. After all, what better do I have to do than to get you plastered? You know what? Think I may even have a ruffie in my pocket somewhere…”
The waiter was beginning to look very, very uncomfortable. “I’ll… I’ll be back with your orders shortly,” he said quickly before leaving the area.
Kakashi and Sakura both stared at each other for a brief moment before Sakura burst into a fit of giggles. Even Kakashi could be heard snickering. “Did you see his face when I said that?” Sakura said laughing, both hands clamped to her sides.
“Poor boy,” Kakashi chuckled.
“Oh, ow-o… too hungry… heh heh… hurts to laugh…” Sakura wheezed, “Ha ha ha, ouch, hee hee!”
Sakura and Kakashi earned several disapproving glances from the couples at the other tables they’d disturbed, but they hardly seemed to care. Kakashi even winked at one man who dared to look over at them, and to his amusement, that said man didn’t look back over again...
For the next few minutes, a rather enjoyable comfortable silence lapsed between them. Sakura found that awkward silences between herself and Kakashi were becoming less and far in between. And that was more than likely because there wasn’t much for them to really be embarrassed about anymore.. They had after all kissed one another!
Soon, their orders were served to them by one very flustered looking waiter. And it didn’t help matters the way Sakura and Kakashi both were smirking at him. It was no surprise that he seemed a little eager to leave… Poor man. He probably didn't get paid enough to do this.
Kakashi observed Sakura curiously as she positively destroyed her tempura plate with a sloppiness that was probably unbecoming of a flower. For whatever reason though, Kakashi found this manner lacking Sakura quite endearing.
“So, you bought my book, huh?” Kakashi finally asked as he sipped the sake that Sakura had ordered for him… that-he-didn’t-really-want-but-might-as-well-drink-because-it-was-so-damn-e xpensive.
“Had to,” Sakura muffled as she slurped up a bit of miso. Wiping her mouth on her sleeve, she grimaced. “Didn’t really want to be caught stealing porn. Though I kinda wished I had stolen it. Every man in the shop was leering at me when they saw me purchasing that… ”
Kakashi wasn't keen on trying to imagine other men looking at her like that, but the image of a beet-red Sakura buying a pornographic novel was still quite amusing. “Have you read any of it yet?” Kakashi asked with a smile. “There’s a scene in there that was inspired by you, you know.”
Sakura’s eyes widened with dread. “You did not…”
“I beg to differ,” he said smugly, absorbing her horror-struck expression like a sponge.
“W-why? Why, why, why would you do it?” Sakura stammered.
“Well, I had a lot of time to think about it when I spent six whole hours trapped to a tree with no other means of entertainment.” Yup. Turned out that it took Lee a while longer before he ever found Gai, and even after that, if it wasn’t enough that Gai was nonstop rubbing Kakashi’s predicament in his face and about how he needed Gai’s help, it took another hour or so for him to figure out how to do the necessary genjutsu to negate the original…
Ibiki thought he knew torture? Well, let him have a go at being helplessly trapped to a tree with Gai and Mini-Gai both senselessly yammering away in his ear.
“Besides, it would have been a complete waste if I didn’t include that kinky little stunt you pulled,” he said, gazing wistfully into space as he took another sip from his beverage. “Mm. I’m starting to see why Jiraiya-sama researches now. Makes for fantastic inspiration.”
Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. He just smiled. “I hate you,” she said before taking a long drought from her decidedly bitter sake.
Kakashi made a noise that was best described as a giggle, whether it be from Sakura's having spluttered most of what she‘d downed or if it was what she said, who knew? “I know you do. But, however much you think you hate me, in actuality you love me five times more than that. Can’t argue with logic, you know.”
“Does it hurt your back when you do that?”
“Mm? When I do what?”
“When you kiss your own ass like that!” she growled.
-
A/N: Heh heh. I think after this chapter, everything will begin to get interesting... ;) Stay tuned!
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Kakashi's Research
Chapter 1: Nothing to Eat
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“So who is he!”
“Hm?”
“Who’s the unlucky dog?” Ino giggled as she playfully elbowed a very confused Sakura in the ribcage.
“Who’s who?” Sakura asked, blinking ever so slowly as she rubbed at her abused side.
“It’s him, isn’t it?” Ino chimed, successfully cutting off Sakura’s route to the kitchen.
“What’re you talking about, Pig?” Sakura said bitterly, finding herself becoming rapidly annoyed with this here nosy Ino. This nosy Ino that was always nosy. “Now move it, I’m starving! Today’s the only day of the weekend that I have completely off and I intend enjoy every minute of it!” she growled as she tried pushing past the stubborn girl.
“Not until you tell me!” Ino protested, refusing to budge until she got her desired answer. “Is it him--Takahashi?” she questioned brightly, merely grinning when her question stopped her frustrated friend’s struggles as if she were put on pause.
“What? Takahashi? What the hell are you-- ew, no!” Sakura said, a little too quickly for Ino’s liking.
“The lady doth protest too much,” Ino snickered, cocking her head to the side mischievously. “So it is true. I knew it!”
“Knew what?” Sakura bristled, decidedly uneasy with the tidbit of information her friend seemed to be holding captive.
“Your boyfriend.”
“My what??"
“You heard me, Forehead. Boyfriend.”
“You’re delusional! I don’t have a--”
“Word has it that Sakura has been going out with some unknown boy,” Ino said, smiling cattily.
“You’re crazy, Ino! Who told you that?”
“Oh, everyone knows, Sakura.” It was common knowledge, really. Lee told Neji who told Tenten who told Ino… And now, naturally now the entirety of Konoha had caught wind of this. “I get it now! So that’s why you were all pissy the other night… because this Takahashi guy dumped you! And now that you two have made up with each other, you’re seeing one another, right? It all makes perfect sense now!”
“But he never dumped me in the first place!” Sakura piped up when she finally got a chance to get a word in.
“Ah, so you admit it?” Ino smirked wickedly. “You are dating him!”
“What? No! That not what I--”
“Heh, hee hee! I haveta’ go tell Tenten and the others! Later Billboard Brow!” she squeed, darting around Sakura and making a beeline for the door. Sakura could have the kitchen for all Ino cared, now! Ino had gotten her answers! And there was a flock of gossipy girls waiting with their ears pricked for the latest bit of news to digest.
“Ino!” Sakura screamed.
But it was too late. Ino had already vanished out the door, her wild cackles in the distance like nails on a chalkboard to Sakura’s ears.
“I don’t… believe this,” Sakura said as she buried her face into her hand. Who in the world would start up such a rumor? What demon on earth would say such a stupid, stupid thing!? About Sakura and Takahashi?
No, Sakura and Kakashi.
“If I ever find out who started this, and so help me God I will, I’m going to destroy them!” she said, seething. It was then that her stomach gave a curious gurgling sound, effectively throwing off the mood.
Before destroying anything, she’d shut her tummy up…
Sakura trudged to her fridge, opened it and despaired. She’d forgotten! There were no more groceries! Sakura sifted frantically through random bottles and jars. Condiments. Condiments. And more condiments!
Nothing to eat. Nothing to eat. Nothing to eat.
“Waaah… That mustard is even starting to look delicious,” she mumbled, her stomach agreeing. “Damn you Naruto!” Sakura cried, slamming the fridge door shut with a wail.
Well, it seemed she’d be making a last minute trip to the market place. Sakura sighed as she dragged on over to the door and slipped into her sandals. This was not how she planned on spending her day…
-
On her way, Sakura happened to run into one know-it-all pessimist and his chubby sidekick, equipped with none other than a bag of potato chips. “Oh hey, Shikamaru… Choji.” Sakura’s stomach clenched when she saw the chips… which was surprising. Usually the mere sight of Choji inhaling any kind of food was enough to thoroughly rid Sakura of her appetite all together.
“Yo,” was Shikamaru’s response to her as he threw her a glance that said, ‘what the heck do you want?’
It was better than Choji’s greeting though. His which consisted of “He--Mmngh--ll--mrrgh--o--mrengh” as soggy chip crummies sprayed from his gaping pie hole. Sakura mostly figured that that simply translated to ‘hello’. That or he said ‘go to hell’. But she’d have liked to think it was the former.
“So…” Shikamaru said at a weak attempt at conversation as he stretched his arms up and over his head. "I hear you’ve got a guy now,” Shikamaru murmured offhandedly and as if expecting this, Sakura was quick to deny.
“Well, I don’t!”
At this Choji stopped chewing for half a second. “That’s not what I heard,” he said, generously dousing Sakura with some more potato tidbits. “Ino says you’ve got some secret sugar daddy.” Or something else equally ridiculous…
Sakura’s brow twitched. Ino?? She’d managed to tell everyone that quick? Sakura was sick of hearing this already! Who hadn’t Ino told? Should Sakura honestly have been surprised? With an oinker like Ino’s, this was virtually inevitable… “Well, whatever that pig's been telling you guys, it’s all a lie!”
“Alright,” Shikamaru muttered, wincing with Sakura’s shrilling, “you don’t have a boyfriend. I get it. Just stop squealing already. All we said was that we’ve been hearing that, okay? No need to get so touchy-girly over something that is obviously not true.” Shikamaru sighed. “I could care less who you’re going out with. For I care, you could be going out with Naruto.”
“Don’t you even say that, Shikamaru,” Sakura growled. “The name ’Naruto’ and ’going out with’ don't even belong in the same sentence together.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said, his disinterest in the discussion as well as anything else productive becoming increasingly apparent. There were a million and one other useless things he could think of that he’d rather be doing… “Whatever.”
“Where’re you headin’, Sakura?” Choji muffled. Sakura had by now learned to take a step back every time he spoke…
“The market place.”
“Guess you should be on your way then,” Shikamaru said, taking the first opportunity to squirm out of the conversation.
“Guesso.”
“Mmmngh. Can I come wi--”
“No. Sorry, Choji.”
-
When Sakura arrived at the market place, it was flourishing with life as usual. Much too crowded for her likings though… She even had to squeeze past several groups of people that situated themselves right in the middle of the street especially for hers and everyone else’s inconvenience.
Zigzagging from food stand to food stand, Sakura haggled like crazy. She had never thought herself poor, but Sakura had often found herself quibbling with old coots over things for cheaper than the original low prices. She hadn’t been on a mission for two and a half weeks straight and the demanding rent on the apartment alone had already been wearing her pockets thin as it were, even when halving it with Ino…
While making her way over to the jelly bun stand, Sakura nearly dropped all of her groceries when two very giggly men shoved through her, joining what seemed to be a mob of others gathered at the book shop. Sakura scowled. By the look of it, Jiraiya had just published another novel. He’d always racked in quite a crowd when his latest smutty piece of literature hit the book shops. But still, they were never this large.
“I always knew that man would try something like this one day!” Sakura could hear one man titter as she started again for the jelly bun stand.
“Yeah! I hear it’s a goody too!” another one giggled.
Sakura rolled her eyes. Pigs. All of them. Nattering about a new sequel to porn…
But, the next particular comment did however make her briefly wonder... “Reading porn in broad daylight will do that to you, ya know?”
Reading porn in broad daylight… That almost sounded like…
“Mmhm. That Kakashi always did strike me as the pervert type.”
Sakura froze, both bags of groceries making an unfortunate encounter with the pavement.
What did that guy just… say?
"Looks whose talkin', Kiro-- Uwaagh!"
Sakura plowed through the flock of men, sending them stumbling this way and flying the other. “Excuse me! Coming through!” she cried as she made her way to the source of everybody’s attention, earning a few indignant glares from some of her victims and some snickers from others who witnessed her decidedly eager behavior to get her own copy. But Sakura didn’t care! She had to see this for herself! Did that man… did that that pervy old man... actually publish… that disgusting piece of trash he called brilliant!?
And then she saw it. There, perched on the foremost rack in columns in all its filthy glory of R-ratedness, was rows and rows of…
“Kinmotsu no Koi!? By Kakashi Hatake…” Sakura read as she snatched a navy blue novel off of one of the shelves. “What. The. F--”
-
“-- uck… I spilled it all over me,” Kakashi muttered as he peered down at the milk that had spilled splendidly on his vest and lap. He sighed as he stood from his seat, bringing one hand to trace the damp material abouts his mask. “Hm, wonder if that will come out…” Kakashi began to tug down the zipper of his jonin vest to maybe give it a wash(as it was one of the few of them he had that weren’t somehow shredded or stained with his or some other ninja’s blood) when…
BANG! BANG! BANG!
“Mm?” he blinked, his attention suddenly on his apartment door. “Wonder who that could be…” he said quizzically.
BANG! BANG! BANG! Crack… BANG!
Kakashi’s eyebrows raised slightly. This person seemed as though they were intending to break down his very door. And by the sound of it, that would be in no time if he continued to let them go at it… “Who is it?” he called over the jack hammering and the splintering sounds of the poor wooden boundary that separated him and this evidently upset individual.
Crack… BANG! Crunch… BANG!
“Kakashi-sensei!” came a very, very pissed off voice and for the longest moment, Kakashi considered not opening the door at all. If a person sounded that angry, it probably wasn’t in his best interest to face them. But if he didn’t, they’d not only break down his door completely, but they’d probably still make a lunge for his throat. And probably succeed if it was the person that he thought it was… And oh how he had hoped that it wasn’t.
Unlocking his door, he tentatively opened it. And lo and behold, there she was... the object of his dread, panting and red-faced… “Howdy, Sakura-chan. What a pleasant surpri--”
“--WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING, KAKASHI-SENSEI!?” she screamed, sending Kakashi’s hair blowing back with the sonic blast of doom. And as if the mere volume of it wasn’t enough, it echoed down the many levels of the staircases…
Yay. Now everyone in his building probably had their ears pressed to their doors, ceilings and walls.
“Thinking? Well, if you must know, I was just thinking how I’ve been craving dangos lately…”
“I can’t believe you! You actually went out and published this crap!” she cried, shoving the blue book into Kakashi’s face as though he’d had a sight impediment.
“Oh, that. Did you come by for an autograph?” he chuckled as he massaged his ear, trying but being unsuccessful with his attempt of ridding himself of that funny ringing sound at the back of it. He was quick to shut up though when Sakura’s un-amused ‘I’ll-fucking-kill-you!’ aura flashed at him with her glare.
“Did you even think about how this would effect your students, asshole?!”
“Students wouldn’t ever think to call their teachers an asshole…”
“People are going to see us as ‘the kids whose sensei writes porn’!”
“Jiraiya has students… and they all turned out fine.” Yes, if Akatsuki spelled fine.
“People are gonna laugh, sensei! People are gonna laugh!”
“So let them. Your popularity statuses will rise.”
“I don’t want to be popular like that! People are already rumoring stuff about me having a boyfriend!”
“Huh,” Kakashi said, fingering a splinter in his doorframe distractedly. “Are they really?” he asked, schooling his voice to be disbelieving without much effort.
“I don’t even have a boyfriend! If I ever find out who started that rumor… I’ll… I’ll…!” Sakura threw her hands into her hair and for a moment, Kakashi thought she’d tear it out.
“Don’t you think that perhaps you’re making too much of a big deal about this?” he asked quietly, pausing his picking ministrations at the door as his eye peered over at her.
“No, I don’t!” Sakura replied hotly, her green eyes narrowing. She opened her mouth to say something else… when she suddenly quirked an eyebrow at him. Kakashi quirked his in return. “What… have you been doing?”
“Mm?” he blinked, bemused.
“Your vest is unzipped… and oh God. What is that white stuff on your mask? Is that…?”
“…Oh. It’s milk,” Kakashi said, his eye crinkling as he rubbed at the indicated ‘white stuff’ on his facemask. “Why…?” he said, his voice curious, “what did you think it was?”
She was silent for a few seconds. “I… I thought it was milk.”
“Sure you did,” he said, though Sakura didn’t have to have x-ray vision to know that he was grinning. And she knew that he didn’t need her to tell him for him to know what she’d originally thought it was…
“Don’t change the subject!” she growled.
“You changed it… thinking that your sensei has been doing naughty things…” he smirked. “You’re such a pervert.”
“I’m not a pervert! You’re the one who wrote this!” she said, skillfully side-stepping more pervert jibes while simultaneously keeping the topic on the subject at hand. “You actually had the gall to publish it, too! I didn’t think you’d actually do it! I figured you at least had some inhibitions! But ap-par-rent-ly I was wrong!”
“Inhibitions… now why would anyone need those?”
“Oh. My. God. My teacher… is an idiot.”
“I think you mean genius.”
“No! I mean idio--”
Grrruuuuwwwwrrrggggh.
Kakashi and Sakura both blinked. “Are you… hungry?” he asked, though by the sound of it, he was asking the obvious.
“Oh, stop it…” Sakura’s stomach gave another embarrassingly loud groan. “The word ‘hungry’ is even starting to sound appetizing.”
“You haven’t eaten?” he asked, a bit concerned.
“I… well, Naruto… and I went to the… and I… but then I saw the… and so I ran all the way…” And then she gasped. “I forgot my groceries!”
“You could always just… buy more?” Kakashi suggested weakly.
“I don’t have any money left. I spent the last of it… on those groceries and that book… and I… I,” she swallowed as if it was becoming increasingly hard to speak because of a persistent frog in her throat. Her stomach growled again and she was starting to look as if she might break down and cry any second.
She was the very picture of miserable. The only things missing now were sad music, rain, and perhaps a blind puppy…
“Sakura-chan…” Kakashi sighed softly, tilting his head to the side. She was giving him one hell of a guilt trip. And she was doing it without even realizing it. And the guilt trip probably would have worked on Kakashi like water off a duck's back like it usually did… had he not felt as though he was the indirect cause for all of this. “Come on. I’ll take you to get something to eat…” he said, scratching at the back of his head as he inwardly cursed himself for being a sucker.
“You’re paying?” she snuffed.
“Of course, I’m paying. My treat.”
“Do you mean it?” she asked, narrowing waterlogged eyes at him. “Sensei, do you really mean it? I told you, I’m broke… I wont be able to pay for anything if you decide to pull one of your disappearing acts and dump the bill on me… And it would be really, really mean. I don’t have any money-- not a single ryo to my name right now, and I’d never forgive you if you did, not ever! Not to mention, how would I get enough money to pay for--”
“Sakura. I’ll pay for it,” Kakashi said, planting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
Sometimes, it almost stung how it seemed his students had no faith in him. None whatsoever. He was sorry that she felt that she had to clarify the terms of the meal before accepting an invitation to eat with him. Kakashi was surprised that she didn’t force him to sign some contract of some sort in blood. But then again, he couldn't blame her. He supposed that he could be undependable at times. Okay... who was he kidding? All the time.
And he hardly cared to mention the several ways that came to mind that a cute girl might possibly get the money…
“Now, where does my favorite girl want to eat?” he asked pleasantly.
“You’re paying and letting me pick the place, Kakashi-sensei?” Sakura smiled while rubbing her eyes and Kakashi couldn‘t help but to smile in return. Her smile was contagious.
“Mmhm. Any place. I can afford it.”
Oh, how could he resist…
-
He should have resisted, he should have resisted.
“You want to eat… here?” he asked her and when she nodded, smiling from ear to ear as she gazed excitedly at the restaurant with big, green, googly eyes, he found that he didn’t have it in him to tell her that this was perhaps going a little bit overboard. Originally when he’d offered to take her out, he had meant to a place like Ichiraku or that barbeque shop down the road. But this… this...?
Damn. Now this was going to be a certain bite out of his wallet. Trust Sakura to pick the most pricey restaurant in the immediate area… And he was sure she’d have picked more expensive had she had the willpower and energy to do so.
But, Sakura by now was probably on the verge of gnawing off her own foot. Heck, he didn't doubt that she'd eat him if only she'd had a fork.
“Come on, sensei! Come on, come on, come on!” Sakura looped her arm about his and frantically tugged the unwilling Kakashi through the classy front door. His deadweight didn't seem to faze her though.
“Sakura…” he sighed, peering around cautiously as though some swarm of money-sucking mosquitoes would assault him. But, as much as he didn’t care to think so, she’d had him from the start when she flashed him that adorable little smile that before seemed to have become sparse.
“Seating for two!” Sakura chirped ecstatically to the receptionist at the front desk.
“Oh… right this way, ma‘am,” the woman said before she led the reluctant Kakashi(still in tow behind Sakura of course) into a particularly fancy area.
As they were assigned their seats at a small and swanky white-clothed round-table, Sakura practically flew to her seat. Kakashi was a bit more hesitant to sit though... He couldn’t help but to notice how this was the kind of couples restaurant that men took their gals to when they were about to pop the big question. Kakashi threw one more glum glance around the room as though he were willing a hurricane to smash through the restaurant, but seeing as how none ever did, he accepted that he didn't have magic powers and took his seat. A waiter instantly supplied them both with menus, which Sakura took all but three seconds to look at…
“I’ll take the tempura tendon, some eggrolls, and miso soup with tofu and spring onion…” she said, before adding on with a smirk. “Oh, and some sake, please!”
“I didn’t know you drank,” Kakashi commented, arching his brow.
“I don’t,” she smiled.
“Then why…”
“Why not? You’re paying after all.”
“Ah. Exploiting the situation?”
"Of course."
“And for you, sir?” the waiter asked.
“I’ll just have water, thanks,” Kakashi said politely as he promptly closed his menu and held it out for the waiter to take. Kakashi hoped their water was free...
“You’re no fun at all, sensei!” Sakura chided him before she looked to the waiter and smiled. “He’ll have some sake, too!”
“Trying to get me drunk on the first date, huh, Sakura?” Kakashi teased, a single crow’s foot in the corner of his eye forming with his telltale grin.
Sakura blushed a tad and narrowed her eyes, but was smirking all the same. “Of course I am. After all, what better do I have to do than to get you plastered? You know what? Think I may even have a ruffie in my pocket somewhere…”
The waiter was beginning to look very, very uncomfortable. “I’ll… I’ll be back with your orders shortly,” he said quickly before leaving the area.
Kakashi and Sakura both stared at each other for a brief moment before Sakura burst into a fit of giggles. Even Kakashi could be heard snickering. “Did you see his face when I said that?” Sakura said laughing, both hands clamped to her sides.
“Poor boy,” Kakashi chuckled.
“Oh, ow-o… too hungry… heh heh… hurts to laugh…” Sakura wheezed, “Ha ha ha, ouch, hee hee!”
Sakura and Kakashi earned several disapproving glances from the couples at the other tables they’d disturbed, but they hardly seemed to care. Kakashi even winked at one man who dared to look over at them, and to his amusement, that said man didn’t look back over again...
For the next few minutes, a rather enjoyable comfortable silence lapsed between them. Sakura found that awkward silences between herself and Kakashi were becoming less and far in between. And that was more than likely because there wasn’t much for them to really be embarrassed about anymore.. They had after all kissed one another!
Soon, their orders were served to them by one very flustered looking waiter. And it didn’t help matters the way Sakura and Kakashi both were smirking at him. It was no surprise that he seemed a little eager to leave… Poor man. He probably didn't get paid enough to do this.
Kakashi observed Sakura curiously as she positively destroyed her tempura plate with a sloppiness that was probably unbecoming of a flower. For whatever reason though, Kakashi found this manner lacking Sakura quite endearing.
“So, you bought my book, huh?” Kakashi finally asked as he sipped the sake that Sakura had ordered for him… that-he-didn’t-really-want-but-might-as-well-drink-because-it-was-so-damn-e xpensive.
“Had to,” Sakura muffled as she slurped up a bit of miso. Wiping her mouth on her sleeve, she grimaced. “Didn’t really want to be caught stealing porn. Though I kinda wished I had stolen it. Every man in the shop was leering at me when they saw me purchasing that… ”
Kakashi wasn't keen on trying to imagine other men looking at her like that, but the image of a beet-red Sakura buying a pornographic novel was still quite amusing. “Have you read any of it yet?” Kakashi asked with a smile. “There’s a scene in there that was inspired by you, you know.”
Sakura’s eyes widened with dread. “You did not…”
“I beg to differ,” he said smugly, absorbing her horror-struck expression like a sponge.
“W-why? Why, why, why would you do it?” Sakura stammered.
“Well, I had a lot of time to think about it when I spent six whole hours trapped to a tree with no other means of entertainment.” Yup. Turned out that it took Lee a while longer before he ever found Gai, and even after that, if it wasn’t enough that Gai was nonstop rubbing Kakashi’s predicament in his face and about how he needed Gai’s help, it took another hour or so for him to figure out how to do the necessary genjutsu to negate the original…
Ibiki thought he knew torture? Well, let him have a go at being helplessly trapped to a tree with Gai and Mini-Gai both senselessly yammering away in his ear.
“Besides, it would have been a complete waste if I didn’t include that kinky little stunt you pulled,” he said, gazing wistfully into space as he took another sip from his beverage. “Mm. I’m starting to see why Jiraiya-sama researches now. Makes for fantastic inspiration.”
Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. He just smiled. “I hate you,” she said before taking a long drought from her decidedly bitter sake.
Kakashi made a noise that was best described as a giggle, whether it be from Sakura's having spluttered most of what she‘d downed or if it was what she said, who knew? “I know you do. But, however much you think you hate me, in actuality you love me five times more than that. Can’t argue with logic, you know.”
“Does it hurt your back when you do that?”
“Mm? When I do what?”
“When you kiss your own ass like that!” she growled.
-
A/N: Heh heh. I think after this chapter, everything will begin to get interesting... ;) Stay tuned!