Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Mission: Freak Out Kakashi ❯ Memories of My Betrothed ( Chapter 14 )

A/N: You know, I had one reviewer tell me that the last chapter was OOC and I don't believe it was. Sappy, yes but not OOC of either character given the situation, but I suppose everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

 

Well, here is chapter 14!

 

 

 

XI.

 

Mission: Freak Out Kakashi

 

Chapter 14: Memories of My Betrothed

 

By: Melissa Norvell

 

 

XI.

 

 

 

After the memorial incident, Sakura made many attempts to show Kakashi that she really did feel something for him. The girl decided to focus on the jounin for a while and took a good day just giving him a general analysis and assessing the situation.

 

Sakura decided that now wasn't the time for her googly-eyed crushes. She was older now and so was Kakashi. A mature man…Mature man with mature needs.

 

As those thoughts ran through the girl's head, she blushed to herself. If he read that Icha Icha Paradise book then his `mature needs' were…

 

She couldn't even begin to think about the depth of that subject, otherwise she'd just embarrass herself in front of Sasuke and Naruto, who was already giving her a suspicious look. The girl quickly tried to rid herself of the light pink, staining her cheeks.

 

“Hey Sakura.” Naruto leaned in close to her. “What are you thinking about?”

 

“None of your business, Naruto.”

 

“You sure have gotten a lot more feisty since that thing you did with Kakashi, but that's alright.” He waved. “I already know about it, so you don't really have to say anything.”

 

“I'm warning you, Naruto…”

 

“What?”

 

Sakura balled her fist and held it to the blond menacingly, “This is what!”

 

The kunoichi began to beat him up, while Naruto was kicking and screaming underneath her. She took a hold of his blonde hair, pulling it up, trying to dislodge it from his skull.

 

“I dare you to say something out Kakashi-sensei and I one more time! You're really, really beginning to annoy me! I already have pressure and I don't need you!”

 

“Jeez…Sorry Sakura.” Naruto hadn't seen her this angry before. “Can you let go of my hair?”

 

The feminine hand let go of the blond locks.

 

“Fine…” The girl grumbled, and arose, then walked a few feet and looked over her shoulder. “But I'd better not hear anything else about it, got that?”

 

The orange-clad boy sat up, rubbing his head. “Yeah, yeah. I got it.”

 

As she exited the scene, onyx eyes watched her retreating form.

 

“Hmpf.”

 

 

XI.

 

 

Navy blue sandals walked along the dirt path with anger in each step. Sakura really was tired of being hassled by Naruto about she and Kakashi, especially when she didn't even know what she was feeling at the time. She had it established that she loved him, and decided to put any thoughts of Sasuke to the back of her mind.

 

Either she went with Kakashi and didn't think about Sasuke or she stayed single, because she knew that Sasuke wouldn't care about her, no matter what she did to try and impress him. Why should she care anyway? Love triangles are so tiresome!

 

Kakashi accused her of being with Sasuke..Yes, he accused her of being with Sasuke. Like he loved her back or something! Why did she have to fall in love with men who were so hard to figure out? Kakashi played keep away and Sasuke just flat out turned her down. Kakashi didn't want her to love him and pushed away her advances, but when she got close to Sasuke, or tried to ask him out to do something, she got lectured about it.

 

 

`What the hell, Kakashi-sensei?' She thought. `I don't get you…At all.'

 

For weeks Sakura had tried to get her sensei to grow closer to her, but all she'd gotten in return was the same half-hearted replies. She knew the ones, the sorrowful, `I really wished I could love you, but I don't want to hurt you' ones.

 

The pink haired girl ran a hand through her cheery blossom colored locks in dismay. She wondered if commitment was this hard with anyone else. She did notice, however, that her remarks about his dead friend were at least getting to him. During some of their outings, she noticed that he was a little closer, but wouldn't do anything in public.

 

This brought a smile to pink lips. She knew that it was at least a little improvement over the normal. Maybe it just took a while to get Kakashi to open up to her. After all, he was a sad individual who mourned his friend's death.

 

In the back of her mind, she wondered if something in the mission he was on went wrong and he blamed himself for it.

 

Sometimes, he seemed so close to coming through, and sometimes he seemed as far away as the day he met her. She sighed to herself at the thought.

 

It had been one week's worth of attempts and she wondered how Kakashi was.

 

Nostalgic memories came back to her as she thought about the little attempts that she made to get him to feel something for her as she walked through a sparsely wooded area.

 

 

“Kakashi-sensei!” Sakura called out, waving to her sensei.

 

“Oh, Sakura. Good evening.” Kakashi said calmly.

 

The two had been walking along a path, night was settling in and the fireflies were beginning to come out, they flew around them, like little beacons, lighting the night sky.

 

“Good evening, Kakashi-sensei.” She smiled a friendly smile. “What are you doing out here? I thought you would be training.”

 

“I'm finished training. I finished when the darkness was beginning to fall and the fireflies came out.” He stated, watching one flutter past his masked face.

 

“There sure are a lot of them out tonight.” Sakura noted.

 

“Yes.” Kakashi added, walking up a bridge and stopping, looking into the water. “Their reflections on the water's surface make it look like they've doubled.”

 

“Wow, it sure does. Kakashi-sensei?”

 

“Yes, Sakura.”

 

“Did you see the one that just passed between us? It was brighter then all of the others?”

 

Kakashi looked at the pink haired kunoichi standing beside him. He looked around for any fireflies that looked unusual. He finally spotted one that was drifting by itself, it shone brightly against the pitch of night.

 

“You mean that one?” He asked, pointing to it.

 

“That's the one.” Sakura nodded and smiled. “I followed it to you. Which reminds me of an old legend that my mother told me when I was little.”

 

“Hm?” Kakashi seemed interested in Sakura's tale.

 

“I'll tell you about it. It goes something like this…

 

A young man of Matsue was returning home from a wedding party when he saw, just in front of his house, a firefly. He paused a moment, surprised to see such an insect on a cold winter's night with snow on the ground. While he stood and meditated, the firefly flew toward him, and the young man struck at it with his stick, but the insect flew away and entered the garden adjoining his own.

The next day he called at his neighbor's house, and was about to relate the experience of the previous night when the eldest daughter of the family entered the room, and exclaimed, "I had no idea you were here, and yet a moment ago you were in my mind. Last night I dreamt that I became a firefly. It was all very real and very beautiful, and while I was darting hither and thither I saw you, and flew toward you, intending to tell you that I had learnt to fly, but you thrust me aside with your stick, and the incident still frightens me."

The young man, having heard these words from the lips of his betrothed, held his peace.”

 

As the girl ended her tale, the brightest firefly drifted over, landing on Kakashi's hitai-ate.

 

Sakura blinked and looked intrigued with the firefly. She paused a moment as the two of them sat in silence, each with odd expressions on their faces, as if each were thinking about the firefly from the legend. Nothing could be heard around them but the night sounds.

 

“If I came to visit you as a firefly, would you shoo me away?” Sakura asked.

 

“If I knew it were you, I wouldn't.” Kakashi replied. “I don't think I would anyway. The fireflies each have a function and place in the world. To needlessly kill them would be cruel.”

 

“They sure are beautiful.” She side-stepped and get closer to her sensei, finally wrapping her arms around his waist. “You know what, Kakashi-sensei?” Sakura finally spoke up. “I think that firefly on your head protector is very special.”

 

“What do you mean, Sakura?” The jounin asked, he had an idea of where this conversation was going, but wanted to know her answer to be sure.

 

“It led me to you. Maybe fireflies symbolize eternal love. I mean it was at the marriage and it was the one the man betrothed.”

 

Kakashi gave her an unsure and dare anyone call it emotional look. The look on his face seemed to have suggested that some emotion deep within him had been activated.

 

“Perhaps it does…” He reached up and put his arm around Sakura, pulling her close as the fireflies drifted through the skies around them.

 

 

She had wanted to kiss him then, but was afraid to take things too fast. She didn't want to screw anything up for the jounin or make him push her away more. The girl had made other attempts that week, but all of them failed. She was either blow off by him, he shied away or he took it as a friendly compliment.

 

`I know how the firefly feels sometimes.' She thought to herself. `Sometimes Kakashi-sensei shoos me away, just like the man from the story…'

 

Sakura walked into the grass, looking up to a giant tree. Within the branches of this tree, she could see someone sitting down comfortable, an orange object standing out in the greenery.

 

“Huh?” She narrowed her eyes, trying to get a better look at who it was. “Kakashi-sensei?”

 

The girl ran up the tree trunk, remembering to pull her chakra through her feet. She ran up through the branches, finally finding the one her sensei sat at. Sakura jumped up on the branch, making it shake with her weight.

 

A single eye looked up from an orange book, looking to her.

 

“Good afternoon, Sakura.”

 

“Hi Kakashi-sensei. It's me, the little firefly.” She winked.

 

“Hm?” His eye widened a little upon realizing what she said.

 

“Still reading that book, I see.” She replied, sitting on the branch. “As much as you've read it, you must have read it over 10 times this month. Sometimes I think that book is your only friend. “

 

The silver haired jounin had no response to that.

 

“Or maybe it's your only outlet for romance. You know, since you don't have anyone to love, and you don't think you can love you use the book to cover it up. By reading that book, you think that no one would want to go out with someone perverted enough to read it in public like that, but secretly, or at least I think, you want someone to show you the kind of love that is shown to the characters in the book.”

 

Kakashi blinked at her remark.

 

“And guess what? I'm going to be that person.” Sakura told him. “I'm going to be the firefly who always leads you to love.”

 

This got the jounin's attention. He put down the book and his full attention was focused on the girl in front of him.

 

“Saku-“

 

He was cut off by the girl holding a hand out to him. “I know what you're going to say, and those sentences aren't getting through to me. I'm going to stay on target here. You want someone to show you that love, don't you?”

 

“This is inappropriate for a teacher to discuss with a student.”

 

“You've got to stop thinking of me like that, especially if you're going to be in love with me.” Sakura responded. “Can't you answer the question?”

 

His gaze averted as he tried to hide a subtle blush.

 

“Kakashi-sensei…”

 

“I…” He began, but never finished.

 

“Come on, you've got to start telling me things about yourself.” Green eyes stared at his turned face. “Especially if you want to get over being afraid. You know you're lonely, Kakashi-sensei. I can see it in your eyes…Er, eye…Aren't you tired of being lonely?”

 

“Yes…” Was the small, soft reply that escaped masked lips.

 

“Then tell me, Kakashi-sensei. I want to know, because I love you. I want to know the things you like, so I can avoid doing the things you don't.”

 

“I dislike-“ He began.

 

“A lot of things.” They said in unison.

 

“Yes, I know.” Sakura rolled her eyes, finishing the sentence.

 

“I think it's too early in the relationship to discuss that, Sakura.” The jounin replied, face still turned away.

 

“But will you tell me?” She asked, taking his free hand in hers and holding it gentle.

 

A lone eye looked back to her, holding slight emotion to it. “I will, in due time.”

 

TBC

 

 

 

A/N: I'm SO late on this! Sorry about that, but I got my Wisdom Teeth taken out and lost my inspiration for a while, but I got it back now and I'm going to be doing my regular updating, maybe more since it's summer!

 

Please R&R and tell me what you think!