Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Realization ❯ Chapter 6: The Confession of a Realization ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter 6: The Confession of a Realization

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and do not make money off of this fic. Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto, give him love...buy his works.

 

A/N's: This might have Kakashi a little OOC, but I really liked him in it. It let me play with humor (something that I love). I promise, there is a reason he's a little cranky. I've completed up to chapter 12, but am posting only one or two a day. Let's just say that any Sakura/Kakashi pairing fans will like chapter 12.

 

CHAPTER BEGIN

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When first waking Kakashi's mind stirred long before his body made any attempts at movement. His eyes seemed to be permanently glued shut and his head was pounding in tympanic rhythms that would make the Konoha Drum Corps proud. The only thing that rivaled the amount of pain in his head was the gurgling in his stomach. What had he done last night to bring on such horrid pain? Oh yes, now he remembered, he went drinking with his former students who were now his closest friends and allies. When was he going to learn that it wasn't necessarily the best idea to try to keep up with the young? The previous night's events were still a little foggy, not quite ready to resurface themselves in his mind, but when he finally opened his eyes the girl whose lap he was sleeping in was an instant reminder. Ignoring the pain, Kakashi shot up and found himself on the other side of the room faster than he thought was possible to make his hung over body move.

Sakura remained in the same position, propped up with her feet tucked under her and head slumped forward and very light snoring reverberations coming from her throat. She was asleep! It was then that he realized that he was staring at her (made apparent when he could feel the coolness on his maskless face as his mouth stood agape). Fingers flew to replace the material that guarded him for so many years. Never had he left it off for so long. He knew it was careless to leave it down, and probably a bit stupid. Sakura stirred a little and Kakashi froze, remaining as motionless and silent as he possibly could until she let sleep recapture her as she stayed in her most precarious and awkward sleeping position. The next thing he noticed was the overabundance of weaponry lodged into his walls…the landlord was definitely not going to like this. He crept toward the bathroom when he heard crunching beneath his bare feet (thanks to Sakura, he was shoeless). Next came the sensation of pain and looking down he found himself to be walking on shards of a broken sake bottle that had been shattered. The blood that followed his trail as he backed off of the sharp pieces of glass proved that ninja skills and senses are definitely influenced by hangovers.

Kakashi winced slightly as he pulled a rather large sliver out of the fleshiest part of his foot's arch. Damn Sakura, if she hadn't undressed him he wouldn't be bleeding right now. And he was undressed…somehow she had managed to take Kakashi out of all of his clothing but his underwear and his tight black undershirt. He cursed and thanked her all in the same thought. Kakashi really did hate passing out in all of his gear, it was bulky and uncomfortable, and usually left him stiff for a good day or two. Kakashi also realized that it was his own damn fault for throwing the bottle in the first place.

The older ninja sat back on the floor with his legs in front of him, pulling out shard after shard of broken glass out of his flesh without any audible reaction to the pain. He didn't want to wake the sleeping kunoichi, because he didn't want to deal with the awkwardness any sooner than he absolutely had to. Sakura had seen more of his drunken idiocy last night than he'd displayed in the rest of his entire lifespan. Playing with sake bottles, phft, what a moron he could be when liquored up. He glanced up at her again and this time was met with her beautiful emerald eyes gazing right back at him. `DAMMIT!' Kakashi cursed in his head, but made no outward gestures to express his irritation. Today he refused to show any emotions to her. There would be no more banging sake bottles together or angry displays for her amusement, not even an ounce of extra response would be painted for her benefit.

Kakashi expected a lecture or an inquisition or something stupid that she would normally attempt in circumstances like this. How could she leave a situation that was so advantageous to her alone? If Kakashi were in her shoes he certainly wouldn't. Sakura surprised him when she silently stood, moved to him, and began removing shards and healing the wounds without a word of unwanted dialogue. When she was finished with her task she simply put on her sandals and walked to the door. With a slight nod to him and a sad smile (showing only in her eyes), Sakura left his apartment without a word.

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Naruto and Sasuke were still laying unconscious and nude in a puddled heap when Sakura found them by the river. It looked as though Naruto had given Sasuke the night of his life. She enjoyed just musing at them and taking in the site of their beautiful bodies glistening in the soft morning light. Sakura locked away the image of her two handsome teammates in the back of her mind for future reference before clearing her throat to wake them. “Ahem,” she coughed in an obvious and unnaturally loud way.

Naruto stirred first, glancing around to see what had disturbed his peaceful rest. He was glad to see that it was Sakura, and she didn't look worse for wear. Perhaps her meeting with Kakashi was successful. If it hadn't been, he knew that she would have returned earlier than this. “Sakura…” his voice came out a bit raspy and hoarse, like it so often did after a morning with Kakashi. “How did it go?”

“Hmm, well, I think that things are going to be okay. I just left there. He seemed grumpy and hungover, but not necessarily angry at us anymore.”

Naruto's face grinned wide, “You JUST left there?” He couldn't have been more obvious about what he was implying if he had asked `did you screw him silly, Sakura?'

Sasuke started to grumble and squirm under Naruto, even giving his partner's face a quick playful smack and adding, “Shut up, I'm sleeping.” Sakura laughed at her teammate's adverse reaction to the daily occurrence known as morning. There had been more than one instance on a mission where she had to shake the guy awake at daybreak because he refused to rise with the rest of the world.

“Yes, I just left there,” Sakura answered Naruto's previous question. “And no, nothing happened.” Naruto noticed the careful tone she was using, so convincing to someone that didn't know her as well as he did. Sakura's voice retained a tenor of complete neutrality, which only meant that there was at least a detail or two she was leaving out. Naruto was also a very insightful man when he wanted to be, and left the topic alone and only responded with a small playful scoff and another grin.

“Shut…” Sasuke's took in a deep breath and released a sigh before punctuating the conversation with the second word of his brief command, “up.”

Sakura ignored Sasuke, she really didn't feel sorry for his lack of sleep, that was his choice. “Did you have a good night?” she playfully asked Naruto who was fully awake now, but still intertwined with his lover.

“Did I ever!” Naruto glowed and gave the biggest smile that she'd seen all week from him. “Sasuke took it like a champ! I thought that my brain was going to have a pleasure meltdown.” Naruto added a thoughtful look to this particular morning's facial repertoire and leaned down and gave Sasuke (who was still grumbling about it being too bright and too loud) a loving and sensual kiss.

Sakura felt a bit odd and awkward standing and watching the two make out until Naruto waved at her to come over. Inner Sakura jumped up and started cheering, oh yeah girl, you go and get those boys! Outer Sakura blushed furiously and couldn't find the ability to move her legs which had just transformed into some gooey and gelatinous state. It wasn't until Sasuke broke the couple's kiss and added, “Get your ass over here Sakura, we don't have all day,” that Sakura finally found the strength to move.

She slowly walked up to the boys and lowered herself gently to her knees right above Sasuke's head. Naruto, who was intensely sucking on one of Sasuke's nipples reached over with a free hand and pulled her neck down to a squirming Sasuke's face, silently ordering her to kiss him. She complied and brought herself down on to moaning lips at an odd, nearly upside-down angle. She had never kissed anyone in her life from this position and it was undeniably nice. Naruto had moved from the erect (and also bruised) nipple he had been working on, to play with Sasuke's navel. His tongue followed the crevice and he left marks on the soft flesh right above Sasuke's groin.

The moment was too short lived though as a snort of laughter broke their blissful advances into uncharted group training. Naruto found Team 8 standing only about twenty feet away. Kiba was laughing with a fervor usually reserved for only the greatest of practical jokes, Hinata was turned away and gripping a tree with clenched knuckles the shade of newly fallen snow, and Shino just stood there shaking his head. “That is some great training you three are doing today!” Kiba roared as he fell backwards on his ass from the exhausting laughing fit he was having.

“We should leave, this is a private moment,” Hinata said, finally removed from the tree (but still turned and unable to see Team 7). She tugged on Kiba's shirt, urging him to come with her.

Kiba stopped his hysterics and looked up at Hinata with a calm face and replied, “Leave them??? Let's join them!” With the last word he roared again, clutching his stomach as Hinata turned a shade of red that Kiba did not know existed naturally in this world. She started walking away, obviously mad, but not wanting to let it or her embarrassment show. Kiba stood and began to follow, adding, “No, really Hinata, let's join them. It'll be fun.”

Shino was the last to leave, muttering “I never thought those two were…” as he left to follow his teammates.

Sasuke was the most clearly miffed of the three as he muttered, “That killed the mood.” Sakura smiled at him as she watched Naruto as he was fiercely trying to get their derailed impromptu threesome started again by kissing Sasuke's thigh. Sasuke batted him away as he stood and went to wash up a bit in the river.

“Aw, come on!” Naruto whined. Sakura could swear she could see the faux tears and snotbubbles reminiscent of the earlier days of their youth fixate on the blonde's face as he pouted. “I wanted some morning sex-o-goodness. I'll let you be top!” Naruto shouted over to Sasuke who was wading in shallow water. Naruto quickly amended his statement and added to Sakura with a sly smile, “and I'll let YOU be bottom. A Naruto sandwich, highly nutritious and filled with protein to share.”

“That's disgusting Naruto, if you are going to try come-ons, maybe you should take some lessons. You will never get laid with lame lines like that,” Sakura replied while stifling a rogue giggle.

“Whatever, I know you want some of this,” Naruto hopped to his feet and struck a dumb pose, flexing his biceps and making his half hard on waggle with every motion. Sakura could no longer hold back the laughter as she snorted and chuckled at her friend. There was also no denying that there was more between them than just friendship, ALL of them. Sakura wondered to herself whether their bonds could withstand undergoing something that was as volatile as a romantic group relationship…because that was where this seemed to be heading. She had no doubt that she loved her boys, and she was attracted to them, when you add these things up there is no other conclusion to draw other than a relationship. In fact, it became blatantly obvious that even if the rest of them hadn't come to the same assumption yet, they were all trapped in this love triangle…or square, if you could call it that.

“You okay Sakura? You got really quiet.” Naruto had bent down to where she was still kneeling on the ground and touched her cheek, gently running his thumb across the blush that he instigated.

“Yes, I was just thinking…”

“About what?”

“This…`situation' that we have gotten ourselves into.” She didn't elaborate further, thinking that if Naruto didn't really know what she was talking about, she didn't want to bring it up.

“It could get messy, couldn't it?” Naruto asked with seriousness in his voice that she hadn't heard since the pouty days before when he had been troubled and mostly silent. “The problem is that I could never choose between any of you. I realized something that day you performed that awful genjutsu…something that I'd never recognized before in my own heart. I'd never really had known what it was before that moment, and even if I had…I don't know if I would have acted upon it. But I love each of you, for your strengths, for your weaknesses, and for the love that each of you has shared with me. I do…I love each of you.”

Sakura drew the larger man into an embrace, pulling him closely and firmly to her, “I love you too, Naruto.”

END OF CHAPTER
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A/N's: I'm sure you've learned to hate those stupid little plusses that break up the story, haven't you? Ha ha…I'm sorry, really I am. At the time that I was writing this I had to go to work, so I had to end it there. It was just going to jump to Kakashi here anyway. I think that it's fine to end the chapter where there was going to be a planned break in the story.