Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Snippets of KakaSaku ❯ Bath ( Chapter 7 )

Written as a kind of companion piece to the last one. I'd been working on this one for longer, but it just kind of all fell together after I got the other one done. Kinda has the same vibe, 'a day in the life of', so I feel like they fit each other. A bit like our favorite two shinobi ;)

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Bath (yes, this title is really that creative)

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Kakashi wasn't as furtive as people actually gave him credit for, he just knew when to keep his mouth shut. Likewise, he knew when to pick his battles. Both had proved invaluable navigating his relationship with the pink-haired spitfire currently in the bathroom.

He'd come home from his mission, exhausted and filthy, and wanted nothing more than to just drop into bed. He knew that if he did, however, there would be hell to pay later. Sakura absolutely hated it when he dirtied the sheets like that.

So now he was stuck staring at the bathroom door, dazedly watching the wisps of steam escaping from the crack underneath, wondering how to proceed. He knew he should clean up, but he didn't relish the idea of intruding on her bath time either - he knew what would happen if he did.

There was no helping it really; Sakura would only be irritated if she found out he'd gone to sleep somewhere else instead. With a sigh he pushed the door open, closing it quietly behind him, and studiously ignoring anything other than the tile directly in front of his feet as he made a beeline for the shower.

"Kakashi, you're back!" she hummed happily. "Welcome home." He couldn't help but smile. The greeting was old, familiar, comforting, and utterly pointless. They both knew she'd likely been aware of his presence from the moment he'd stepped foot in the building.

"I'm home," he returned warmly, trying to keep the fatigue from his voice lest she catch on.

"How was your mission?" she asked, the lazy drawl of her voice letting him know just how utterly relaxed she was.

He grunted, shrugging his flak vest off in one motion and letting it fall to the floor.

"Kakashi," she began, an edge to her voice that showed she was no longer as drowsy as he'd thought.

He cursed under his breath. That meant she'd noticed the hitch in his shoulders just now. Turning, he pasted on his best fake smile - because they all felt fake, if he was honest. Sakura told him he did have one or two genuine ones, and for the sake of not being a wholesale pessimist, he chose to believe her.

"The mission was fine," he assured her in his most flippant voice. "But," he continued tiredly, "I'll have to tell you about it later, if you really want to know. Right now I want nothing more than to be clean and then fall into bed."

He pivoted back to the shower and reached inside, turning it on as hot as he thought he could stand. He wouldn't even bother undressing, which happened to serve two purposes. First, Sakura also hated having filthy clothes on the bathroom floor. He'd often wear his clothes into the shower after a mission just to get the first layer of caked-on-dirt washed off of them. So luckily this wasn't out of the norm for him, as it allowed him to cover his second and more important purpose: hiding his injuries.

For all that she acted like a tough little hellion in public in her determination to not be underestimated, he knew how hard she worked for every single thing she achieved. Hours, days, even weeks were spent in study on a plant's medicinal properties or perfecting some jutsu she'd either recently discovered or felt she'd fallen out of practice on. She rarely took the time to just indulge in a simple pleasure like a bath - at least not without bringing something along with her to read or study. He was loathe to not only suddenly turn it into something about him, but to make her actually do some work by healing him.

In fact, it was surprising she hadn't inquired about his injuries already; normally she checked him over as soon as he was through the door. She was probably just so lethargic right now that she planned to ambush him while he was sleeping later instead. Which was perfectly fine; that would work out great. Unless she noticed just how injured he was, in which case she'd insist on instant healing.

"Kakashi," she hummed, "I hope you know you're not fooling me with that stance. Your shoulders are way too stiff, even for you."

"I'm fine, Sakura. I'm sure getting under the hot water will do wonders for me."

"Then how convenient that I have a whole tub of hot water here you can soak in, not to mention my magic fingers," she retorted, wiggling said digits.

He sighed. "At least let me rinse off first. I'm filthy and you don't want all this muck floating around in the bath with you."

She snorted. "Nice try, but we both know that if I let you get in the shower you'll simply wash yourself as fast as humanly possible. Then you'll get out, say you're clean so getting in the bath is redundant, and that you're too tired anyhow."

Damn. She really did know him too well. "And what precisely is wrong with me wanting to get to bed as soon as possible? Sleep does wonders for the system too, you know."

She shot him an ironic glance. "Thank you Dr. Hatake, I really had no idea."

He couldn't help it, he laughed lightly at that, which was a bad idea as it aggravated the muscle he'd pulled somewhere in his torso. Wincing in front of Sakura was never a good thing, and he knew he'd pretty much just lost with that move. Still, he was nothing if not stubborn. It was part of what made them such a good pair.

"Well there you have it, doctor's orders: bed rest for the patient." He made a move for the shower again but froze at the sudden steel in her voice.

"Hatake, you do not want me to have to get out of this bath to drag your sorry ass in."

Sighing in resignation he knew he was beat. Hell, he'd known since he'd walked in the door, but he'd had to try. He did have his pride after all. But he'd heard the not-so-subtle threat in her words and knew very well that she would have no problem manhandling him into the tub, chakra-enhanced strength and all. And since he didn't want to be the one to break the bathroom and earn even more ire, he'd eventually end up in there anyhow, regardless of what pathetic struggle he was able to put up in his exhausted state.

She knew she had him, but she continued anyhow. "Besides, in the hurry you'd be in, you wouldn't clean yourself properly, let alone disinfect whatever wounds you're carrying. The sooner you get in here with me the sooner you get to sleep, so you may as well stop dragging your heels."

Unable to decide between acting petulant or stoic, he just went with tired. It was the easiest anyhow. Stripping slowly, no longer bothering with the guise that he was uninjured, he dropped his stinking clothes into the shower with a plop before turning the water off.

Taking the four steps to the tub, he was gratified that Sakura's eyes held an appreciate glow even as they narrowed in worry as they landed on his myriad injuries. That helped soothe his ego enough that he didn't even mind when she held out her hand to help him in. Of course he didn't take it, just acted like she'd held her arm out in invitation for him to slide right into them, which he did, giving her a quick, mischievous kiss before turning around and letting her go to work on him.

He leaned back against her, his head resting on her shoulder as he lazily slumped down into the water as deeply as he could. Hey, he'd done his best to let her relax, but if he was going to be in this situation then he was going to enjoy it as much as he could, and that started with soaking up all this delicious heat. Having a delicious, warm body to lay against wasn't all that bad either.

He cracked an eye open - without even being aware he'd closed it - when she moved oddly behind him, and he chuckled to see her draining the last of the wine from her glass. "Think I'm going to be that troublesome a patient that you have to prepare yourself, eh?"

She eyed him sardonically, the hint of a smile on her lips. "Oh, I know you're troublesome. That's nothing new." Kissing him to take the sting from her words, she continued, "This was for a much more practical reason." Dipping the glass in the water, she motioning for him to turn back around. Pouring the water over his head to dampen his hair, she commented, "I'd hate to accidentally drown you in your overtaxed state."

His rebuttal was only half-formed in his mind when her hands went to his scalp, lathering in a hefty dollop of shampoo, and his brain promptly turned to mush. As much as he hated to admit it, even to himself, he probably wouldn't have fought her half so hard if he'd known this was what he had coming.

Rinsing the shampoo from his hair, she lathered up some more - he must've been even filthier than he'd anticipated, or she just knew how much he enjoyed it - which she left to sit while her hands moved to his shoulders and, instead of poking and prodding and flooding with chakra, she started massaging.

He was pretty sure he resembled a boneless heap of putty more than a man at this point, but he couldn't much care, not when the most beautiful woman in the world was caring for him and making him feel somehow like he was floating on a cloud. He hadn't felt this relaxed and peaceful in months.

Her hand swiped at his forehead, stopping some suds that were running down, and then her fingers were back in his hair as she rinsed the shampoo out again. He felt himself flowing with the water, swirling around and then down, down, into a quiet, warm, welcoming darkness.

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He woke with a jolt, always on battle alert in the initial half-second he found himself some place other than where he'd fallen asleep.

Sitting up and rubbing his hand over his face, he felt embarrassment flood through him. He'd fallen asleep in the tub and, given that he was in bed, that meant Sakura had carried him there.

Oh, he'd never live this down. The only saving grace that while Sakura would joke mercilessly about it with him, poking fun at his delicate male ego, she would never tell anyone else about it. The benefits of having a trustworthy partner.

Scratching idly at his hair, which wasn't even damp - just how long had he been sleeping anyway - he decided it wasn't really all that bad. He'd been massaged and coddled - something he would deny to his death that he enjoyed - and she'd gotten to use her super-strength, in town no less, which she rarely had the opportunity to do these days. It was a win-win scenario, really.

Okay, so maybe he got a bit more out of the deal, but that's what relationships were all about, right? Give-and-take? Besides, this gave him the excuse to do something to pay her back. As a yawn overtook him, he decided that since Sakura didn't seem to be home, maybe he'd just go ahead and lie back down. After all, if he was well rested it'd be a lot easier to do, well, whatever he decided to do for her. It'd be easier to come up with his master plan once he'd slept some more too.

Smiling to himself, he laid back down only to pause at a crumpling sound. Reaching beneath his elbow he found a note left by Sakura and grinned. The woman really did spoil him.

You were right, it started. That was novel, and rare enough for her to admit that it made him instantly suspicious before he could even read any further. You were dirtier than I thought. I had to change the water twice before you could soak in there with me without turning the water brown.

He grimaced. But, in all fairness, he had warned her.

And I absolutely exhausted myself healing you. Not to mention carrying you to bed. That was it; this note was going to find a fiery, ashy end. In fact, I think you might just owe me a foot rub when I get home. See you tonight.

Sneaky. She was trying to cut him off at the pass. She thought she was so clever, but he knew that her continuous ploys to draw him into rubbing her feet were actually another generosity on her side. He could pull her feet into his lap and massage them with one hand while holding his book in the other. Hardly a huge sacrifice on his part. Besides, until she'd started this ruse, he'd never once heard her complain about her feet, unless it was after a particularly hard mission.

Well, he'd had enough. She was getting a lengthy, full body massage, one that would send her to sleep - after which she may or may not find strange things drawn on her body - and she was going to like it.

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Somewhere across town Sakura smiled.