Chapter 7: What now?

Kakashi woke up in his own bed. He was happy to be human again although he did miss Sakura and he would miss her cooking. He sighed heavily and looked at his alarm clock. Sakura would be at work right now.

He really didn't want to get up. He had gotten used to the not dressing. Yet he knew he had to get back to his normal routine and forget Sakura.

He pulled off the clothes that he had put on the night before and changed into his normal uniform. He picked up his novel Icha Icha Paradise from the floor and put it back in his drawer.

He got all his laundry together and decided to do a quick load.

He got to his door ready to head outside with a basket full of clothes when he looked toward the window and sighed heavily in annoyance.

He walked back to his room and put the clothes basket down on his bed.

Kakashi left his apartment and went to the hardware store looking for a window pane and some caulking to replace his broken one.

As he was walking back from the hardware store with a bag in his hand Gai came bounding up to him. Kakashi smirked evilly beneath his mask.

"My eternal rival. Let's have a race together in the springtime of youth. My score is still one better then yours after all." He just had to rub it in.

"No thanks Gai. I have to go fix a window." Kakashi lifted his bag up for emphasis. "I was thinking of going to the pet store later today though." He looked directly at Gai, "I was thinking of getting a cat."

Gai stiffened, "I'm going to be training then bye." Gai walked off. When Kakashi said "Meow. Hey there little kitty." Gai took off like a shot without even looking back.

"I think he beat his old record." Kakashi laughed to himself.

Kakashi came back to his apartment and set to work fixing the window.

He got the window pane in the window and started using the caulking to set it in place.

When he was finished with that he went and grabbed the trash can to throw the broken glass into.

As he knelt on the floor picking up the broken pieces of glass he thought of everything that had happened to him.

He remember Sakura breaking the window pane just to let him out and he smiled. Then when she named him Kurama.

Kakashi started to frown. Sakura had said something that day. There was something she said and then it all came rushing back to his memory, "I sure hope you're a boy." When she had already given him a boys name.

Then there was the way she had smiled at him he smiled at the thought then shook his head.

The vet's visit he shuddered at the thought. Then Sakura punching Dr. Yamui. When the sudden realization hit him.

She knew. Sakura knew the whole time that he was the cat.

He was pissed off. That wasn't the only thing that was bothering him though.

Well there was only one way to find out. He was going to get the answer and he was going to get it now.

He left his apartment and slammed the door behind him, not noticing the force of the slam made a crack in the window pane he had just replaced.

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Kakashi walked into the hospital briskly determined to find Sakura.

"Where's Sakura." He demanded at the woman sitting at the front desk.

"I think she's in her office…."

"Thanks!" he said cutting her off and walking towards Sakura's office.

Kakashi found the door closed and he opened it. He slammed the door hard once he was inside Sakura's small little office.

Sakura looked up from her paper work a bit un-nerved by the slamming of her door. She looked at Kakashi and smiled nicely at him, "I couldn't find Kurama this morning Kakashi-sensei; I'm guessing you found him."

Kakashi came up to the desk and gripped the edge of it while his whole body went rigid looking straight into her green eyes with his onyx one. "You knew this whole time didn't you." He practically seethed at her in fury.

Sakura was taken aback by Kakashi's tone of voice. Her mouth dropped open not knowing what to say. She looked defiantly back into Kakashi's eye and shot back, "Knew what the whole time Kakashi-sensei?"

"You knew I was the cat the whole time didn't you!"

Sakura's eyes widened then narrowed at him as she blushed, "I don't know what you're talking about." She looked away from his face not able to look at him as she finished her sentence.

That was a lie and Kakashi knew it but he wanted to know if she was really in love with him. He really didn't care about anything else.

"Don't play games with me Sakura!" he practically shouted at her.

Sakura sighed heavily and closed her eyes while pinching the bridge of her nose with her thumb and fore finger, "What on earth are you talking about now?" She moved her hand away from her face and looked at him.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." He leaned over the desk to get closer to her face and whispered, "Do you really love me?"

Her eyes widened a bit and then she looked away crossing her arms, "No!"

"Look me in the eye and say that Sakura."

Her whole body stiffened.

Kakashi moved around her desk and was standing before her without the obstacle of the desk being in the way.

She still wouldn't look at him. "Go away!" She grumbled at him.

Kakashi leaned down and roughly spun her in her chair and grabbed her chin in his hand while his other hand was gripping the arm rest to the chair to balance himself. He forced her chin up to look at him and asked again, "Do you love me Sakura?"

It was so soft he barely heard what she had said but it still surprised him none the less. Sakura looked straight into his onyx eye with her green eyes; there was no doubt in her eyes she was serious with what she had said. His hand slipped from her chin as he stared at her.

Nothing was said for a few minutes, it was a silence that seemed to take forever.

She had felt this way for quite some time. She didn't expect to tell him though.

Sakura was getting nervous, as she was still staring up at him.

Was he happy? Was he upset? She was pretty sure if he didn't have the mask on his face it wouldn't tell her anything either.

Did he feel the same way about her at least?

He shook his head at her and walked out of her office not saying anything.

Sakura was in shock. She wasn't expecting him to walk out on her. The tears came down her face unbidden. She put her head in her hands and dissolved into tears.

This wasn't how it normally worked out in fairy tales.

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Kakashi went directly to the Hokage's office.

"Kakashi its been…." Shizune tried to tell him.

He ignored her and went into the office anyway.

Tsunade was just raising a bottle of sake to her lips when Kakashi stormed in.

Shizune came in after him, "Tsunade!" she cried, "Give me the sake bottle." She held her hand out. "You can have this after you finish your paper work." She said as she pointed to the piles of paper on her desk and the pile on the chair next to the desk.

"But that will take forever!" Tsunade whined at Shizune.

"Well, then I guess I better leave you to it then." Shizune snapped back at her with a sharp glare.

"Thanks a lot Kakashi." Tsunade grumbled.

Shizune left the office closing the door behind her with the offensive bottle of sake held between her thumb and fore finger of her left hand.

"You owe me some sake." Tsunade grumbled once again at Kakashi. Then she asked, "What do you want anyway?"

"I would like to be removed from my team. I would also like to be assigned an S-class mission to go on right away."

"You don't waste any time do you."

"Are there any S-class missions I can take?" Kakashi asked completely ignoring her.

"Why do you want to be removed from your team?" Tsunade asked as she threaded her fingers together and rested her elbows on the desk narrowing her eyes thoughtfully at him.

"I think that they are fully capable of handling themselves now." Kakashi answered curtly.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow, "This wouldn't have do with one of your students would it?"

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked as his whole body stiffened, wondering what she knew.

Tsunade's eyes narrowed then she turned her chair to face the window that was behind her, "I'll let you go on an S-class mission, just so you can clear your head. If your still insistent on giving up your team they will be evaluated and placed in their proper rankings." She spun back around and started looking through some of the papers on her desk.

She picked up a paper marked S-class as she looked at him, "If you want you can take a medic with you on this one."

"I'll be fine by myself I always have been."

Tsunade looked away in thought as she handed him a paper, "Sakura could do with another mission. If you want you could take her with you." Tsunade turned her face toward him and watched as Kakashi shifted uncomfortably in front of her.

Tsunade's guess was confirmed by his action.

That was the last thing Kakashi wanted. The reason why he requested the S-class mission was so he could get away from Sakura and that tense conversation that they both had in her office just moments before.

"No, I'll be fine by myself." He said as he grabbed the paper and left.

Tsunade sighed heavily, "Whatever."

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It was just a little crush wasn't it? She would get over it. Then why the hell was it bothering him so much?

It had been a week since he had last seen Sakura. He had rushed to Tsunade's office that very day and asked to immediately be withdrawn from his team.

He told Tsunade that he believed his team was fully capable of surviving without him. Then he demanded an S-rank mission to be assigned to right away.

He finished the mission in five days time and was back in his apartment on the sixth day. He was supposed to be resting. He thought that the S-rank mission would at least take his mind off of Sakura and that disturbing conversation in her office.

It hadn't he had been plagued with nightmares the whole time.

In his first dream before he left on his S-class mission, Kakahsi dreamed that Sakura was with another man, they were in bed together. When he woke up he ended up punching his pillow in fury at the very thought.

Kakashi didn't understand why he was so upset about it; it was just a dream after all.

Then there was the one recurring nightmare that he had that really bothered him, it was always the same.

In this nightmare Sakura was calling out to him and he couldn't reach her and when he finally found a way he would wake up panting and trying to catch his breathe. It scared the crap out of him in the end of the dream she was always dying and he couldn't save her.

He had to keep reminding himself it was just a dream. Even though the very thought of losing Sakura to death was really nerve wracking to him.

Kakashi sat up in his bed. He was glad to be home and yet he still had that damn nightmare.

He sighed heavily and put his head in his hands it was partly his fault. He wanted the answer from Sakura and he got it. She had looked him in the eyes and told him the truth.

Kakashi really didn't know how he felt about Sakura. She was a comrade a friend, he had never looked at her before as a potential lover.

He got up and went to his kitchen and pulled out a glass and filled it with water. He sat at his table and sipped it slowly without his mask on.

He was deep in thought when there was a knock on his door.

He pulled up his mask and went to the door and opened it.

Kakashi was surprised to see a very pale, pink haired Sakura standing in front of him.

"Kakashi we need to talk," was the last thing she said as she pitched forward and blacked out.

Kakashi caught her in his arms before she could hit the ground.

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