Chapter 9 : Our Vacation

It's the beginning of summer. Kakashi does not like to have missions in this time of the year. He thinks it s too hot to walk under the sun much more to accomplish some high risked mission while he can feel his skin burning uncomfortably. And this is the reason why he asked for a weeklong vacation.

Usually, he would only ask a vacation for himself but this time, he plans to spend the week on his private cottage just outside the Fire Country. He acquired this cottage a few years after he started as a Jounin. Since then, whenever he has free time, he made an effort to spend some time there. Most of the time he would go there alone to unwind but there are also times that he brought colleagues if their schedules allow it.

This time he plans to invite his team there to spend a week long summer vacation. Their team just returned from a four day long A-ranked mission so asking a vacation leave for the entire team from the Hokage was easier than usual.

He made this plan all by himself so if Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke or Sai have some plans he can't really force them. Contemplating about this, he quickly searched his mind for someone he wanted to spend the week with in his private cottage. He thought of Shizune but he's afraid the hokage won't let him 'borrow' her for the week but on the other hand he's sure he can persuade Shizune easily. She badly needed a vacation. With this in mind he decided to extend her invitation to her even if his team would come with him there.

=0=

As expected, inviting them was easy. After he mentioned the words 'vacation', 'cottage' and 'one week', he need not to repeat himself. Naruto began planning on what clothes to bring and how many ramen he would need in their entire stay there. Sakura was obviously excited too.

"What about my work at the hospital?"

"I already asked for the hokage's permission for us to have a weeklong vacation."

I glanced at the other two shinobis sitting silently in front of me. Sai was smiling as usual and I look at him to ask if he wanted to come.

"It would be not polite to decline such a generous invitation. I'll join you there and I also wanted to experience vacation. I haven't done that yet." he answered.

Sasuke just muttered 'fine' under his breath as his answer.

Kakashi also asked Shizune and she answered, "The hokage would just have to survive for a week without me."

=0=

The following day they're on their way to Kakashi's cottage. The weather was still hot and this only made them excited to spend the entire week with fresh air and cool lake water to swim in to.

It took them three hours straight to reach their destination. From the outside the cottage looked big with balcony both on the first and second floors. The house faces a wide range of different trees that makes you wonder where it ends, on its left side you can see the nearby lake that looks like sparkling crystals because of the sun while on the back side of the house was an entire mountain range.

Kakashi unlocked his front door and invited them in.

"I have a caretaker that visits here once a month so the place is a bit dusty. You just have to help me clean it a bit. Alright?"

"No problem." Naruto answered immediately.

"There are only three rooms here so maybe Sakura and Shizune could share a room and you three guys in another room also. But Shizune if you want to join me in my room there'll be no problem with that." He said smiling to them.

"Thank you Kakashi, I think I'll be joining Sakura."

"Well,... I offered."

=0=

The entire afternoon was spent in cleaning the entire cottage after they unpacked their things for the week. Kakashi showed to Shizune and Sakura the food supplies since he knew that the other guys won't be much interested in cooking. But both females are not in the mood right now to prepare something complicated since they are also tired from the journey. They decided to just open some canned goods that they will eat with some breads that also came from Kakashi's supplies.

After dinner they decided to take a walk towards the lake to enjoy fresh air except for Sakura who decided to take a shower.

Sakura felt refreshed after the bath, when she reached the living room she discovered that they are still outside. Comfortable inside the house, she decided not to follow them instead she inspected Kakashi's movie collection. She was expecting a wide selection of porno movie but she was surprised to find none. She thought that maybe that collection was in his room. She picked an action/adventure film that she recalled was shown last year that she missed because she doesn't want to go see it alone. A couple of minutes after she played the film she heard her friends approaching the front door.

"Hey Sakura-chan, what are you watching?" Naruto inquired.

"A film I wanted to see last year."

"I already saw this one. It is really good." Sai said before he took the empty chair opposite the couch Sakura was occupying.

Naruto settled on the floor near the screen while kakashi and Shizune prepare some drinks and snacks for the movie.

Sasuke motioned for Sakura to move a bit so he can sit next to her. After giving Sasuke some space on her right side, she placed her feet up, grabbed a small pillow and lean on Sasuke's side. To make their position comfortable, Sasuke positioned his body sideways to face the TV while placing his left arm around Sakura's shoulder and press her a little bit more on his side. Hearing no complaints from the girl in his arms he focused his attention to the movie.

Shizune and Kakashi returned to the living room with some sodas and three bags of freshly popped microwavable popcorns. Naruto grabbed a bag, opened it while Sai took a soda. Sakura asked for the butter flavored popcorn so Sasuke took it from Kakashi who was beginning to open it. The older man only gave him an annoyed look before opening the remaining bag of cheese flavored snack.

=0=

The following day, Kakashi decided to take a trip to the nearest town to re-stock their supplies. Naruto decided to tag along. He said he wanted to buy more instant ramens. His supplies already running low even though it was only two days since they left Konoha.

Sai decided to spend the day painting the beautiful scenery outside the cottage. He left just after breakfast. Sasuke surprisingly slept in since there will be no training for the day. He did not even join them for breakfast. After Kakashi, Shizune and Naruto left, Sakura washes the utensils they used and arranged the contents of the refrigerator.

At 10 am, Sai is still outside and it seems like Sasuke does not have a plan on waking up soon and Sakura was a bit bored. She was beginning to wonder why Naruto and the others are still out. After cleaning in the kitchen, she went online on the laptop she brought to check emails, browse some recipe to cook for them on today's lunch and dinner. Thirty minutes passed and she's still alone so she decided to finally wake Sasuke up.

She knocked on the door of the room they're occupying for the week. She waited for a response. None. She turned the doorknob and discovered it was unlocked. She pushed it silently and looks at the bed Sasuke was occupying. He was under the blankets and facing the closed windows. She carefully made her way to the side of his bed and wakes him with a poke on his exposed cheek. Sasuke just flinches but did not open his eyes.

"I can't believe you're such a heavy sleeper."

Sasuke slowly opens his eyes and focused his attention on the girl sitting on his bed.

"I was already awake when you knock."

"Liar."

"What time is it?"

"Almost noon, they're still out. I'm bored."

"What do you want me to do?" Sasuke said while sitting up.

"Entertain me." she replied without missing a beat.

"You're such a spoiled brat."

She just stood up from his bed and winked at him. "And whose fault is that?"

"Alright, just let me take a shower then we can go for a walk."

=0=

Sakura prepared coffee while Sasuke was in the bathroom. She brought put the left over muffin that Shizune baked for breakfast. There was only one left and she was contemplating on eating it herself.

Sasuke came out from the bathroom and saw Sakura staring seriously in what he can saw as a muffin. "What are you doing Sakura?"

"Oh, Sasuke-kun, I prepared your coffee and a muffin from breakfast. Eat it before me head out."

"You can have that muffin; I'll just have the coffee."

"Thanks Sasuke-kun. Are you sure? This is really good." Sakura said already splitting the muffin in half and taking a bite on the first half.

=0=

After walking for more than an hour, Sakura's small basket was already filled with different variety of medicinal plants. She was currently examining a group of flowery plants that she remembered reading in one of those books Shizune lend her but right now she just can't remember its name. She carefully picked one and she made sure she can include its leaves for identifying purposes later with Shizune. Sasuke was trailing a feet behind her. Checking their surrounding every now and then for any signs of dangers. Can you blame him? He was trained to that. It was already a reflex. So far he can say that the entire area was safe. No hints of other dangerous charkra or even more dangerous traps. He was currently looking at a group of stones that was lined up as a marker. Is anyone buried there? He was not sure. She heard Sakura walked a little to her left side and he decided to follow her when she suddenly called him.

"Sasuke come here!" Panic was in her voice.

Her male companion hurried to her side to discover her cause of distress. There was man, obviously a shinobi based from his appearance. And from his forehead protector, he was from the land of Waves. He was critically wounded. There was a pool of his blood on where he was lying underneath a tree. She observed Sakura as she sliced open the unknown man's shirt to examine his injuries further.

"He won't make it if we move him from here. This is bad, he needs operation. I can't heal everything with just chakra." as she was saying this, she was already applying chakra on his bloody chest.

"Sasuke, if I stopped the bleeding can you transport him back at the cottage? I need to go back where I gathered those plants to make medicines."

Sasuke just nodded while checking the surrounding once more if it was safe to leave Sakura by herself there. He suspected that this man run away from his pursuers then passed out in this forest. The nearest town was about al least an hour walk from the cottage. Is he from there? It s not safe just to take in a stranger that was obviously being pursued by enemies. But he knew Sakura won't listen to that, it was her medic instincts that were kicking in.
Sakura motioned for him to carry him back to the cottage when she stopped the bleeding. "If Shizune's back, ask her to treat him, I won't take long."
Again Sasuke just nodded. "If you're not back in an hour, I'm coming for you." She just nodded then took off; he easily transported the stranger to the cottage. They're already back from their trip on the town and Shizune immediately examined the man they found.

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a/n: I found my story kind of cheesy for my taste. This chapter was already a year old in my computer so I decided to upload it so I can delete it now. :D Tnx for reading. If I found time I will finish this story with two more chapters.