1Of Fortitude and Temptation

PassiveObserver

Disclaimer: I don't own the series Naruto. You know who does.

Kakashi was not a religious man, though many argue that he visited the memorial often enough to be seen as a religious exercise.

Though when Kakashi first saw Sakura as a woman, he prayed for patience.

Ruefully, Kakashi recalled how the whole ridiculous, and perturbing situation happened in the first place, and Naruto and Sasuke could be blamed. Sasuke had passed the Chuunin exams (Kakashi had lost count, but he was quite sure that this was now Sasuke's fifth attempt).

He had clapped the young man on the back and flashed him his signature eye crinkle, and said "I was starting to worry that by the time you passed the Chuunin exams, Naruto would have become the Hokage." the Uchiha merely bestowed on him The Glare, of which would have struck a lesser man dead.

"Ha!" yelled an ostentatious Kyuubi container next to the Uchiha prodigy. "Forget Hokage! By the time Sasuke passed the Chuunin exams, I would've already named my successor!" and at this point, his two cute students dissolved into childish bickers, which threatened to break into an all out brawl, when Kakashi decided to intervene.

"Now, now boys," he said with a smile, and it was worth the danger to watch them bristle at his derogatory. "Let's not be hasty, save the excitement for later tonight. We'll go somewhere nice, my treat." Of course, his 'treat' meant that he would accompany them. It was up to them to define treat.

"AH! I know a good place!" and Kakashi turned to eye the orange clad nin, who, unlike his other teammates, had never given up his style of choice since his Genin days. "Kiba told me a good place opened downtown, a cross between a bar and a club. It's supposed to be preeettty sweet."

For the life of him, Kakashi couldn't quite understand why the boy wanted to drag he, Kakashi, The Copy Ninja, Man of a Thousand Jutsu (as well as excuses), to something as inane, boring, fruitless and time wasting as a club. For the only thing that would make him far more infamous than the aforementioned titles, was that he was the standard, textbook case antisocial. He might as well be a hermit for Yondaime's sake!

But, it seemed the evening was now in the decision of the last remaining Sourpuss, who shrugged his acquiesce and in doing so, inadvertently sealed Kakashi's fate. He briefly considered dodging out of their little celebration after all, until he peered down at their faces. It had been long since they were boys, eleven years in fact, but he could still see a reflection in their eyes that had first frightened him, made him wary. They had both lost their parents at a young age, and he had somehow ended up filling that role, albeit awkwardly, ineptly and at first, reluctantly.

And now that he looked again, there it was. An admiration, a respect that was not given to just anybody. They sincerely wanted him to be there, although Kakashi knew them well enough to know that even if he beaten to an inch of their lives, they would never admit it.

"Alright boys, let's go." he declared jauntily, and was amused when he saw them breathe small sighs of relief. Such lack of faith for their poor old sensei he thought, and fell in line behind them, like he always did. It was like they were on missions again, the memories causing a rush of nostalgia. But there was, Kakashi noticed perceptively, something wrong.

"Where is Sakura?" he inquired, his hands bunched up in his pockets and his shoulders slumped, looking like a man who had resigned himself to the gallows - which really, was what he was doing going some place like a club.

The answer was forthcoming, but not from who Kakashi had expected. "She's got work." replied Sasuke, before Naruto could. "I already asked her if she was free to go with us tonight." he said evenly, and his gaze was just as steady, as if daring anyone to ask why he'd taken the liberty to preform said actions and even bothered.

"Ah, I see." and covertly wondered at the man's sudden defensiveness.

They'd arrived faster than he thought they would, Naruto and Sasuke having a heated debate, and Kakashi occasionally offering indifferent speculations.

Kakashi found himself sitting on a tiny table, better situated for drinks than actual meals, or as a matter of fact elbow room. The music was too loud, pounding in his ears and hurting his poor, old head. It wouldn't be surprising if the hair on my head was shaking to the damned music. His scowl was deftly unnoticed by the two drunken ninja. His cute blond student was shouting lewd jokes to his teammate, who was hunched over, suppressing his laughter.

He found himself bored, hungry, and he deduced that he was possibly drunk, evidenced by the multitudes of empty sake bottles in front of him, although Sasuke and Naruto contributed their fair share.

It was in the midst of wondering when the dobes were drunk enough to go home, and admiring the admittedly firm posterior of a young partygoer, that he noticed said posterior was owned by a girl with a shock of pink hair, and the surprise jolted through his hazy mind like a strike of lightening, one that he tried and failed to catch.

Sakura, his mind provided helpfully, and despite all the warnings that accompanied this one word, this one person, this one name his one, dark eye roamed the rest of her body appreciatively.

She was with Ino, her bombshell friend, the girl with assets that could rival Tsunade's and yet strangely, it wasn't her he was looking at, despite the piece of cloth on her body barely masquerading as a dress. This time, Kakashi looked at Sakura more closely, and found many of Ino's influence on her style of choice. A turquoise dress, that would undoubtedly make her mint green eyes seem darker. The hair that made her so notable, so famous was piled high on her head, in a messy bun, tendrils escaping and cascading on her bare shoulders. His eyes fell downwards, and past her supple ass, to her legs. Her firm thighs were enticing, her dainty ankles were feminine, so at odds with her brutal strength, the raw power he knew she possessed.

She turned, revealing her breas–

Kakashi threw a cow in front of his train of thought, effectively stopping it, although it was much harder attempting to cease the pulsing blood through his veins, and the image of her in his mind. Think of... her supple thighs, those milky shoulde– No! Think of Jiraiya! Yes! Yes! Naked Jiraiya... think of Ibiki and Orochimaru! Making out!

He was much more creative than he gave himself credit for, it seemed.

The stupid girl didn't seem to have the obligatory sixth sense that told them when their teachers were having very vivid sexual fantasies about them, for she turned around and beamed his direction, hopping down from the bar to make her way to her teammates.

Now, who the fuck came up with puberty? What evils in the world joined and decided to wreak havoc upon all teachers in the world by the embarrassing, perturbing, and nerve wracking stage of life that is called puberty?

It had given the other teachers quite a bit of grief in the past and he was thankfully excluded from it, her defecting from his team and joining with Tsunade before any of her 'curves' could make themselves known.

True, it wasn't like he didn't see, her for the last six years, but the occasions had been brief, if not awkward. He didn't go out of his way to speak with her, despite her efforts. He now considered the fact that he didn't want to see her in this new light, like all the other Kunoichi, jaded and scarred, old and dark and angry with the world.

But none of his fears showed in her happy, sparkling eyes, and he was thankful she wasn't quite strong enough to be useful to her village in ways that would certainly scar her. The very last thing he wanted was for her to end up like him.

"Kakashi!" and he wondered briefly how so much joy and excitement could be crammed into one name, and his nonetheless!

His heady gaze was dark, and unreadable as always, and he had his arms on the table, leaning in and watching her weave through the crowd of people, and tried to ignore how her hips swayed when she moved. She was at the booth now, unbearably close and the smell of her skin wafting in front of his nose.

The idiot found trouble wherever she went.

She was oblivious as well, and grinned at him. "I never thought I'd see you in a club, I'm surprised you even agreed to going with those two dobes." here she spared them a glance that spoke volumes of her exasperation, and affection. She giggled into her hand, and sat in the empty seat between Naruto and her old sensei.

He was uncharacteristically without words, and Sakura noticed, staring at him in confusion. For as long as she knew him, Kakashi was a good conversationist, he was witty, when he gave the trouble to be, and she loved that side of him, the side that had a rebuttal to anything she had to say. She had to wonder what made him so silent.

"You're unusually quiet." she informed him, and watched as her old sensei downed another cup of sake.

"Perceptive," he quipped, but she couldn't hear the slur in his words, despite those bottles in front of him. "But I find there's not much use being chatty without a partner of equal wit." he arched a brow at her and watched in amusement as she swelled up like a gobbler, her face red with anger. It was worth upsetting her, just to see the warm flush on her cheeks, although he imagined the circumstances of said blush to be rather different.

"Well excuse me!" she huffed, and continued "My conversation is probably very dull, as opposed to the inspiring one you're having with dynamic duo over there."

Once he was sure his growing grin was safe under his mask, he said "Actually, I find your ability to cast sleep on anyone with your conversation, quite a talent!" he exclaimed, and then muttered to himself, "I doubt I'll be sleeping much after this anyway."

"I'm sorry, what was that?" she questioned loudly, over the blaring music. Her body twisted in her seat to strain toward him, and from where he sat, he could peer down her dress, and caught an eyeful of the tantalizing view of her cleavage.

"Absolutely nothing." and squeezed his eye shut, downing another cup of sake, and trying to ignore the desire gnawing at the edges of his mind.

It was going to be a fucking long night.

Yah, it's short. / I'm working on it, sorry everyone.