Tender Loving Care

For a man who claimed to hate hospitals so much, Kakashi sure did spend a lot of time in them. And Sakura was finally beginning to understand just why…

Her suspicions first peaked while on the journey back from a diplomatic mission to the Mist village. To cut a long story short, the diplomacy had ended in a knife fight and they had barely escaped the water country with their lives, and though Sakura had done her best to heal the worst of their injuries on the way back to Konoha, Kakashi had nevertheless felt the need to collapse when they were barely half a mile away from their destination.

The three younger members of Team Kakashi all stopped when they heard the crash and looked back in mild bewilderment at their team leader who was now lying prone on the ground. For a moment no one said anything, until Naruto turned to Sai. "Told you. I win."

"You bet he'd be crippled by the fight," Sai corrected. "This could be something totally unrelated. Maybe he's just had a stroke?"

"The bet was that he'd have to be carried through the gates, that's all. Collapsing in the last leg of the journey still counts. Pay up, loser."

"Hey…" Sakura called softly.

"How do I know you haven't done something to him?" Sai shot over his shoulder as he continued on his way.

"Bastard!" Naruto called, running to catch up with him. "What kind of person do you think I am? Unlike you, I actually care about the health and well-being of my teammates!"

Their argument faded as they walked away, completely deaf to Sakura's shouts. Well, it was only to be expected. If a man collapsed on every second mission, the novelty soon began to wear off. Sakura sighed and sank down next to her fallen sensei to press her fingers against his neck, making sure he was still alive.

"Sakura…" he mumbled into the dirt. "It's ok… just leave me here. I'll be fine."

"Chakra exhaustion again?" she guessed. This had been happening far too often over the last year. She didn't know if it was Kakashi getting more careless… or just getting older.

"Something like that," he sighed.

"You managed to hold it together for two days before you collapsed…" And as she said it her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "That's a long time. I'm impressed." Anyone would think he might recover at least a little bit in those two days. After all, he'd seemed perfectly healthy last night when they'd been playing charades around the campfire.

"Yeah, well… that's how it goes," he said pitifully.

As a medic she had to give him the benefit of the doubt, and there was nothing Sakura could do but pull his arm over her shoulder and support him the rest of the way to the gates. Back inside the safety of their own village she gratefully handed him off to two guards more capable of supporting his dead weight and escorted them straight to the hospital.

It was becoming routine now. Red wing. Cedar Ward. Room sixteen. As soon as he was tipped off the gurney and into the hospital bed, Sakura did her usual job of checking his temperature and flashing a light in his eyes while going through the standard checklist of questions.

"Any pain?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"Everywhere."

The symptoms of chakra exhaustion were always the same. Fatigue. Pain. Chakra depletion. She had to take Kakashi's word for the first two, but the last she could test for herself. The same way she could press her finger against his wrist to measure his pulse, she could press her finger against one of the pressure points of his chakra veins to detect the flow beneath. The pressed a palm over his solar plexus and probed with her own chakra. Typically enough, his flow was weak, even though she'd seen worse.

"Two days rest," she prescribed to him. "I have to go debrief Tsunade-shishou, but I'll be back in a little while, sensei."

"No rush," he said, lying quite still.

Behind her the door opened and one of the nurses entered, carrying a hospital gown in her arms. "Nurse Haru will take care of you," Sakura told him.

Kakashi just smiled.

In truth, Sakura had had her suspicions for a long time, but it was this day and this moment that she truly began to wonder, because as she was turning to leave Kakashi's room she heard this pleasant exchange behind her:

"Do you need help changing your clothes, Hatake-san?" said a breathless nurse.

"If you would be so kind, Nurse Haru," said a cheerful Kakashi.

Sakura almost stopped in the doorway, but she forced herself to keep walking as if no unusual thoughts had popped into her head. It bothered her. And it bothered her all the way to the administration building across the town, and bothered her the whole time she gave her halting mission report to the Hokage in Kakashi's absence. Tsunade even commented on her scowl, but Sakura couldn't explain exactly what it was that troubled her. She had yet to work it out for herself.

Perhaps it was just that Kakashi's health seemed to be suffering lately. It wasn't natural for any shinobi to wind up in hospital after 85% of their missions unless they were in the wrong profession. Sure the sharingan was a handicap, but after more than thirty years in service, surely Kakashi would have adjusted to his own limits by now? But maybe that was just it? He'd passed his thirty-fifth birthday last year and what if age was beginning to take its toll? Thirty five was ancient to Sakura, but she didn't like the thought of Kakashi getting old. He still fought with the same energy and zeal he'd had ten years ago… but now he seemed to run out of it so much faster, and it broke her heart to see it.

Yet this did not explain how a man could expend his energy in a fight and only start to show the effects after two days. Two days in which he had four square meals, two nights of rest, and the aid of a medic.

Sakura sighed as she headed back to the hospital. If she didn't know any better… she'd say Kakashi was putting it on. But why would he? He hated hospitals. He always moaned about the smell and the itchy clothes and the noise at night, and if he could walk there was no power on earth that could force him to stay.

Red Wing. Cedar Ward. Room Sixteen. Sakura pushed the door open and swept her gaze over the bed where Kakashi lay. His clothes had been taken away for cleaning and now he wore nothing but a plain white gown. Even his mask had been taken away, but he always managed to get around this by substituting it for a white facemask; the kind given to people with a cold… or neurotics fears about catching one.

He looked well enough, but that could have been the morphine drip that had been plugged into his arm. Sakura's scowl deepened when she saw it. Immediately she marched over and started ripping the tape off his hand in order to remove the needle.

"What are you do~ing?" he asked curiously. He was as high as a kite.

"You don't need this," she said shortly.

"I'm in pain," he explained serenely.

"You're always in pain. If you keep taking this stuff you'll just get addicted and you'll be here all the time," she complained, pushing the drip to the other side of the room.

She waited. If this was the reason why he kept getting himself admitted he would now get angry, true addict style. But when she looked back at him he just shrugged and closed his eyes as if ready to sleep. "You're the medic," he sighed, as if nothing in the world could faze him.

Maybe it wasn't the morphine…

Lost in her thoughts and worries, Sakura pulled up the visitor chair beside Kakashi's bed and automatically plucked an apple from the fruit bowl on the nightstand. She peeled it with the kunai in her hip holster and handed each slice to Kakashi, keenly watching him eat to make sure he showed no signs of appetite loss. He had a very strict rule that he only ate fruit when in hospital, which meant at least that he wasn't here for some sad addiction to the hospital food that was, it had to be said, probably responsible for at least 50% of the mortality rate here.

"How are you feeling now?" she asked when he'd demolished the apple completely.

"Wonderful," he said, stretching like a cat.

Frowning, Sakura suddenly replaced her hand on his stomach to probe his chakra veins. She'd wanted to catch him unawares in case he'd somehow fooled her the first time around, but the result was the same... his chakra levels were worrying low, and anyone with such a weak flow would have to be in a fair bit of pain if they weren't doped up on morphine.

This wasn't faked.

Kakashi giggled – a disturbing sound for sure. "That tickles," he admonished, pushing away her hand.

She sighed. "Would you like your drugs back?"

"Oh, yes, yes, yes. One should never say no to drugs."

Grudgingly she wheeled back his drip and hooked it back up to his arm. He smiled and reached out to touch her cheek like he was curious about its texture, but Sakura smacked his hand away, frown deepening. She hated when he was on morphine. He always got a little too friendly, laughing too easily and touching her even more easily. But it wasn't that she disliked his remarkably good humour or the attention he gave her, it was just that...

The door swung open and another nurse entered with a basin of warm soapy water. "Back again, are you?" the dark-haired woman teased, winking at Kakashi. "Can't keep you away, can we?"

"Sakura fed me an apple," he said nobly. "Are you here to wash me?"

The nurse grinned at Sakura. "He's so cute when he's high," she stage-whispered and walked over to place the basin on the bedside table. "Sit up, please, Hatake-san, so I can unfasten your gown."

"I'll... leave you to it," Sakura said, stepping away from the bed.

"You don't have to go," said Kakashi, managing to look forlorn even as he continued smiling like a dork. The nurse stood beside him, untying the ribbons behind his neck.

"I have things to get on with," she lied, already turning towards the door. Under other circumstances she would have helped wash a patient, but it was Sakura's personal rule not to wash the ones she was familiar with. Especially when it came to Kakashi. "I'll be back tomorrow," she told him. "If there's anything you want me to bring."

"My books?"

Good grief. Anyone would think he hadn't already read those dratted things a million times already. Sighing, she nodded and continued on to the door, reaching out to take the handle.

Behind her, the nurse gasped loudly. "Hatake-san, please. Keep your hands to yourself," the woman laughed.

Sakura closed her eyes briefly, praying for patience, and walked out. Because while she didn't dislike Kakashi's humour or the attention he gave her when he was high, it was just that he gave the same attention to every other woman too. To him, it didn't matter if it was Sakura or just one of the poor unfortunate nurses assigned to care for him, he was shameless whoever he was with.

She supposed she ought to blame the morphine, but she wondered if there was also an element of using it as an excuse to behave inappropriately. In fact she was sure of it. There was no putting it past Kakashi to act more doped than he was in order to cop a free feel or two.

That possibility annoyed her. More than all his dumb excuses for being late, and how he always slithered out of paying for his round of drinks, and his flat voice and goddamn dead fish eyes, this annoyed her the most.

And what annoyed her the most was that it got to her so much. Why should she care, after all? Kakashi was a cheeky patient when on morphine, and the nurses found him more amusing than anything else. They put up with his wandering hands and his slurred puns and come-ons with patient grace and wry smiles, and certainly none of them took him seriously. But Sakura hated it, and she couldn't figure out why.

She didn't want to know why.

With nothing else to do, she left the hospital and headed home. As she passed the avenue where Kakashi lived she remembered the errand she'd promised to run for him, and with a put-upon sigh that no one but herself heard, she changed direction and aimed for his apartment. She'd been there enough times in the past to know exactly where it was; mostly on occasions after a night of drinking when she hadn't trusted Kakashi to be able to walk himself home. Drunk-Kakashi was an awful lot like Doped-Kakashi, in that it was difficult to walk him home without being molested. In fact he was probably worse, since he was so persistent that by the time they arrived at his door she had usually given up fending him off and he was happily leaning on her, arm around her shoulder with his hand down her vest.

She was just glad that when he was drunk enough to behave this way, it meant he would be too hung-over to remember it the following day. It wasn't that she didn't want him to know he had groped her – oh, no! At the first opportunity she would eagerly remind him of the dastardly deeds he committed against his poor, vulnerable student while under the influence and he would be suitable contrite for days. He didn't, however, need to know that he only got to grope her because she let him. That when he slid his hand under her skirt to stroke her backside she didn't push him away when she easily could. Or that, sometimes, after she put him to bed and tucked the sheets around him tightly, she pressed a kiss to his beer-sodden mouth.

But perhaps, if given the chance, he behaved that way to all women when drunk, the same way he behaved towards the nurses when on pain meds? She wasn't special to him. She was silly for ever allowing herself to think otherwise, even if it was only for that moment when they were staggering through the street after 12 bottles of shochu and he pressed his mouth to her ear to murmur, "I love you soooo much, Sakura-chan."

Sakura stopped outside his apartment building; a small complex owned by an old couple who lived on the ground floor and who maintained the place beautifully. The gate was flanked by several flowerpots, and Sakura counted them from the left, stopped at the fourth, and crouched down to rummage through the roots and leaves of the hydrangea planted in it. With the key she found there she proceeded to the top floor and let herself into Kakashi's apartment.

He'd clearly made an effort to tidy up before the mission, so everything was neater than she remembered. A bag of laundry sat on his desk, unfolded, and she picked up the shirt on top curiously, wondering if this was waiting to be washed or waiting to be folded. Probably the former, by the smell of it. But it wasn't an unpleasant smell... rather, it was Kakashi's smell in its most concentrated form.

Sakura quickly flung the shirt back, realising she was standing in her sensei's apartment, sniffing his dirty clothes. What had she come for again? Books! That's right!

"Books, books, books..." she murmured to herself, running her gaze around the room. It was quite sparse, really. Aside from the desk and the bed, there was little else in this room. There was only one shelf above his bed, and certainly no bookshelf, which was odd for such an 'avid' reader. She went over to climb onto his bed and examine the shelf more closely, but all she found was one beaten up copy of Icha Icha Paradise that she hadn't seen him reading in months, and a scruffy mound of reports he'd never handed in. She looked under his pillow – found a pair of pyjamas – and looked under his bed – and found things she didn't think had even been given a name by science yet.

His desk drawers turned up nothing interesting, aside from bank statements and a few legal documents. So if he didn't keep his books on his shelf or in his desk, she presumed he must keep them in his cupboard.

This was foreign territory as far as Sakura was concerned. She'd never delved into the space behind the sliding wall panels before. She curiously pulled them apart and took note of the extra bedding and the clean clothes folded on the middle shelf and the different weapons piling the top shelf. The bottom shelf looked more interesting; a couple of boxes and a pile of dirty magazines. Perhaps his books were in one of those boxes?

She lifted the lid off one and tipped it towards her; it was his ANBU mask atop a pile of plain black masks. Figures, Sakura thought. She replaced the lid and moved on to the next box, and took a moment to assess the jumbled contents of this one. Strips of black cloth, handcuffs, tissues... little packages of 'extra large' things that were 'ribbed', and something that was quite unmistakably a big, blue, plastic penis.

Sakura froze, staring at the thing in her hand. She shoved it back in the box with a faint cry and tried to replace the lid with hands that trembled violently.

A box of sin. A box of SIN!

Alright, she tried to coach herself as she sat on the floor, huddled and trembling in shock, hands over her eyes though it was too late to un-see the horror she'd just witnessed. Kakashi is a grown man with needs.

What?! shrieked her inner voice. What does HE need with a big, blue, plastic penis?!

Maybe it wasn't for himself? Kakashi wasn't an unattractive man so surely he sometimes brought women home... women who liked blindfolds and handcuffs and ribbed condoms and... ridiculously large coloured dildos.

"Oh god," Sakura groaned to herself. What if she'd gotten it all wrong? What if it wasn't women that Kakashi liked, but men?

Yet a quick peep at the dirty magazines reassured her that the objects of Kakashi's fantasies were indeed female.

Wait a minute...

Sakura rolled forward onto her knees again to seize the top magazine. This was it. This was the reason why Kakashi kept depleting his chakra on missions. Why he kept ending up in hospital after most expeditions. Sakura grabbed the next magazine, and the next, and the next, and the evidence was mounting in support. Finally she tore the lid off the third and final box in his cupboard and the final proof stared her in the face.

It all made sense now.

She'd had her suspicions, and her reservations that every time the team made their way back to Konoha, Kakashi was pushing a little chakra into the earth, step by step, until he was almost depleted by the time they made it to the gates. Now she knew why. That amoral scoundrel!

The scantily clad cover girls on all these magazines held one thing in common with the videos in third box.

Naughty Night Nurses

Sexy Clinic

Nurse Nightingale

Injected Delight

The Check-Up

Nurses Gone Rogue

Doctor Doctor

Patient Loving

Image after image of busty young women in a small, white uniforms assailed her. All posing suggestively with bright red lipstick and syringes poised at the ready.

"Dear god," Sakura whispered.

Kakashi had a nurse fetish.

She never did find the rest of those books but by then she'd given up caring. A profound epiphany had struck her, catching her quite off guard, and all she could think to do was go home and find some brain bleach. Failing that, she went to bed and lay staring up at the ceiling, moved to a near catatonic state by the ramifications of her discovery.

Tsunade would have to be told. If Kakashi was faking his way into hospital to appease his sexual fantasies, the Hokage would not take kindly to him wasting her staff's time in such a way. Scratch that, Sakura didn't take kindly to having all her concern for him be for nothing. She'd been worried he was getting sick and weak... and all this time his only sickness had been in his head.

That bastard. She would confront him tomorrow – but then he would know she'd rifled through his most private belongings. He'd know that she knew about the big, blue dildo.

Cringing, Sakura rolled over and pressed her face to the pillow. Stupid Kakashi. Stupid, stupid Kakashi.

After all this time, it had been only the nurses he'd wanted. Just the nurses. He didn't care that he made her worry. He didn't care that she sat with him and cut up apples for him and kept him company when everyone else had grown so used to his short hospital stays that they never visited anymore. He had only endured her presence until the nurses came to run their tests, plump his pillows and run their hot, moist sponges over his body.

She went to sleep in low spirits, and she dreamed.

It was the hospital. Most of her dreams took place in the hospital but this time it was specifically in room sixteen of the cedar ward in the red wing. There was Kakashi, propped up on his bed by a mound of pillows, gorging himself on apples and tangerines from a basket proffered to him by one of the many naked women reclining around his bed. The only stitch of clothing they wore was the neat white cap on their carefully pinned hair that signified they were nurses.

Sakura looked down at herself and saw she was the only one fully dressed in nurse regalia and in her arms she carried a syringe the size of a log. "You've done it now, Kakashi-sensei," she shouted fiercely at munching man. "Let's see how you like having your heart sucked out!"

And in her dream she went over and plunged the needle violent into his chest, directly into the atriums of his heart. Kakashi gasped, but not at all like he was in pain. Then Sakura realised she wasn't stabbing him at all; she was straddling him-

Sakura jerked away with a terrific start and blinked rapidly in the face of the streaming morning sunlight. Almost instantly the memory of the previous evening returned like a rush of blood to the head, but instead of cringing away from it, she felt emboldened. No, she was not going to feel sorry for herself. She was going to do what she should have done ages ago and give Kakashi hell.

After washing and dressing she headed to work with a more determined stride than usual. People who knew her got out of her way. When she walked into the hospital, those who normally waved and called 'good morning' seemed to know she was on a mission and let her pass by un-distracted.

Sakura didn't actually have a mission. All she knew was that she was going to have one, and by the end of her shift Kakashi would be sorry he ever crossed her.

She went through her morning routine, collecting her work from the nurses in reception and seeing her patients one at a time. She fixed a few bones, purged an infection of the blood from one patient, and soothed the burns of another. She didn't speak much as she got on with her work, choosing to silently scheme instead. When the lunch hour rolled around she sat in the cafeteria, sipping coffee and brooding. She watched a gaggle of nurses at another table, laughing and joking with each other in their fashionable little uniforms. Medics had a uniform too, but it wasn't nearly as cute as the iconic nurse dress.

The most loudly laughing of the women was a girl whose name Sakura couldn't remember, though her commonly used nickname was Maple. Sakura quite liked her, as did most people – especially the male patients. It was believed that on average Maple received roughly ten marriage proposals a week, ranging from patients aged 9 to 90, and even a few high ranked medics. It was easy to see why. Bubbly, friendly personality and reasonable good looks aside... just look at that uniform. What man could resist?

So when she saw Maple begin to stand, looking like she was ready to head back to work, Sakura stood too with her paper cup of cold coffee in hand. The nurse was heading towards the doors, and Sakura aimed for the coffee machine, moving quickly to time a direct collision course, her dark drink held out in front of her.

Maple didn't stand a chance. She hadn't been paying attention to where she was going and Sakura had pretended to do the same. Shoulder hit shoulder, hip bumped hip, and quite deliberately Sakura's hold on her coffee slipped.

The nurse gasped in dismay, turning bright red in horror and embarrassment. "I'm so sorry, Sakura-san! I should have been looking where I was – oh god, let me get a napkin or something-!"

"It's alright," Sakura said quite cheerfully, plucked at the dark brown stain spreading down her vest and skirt. "Accidents happen."

"I'm so sorry," Maple apologised again, as she'd miraculously managed to avoid being splashed by even the tiniest drop. "I'll pay your dry-cleaning bill, I promise-"

"It's alright, really," Sakura said again. "I'll just go change and wash these in the bathroom... except I don't think I have any spare clothes with me today."

"Oh, I can lend you my spare uniform!" Maple cried, entirely convinced this was her own idea and not what Sakura had been planning to get off her since the moment she'd stood up.

"Would you?" Sakura asked hesitantly. "I don't want to put you to any trouble."

"It's the least I can do! I'll even wash those clothes for you – I'm sure you're much too busy right now."

Sakura's afternoon was actually free, but she didn't dissuade Maple from this idea. "You're a star, Maple."

"It's not a problem," the nurse replied shakily, perhaps just glad that Sakura was smiling at her and not screaming in rage. For some reason everyone was a little scared of her. Sakura had no idea why, but at least it made people nice and amenable.

She went to the bathroom and waited there until Maple arrived with her spare uniform. In the privacy of the cubicle she changed and tossed her stained threads to the nurse on the other side of the door who rapidly departed, saying something about having it washed immediately by the laundry service in the basement. Poor Maple was being sent quite out of her way, but Sakura promised to herself that she'd have Tsunade give the girl an extra holiday or a little bonus for the weekend for being so good about being given the run-around.

Once she'd squeezed the last button into the last buttonhole, Sakura emerged and took stock of her appearance in the mirror. She'd selected Maple because she figured they were closest in height and body size, but even so the uniform was a little snug across the hips and chest. The buttons across her bust were protesting quite hard, and anyone standing next to her would be able to see right through the straining gaps to see exactly what colour bra she was wearing that day. In fact this thing would probably be a lot more comfortable if she simply took her bra off.

After a moment's hesitation and a quick glance around to make sure she was alone, Sakura began to shimmy the straps down her arms until she could reach down the front of the uniform and tug the plain black bra free.

She stared at her reflection once more, comparing it critically to all those pictures and videos of the nurses in Kakashi's apartment. She wasn't sure she came off favourably, even when she shifted her weight to one leg, propped her hand on her hip and tried to pout sensually at herself. The nurses Kakashi liked all had much bigger breasts and redder lips. They all had iconic little hats too. Sakura wondered if she should go find Maple and ask for one, but then people might think she was the one with the nurse fetish.

With a sigh she nibbled her lips a little to bring out their colour, before abandoning her self-examination. Time to get on with it, she thought, looking at her watch. She headed for the Cedar ward in the red wing and then she loitered shamelessly.

It was the end of the lunch hour, and it could only be a matter of time before – there!

Nurse Haru was coming down the ward with a basin of gently steaming soap and water in her hands, looking annoyed and hassled. She was heading to room 12 where a very old and far less charmingly lecherous man awaited her. Although she had no cape, Sakura flew to her rescue.

"Haru, you look really tired," she said to the nurse as she passed. "How about I deal with this one?"

Haru couldn't believe her luck. "Really?" she gasped hopefully, hitching the heavy basin in her arms. "It's Saito-san's turn to be washed... are you sure?"

"He doesn't scare me," Sakura said with a heroic shrug of stoicism. "Why don't you go put your feet up somewhere? Really, it's no problem."

"Thank you, Sakura-san," Haru gushed gratefully, handing over the basin with the floating cloth. "It's not that I don't like Saito-san, but he's so grabby."

"So's Kakashi," Sakura pointed out, knowing full well that the nurses came to blows over who would give her sensei a sponge-bath. And unlike with Saito, it was the winner who got the honours, not the loser.

"Not as much as I think you assume," Haru said, giving her a sceptical look, as if not quite daring any female would breathe a word of criticism about Hatake Kakashi. "Nice dress by the way."

Sakura smiled vacantly and watched the nurse practically skip away, so pleased to be alleviated of her burden that she thought to ask no questions. Once she had safely left the ward and was out of sight, Sakura went straight to the door of room 16.

Today Kakashi was alone, looking more sober than he had the previous day, and she could see that this was because his morphine had been taken away. He had to be feeling a lot better. In fact he was due to be discharged that very evening.

"How are we feeling today?" she said as she approached his bed, affecting the Hospital 'We' that all nurses, medics, and doctors liked to use to annoy patients by pretending they shared their pain. "Your colour's looking better."

Kakashi took one look at her, about to respond, and suddenly he was speechless. It was hard to know what had shocked him more; that Sakura was coming at him with a sponge-bath, that she was wearing a rather tight nurse's uniform, or that she had locked the door upon entering.

"What's going on?" he asked, his voice unnaturally light and curious as if he could sense something terrible was about to happen to him.

Sakura set the basin down on the bedside table and turned to him, hands behind her back and a polite smile playing on her lips that was a carbon copy of the all the illustrations she'd seen in the medic's Handbook to a Warm Bedside Manner. "It's time for your wash," she told him.

Scared. Yes, he looked quite scared now. "But – uh – I think I had one yesterday, didn't I?"

Making a show of pursing her lips at him, she shook her head. "Nope."

"No, I'm pretty sure there was a nurse – dark-hair – she gave me a sponge-bath yesterday. I remember."

"You were on heavy painkillers yesterday," she told him patiently. "You might have just fantasized about it under the influence."

He looked away from her, confused, and probably having serious doubts now about his sanity. But knowing his fetish, he probably took the suggestion that he'd been fantasizing about nurses at face value. Why would she lie to him anyway?

"Well... maybe one of the nurses should be doing this," he went on, glancing at her briefly and quickly looking away.

Something about that hopeful tone of voice annoyed her. "You don't think I'm qualified? I even dressed for the part." She pouted at him, consciously mirroring the same expression and pose of the Naughty Nurse on the cover of issue 534. Kakashi glanced at her again, and though his head turned away as if he was trying to look away again, he wasn't quite able to drag his gaze from her face.

"What's with the outfit anyway?" he asked thickly.

She grinned and gave him a twirl. "Do you like it?" she asked.

Kakashi opened his mouth and shut it again.

"I had an accident with some coffee. Fortunately Nurse Maple was kind enough to lend me some spare clothes. Although she's quite small. It's a little tight, don't you think?" She ran her hand down her front, over her breasts to demonstrate how the fabric was stretched as tight as a trampoline between the two soft mounds. It was probably quite obvious that she wasn't wearing a bra.

"Right," he said, looking away from her with a great deal of effort.

"Don't worry, sensei," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'm here to take care you."

She said it with a little more purr than she was used to injecting into her voice, but she wanted to see how he reacted. No doubt he was certainly sweating. With a little more torturing she could perhaps divest him of this silly fetish once and for all and he'd stop malingering in the hospital of his own accord. She didn't really want to tell on him to Tsunade... at least not when she could traumatise him for life.

"Sit up, please, sensei," she said lightly, and noticed he did so with far more stiffness than he did for the nurses. Sakura pulled the string holding the back of his hospital gown together and let it fall loose as she turned back to the basin and the soaked cloth floating inside it. She plunged it into the warm soapy water a few times for good measure before wringing it out, and then she turned back to Kakashi.

"Ah." She couldn't stop the tiny sound of surprise escaping her.

"What?" Kakashi muttered self-consciously, hands resolutely gripping the gown gathered around his lap and hips.

Well, she hadn't banked on this at all. Sakura's mouth had suddenly gone dry as she stared at Kakashi's naked torso... his strong , supple arms and lightly haired chest... and that broad, broad back. She swallowed. The only one supposed to be flustered here was him. Why was she-

"Maybe one of the nurses should do this?" Kakashi said again, looking a little longingly at the door.

Irritation replaced shock and she scowled at him. "You wish," she grumbled, slapping the wet cloth against his pale back, just hard enough to make him flinch and sit up a little straighter.

With one hand on his shoulder to hold herself steady, she scrubbed the cloth meticulously over his upper back and across his neck. It made a change from bathing the elderly and the very young who had to be treated very gently. By comparison she felt confident enough to be quite rough with Kakashi, scrubbing away until he was delightfully pink and shiny.

She was a little more careful going over his scars, knowing that scar tissue was a little more sensitive. Indeed, every time the cloth passed over the white lines criss-crossing his spine, he squirmed a little as if ticklish. Steadily, she was working herself lower, getting closer to those two firm globes he was sitting on. She tried not to look, but she couldn't help it... a good medic had to clean everything.

Suddenly she stopped, noticing something pretty absurd.

Kakashi had a mole above his ass-crack.

"What?" he asked, noticing she'd stopped and suspecting accurately that she was staring at his ass.

"Nothing," she said, returning the cloth to the basin for another rinse. She stored away the location of the mole in her mind for future reference and posterity. This was potentially a very wealthy source of blackmail.

Returning the cloth, she began to scrub down his arm, upper and lower, elbow and wrist, palm and knuckles. She shoved his arm up violently and attacked his armpit, and noticed he cringed away with an expression of immense suffering. But she hadn't even started yet.

"Cute," she said, inspecting his armpit once she was done. "You shave."

As she re-rinsed the cloth she had the feeling that Kakashi was glaring at her, but when she looked back at him, he jerked his eyes away again. She realised he'd probably been staring through those gaps in her buttons and had confirmed she wasn't wearing a bra. Good, she thought. Let him look at all those nurse magazines again and see nothing but his student's meagre bumps and let him despair and never want to look at another nurse again.

She moved around the bed and started on his other arm, scrubbing curiously over his ANBU tattoo as if it might come off with the soap. It didn't. Continuing down to his fingers, she also noticed the blotchy bruise on the back of his hand where the morphine needle had been inserted. Although it probably didn't hurt, she took a moment to press some chakra into his skin and dissolve those dead blood cells until there was only a faintly yellow mark left.

"That seemed unnecessary," Kakashi commented, although she got the subtle hint that he was talking about the whole sponge bath.

"I told you," she chirped pleasantly, "I'm here to take care of you. Now you can lean back; I want to wash your front."

This had been the part he'd obviously dreading. Kakashi reclined obediently with a sigh that sounded like he was rallying his courage. His hands hadn't left the gathered blanket and gown that covered his lap, like for some reason he expected her to seize them and toss them aside to laugh at his manhood.

Well, it wasn't a totally irrational fear. Sakura was feeling pretty vindictive right then.

With the freshly rinsed cloth she leaned over him and began to wash his chest. It was a little more peculiar than washing his back and his arms, because for this he was lying back and... well... his chest was a marvel of human design. Quite unwillingly she found herself wanting to be gentle, to lave his pectorals with her cloth and watch those flat little nipples perk up in reaction to the stimulation and the cold air. She ran the cloth over his chest hair, enjoying the scratchy sound of the rough fibres meeting the rough hairs. Did he sometimes shave here too?

"Sakura?"

"Mm?" She blinked up at him in surprise, wondering why her head was so close to his. Slowly she realised she was leaning over him more closely than she'd thought... and her left hand was spread across his damp chest, surreptitiously thumbing his left nipple. She flushed red. "Sorry," she said, though without much feeling. It would serve him right, she thought, to finally be on the receiving end of an unwanted grope.

The cloth moved lower, rubbing over his divinely flat, strong stomach where those pale, rough hairs began to form a thinner line that stretched down to his navel where they virtually disappeared. She poked a finger into that little hole through the damp cloth and enjoyed his sharp intake of breath and exaggerated jerk. "Ticklish belly-button, Sensei?" she guessed with a saucy smile. More potential blackmail material.

Below the belly-button, the hairs began to reappear, running straight down and growing darker until the edge of her cloth met the edge of his gown. It was tantalising. Her mouth was no longer dry – she was practically drooling. Just a little nudge and –

No. This probably constituted enough torture for one day. She ran the cloth over his abdomen, intending it to be her last. It was customary to carry on and wash the legs and genitals of bedridden patients, but Kakashi just might jump out the window if she tried. And besides, it wasn't like she wanted to see or anything gross like that. What was she, a pervert?

Kakashi suddenly grabbed her wrist. She looked at him quizzically to see him forcing a smile. "I think we should stop for today," he said, unaware that this was just what she'd been intending.

Of course, the moment he said it, Sakura abruptly felt like being contrary. "What, you don't want me to wash down there?" she asked, injecting an obscene amount of bewildered innocence into the question. "But... Sensei, that's the dirtiest place of all."

He had to know she was winding him up like a clockwork toy. He had to. But he only stared.

"Sensei, I'm here to take care of you," she said, purring once more. "All of you."

She meant it as a joke, sure he would start blustering again and send her away, and from this day forth he would be too afraid to fake his way into hospital in case she tried to do this again. But instead he did something she hadn't counted on.

He let go of her wrist.

Sakura watched him with wide eyes as his fingers slackened and his arm fell back to his side. He looked back at her, not with fear or anger or frustration as she had expected, but with a near hypnotising, heavy-lidded gaze of anticipation. Because he expected her to do it.

She'd played chicken with the wrong pervert.

All of a sudden it was Sakura who was left wrong-footed, certain she'd just waded into a situation that was over her head. Her hand was moving before she could stop it. His gaze was compelling her... daring her. Maybe if she just got it over with quickly...

Hand and cloth slipped slowly beneath the cover of the gown on his lap and dragged tentatively over his penis. She stopped dead, acutely aware of the way his stomach muscles had spasmed, and the way his chest was moving as he breathed rapid, shallow breaths. His head rolled back on the stacked pillows behind him, and beneath her hand he was burning hard.

The heat of him was scorching her through the damp cloth, thick and solid and unmistakably aroused. Though she kept her eyes on his face, she had a very good idea about his precise size and shape.

Mind flashing white in shock, she knew she'd run out of ideas. Never had she actually expected it to come to this; dressed in a stupid tight nurse's uniform with her hand clutching her teacher's fully erect prick . But why was he aroused? She'd done her best to be rough, to tease and taunt him, but then that voice inside her sneered, What did you expect? He's a pervert, and you've been playing up to his fantasy since the moment you stepped in.

If she was sensible she would immediately remove her hand, apologise and run. But it seemed to her that this idea would take more courage than to simply... keep moving her hand. Perhaps he would think she was worldly and sensual and had intended this all along? Did he like worldly, sensual women?

Did he like her?

Or was it just the outfit he was reacting to?

And then there was the fact that her heart was beating like a hammer against her ribs and the way he was breathing fascinated her. She rubbed the cloth over him again experimentally, and squeezed, and watched with awe as he drew in a shuddering breath and swallowed audibly.

She couldn't stop; it was impossible. His reactions entranced her, and his dimensions alone were astonishing. She'd thought that plastic toy in his apartment had been pushing the limits of realism, but she realised now the real thing was incredible. And he was getting harder. His hand found her shoulder, squeezing it tightly as she ran the cloth lower between his legs to weigh his scrotum.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked through clenched teeth.

Sakura licked her dry lips, drinking in the sight of him trying valiantly to control his reactions. "Don't you want me to take care of it?" she whispered. Some other bolder woman had stepped into her shoes and was guiding her hand and her words, leaving Sakura helpless to watch. But had this really been unintentional? Hadn't this other woman been there since the moment she'd woken up, determined to corrupt Kakashi's fantasies – or rather, become them?

When he didn't respond, at least not verbally, she dropped the cloth altogether and wrapped her hand around him snugly.

"Mmn." His bitten off moan was music to her ears. He was already moist, his tip weeping, and moving her hand over him in tight, firm strokes came far too easily.

"You're a real pervert," she murmured. "How long have you been hard?"

"How am I supposed to help it with you walking in, dressed like that?" he ground out.

"Dressed like a nurse?" she said. "Sensei, there've been nurses walking in and out of here all day. You must be in a constant state of arousal."

"You're the only 'nurse' who's trying to seduce me," he said, watching her arm move as she stroked him. She noticed his hips were beginning to move too .

"What makes you think I was trying to seduce you?"

"You're jerking me off..." he gasped.

He had a point. "Do you want me to stop?"

"God... no... ahh..."

He treated her to another stifled moan. She ran her hand over his bare chest, eager to feel his warm, hard flesh beneath her fingers and the captivating texture of his hair. She loved it even more when he covered her hand with his own and guided it so her fingers splayed back across his nipple.

Oh, he'd liked that, had he?

She thumbed the puckered nub once again and watched how his back nearly arched right off the bed. It struck her how easy this was. How easily she could make him cum right now with nothing but her hands and a stupid outfit.

"Do you let the other nurses touch you like this?" she whispered, her voice much deeper and throatier than she was used to sounding.

"What?" Kakashi opened his eyes to look at her, confused.

She pinched his nipple. "Or do you just stick to flirting and whack off later at home when you're alone?"

Suddenly she felt herself being grabbed and pulled right off her feet. She'd forgotten how strong Kakashi could be, and for a moment she was scared, almost certain she was about to be thrown over the other side of the bed. Her side landed on the softness of the mattress, starched sheets crinkling underneath her weight, and Kakashi was looming over her. So close. He was almost lying on top of her.

Belatedly, she released his penis. "Careful," she scolded. "It almost came off in my hand."

"What's with you today?" he asked, frowning down at her. "Nurses this, nurses that, and with that outfit... what's going on?"

She stared back stolidly. "You're the one with the kink about nurses," she said, a little defiantly.

Kakashi looked confused. "What?"

"I saw your apartment," she said accusingly. "I know you have a thing about nurses... I know you've been faking illness so they'll give you sponge-baths and stuff. Pervert."

This accusation didn't seem to bother him as much as her admission. "You snooped through my things?"

Were they about to argue? It seemed strange to fight when he was half stretched out on top of her, completely naked, and she could feel his damp prick jutting into the soft flesh of her inner thigh. She wanted to rub against that heat and that hardness. It didn't seem appropriate, even though his cool fingers were curled around her neck, touching her for the sake of touching.

"Is that why you dressed up like this?" he asked, looking down at her uniform. Somewhere in the manoeuvre, a few of the buttons holding the dress together had popped. Although she didn't exactly have any cleavage to show him, the fabric had parted enough to show the soft curves of her modest breasts, unrestrained by underwear.

"I wanted to teach you a lesson," she said stubbornly.

Now he grinned at her. "You're so cute."

She fumed. "I'm not cute – I'm worldly and sens-"

He cut her off with a kiss to her mouth. His mask... he'd taken off his little white paper mask and no sooner had she glimpsed his mouth than it was against hers, soft lips aligning and sealing her words away as his warm breath fanned across her cheek. Her eyes began to slide shut and her mouth opened in surprise, and immediately Kakashi used it as an excuse to press his tongue inside, against her teeth. A little shyly, unused to such an intimate kind of kiss, she reciprocated, touching her tongue to his.

The erection against her thigh jerked noticeably.

Sakura turned her head away. "No, I'm teaching you a lesson," she repeated more firmly than she felt.

"Then teach me, Nurse Haruno," he said, nuzzling her exposed neck and deeply inhaling the scent of her hair. "I'm yours to do with as you please."

Nurse Haruno. Something about that sent a little shiver of excitement through her, or was it the way he was pressing hot-mouthed kisses against her clavicle? "You're being a very bad patient," she breathed, "hindering me when I'm trying to take care of you."

"Just tell me where you want me, Nurse."

She licked her lips, feeling empowered and nervous all at once. Kakashi stopped nibbling on her collarbone to look her in the eye and for the first time she saw his face. She'd often told him he had the eyes of dead fish and most people would have agreed with that observation, but divested of his mask, she finally saw the whole picture. Complemented by a straight, narrow nose and lips with a natural pout, his eyes suddenly took on the air of sensuality. Bedroom eyes, they called it. Though one was still perpetually closed, his gaze transfixed her. "Oh, wow..." she whispered.

"Mm?" he grunted.

She licked her lips once more and felt him twitch against her. She smiled slowly. "Naughty patients should lie back, I think," she said, pressing her hand against his chest to urge him over. He went willingly, shifting on his back with the blankets twisted around his ankles and Sakura caught a glimpse of the part of him that had been pressed so insistently against her leg.

Perhaps he wasn't as big as she'd initially thought, but it was certainly a sight to behold... this blood-flushed member that stood proud from his body. She reached out instinctively to hold him again, measuring and weighing him with her fingers, delighting in how ready he was.

"What are you doing?" he asked her. "Is this part of my treatment?"

"Just checking your... blood pressure," she said, pushing herself upright to get a good look at the feast of male flesh laid out beside her.

Whoever said men didn't have curves had never seen a man such as this in the peak of physical fitness. He was lean, it was true, as most shinobi were, but he was not a figure of sharp angles and straight lines. His physique was soft in subtler ways, from his rounded, muscular shoulders and sculpted chest, to his narrow hips and thick, strong thighs. She was in danger of drooling again, and she knew Kakashi was smirking. With one hand stroking her back, he lifted an eyebrow as if to say 'like what you see?' Or perhaps it meant 'get on with it already'.

Sakura slipped her leg over him and straddled him comfortably, trapping the head of his penis directly beneath the dip of her entrance. The fabric of her underwear still separated them – a good, sensible pair of plain cotton panties of the same brand her mother wore – but she could still feel the heat of him burning through it. No doubt he could feel her too. She rotated her hips experimentally, loving the way his eyes closed and his fingers pressed hard into knees.

"How are we feeling today?" Sakura asked him, repeating the same word she'd used when she'd first arrived.

"Awful, Nurse Haruno," he muttered, flexing his hips up to press more of himself against her. "There's this terrible ache..."

She shuddered deliciously. "I think I know of a way to make you feel even better," she said. "Where does it ache?

He looked down at the place where her pelvis met his. Too obvious. His gaze switched back to hers, looking devious. "I have many aches..."

"Show me."

He pointed to his neck.

Maybe he was trying to suggest she was a pain in the neck, but if that was the case, she decided to kiss him better nonetheless, leaning forward to press her lips to the point where she could feel the blood rushing beneath his skin. She kissed, and licked, and gently sucked. She rubbed her nose beneath his ear and smelled the scent of the soap she'd scrubbed him with, the antiseptic that permeated everything in the hospital including skin, and his stronger underlying musk. She loved that masculine smell. Rarely did she get close enough to smell it, usually only when he was drunk and the stink of booze always got in the way.

Thoroughly kissed, she drew away from the ache and noted she'd left a very impressive hickey. He was none the wiser, eagerly pointing to his next ache – his left nipple.

So he'd definitely liked that.

Sakura dipped again and ran her tongue over the flat nub, swirling and sucking and kissing until it was as hard as a little bead. The cock between her leg twitched in response, and this was one more thing she stored away for future reference. Noted, she thought, one overly sensitive left nipple. She could extort a lot from him over this alone.

His next ache, as he decided, was the soft skin on the inside of his elbow. She smiled at him curiously and brought his arm close to kiss the tender crease, enjoying the way he seemed to get just as much pleasure from this particularly innocent place as he did his neck.

"Where else?" she whispered.

He pointed to his mouth.

"Oh?" She widened her eyes, as if surprised. "What can I do about that one, I wonder..."

She lowered herself until she was pressed against him from chest to hip, her mouth just a breath away from his. "Open up and say 'ahh'," she said.

Kakashi obediently parted his lips. "Ahh."

She pushed her finger into his mouth and watched his lips close tight over the digit. She felt his teeth and his scorching tongue rub against the penetrating finger, sucking it like a delicate treat. "Can't feel anything wrong there," she said, clearing her throat a little.

"But it hurts," he said around her finger, so it came out more like, "'Ut it 'urtz."

"Maybe," she said, drawing out of him, "I should kiss it better too?"

He puckered up almost comically. She giggled and bent her head, and once again felt the amazing feeling of his warm mouth on hers, their breath intermingling. Lips slid together and hands wandered. Sakura felt an almost silent groan reverberate in his chest as his hands slid down to cup her backside beneath the short skirt of her dress. Her breasts tightened sweetly. Feeling this good had to be some kind of sin she'd be paying for the rest of her life with suffering and toil. With a gasp she pulled back from the kiss; Kakashi's fingers had slipped beneath her underwear and dipped straight into her soaking entrance.

The warm tingle of pleasure that swept her body enraptured her – little trembles that promised to become so much more if he just touched her a little lower, or a little deeper. But she didn't like that smug look on his face.

"Have you done this with the other nurses?" she asked, pushing her hips back into his hands.

He almost laughed at her. "Do you think I'm some kind of slut?"

"Answer the question, sensei."

"How can you think that?" he asked, turning more serious. "After all the times I told you..."

"Told me what?" She gazed down at him, running her hands over his naked shoulders and neck till her thumbs brushed over his jaw. Why was he suddenly looking embarrassed, glancing away from her as if he'd said something he hadn't intended. "Told me what?" she repeated, tightening her hands around his face.

"That I love you," he said quietly.

Now Sakura nearly laughed in his face. "Since when have you ever – oh, right – when you're drunk as a skunk, maybe! Sensei, after fifteen rounds of beer, you love everyone."

He shook his head. "That's not true... I've only said it to you."

"Yeah," she said, her smile fading, "but you were drunk. You didn't really mean-"

"I'm not always brave enough to say what I mean when I'm sober..." he said quietly.

She looked at him, searching his face for some clue he was pulling her leg. How cruel that would be, to joke about such a thing. "Is that true?" she whispered.

"I wouldn't lie to you," he said.

Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"Well, at least not about something like that," he corrected, for they both knew that most things that came out of his mouth were lies.

"So..." she said slowly. "All those times I let you stuff your hand down my top because I thought you were a harmless drunk who didn't know what he was doing-"

"Yes," he said tightly. "I knew what I was doing..."

"And all that guff about having no memory when the morning came-"

"I just didn't want to embarrass you."

She sat up abruptly, once more fully seated against his erection. She saw him gasp and glance down at the place where their bodies met, and unable to resist, she rolled her hips against him slowly, just enough to create a delicious friction that made them both shiver. "That's quite a confession, Kakashi-sensei," she whispered.

"I'm sorry," he apologised, looking flushed and far from sorry.

"People do stupid things when they're in love, I suppose," she said, biting her lip. "Like getting drunk and groping the one you love... or getting dressed up in nurse outfits to try and entice the one you..."

His eyes grew. "You..." he murmured. "Oh."

Suddenly he was sitting up, arms around her and kissing her fiercely. Sakura sat stiffly in shock for a few seconds until the heat and thoroughness of that kiss began to melt her, loosening every joint in her body. She sagged against him, moaning as his tongue thrust into her mouth and his teeth nipped at her lips. She moved her hips again, wanting more of that delicious friction, and he moved with her until they were desperate and panting.

"Please," she heard him whisper, breaking the kiss to press his face into her neck and mouth her throat. "Let me inside you."

Every inch of his naked flesh beneath her fingers was burning hot and damp with perspiration. Her hands ran over his back, feeling every cord of muscle in his impossibly broad shoulders and every indentation of his scars. She was losing her senses. More of the buttons on her dress were popping loose, a few even skittered across the floor as Kakashi pulled open her uniform even further to press his mouth to her breast.

They were becoming creatures closer to their most basic nature. Sakura's eyes slid shut and she dragged her fingers through his hair, pressing as close as she could, interesting only in maintaining as much contact as possible. She reached down and took hold of his stiff member, realising he was still slick, although now with her juices too. Her panties were soaked through and right then they were nothing but the biggest bane of her life.

"Let me up," she gasped as his tongue flicked her nipple. "I need to take off my-"

Kakashi made a short negative sounding grunt and reached down between them. He grabbed the offending material and jerked it aside, possibly stretching it out beyond all repair. Sakura shivered as cool air washed over her hot sex, but she couldn't wait anymore. With him holding her underwear free, and her holding his member, she guided his blunt tip to her moist entrance and locked gazes with him.

And then she watched as his eyes slid shut with a tremulous groan as she sank slowly onto him, taking him into her, feeling him stretch and fill her as her inner muscles fluttered.

It occurred to her that she was still on duty. He was still a patient in her active care – and boy, this was active care – and there were dozens of people walking past their locked door, going about their work oblivious to what was going on. When Kakashi groaned loudly as she finally took him all the way inside her, she pressed her fingers to his lips, trying to hush him. But it didn't matter. Even if anyone was listening at the door, it wasn't unusual to hear patients groaning and moaning, though usually it wasn't in pleasure.

He fell back onto the bed, hands restlessly moving over her hips, keen for her to move but not until she was ready. Sakura was grateful. She needed a moment to get used to his girth, but the sting of penetration was already beginning to fade and she felt safe shifting her hips in a gentle rocking motion to ease them both a little.

"You're so tight," Kakashi panted beneath her, "Nurse Haruno."

"And you're so very big, Hatake-san," she gasped out, angling her hips forward ever so slightly to make his length press against the most sensitive place inside her. A tremor wracked her body. Kakashi's fingers tightened.

"Do you treat all your patients like this?" he asked, bunching up her skirt to see her pubic hair meshing with his.

"Only the ones who love me," she teasingly replied.

"I bet half your patients are in love with you," he grunted. "Or more."

She rose up slightly on her knees and pushed back down. That shut him up. She tried it again and watched a grimace of pleasure wash over his features as his hands tried to urge her into a faster rhythm, but she ignored his hints, content to move only at her own pace and watch as the frustration drove him crazy. He wanted her to fuck him hard – his shallow little pants and barely contained quivering were all too obvious. But it made the leisurely slide of his flesh inside her all the sweeter. She craved every slow ebb and flow... ebb and flow...

She licked her lips and hummed in faint delight. She could do this all day.

Kakashi's hand moved. She didn't know what he was doing until she felt his thumb pressing down over her clitoris, rubbing it in hard little circles. She jerked stiff with a gasp, every muscle in her abdomen spasming in response. "No-" she protested, trying to push his hand away. But it was too late. Her hips were already moving, hooked onto the pleasure he'd invoked, rocking harder against his and trying to take him even deeper.

She heard him chuckle. Damn him. But two could play at that game, and so she quietly reached down and slid her finger through the natural lubricant of their joining, before trailing it down further to the tight puckered entrance of his anus.

"Wait," he breathed, confused. "What are you – oi!"

She pushed through the tight ring of muscle, ignoring his indignant yelp, and pressed her fingertip in a gentle massage against a rather sensitive place inside him. She'd suspected a little, when she'd seen that dildo. She really didn't think he'd bought it for anyone but himself...

The reaction was near instantaneous. Kakashi's hips went up and his head went back, his fingers dug into his thighs almost painfully as he thrust up into her once, twice. Again. The gentle rocking motion of before was gone, replaced by harsher, faster shoves that made her lean back and grab hold of his knee for dear life. He pounded up into her and she moved with him, though she was fast losing coherence. Everything was winding tighter. Her vision was dimming. She reached out blindly for Kakashi and felt his hand grab hers.

Then her climax was upon her like a hurricane, battering her from all sides as every muscle in her body went tight and rigid. But Kakashi was with her. His arms were suddenly around her, holding her close as her arms wound around his shoulders. Inside her, he seemed to jerk and swell. In her ear, he grunted, and she shivered once more as her pleasure ebbed away and a new rush of wetness filled her with his release.

It took a long time to come down from a high like that. She sat and panted, clutching Kakashi close as he softened, not quite prepared to leg go just yet. When he pulled back a little it was to kiss her, and he slid his mouth over hers in a lazy, sated way that captured exactly how she felt; sluggish and damp, uncaring that they were both sweaty as hell and stinking of sex. But happy, and so very satisfied.

"That'll teach you," she murmured, forehead falling onto his shoulder.

"Eh?" He sounded wronged.

"No more faking your way into hospital. Next time you get the desire to dabble in your nurse fantasy, just call me. I like being Nurse Haruno."

His breathing was beginning to calm, but he stilled needed a few more seconds to catch his breath to ask, "What nurse fetish? What have you been blabbering about since you came in here...? You're obviously the only one with a thing for nurses."

She drew back a little to look him in the face. "I told you," she said in lazy annoyance. "I saw your collection. All your porn is nurse themed. Don't sit there and tell me you don't have a thing for nurses."

"They're cute and all, but I don't have a fetish..." he sighed. "My fetish is a little more obscure... I'm afraid they don't have any magazines or videos for it just yet so I have to make do with the next best thing?"

"Next best thing to what?" she asked, stroking his hair.

He coughed. "Medic nin porn," he mumbled.

"Oh," she said, eyes wide. "So... all these hospital visits weren't for the nurses...?"

"I like it when you dote on me and feed me apples," he said dolefully. "It's my addiction..."

In some ways it was a shame she'd ruined poor Maple's spare uniform all for nothing. But at least Kakashi never spent another night in the hospital that he could spend in Sakura's bed.

Fin.