Super sorry for not updating. School is kicking my ass once again, not to mention I'm half dead from being sick this week! Thought I'd write a chapter instead of studying for my exam tomorrow ahahha anyway, hope you like it! It's a pretty quick chapter by the way, sorry to disappoint :(:(:(:(

Disclaimer: If I owned any of this, I'd be the happiest girl in the world. Which I'm not, unfortunately :(

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Turning the corner, Sakura pulled her hair up in a messy bun with a sour expression on her face. It was so damn hot, and the last place she thought she'd be was at the hot springs. And yet here she was, no thanks to Ino.

"Drop that fuckin' look, Forehead. Us girls need a little relaxation every once and a while." Ino's face split into a wide, self-satisfied grin. It had taken an hour to convince the pink-haired kunoichi to attend their girl's day out, like she used to.

Sakura, instead of looking at her toes, faced Ino with the same expression. "I just want to go home, Ino. You know how much work Tsunade's been dropping on top of me lately, I'm just busy with reports and-"

"And Kakashi?" Ino rolled her eyes, but grinned nonetheless. She liked that her best friend was finally getting somewhere with a guy she liked, seeing as the last one turned out to be a little bit evil and psychopathic.

Sakura's face immediately reddened as she looked away from Ino's intense blue eyed gaze, "What makes you think that?" She said, feigning casualness.

"Speak of the devil."

"What?" Sakura whisper-yelled, her eyes going wide as she tried to force down the blush that assaulted what felt like every inch of her pale skin. Slowly, she scanned the massive group of boys heading in their direction, laughing and pushing and shoving like teenagers. Sakura could make out the faces of Naruto, Kiba, Shikamaru and Shino, but the rest were too far behind to tell.

At the front of the group was a shirtless Genma and under his bare arm was a tight black wife-beater clad Kakashi, sporting an annoyed glare.

"Wow, he's got really nice arms." Ino said.

"I know." Sakura grinned lazily, as if in a daze.

"I was talking about Genma." Ino rolled her eyes and rested her hand on Sakura's back, shoving her forward.

"R-Right, so was I." Sakura laughed nervously, before kicking herself over saying something so stupid when she knew that Ino could see straight through her. Ino didn't say anything, but she shrugged and grinned smugly at her pink-haired friend.

"Hey you." Genma greeted Ino with a lustful smile on his face when we reached them, "Long time no see."

Ino fluttered her long dark eyelashes, "Well, aren't you lucky."

Sakura was glad to be distracted from Genma and Ino's little exchange when she felt Kakashi's warm hand on the skin of her lower back, he'd slid his hand up under her shirt and was drawing circles on her spine, making her shiver. "Hey."

She inwardly grinned at the husky voice at her ear. "Hey," she replied.

"I didn't expect you to be here." He said, his index finger hooking around the belt loop of her shorts. "Not that I'm complaining." She could see the faintest smirk on his lips, making her grin in response.

"Girls day out, actually. You? Didn't know you were such a fan of fun." Sakura tilted her head upwards to meet his beautifully mismatched eyes. "Not that I'm complaining, of course."

Kakashi let out a quiet throaty laugh, "I'm only a fan of you, Sakura-chan."

Sakura snorted back a laugh and focused on Genma, who was watching their quiet exchange with bright mischievous eyes. "Aside from his obvious obsession with you, Sakura-chan. Kakashi here came for one thing and one thing only," Genma reached into the back pocket of his pants and pulled out a book with a bright orange cover. "Behold."

A pleasant smile crossed Sakura's features as she imagined Genma, who was at least a few inches shorter and skinnier than Kakashi, bolting through Konoha with all of his best-friend's prized possessions in hand while Kakashi himself chased after him. Perfect.

A low growl erupted from the depths of Kakashi's throat as he kept his eyes trained on the Icha Icha book. "Genma." Kakashi said seriously as he looked at his grinning friend.

"Genma." He mocked, wrapping an arm around Ino's shoulders. "Come, Kakashi. The others are already starting without us."

Kakashi frowned but followed as Genma kissed Ino on the forehead and then let her go. Genma then wrapped an arm around the bulk of a reluctant Kakashi's shoulders, leading him down to a door that said 'Males'.

Laughing, Sakura shook her head. "I'll go get some drinks." She told Ino.

"Sure, whatever. See you inside."

They parted ways and Sakura briskly walked to the vending machine around the corner and was surprised to see Akamaru round the corner at the same time. Akamaru barked and a hot wet tongue brushed against her cheek, making her smile.

"Keep your tongue to yourself, Akamaru." Kiba grinned, his pointed canines glinting in the gold light. "Sakura, nice to see you." He placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a friendly kiss on the cheek.

"You too, Kiba, you too. Haven't seen you since…"

"Since Naruto made Chunin? Yeah, I've been gone since then- tracking mission." Kiba shrugged with his carefree grin still on his face. He popped open a can of soda and drank greedily from it, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He held out the can to Akamaru, who licked up the contents around the rim excitedly.

"Good for you, Kiba." She grinned, absently placing her hand on Akamaru's head to scratch between his fluffy white ears.

'Since Naruto made Chunin….'

It made her think what Kiba might've seen that night, if he saw anything at all. But what if it was embarrassing? Sakura blushed at the thought. It's not like she hadn't asked all her other friends the same thing, maybe it was all just getting to her.

"So… you and Kakashi, huh? That's…. unexpected, to say the least." Kiba took another drink of his soda. "I-I mean, not being rude or anything, but-"

Sakura always liked Kiba. He was nice and funny and definitely quite cute, definitely worth all the attention he gets from the girls of Konoha and lately, every other village he'd gone to for missions. He was growing up, but he was still Naruto's funny annoying little right hand man.

"Don't worry about it. And no, not that I don't want to… well not that I want to, to begin with. It's… complicated. Something happened at his place that night and I-"

"Don't remember it? Yeah, Ino was telling me." Kiba grinned, "I'll tell you what I remember, if it'll help."

Goddamn big mouthed pig! Can't she keep anything to herself? Ugh.

Sakura smiled at Kiba with a deep scarlet tinge to her cheeks. This was so embarrassing. "Go ahead."

"Alright, all I remember is…"

At this point, Kakashi's house reeked of cigarettes and alcohol. They'd only arrived fifteen minutes ago and it was already to a point of no return. Naruto and Lee had their arms around one another, singing to the top of their lungs a song they must've made up on the spot and Hinata and Ino were whispering and giggling like girls do.

Everyone had already left; Kurenai to attend to her son whereas Choji, Shikamaru, Shino and Tenten left to catch some shut-eye before their big A Rank infiltration mission into Stone. This left the crazier and much, much drunker half of the group at Kakashi's; Kiba (and Akamaru), Hinata, Naruto, Neji, Sakura, Lee, Kakashi and Genma.

Ino cheered as she held up her shot glass and downed its mysterious contents, wrapping an arm around and even drunker Genma and placing a fat slopping kiss on his cheek. "Best night ever!"

"Hell yeah!" Sakura shouted in unison with Naruto as they pumped their fists and drank to their hearts content.

Kiba grinned and chugged another bottle of who knows what and watched Genma and Kakashi have a drunken exchange of laughs and jokes. Kiba wasn't really as close to those two as the rest were, but they seemed just as young as they were, despite being at least over a decade older.

But something irked him about Kakashi.

He's known the guy for years and still hadn't seen his face. How does he drink? How does he eat? Is there a little flap he lifts up to shovel food into his mouth? And more importantly, why does he wear the mask? Why! Sakura and the others had a bet going that it was because of a mole or buck-teeth or something, but nope. That's not what Kiba thought when he was talking to Ayame the other night who prattled on and on about Kakashi's handsome face. Hell, according to her, even Teuchi swooned.

Shrugging and taking a sip out of another random bottle, Kiba scratched a sleepy Akamaru's head. "Tired?" He asked, to which Akamaru only whimpered in response.

Suddenly, there was a huge thud and Kiba looked up to find Sakura on the floor, giggling like mad and throwing out slurred curse words into the open air. Aside from him, no one seemed to notice. They were all in their own little drunken worlds. No one except Kakashi, who was kneeling at her side in seconds, shoulders shaking as he laughed down at her body sprawled out across the floor.

"Ka…Kakashiiiii-sensei!" Sakura squealed, "Bathroom. Now."

Kakashi shook his head and said something in response, something Kiba's enhanced hearing couldn't pick up after the amount of drinks he'd had. Kiba watched as Kakashi held out a hand to Sakura who took it sloppily.

"Wow, you've got really nice hands, Kakashi-sama." Sakura grinned.

Sama? Kiba thought. Something told him that Sakura would be embarrassed about that.

Kakashi looked just as surprised and amused at the honorific, but he wrapped an arm around Sakura's slender waist and crushed her to his side. "C'mon, Sakura. Let's get you to the bathroom."

"Are you going to ravish me in there, Kakashi-sama?" Sakura asked drowsily.

Kakashi laughed as he led her to the other end of his apartment. "Maybe."

"Oh my God, please stop." Sakura said, her entire face a deep red from embarrassment. "I can't take it. Sama? Really, Sakura?" She groaned, the last part mostly to herself.

Kiba grinned, "I knew you'd be embarrassed. I contemplated leaving that part out, but I couldn't bring myself to do it."

Sakura groaned and slapped his arm, "You're horrible." She grinned despite her embarrassment, "I'm leaving." She shoved past him and rounded the corner towards the vending machine.

"Yeah, whatever." Kiba laughed, "Come on, Akamaru. Sakura-sama has to cool down."