Quick Info~

"Lessons" updated? For real? Am I dreaming?

If you are asking yourself any of these questions, fear not. This is reality! I know it took my way longer than it should have to update. But I am back! With a 4,000+ word chapter to try and make up for my absence. The plot thickens... At first, I was really nervous to post this chapter since the last one was so cute and this one is more, umm, tense. This story needs a continued plot line, though, and I've been toying with this idea for almost a year so I am pretty satisfied with where it is headed so far. Hopefully you all think so, too!

Thank you to everyone who has been patiently waiting for this update! Your reviews/favorites/follows are one of the main reasons I was able to get this out as soon as I did. I hope you enjoy where I am taking this! Please let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I like Sai. A lot, actually. However, due to his involvement in the last chapter, I believe that it would be in his character to act the way that he does in this chapter. I do not dislike any of the characters in Naruto (except Danzo), so there is no need to assume that I am writing Sai as a villain or something. He's much more of a concerned friend. :)

"Thank you for meeting with me, Lady Hokage," Sai said, bowing graciously.

Tsunade was staring at him curiously, half-wondering what he could possibly want urgently enough to take her away from her mountain of paperwork and half-grateful for the distraction from the aforementioned paperwork mountain. She was always a mysterious person to Sai. He never did quite understand why she exerted chakra just to keep up physical appearances. Then again, he supposed he didn't understand most of the beauty rituals the women in the village sought after.

"What can I help you with?" she asked.

"Well, it's about Kakashi Hatake," Sai explained carefully.

He had been going over what to say in his head from the moment he saw Kakashi and Sakura's kiss. Should he bring it to Tsunade's attention? Should he keep it a secret? He had been brought up to follow the rules and protect the village against all personal feelings. Old habits die hard, he supposed, and that was precisely why he was in the Hokage office after all.

"What about him?" Tsunade asked, narrowing her eyes and leaning forward in her chair.

Sai gulped. "It's just that I discovered an interesting bit of information about him."

"I didn't think Hatake was the type of man to divulge his pending Kage position," Tsunade mused. "Although, I suppose you were part of Team Seven and he does have a soft spot for all of you."

"I'm sorry. Did you say pending Kage position, m'lady?" Sai asked.

Tsunade's eyes widened briefly and she cleared her throat. "Ah, I see. So he didn't tell you?"

Sai shook his head. "No, m'lady. But I will do my best not to spread the information around."

Tsunade nodded, attempting to remain as cool as possible despite her blunder. Sai wasn't the worst person she could have told. No, people like Naruto and Gai were the ones she had to worry about. However, she was sure as hell counting her lucky stars that the high-stress, tightlipped Hokage job would soon be passed on. She was so close to retirement that she could practically see the poker chips and gambling vacations gleaming in the corner of her eye.

"Sai, I trust you won't tell anyone until Kakashi announces it himself," Tsunade said. "But if you weren't here to talk about the Hokage position, what was it you wanted to tell me about him?"

If keeping the village safe was Sai's most important goal, then he oughtn't tell her anything about Kakashi and Sakura. The village needed a new leader. A younger leader. A leader who didn't lead during the tiresome fourth shinobi war. Sai didn't know a lot about choosing Hokages, but he was sure that the village elders didn't have a long list of backups. And if Kakashi was the best choice for the job, then any backup they chose just wouldn't be the perfect fit. After all, it wasn't like Kakashi was a secret murderer or anything.

"I had, err, heard a rumor," Sai mumbled.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow and leaned forward, making Sai feel like shrinking back into the wall.

"And what rumor would that be?"

"Just that he…um…" Sai scratched the back of his neck, trying to stare at the ceiling, the floor, anything that wasn't directly at Tsunade.

But her gaze was as sharp as a hawk's and, try as he might, he couldn't escape the caramel glint of her irises. Sai took a deep breath and channeled everything he learned in the Foundation into lying to the Fifth Hokage. Everything he learned about deception, about playing a role. Every last dirty trick in Danzo's book.

"That he was taking on another team of Genin, of course," he finished, a fake smile firmly plastered across his face.

Tsunade did not say anything for a while. She simply stared him down, as if she was hoping he would crack under the pressure and tell her the truth. A lot of odd rumors had been circulating around the hospital; Tsunade had to admit that. However, only a handful involved Kakashi and it was nothing too scandalous. Besides, Tsunade rarely paid much attention to the gossip Shizune was apparently so involved with.

"Ah. Well, I'm sure you realize that those are all false now," she said.

"Right, Milady," Sai said.

"If that's all I have quite a bit of work to get to," she said, her teeth suddenly chewing anxiously at her lower lip.

"Right," Sai said again and he turned to leave.

As soon as he was out of earshot and out of sight, Tsunade nearly ripped the handle off of the door to the Hokage office as she stormed out to find Shizune. After turning down a handful of hallways, she finally located her apprentice.

Shizune was chatting casually with a Jonin holding a stack of paperwork in the lobby of the main entrance. Tsunade always walked in a way that meant business. Even those on the ground level complained that they could hear her stomping around multiple floors up. So it was no surprise to anyone when Tsunade rounded the corner with a feverish look of determination on her face.

What was a surprise, however, was when she followed up her stomping about with, "Shizune, I need to know the latest gossip!"

The Jonin conversing with Shizune went slack-jawed and quietly bowed out of the room. Shizune laughed, stooping down to pick up Tonton, before giving Tsunade an amused look.

"You've never cared about hospital gossip before," she said.

"Yes, well, now I do. What's new?"

Shizune paused for a moment, her eyes rolling up to the ceiling as if she were searching for an answer somewhere among the white tiles.

"The newest thing I heard was that Naruto, Shikamaru, and Sai crashed Sakura's date last night," she said.

Tsunade almost wanted to laugh. Almost. Instead, she ended up picturing the time that Jiraiya faked chakra exhaustion so that she had to leave a date with Dan in order to help him. The apple really does not fall far from the tree, as far as mentors and apprentices go.

"Anything about Kakashi Hatake?" Tsunade asked impatiently.

"Kakashi?" Shizune crinkled her nose. "Not really. Some of the girls think he has a new girlfriend, but I'm sure you've heard those rumors numerous times throughout the past couple of years. "

Tsunade nodded. Kakashi had always been one of the most mysterious, most sought after ninja in the village. The fact that he hadn't taken a wife was quite surprising, given how many women found him attractive, but the fact that he hadn't so much as been seen with a woman outside of his coworkers was downright baffling. Of course people were bound to talk, speculate, and create rumors about his love life.

"Nothing about him forming a new team of Genin?" Tsunade asked.

"No," Shizune answered. "Why would he do that if he's being promoted?"

Tsunade scowled, her eyes darting out the nearest window as if she was hoping her glare could somehow reach wherever Sai was presently. If she could punch through an entire boulder without so much as scraping a single knuckle, how hard would it really be to stab someone in the back with eye-daggers?

Tsunade straightened then, and crossed her arms over her chest. She let out a weak chuckle before saying, "I suppose that's what I get for trying to pay attention to stupid hospital gossip."

If Shizune had just started working for Tsunade, she would have felt inclined to defend the adjective used to describe the hospital gossip. But after working with the Sannin for years, she learned to let offhanded remarks slide off of her back.

"If you don't need anything else, I really should get going, m'lady," Shizune said.

Tsunade nodded and shooed Shizune away with her hand. "Thank you for your help, as always."

If Kakashi taking on a new team of genin had not made it's way into the central gossip hub, there was no way a Jonin as detached as Sai could have heard it. She would figure out a way to get the truth out of him, one way or another.

"We're not those stupid mutts, girl. Kakashi doesn't give us baths," Pakkun said, sprawled out on Sakura's rug.

It was white, or at least it used to be, until an ever-so-charming array of muddy paw prints littered the bottom left side and trailed to the middle—where it ended in a big brown blob that just so happened to be Pakkun-shaped.

Sakura sighed, shooting the other Ninken death glares whenever they tried to so much as scoot an inch off of the welcome mat in front of the door. At least the others were still afraid of her wrath. Pakkun had far too much experience with her growing up, so of course he felt entitled to walk wherever he so chose.

"I suppose Kakashi doesn't like to buy replacement rugs, either?" Sakura asked, propping her feet up on her coffee table and stretching for a magazine that was really only a fingertip's length out of reach.

She huffed and dropped her hand on the couch cushion in defeat, causing Pakkun to raise an ear and snort in amusement.

"Maybe you two should stop spending so much time together," he said.

"And why's that?" Sakura asked.

"His laziness is clearly starting to rub off on you," Pakkun answered, standing only to circle around a few times—leaving more muddy prints in his wake—before plopping back down in a position that was maybe only an inch to the right.

"I don't know if I would say that to the girl who's letting you traipse around her floor like it's a pig pen."

And before Sakura and Pakkun could really get into it, her apartment door flung open unceremoniously, moving the rest of the Ninken and all twenty-eight of their paws to the carpet. Kakashi glanced at the carpet, then at Sakura, who was staring at him with an expression stuck somewhere between disbelief and the unbridled urge to laugh.

"I'm assuming your trip to the lake went well," she said, raking her eyes up and down his clothes (just as soiled as the dogs', if not worse).

"There was a little incident with a kunai and a squirrel. Seems like even after all these years it's still hard to reign in their natural instants." Kakashi shot a look at the ninken, who in turn gave back expressions ranging from uncaring to slightly apologetic.

"The same could be said about you," Sakura said, watching as Kakashi began leaving his own trail of muddy lake water behind him.

He leaned over the back of the couch, lowering his mask to kiss her forehead.

"Are you proposing that you'd like to train me, Sakura?" he asked, peering at her upside down.

Her cheeks flushed, but she still managed to roll her eyes and grab the fabric of his mask, yanking it back up his face and letting it smack angrily against his skin. He stood and staggered backwards, feigning hurt.

"You're such a ham," she said, turning and kneeling on the couch cushion to face him.

"I wonder what that says about you?"

Sakura smiled and stuck her tongue out at him playfully. "Clearly that I indulge you too much."

"It must be my turn to indulge you, then," he said, crossing his arms and lifting the tight black undershirt up over his head before casually tossing it to the side.

Sakura's breath caught in her throat and she wondered how she never quite noticed his impeccable shape before the start of their relationship. "I'm not even mad that I'm going to have to clean even more of my carpet now."

"I'm taking that as permission, just so you know," Kakashi said.

"Permission for wh—"

Before she could finish her sentence, strong arms were pulling her towards him and against his chest. She squealed as he nuzzled his face in the crook of her neck and ran his dirty hands up and down her sides.

"Hatake I will…end…you!" sounded a lot less menacing when it was voiced in between giggles and, quite frankly, only made Kakashi want to mess with her more.

But as things often did, his hands stopped tickling her and instead rested on her waist, and her breathing previously labored with laughter was instead uneven for an entirely different reason. And as things often did, his lips were crashing against hers like waves that just couldn't stay away from the shoreline.

"Why don't we take this somewhere we can clean you up?" Sakura murmured against his lips, her fingers running gently through the messy hair at the nape of his neck.

Lifting her shirt up over her head and shimmying her pants down to her ankles was more than enough of an answer to her question. Kakashi bent down as she stepped out of her pants, pressing kisses to the silky smoothness of her thighs and traveling slowly upward. He stopped at her panties just long enough to give her an innocent grin, before tugging them down so hard and fast that she nearly yelped in surprise.

He continued his kisses in a much more intimate spot then, slow and burning and so goddamn dizzying that Sakura had to steady herself by grasping onto his hair. Her head pitched back and she let out a long, low moan. By the time that his tongue teased her entrance, she nearly buckled over.

"Kakashi, we…the shower…" she moaned helplessly.

Trying to get him to stand back up when she could hardly stand herself was an impossible feat. He chuckled at her pathetic attempt to lift him gently as her hands cupped his cheeks. The sound vibrated against her, causing shivers to rack her body and make every hair stand pleasurably on-end.

And just as she found herself nearing the edge, he pulled away, planting one last wet kiss on her inner thigh. She blinked in confusion, her brain still muddled with lust, until the floodgates of frustration opened and she frowned.

"What was that for?" she asked, trying to steady her quivering legs.

Kakashi shrugged. "You said you wanted to go in the shower."

"You're mean," she chided and he took her hand and began guiding her towards the bathroom.

As soon as the water was turned on and beginning to steam, Kakashi was on her like a predator on prey. Except this prey was hardly meek and submissive. Sakura was able to deal nearly tenfold whatever Kakashi dished out. His kisses were met with longer, more sensual ones. His touches along her sides were met with nails pressing into his back as she tried to fight back the overwhelming urge to ride him before they even got in the water.

They stumbled clumsily into the shower together, the hot water rushing in the few empty spaces between them. Sakura knew she should have been grossed out as soon as the dried mud on his arms and legs started to liquefy and rub off on her, but she was far too focused on the orgasm Kakashi had left hanging.

He pressed her back against the cool tile on the shower wall, hiking her up it ever so slightly to fit his hips in between hers. She tried to grasp at his skin as he sunk into her, but the water made both of their bodies far too slick.

"Am I still mean?" he asked, nipping lightly at her ear as he began to thrust into her.

She wanted to answer him, to tease and tell him that yes, he was very much still an asshole for leaving her hanging like that, but the words were washed down the shower drain before they could even be vocalized. The only sort of response she gave him at all was shifting slightly to the right so that he could get a better angle.

Despite how bleary her brain felt, she couldn't help but marvel at the fact that he was there with her. One month and a half ago she was shamelessly pleasuring herself to the image of him in the very same shower that he was now using to make love to her. Actual, real love. And if that thought alone wasn't enough to make her blurt out that she loved him—actually, really loved him—then she wasn't sure what it would take to finally force her to admit it.

Thankfully, any thoughts she had on the subject of professing her feelings in the middle of sex—something she had learned from Ino's ex-boyfriend horror stories was a definite mood killer—were wiped away with her approaching orgasm. Kakashi's breathing was labored and his thrusts began to lose rhythm as he held her hips in place with enough force to leave marks on her skin.

She cried out first, burying her face in the crook of his neck as she whimpered his name in broken syllables. He took a shuddering step back, sliding out of her and smacking one hand against the wall to steady himself. They watched as the aftermath mixed in with the water and went down the drain, panting with that same shared look of disbelief that this was really happening.

"I know this might be a bad time," Kakashi started as soon as they managed to catch their breath.

"I thought maybe we could talk." Sakura's words covered his nearly identically in their timing.

She giggled and Kakashi gave her a small smile.

"You go first," he said.

"No, go ahead," she offered.

He straightened, brushing wet strands of pink out of her face and tucking them behind her ear. He felt nervous, far too nervous, and he was sure if he didn't tell her soon his vocal chords would clam up.

The word he wanted to say was a word he rarely used, and had never used before in this context. A word that was somehow coupled with loss despite their near opposite definitions.

He loved his father and his father died. He loved Rin and Obito and Minato, and they died, too. The last time he even dared to think the word was when he saw Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura come together as a team to save the world, but he didn't dare speak it because he couldn't lose them, too.

And now here he was, as vulnerable as he could possibly be, ready to tell Sakura that he was in love with her and that, at this rate, he probably always would be. The thought alone, even if it was only for a moment, was enough to smother the fear suffocating his heart.

"I've been meaning to tell you…" Kakashi started.

One loud bang on the bathroom door made Sakura let out a tiny yelp of surprise. Kakashi quirked the biggest 'are-you-f'ing-kidding-me-right-now' face, but drew himself away from Sakura's body so that she had room to get out of the shower.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "Wait here, okay?"

Kakashi nodded and helped Sakura out of the shower. She proceeded to wrap a towel around her chest and Kakashi listened as the patter of her wet feet against the wood floor grew fainter. He rested his head against the cool tile where her body had been just a moment before and sighed. Whatever, or whoever, was at the door better make it quick.

"If you don't disappear within the next ten seconds, I'm kicking you out the window," Sakura hissed at Pakkun and the rest of Kakashi's ninken as she approached the door.

"We got the message," Pakkun said, standing and stretching before disappearing with his pack in a puff of smoke.

Sakura opened the front door tentatively, praying that it wasn't Tsunade or her landlord or a newly titled shower inspector specifically hired to catch two people in the act. Thankfully, it was just Sai, and she let out a breath of relief.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

Sai looked her up and down for a moment, as if wondering why on earth she would willingly open the door in just a towel. But then again, he had deemed Sakura as rather weird a long time ago, so he wouldn't put it past her.

"Can I come in?" he asked cheerfully.

Sakura's eyes narrowed suspiciously, but she cracked the door open just enough to let him inside. He slid past the doorframe and his eyes immediately locked onto her soiled carpet.

"I didn't know you had any pets," he said, pointing to the array of paw prints parading around the white rug.

"Oh, yeah, I don't," she said. "I was watching one of the Inuzuka dogs while Kiba ran some errands."

"Looks more like a whole pack," Sai said.

Sakura waved away his curiosity and offered him a seat on her couch.

"Do you do Kiba's laundry, too?" Sai asked.

"No?" Sakura quirked her head to the side, trying to follow his gaze.

When she reached the spot he was staring at, she felt her chest tighten. Kakashi's muddy clothing was still lying in a pile on her floor. How could she explain that? She couldn't, at least not in any way that sounded the least bit rational. So she did the only thing she could think to do in that moment: allow the infamous Inner Sakura to yell him into submission.

"You're awfully curious today. Remind me again why it's any of your business who's clothing is where in my apartment?" Sakura asked, smiling in that sickly fake way.

"You're smiling but I can tell you're angry," Sai said.

"Maybe because you showed up unannounced asking a bunch of personal questions?"

"Because there's something I need to tell you," he said.

The seriousness of his tone caught Sakura extremely off guard. Her defensiveness began to shrivel up inside of her and her look of irritation was replaced with one of genuine concern.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Sai paled, if that was at all possible, and stood rigidly still. He pursed his lips as his eyes screwed up towards the ceiling, as if he were carefully weighing all of his words before they came tumbling out.

"It's about the night that Naruto, Shikamaru, and I crashed your date," he said slowly.

Sakura crossed her arms over her chest and smirked. "It's about time I got a proper apology for that."

"No—well, I mean, maybe the way we acted was in poor taste, but Naruto was right in the end," Sai said.

"Naruto was right about something? Don't look so down in the dumps, it's actually happened a few times before," Sakura said, placing a hand on her chin thoughtfully.

Sai chuckled dryly once and Sakura rolled her eyes. He still hadn't mastered the courtesy laugh.

"Your date was using a transformation jutsu," Sai said.

Sakura froze, her mind suddenly tripping over itself to get into explanation overdrive. Should she act surprised? It was probably too late for that by now and Sai would see through it. Should she act angry again? That would most likely only make her seem more suspicious. Should she just come clean? After all, Kakashi did say she could tell whomever she wanted. Instead she decided to stay quiet, her eyes searching Sai's for some inkling inside of his mind. The response she got was just as blank as usual.

"You and Kakashi-sensei are an item," Sai said finally.

"Oh…that." Sakura was quiet, her gaze fixated on the muddy carpet where Pakkun had been lying just moments before.

The muddy carpet that made Sakura feel like everything seemed easy and almost normal for once. She should have laughed, really, because when was her life ever normal?

"I didn't mean to pry," Sai said, holding up his hands in defense as if he were waiting for her to explode. "I was actually going to find you to apologize. Ino said apologizing right away is better than waiting because feelings are at their realest in the moment. Anyway, I followed you and I watched him drop the jutsu to give you a kiss."

"So what now?" Sakura asked. "You're in ANBU. Are you planning on reporting us? I'm more than old enough to consent. He isn't doing anything that I don't want him to do."

Her gaze was threatening, almost as if she were challenging him to try and rat them out. Despite knowing Sai for years, he was still sort of a wild card. His loyalty to Konoha was pretty apparent, as he followed Danzo for the sake of the village for year, but it was because of Danzo that Sai still had a sort of stigma surrounding him. Even if Sakura would never admit it, not trusting him was rooted in the deepest, darkest parts of her soul at times.

"I'm not going to tell," Sai said. "I just think you should try and figure out the person that you're with. Kakashi-sensei may have trained you, but there's probably a lot to your relationship that you don't know about yet."

"Everyone has secrets," Sakura said.

Sai nodded. "Some bigger than others."

Sakura shrugged, her stubbornness refusing to let him know that his words bothered her slightly.

"I'm sure Ino knows about you two," Sai said. "It explains the painting I did for your birthday.

"Yes, I told her."

"It's good to trust your friends. Anyway, I should be going." Sai smiled and gave her a friendly wave before disappearing.

Sakura stood in the living room for what felt like an eternity. She felt a strange coldness wash over her body, like she had just been dunked unsuspectingly in ice water and couldn't catch her breath when she came back up. Sai left an uncomfortable oddness in the air that she couldn't put her finger on yet couldn't seem to shake either. And even though she wanted to join Kakashi in the shower again, it just felt…weird. Everything felt weird.

So she did the only thing she could think of.

"Kakashi?" she called. "Could you come out here for a bit?"