Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the characters contained therein, they belong to Masashi Kishimoto who is kind enough to let fans write fiction. I make no profit from this nor do I intend to.

A/N: This is something I started maybe sometime in 2008 or 2009 and I just recently came back to finish it. Super HUGE thanks to my new betas: La Moonlight Lily and WitchesRayne. I don't think I can say it enough times, my writing is seriously only as good as my wonderful betas - I genuinely cannot get along without you guys! Happy Reading!

For a Good Cause

Sakura kept reminding herself, 'it's for a good cause,' as she rushed about the hospital trying to finish everything before the evening's big event. Silently she had to question just how Ino had managed to convince her to participate in the ridiculous occasion.

As she was wondering for perhaps the dozenth time that day, she rushed past the overcrowded pediatric ward and was reminded once again, it was for charity. The hospital was in desperate need of a new wing for children. With the academy numbers swelling as much as they had been in the past several years, they would run out of room to treat all of the children pretty soon. Until recently, the pediatric ward had been steadily shrinking as bits and pieces were carved out of it for other uses when academy enrollment was down.

Just as the pink-haired medic was finishing with her last patient, she was interrupted by the loud tone that generally preceded an announcement over the loudspeaker. "May I have your attention, please? All participants in the charity auction please report to the main kitchen area of the cafeteria, the auction is about to begin."

Sakura cursed, realizing that she wouldn't have time to change before the start of the event as she had initially intended. Taking a quick moment, she glanced at herself in a mirror, looking for any obvious indicators as to how her day had gone such as blood or other less obvious substances. Upon finding none, she headed off to the kitchen, where the other women would be waiting for the auction to begin.

Nervously, she paced the small crowded area, much to the amusement of a majority of the other participants - mostly doctors, nurses and medics, all of whom had an interest in seeing the pediatric ward's renovation and expansion. She wasn't having second thoughts, it was more like sixth or seventh thoughts, but by this point she knew it was far too late to back out.

"Would you just relax?" her best friend admonished as the pink-haired woman passed her for the twentieth time. "It's no big deal. All it will be is dinner and then either a movie, dancing, a walk or some sort of a show – the rules are very clear on this so you have nothing to worry about." Ino shook her head in amusement. "Besides it's not as if you'll be cheating on anyone or anything… And hey, maybe you'll meet the guy of your dreams!"

The green-eyed medic glared at her friend, "Yeah or maybe I'll be stuck with Rock Lee for the evening…" Her eyes widened with faint horror. "Or worse! Genma…"

The blonde woman laughed at her friend's fears. "It's one date, Sakura. No matter who wins you, it's not like it's for life or anything. Just one evening out on the town, that's all."

The pink-haired woman sighed. She knew it shouldn't be a big deal, but for some strange reason it was bothering her. A few weeks previously she had gotten into a big argument with Naruto and Sasuke over participating in the charity event. She had expected the disagreement and consequently wasn't too surprised nor upset about it. What she hadn't been expecting was the fact that when she had appealed to her former sensei to back her up – much to her surprise – he had sided with their former teammates. In the end, frustrated and angry, she had snapped at them. The irritated kunoichi had told them that if they were that unhappy over her participating in the event they should just suck it up and bid on her themselves. She had then stomped out of the bar. Luckily for all parties involved, her former teammates had been almost immediately assigned to a mission expected to last several weeks, slated to end a week after the auction.

She could honestly understand Naruto and Sasuke's overprotectiveness. They'd become that way after she'd dated an abusive medical student when she was seventeen. The nasty piece of work had done a good job of trying to take control of her life before she'd realized what was happening. Once she'd seen the red flags, clued in to them by her good friends, she had promptly kicked him to the curb. Unbeknownst to her, or so they believed, Naruto and Sasuke had also paid that particular ex-boyfriend a visit to ensure the awful man did not try to win Sakura back. Either way, no one had seen him for years, not after he accepted an internship outside of Konoha.

But, Naruto and Sasuke aside, she had to turn her mind to her former team leader – Kakashi, overprotective? The thought was just plain incomprehensible. Granted, she had always known that he had something of a soft spot for her but, she knew, he would never admit or act on it and she would never force the issue. It was, for the most part, easy enough to ignore since he never let it interfere with anything, at least until he had sided with Naruto and Sasuke on the matter of her participating in the charity auction.

Her thoughts were abruptly disturbed by Shizune, the event coordinator. "Sakura! You're up, try to look as appealing as possible to bring in the big bucks!" The usually timid woman clapped her on her shoulder and gave her a shove toward the door leading to the cafeteria/dining area.

Nervously, Sakura entered to a host of catcalls and wolf whistles – a reception she was fairly certain she wouldn't have received if Naruto or Sasuke had been in attendance.

As soon as she stepped foot on the improvised stage, the emcee, chosen for her usually loud and outspoken demeanor, started her pitch. "And our next lovely young lady up for auction tonight is Miss Sakura Haruno. Miss Haruno is one of our truly single ladies tonight, an excellent medic as well as a kunoichi… I don't think she needs much more of an introduction; let's give her a hand… Now, who would like to start the-"

Anko was interrupted by the annoying tone that always proceeded an announcement. "Sakura Haruno please report to the emergency room. Sak- Gimme that damn thing – Sakura get your ass down here now! This is an emergency!"

Face burning, the pink-haired woman smiled and waved apologetically before ducking out of the room. As she exited, she heard the emcee try to recover the situation. "Sorry about that guys. But it only goes to show just what a great catch we have up for auction tonight. I can also guarantee that she will not be on call the evening of your date…"

As she ran to the emergency room to deal with whatever had prompted the Hokage to summon her, she had to silently consider with more than a little relief that Tsunade had probably ruined all chances of anyone bidding on her.

The next morning, she was awoken by an all too early, in her opinion, banging on her door. Groggily, she got up, wrapped a robe around herself and went to answer her door. Sakura was absolutely exhausted after having spent the majority of the night and early morning treating several classes of academy students. The kids had somehow managed to mix a box of harmless flash tags up with a box of poisonous gas tags during the preparations for an evening war simulation exercise. The pink-haired medic had finally been allowed to go home at five that morning after helping to treat the last case and wanted nothing more than to sleep for the next day or two. All thoughts of the previous evening's auction had fled her mind the moment she had entered the emergency room the previous evening.

As soon as the door was opened she was almost bowled over by her exuberant blonde friend.

"Congratulations Ms. Most Expensive Date in Konoha!" Ino grinned at her expectantly, her face falling at her friend's exhausted demeanor. "Ugh Sakura, you look like hell!"

The pink-haired woman absently shuffled off to her kitchen to make some coffee. "Thanks Ino, I can always count on you for an honest observation. I'll have you know, I didn't get home until five this morning…" She raised an eyebrow at her friend.

Ino had the decency to flush a little, as in her excitement over the previous evening's event, she had momentarily wiped the reason Sakura wasn't there from her mind. "Sorry, Forehead. It's just that everyone's talking about it! The most expensive date in Konoha!"

Sakura shook her head to dismiss her friend's apology away as unnecessary before responding. "Now, what's this about an expensive date?" she asked, feeling more than confused at her friend's statement.

Ino looked at Sakura in surprise. "You mean no one told you?"

"Um, told me what?"

The blue-eyed kunoichi grinned widely. "I don't know if I should tell you now…" Her eyes twinkled mischievously.

Still too tired to really care, the medic claimed the first cup of coffee and warmed her hands on the heated ceramic. "Whatever. I'm sure that it's probably not all that important anyway."

"Aw Sakura, you're no fun!" Ino pouted a little at her friend before continuing more seriously, "but really Sakura, this is something you should definitely know about!"

The green-eyed woman perked up at her friend's more serious tone, the caffeine in her system definitely helping to wake her up enough to find the energy to care. "Okay, what is it then?"

"You know how you were so unceremoniously called away from the auction last night?"

Sakura nodded, remembering how relieved she had felt, after the embarrassment had faded, at not having to stand in front of the large crowd of men like a side of meat on display while they bid on a date with her.

"Well even though you weren't there apparently you had quite a few admirers in the audience… Admirers with deep pockets."

The medic's eyes widened in surprise, finally starting to feel fully awake. "No way…"

"Yes way. You went for double what anyone else went for."

The pink haired woman sat stunned, staring wide-eyed at her friend, almost afraid to ask, but dying to know. "Who?"

Ino shrugged. "I haven't the faintest."

"What?!"

"Let me clarify that for you. No one knows. It was an anonymous bidder who won, bidding by proxy."

They sat for a few moments in silent contemplation.

"So let me get this straight… The person who won a date with me paid double what anyone else went for and nobody knows who he is?"

"Yup." Ino grinned at her bewildered friend.

Sakura groaned. "Ugh. I'm never going to hear the end of this…"

Her friend stared at her in utter disbelief. This was not the reaction she was expecting from her former rival. "What?"

The pink-haired woman sighed. "Naruto and Sasuke. They were against this from the beginning and now look at what's happened! The sketchiest of all sketchy things. I'm won by someone who probably has some sort of secret agenda, otherwise why pay so much?"

The blonde woman opened her mouth to rattle off a list of names of men who would jump at the opportunity to spend time with the pink-haired medic without fear of repercussions from her two former teammates but thought better of it. The last thing she wanted to do would be to upset her friend by naming a bunch of men who were interested but too cowardly to do anything about it. Instead she sighed.

"You're just being paranoid Sakura. I'll bet he's just some super rich shy guy or super rich and just plain out of the village guy… The actual day and time of your date has yet to be set – that could mean that he isn't here and it will just have to wait for him to return to the village…" she trailed off thoughtfully as she mentally sorted through the ranks of shinobi who were currently out on missions and came up with several possibilities. Though the deep pockets part baffled her quite a bit – there were few in the village with the means to spend that much on a simple date. Perhaps Sakura was on to something with her fear that the unknown person had other reasons for spending so much on a simple date.

Sakura sighed. "I'm just going to have to suck it up and admit that they were right…"

"Well, maybe not…" Ino thought aloud. "You could have a friend or two who just happen to be at the same place as your date at the same time… then you wouldn't have to worry too much. If it turns out sketchy or shady you'd have back up and favorable witnesses…"

The medic's eyes lit up at the suggestion. "That could work." She thought about it some more and the more she turned the idea over in her mind, the more she liked it. "Hmm… Definitely has potential," she murmured mostly to herself.

Her friend laughed. "Good. Now that that's settled, let's get down to business." Her eyes sparkled with barely concealed mischief.

"Business?" Sakura asked, feeling a little confused.

The blonde woman nodded solemnly. "Yup. Just who do we think this mystery man is? And, who do you secretly hope he is?"

Sakura flushed lightly at her friend's comment. No one immediately came to mind - at least as far as she could tell. She was well aware that this was the sort of thing that could easily sneak up and catch a person entirely unaware.

Several days later Sakura finally had the details she needed, which she thought had been perfect timing as Naruto and Sasuke had just arrived back in the village with, she was fairly certain, her former sensei. As quickly as she could she hurried over to the Yamanaka flower shop to confer with her friend. She was in luck as she entered the shop and found Ino just finishing up and getting ready to close for the evening.

"What's up Forehead?" she asked as she put the last few things away and prepared to lock the shop. She had ceased asking Sakura about the details of her date as she had learned not knowing only made Sakura irritable and pensive.

"I've finally heard back from Shizune!" Sakura exclaimed with a little excitement.

"Oh really? That's a call for celebration. Let's go get a couple drinks at the pub and discuss the details."

The pink-haired woman nodded and helped her friend finish the last few closing tasks. They locked up the shop and headed to their usual evening out location. Once they had settled themselves at a small table with their drinks, they went over the new details of Sakura's date.

"This is the note I received from Shizune." She handed Ino the neatly written missive, containing the details for her upcoming blind date – blind as whomever had won the honor had chosen to remain anonymous for the time being.

Eagerly, the blonde woman took the note and scanned the contents. "Oh, fancy," she raised an eyebrow at the location of the date before continuing on to read the rest of the details. "This seems... nice," she finally stated, trying to keep the surprise from her voice.

Sakura flushed and nodded her head in agreement. "I'm still a little bit wary of it though…"

"Don't worry, I'll…" Ino trailed off after re-reading the portion of the note citing the date. "Oh Sakura, I'm sorry! I can't shadow your date! This is the night of my date with Genma…" She frowned apologetically at her friend, genuinely sorry at being unable to help.

Sakura's face paled visibly. "Oh, no this does not bode well…" As she sat there, wondering who else she could ask to keep an eye on her and her date, a familiar silver-haired jonin paused at their table while on his way to his usual seat in the shadows of one of the back booths.

"Evening Sakura, Ino…" He nodded at the two kunoichi with a smile of greeting.

"Welcome back Kakashi," the pink-haired woman greeted him with less of her usual enthusiasm.

Ino only nodded absently before suddenly grinning at her friend. "Sakura, why not ask Kakashi?"

Sakura almost choked on her drink and looked up at the bemused man gazing curiously down at her. She felt her cheeks heat a little under his scrutiny and dropped her gaze to her drink. "I-I couldn't do that. It's too much of an imposition." She turned to look back up at him and tell him that it was nothing when her friend beat her to the punch.

"Nonsense." Ino shook her head and shifted her attention to the older man. "I'm sure Kakashi will be more than happy to help if he can." She flashed him her most winning smile.

Amused, he returned her smile and shrugged. "Sure. Anything to help my favorite former student."

Sakura blushed a little at his readiness to help even before hearing what he would be helping her with.

"See, Sakura? Now tell the man what you need his help with," the blonde woman admonished her friend, afraid that if she didn't prompt the medic, Sakura wouldn't take the aid Kakashi was so readily offering.

"Er well, you see Kakashi… I uh, decided to participate in that charity date auction and from what I understand someone bidding by proxy won but has chosen to keep his identity secret…"

He lifted an eyebrow at her clear embarrassment. "So what would you like me to do about it? Do you want to try and get out of it?" he asked with an unidentifiable tone in his voice.

Sakura frowned. "No, no nothing like that. I made a deal after all. No, I just wanted for someone I know and trust to kind of show up in the area… Just in case, you know?" She looked up at him pleadingly.

Keeping his slight surprise to himself, he chuckled. "Well if you put it that way, how can I refuse?" He smiled. "Just let me know when and where and I'll be there." He waved and moved on to his usual booth. The longer he had paused at his former student's table, the more curious glances he'd been collecting from his friends in said shadowy back booth.

Once the older man had taken his leave, the blonde woman grinned cheerfully at her friend. "See, it all worked out. Now all we have to do is to figure out what you're going to wear!"

Somewhat bemused, Sakura had the feeling that it wouldn't be as easy as she had hoped.

The night of her date arrived all too quickly for her liking and Sakura nervously got ready. She had decided, with some encouragement from Ino, to wear one of her nicest dresses for the occasion. With Ino's guidance, she'd decided to go with a strappy red slip dress paired with a sheer silver shawl with complimentary heeled sandals and clutch. The man she was going to have dinner with had, after all, paid a pretty penny for the privilege. The least she could do was to put some effort into her appearance.

The fact that she still didn't know anything about her blind date was troubling her, but not nearly as much as it had when she'd first found out about it. Somehow, just knowing that Kakashi would be there had managed to put her mind at ease. Now all she had to do would be to turn up and hopefully have a pleasant evening.

With one last pat, she finished arranging her hair. She'd chosen a simple updo to complement her natural makeup and somewhat nervously exited her apartment. Sakura had been relieved to see that she was supposed to meet her blind date at the restaurant rather than have him pick her up at her place. The possibility that the date could go very badly wrong was never far from her mind and the last thing she would want would be for some potentially unhinged man with deep pockets to know where she lived.

Before she realized it, Sakura found herself at the restaurant in question. It was even fancier than she'd thought it would be and she felt a twinge of guilt over asking Kakashi to turn up to keep an eye on her. Absently, she made a promise to herself to return the favor and take him out somewhere as thanks.

Suddenly feeling incredibly nervous once again, she took a moment to collect herself - relaxing once she reminded herself that she would not be alone - before making her way resolutely into the restaurant.

The maitre'd smiled when Sakura walked in and gestured for the pink-haired woman to follow her. Surprised that she'd not even had to say anything, Sakura followed. The pink-haired medic was pleased to see that she was seated at a slightly out of the way table but still with a clear view of the entrance.

Since she was several minutes early, she settled down to wait nervously for her date to appear.

Ten minutes later - five minutes past the scheduled time of her date - Sakura found her nerves once again ratcheting up another level. Neither her date nor Kakashi had put in an appearance and at this point, she wasn't certain which she found more troubling.

Five minutes later, ten minutes late for her blind date, Sakura found herself beginning to question the sanity of asking her chronically late former sensei to come keep an eye on her for the potentially sketchy date. Granted, her blind date was also late so perhaps it would be okay...

Five minutes later, fifteen minutes late for her blind date, Sakura began to wonder how long she should wait. She knew she owed her date the benefit of the doubt since he'd paid for the privilege of taking her out. Granted, at this point it was looking as though he'd paid for the privilege of standing her up…

Just as she was beginning to seriously consider leaving, a movement with a flash of silver near the dining room entrance caught her attention. The maitre'd appeared, escorting her former sensei - dressed as she'd never seen him dressed before - in dark dress pants and a dark well-fit dress shirt along with his signature mask and an eyepatch taking the place of his forehead protector. To her surprise, Kakashi deviated from the path the maitre'd was setting in order to stop by her table.

"Good evening, Sakura," he greeted her with a smile. "You look nicer than usual."

She felt her cheeks heat at the unexpected compliment from the usually uncomplimentary man. "T-thanks, Kakashi." She eyed him again, still surprised at the difference non-shinobi clothes could make. "You don't look half bad yourself."

"Eh-heh," he raised a hand to the back of his neck, "thought I should try to fit in."

She laughed and smiled at his minor discomfiture, already feeling better now that he was there.

He took a moment to observe the fact that Sakura seemed to still be waiting. "So… has your date not show up yet?"

She sighed, her pleasure at seeing the older man evaporating. "Yeah, I've not seen hide nor hair of him…" she paused as a thought hit her. "Granted, I have no idea who he is so I guess I couldn't really say if he has come by or not." She frowned, a bit of self doubt clutching at the pit of her stomach. "I hope he didn't come in and then leave upon seeing me?"

He shrugged. "Maybe he saw how lovely you look tonight and chickened out?"

She felt her cheeks heat again, more strongly this time. He'd merely said she looked nicer than usual earlier, not that she looked lovely!

"Since you're still waiting and I'm in no rush, why don't I join you for drinks while you wait?"

She shot him a startled look, not quite believing he'd do that for her. She'd been getting self-conscious about sitting by herself while she waited but hadn't wanted to say anything.

Not noticing Sakura's moment of surprise, he continued, "I'm sure whoever he is, he wouldn't want you to be sitting here all by yourself while you wait."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure."

"You don't think he'll be mad?"

"He's, what- twenty minutes late?"

She shook her head. "More like twenty-five minutes late now."

"Well, he's twenty-five minutes late now," he amended. "I think he's lost any right to be upset over you sharing a few drinks with your former sensei while you waited, don't you think?"

"So long as you don't mind?"

"Not at all," he responded as he moved to take the chair opposite her.

She heaved a silent sigh of relief and nodded her acceptance of his offer.

The server who had been not-so-subtly-circling descended upon them to take their drink orders.

Ten minutes later, thirty-five minutes late for the blind date.

Sakura felt her cheeks heat as her stomach rather forcefully reminded her that lunch was quite a long time ago.

Kakashi chuckled to himself at her embarrassment and decided to do something about it. "Why don't we order some appetizers while we wait?"

Sakura shot a speculative glance around, beginning to believe that her blind date may not be showing up after all. After only a moment's hesitation, she shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

Twenty minutes later, fifty-five minutes late for the blind date, Sakura decided that she had been well and truly stood up. Before she could put voice to her conclusion, Kakashi beat her to the punch.

"I'm still starving, what do you say we order dinner?"

"What?"

"Dinner, I'm still hungry."

"I heard you but…"

"You still think your blind date is 'late'?"

She sighed. "No, not really."

"Alright then, let's order dinner."

She stared at him in surprise for a moment. They were at a fairly expensive restaurant and he had no real reason to be there aside from her asking him to be there in case things went wrong with her, so far, no-show date.

He raised an eyebrow and tried enticing her again. "Aren't you hungry?"

Sakura couldn't stop herself from chuckling a little. "Sure. Sounds good."

Their server walked by incredibly slowly, carrying a large platter bearing one of each of all the desserts on the menu that evening, clearly on her way to another table.

Sakura's eyes followed the tray as it went by and then shifted her gaze to her dinner companion, eyeing him speculatively. "Dessert?"

He laughed. "How could I possibly say no?"

"Thanks, Kakashi. I seriously owe you one." Sakura smiled up at the man escorting her home - he'd offered her his arm as they exited the restaurant and she'd not thought twice about taking it.

He lifted his unoccupied hand to the back of his neck. "Not at all."

"No, seriously, I don't know what I would have done if you weren't there tonight," she couldn't help but insist. "You've got to let me make it up to you."

Surprised, he almost stopped in his tracks. "What?"

She batted at his arm playfully. "C'mon, Kakashi, I know you didn't have to do what you did tonight. And I really appreciate that you did."

"Eh-heh, Sakura, it was nothing, really. Forget about it."

"I will not!"

"Sakura…"

"Just let me repay the favor, Kakashi. That's all I'm asking."

He looked down at the woman on his arm, wondering just what sort of a door he may have inadvertently opened, and smiled upon realizing that he didn't care. "If you insist, we can set something up when I come back from my next mission."

"You already have your next mission?"

"Yes, we leave tomorrow. Should be back in maybe a few weeks if things go well."

"I'm so sorry, Shizune! I got there five minutes early and waited and waited and waited but he never showed."

"What? But, I heard you'd had dinner with Kakashi?"

She waved her hand impatiently. "Yes, when my date didn't show, Kakashi stepped in." She felt her cheeks tint and decided she should probably be honest about why Kakashi was there in the first place. "You see, I was worried that the person who won me at the auction might have some sort of hidden agenda or something." She couldn't help the color rising to her cheeks.

The older medic raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Silly, I know, I know! But I was still concerned about it. I was going to have Ino shadow my date but it was the same evening as her date with Genma. So, I asked Kakashi if he could sort of turn up in the area. You know, just in case things went south." She hung her head. "But things went even worse than that seeing as how he never showed at all. So, I ended up having dinner with Kakashi instead. He was already there and it just sort of happened." She shrugged.

"But, Sakura…" Shizune started with clear confusion in her voice, "Kakashi was your blind date."