Rated so because there are only 2 ratings on this site.
Rated M because I rate everything M. Nothing naughty though. Oh well, Sakura is 13 in this…Don't be freaked out yet, I'm keeping my nose clean.
Disclaimer: Naruto © to Kishimoto Masashi.
Comfort, Chapter 1
"His heart's stopped again!" A medic shouted as Tsunade furiously tried to stitch up Kakashi's stomach, chakra winding in and out of torn flesh like snakes.
"Shit! Just cut his damn clothes off!" A kunai switched from one medics hand to another as Tsunade shifted positions to pump chakra into his bared chest.
"Careful of his head, it's still bleeding." Another warned.
The flurry of hands and combinations of seals caused Sakura even more dizziness as blood flowed from a wound in her side. Tsunade turned to see that she had followed them into the room, clutching a small black pack in her arms.
"He's stopped breathing now…"
"KAKASHI-SENSEI!"
A throbbing pain was slowly keeping time in Kakashi's skull and only caused him to wonder for a moment. Muscles tightening in trepidation as he quickly tried to gage his surroundings without opening his eyes.
The soft sounds of feet walking to his left passed quickly, quiet laughter coming then going along with other sounds all told him where he was. He relaxed a little as he realized his location, safe, in pain yes, but safe in a hospital.
A sigh and a slight movement against his right side caused his right eye to shoot open. Instantly he felt off center and wondered if he'd connected the information correctly in his head. Sakura was pressed against his side and seemed to be asleep. Standard hospital shirt clutched in one small hand and head cradled by his shoulder.
A quick look around the room and out the window confirmed that he was in Konoha's hospital. Ultimately his eye dropped down upon her pink hair, which consisted mostly of what he could see from the angle.
Was she hurt? If she was, why wasn't she in another bed? Even trying to understand was making him incredibly tired. His eyes seemed to close on their own accord as the heat from her tiny form permeated his sore flesh.
Again her body shifted against his, a small sound not unlike a whimper coming from her throat. His hand came up to grip her arm reflexively in a motion of comfort. Pressing her face to him she settled back into easy breathing.
With great effort Kakashi was able to open his eye for a moment, making sure she wasn't waking before falling back into darkness.
The door of Kakashi's hospital room opened quietly, but it was like an alarm for Sakura. Sitting up quickly she hissed in pain as her side stretched, pulling the shallow wound across her flesh.
Her abrupt departure from his side woke Kakashi harshly. Sakura's entire body was rigid and her eyes were wide with concentration. The sound of someone entering his room wouldn't have caused him such fear but Sakura looked almost ready to bolt.
The curtain pulled across the room to section off his bed was pulled back and Shizune looked at Sakura only in passing when she noticed Kakashi was awake. Shizune's attention brought Sakura's to him as well.
"Kakashi-sensei! You're awake." Her body relaxed, calming her initial fear as danger appeared to be absent.
"You've slept long enough Kakashi-san. Think you can stay awake for a few more moments while I run and get Tsunade-hime?" Shizune came closer to the bed, ignoring Sakura for the most part.
His head gave an almost imperceptible nod of affirmation before Shizune disappeared. Almost immediately his eye started to droop again.
"You said you'd stay awake. Are you feeling okay?" Sakura scooted a little closer to his chest causing his arm to move to accommodate.
"How long…?" He remembered waking up once and seeing her but couldn't put the memory in any place in time.
Sakura gave him a small smile, adjusting her hitai-ate around her neck. She was dressed plainly, black cotton drawstring capris and a black t-shirt. She rubbed at her side unconsciously as the sting turned to an angry throb.
"Only about two days…" Her worried expression vanished in the light of complete relief that washed through her mind. "But your awake now."
He considered her for a moment, glad that she seemed fine and but still unsure why she had been sleeping next to him. Unable to find words to ask for an explanation he decided to ignore it for the time being.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"I am now." Not sure what to make of that either he was relieved from wondering when Tsunade walked into the room with Shizune in tow.
Tsunade's quick glare, shot back at her by Sakura before the young girl dropped her gaze was not lost on him. Shizune looked a little uncomfortable but she bravely gave Kakashi an encouraging smile.
"You look like your ready to pass out again." Tsunade said stiffly, taking in his slowly blinking eye and unfocused attention.
"Tsunade-sama." He gave the usual response, neither question nor true comment.
"I only need to know one thing and then you can go back to sleep." When he only continued to watch her she pushed forward. "Did you see anything else that you weren't able to grab?"
"No, only that one document. I would have tried to take anything else if it seemed related."
"Good man." She said to him before turning her gaze on Sakura. "You, out in the hall, right now."
Shizune left the room quickly as Sakura slid from the bed and exited the room with her head bowed, hair hiding her face. Kakashi opened his mouth but Tsunade had left the room and closed the door.
Their muffled conversation reached his ears but he couldn't make out anything other than their tone. Sakura started off defensive and proceeded to sink into a sound of almost sobbing. Tsunade on the other hand went from angry to indifferent back to a more defeated anger before the door opened and Sakura shot back in.
"Kakashi get some rest." Tsunade ordered as the door opened and shut tightly.
Sakura came around the bed and had the sheet lifted while Kakashi was still looking at the door. Soon her body was pressed into his side and her arm draped across his chest as she sought comfort.
"I'm staying with you.'" She sniffed into his shirt. His mind was too tired to care at the moment about anything other than wanting to go back to sleep. So she felt his hand come to rest against her head.
"Ah…" He agreed, even as her returned warmth cradled him back into sleep. Sakura smiled as his breathing became slow and languid. She didn't care what Tsunade thought, she wasn't leaving his side.
Kakashi woke for the third time the following morning. Sakura was already awake, holding a book in one hand and a kunai in the other. A page turned as she continued to rest against his chest, trying to move as minimally as was possible.
"Sakura."
She turned her head quickly and sat up as she noticed he was awake.
"Its only been a day since you last woke. But you must be hungry. I'll get something!" Her enthusiasm had her out from under the sheets and off the bed. Book left carelessly in a chair, kunai still held in her fist as she made her way out the door.
Coming back she found Kakashi still awake and half propped up in bed. His skin looked a little sallow and bruises seemed to have formed under his eyes. She snatched a wheeled table on her way in and pushed her pile of food to swing over the bed and his lap.
Resuming her position on the bed, now separated from him by the table, she picked up a pair of utensils and dug into a huge bowl of rice. Kakashi watched her for a moment, relieved that all the food wasn't meant solely for him.
Sakura mistook his watchful gaze and she blushed slightly.
"I saw your face Sensei…but if you want me to leave I can." Pink locks fell over her face, as she fiddled with a piece of apple she had been about to eat. Kakashi touched his face to find that his mask was in place.
"Tsunade-sama usually tears my mask off when I'm in the hospital." He said thoughtfully. The medics in general had a habit of stripping people but he never understood why the mask would have to go.
"Oh, well…she did, but I went and got one for you." Instead of dampening her embarrassment the admission made her face flame. "I broke in through you're window and got some stuff for you too. Sorry…"
"What other…stuff?" Kakashi was admittedly intrigued. He hoped 'breaking in' didn't actually mean anything was seriously damaged.
"Oh you know, clothes and stuff since you hate the hospital so much." His reaction was immediate. Sakura watched him sit up straighter and look around the room. "But you can't leave yet! You should eat something and uh, rest and wait for Tsunade-sama to tell you its okay to leave!"
"You have some of my clothes, here, now?" Kakashi wondered if he'd be able to stand long enough to get his clothes on and make it back to his apartment.
"Don't! If Tsunade-sama finds out…" Her eyes started to well with tears. "If you get hurt I'll…"
Kakashi winced a little, women crying didn't normally bother him quiet so much but Sakura was his student. He hated to see her cry about something so trivial when she had other things that were much more serious to cry about but never did.
"I won't leave today." He sighed and pulled down his mask reaching out for what seemed to be soup. Sakura wiped the back of her hand across her eyes and cheeks before eating more food than Kakashi could imagine being able to fit in her.
"Good. Just tell me when you think you can leave and I'll bring out your gear so you can change." He nodded and they ate in silence.
Sakura watched him eat with something bordering on awe. Having never seen him without his mask it was strange seeing his mouth work, even if he was just eating.
"What?" He knew exactly what, but she'd stopped with a piece of meat and some noodles half way in her mouth when he started drinking some water.
"Nu-nothing!" Sakura devoured her entire plate of noodles, pork and vegetables to distract herself.
He couldn't help but smile just a little as he watched her finish off what probably amounted to three full meals. Setting down his glass of water and seeing that they were both finished Sakura pushed the table out into the hall before scooting back under the covers to lean against his chest.
With book and kunai back safely in hand she settled down to read her book on medical jutsu. Kakashi's eyes started to close again, it was foolish of him to think he would have been able to escape so soon. But Sakura had thrown in with him and seemed ready to help when he wanted to go. Still it didn't explain why she seemed to think it was necessary to stay here, and sleep next to him.
"Sakura…why do you have a kunai?" Not what he meant to ask but it was one of the things on the list at least.
"Oh, to protect you of course, Kakashi-sensei." Aha…he thought. It didn't exactly make sense.
"From what?" He shifted his arm uncomfortably. With her leaning against him on her back he wasn't sure where to place his arm and hand.
"Tsunade didn't tell you? I thought she would have come and talked to you when I've left a few times."
"You've been here every time I've been awake." Sakura made a little 'o' with her mouth before turning back to her book, seemingly reading.
"You haven't answered my question." Was she ignoring him? He couldn't be sure.
"…Yes I did." Now she was evading him and it was getting annoying.
"You know what I mean Sakura." He sounded disapproving and it made her squirm a little. "What is going on?" He waited a few more moments, watching her twirl the kunai nervously in one hand. "Look at me when I ask you a question." He twisted her head around gently, using the back of her neck.
Sakura didn't like the situation much. She couldn't figure out why Tsunade would have kept information from him when it was so important. Kakashi was angry with her it seemed and it made her feel uncomfortable and sad.
"Whatever you took. The thing that wasn't part of the mission right? Well more of them came after us even after we made it back to the village. Tsunade has nin and ANBU watching the walls since a few came in looking for…us."
Kakashi mulled this over, hand still on the back of her neck. He'd only see the inside of some of the papers he'd taken for a moment. Never having a chance to look them over before he was forced to hand them off to Sakura and make her run.
Still, Tsunade should have told him it endangered the village as well as Sakura and himself. Knowing more of the enemy had come after them and tried to come into the village presumably for revenge rather than thinking of taking back the stolen information. Sakura made a small noise in the back of her throat as Kakashi's fingers unconsciously dug into her skin.
"Is that it?" He loosened his grip quickly and Sakura's wincing eyes relaxed.
"Yes. As far as I know…Tsunade won't really talk to me about what's going on. She thinks I should let some ANBU I don't even know chaperone my every move." He saw the familiar flash of anger through her eyes.
"That wouldn't be a bad idea, you would be safe. Why not just let them? You could go home and-"
"No! I feel safe with you Kakashi-sensei, you made them…go away last time." Sakura quickly rephrased her sentence.
Kakashi had protected her on the mission, although he had taken out more than ten men in the process of letting Sakura escape. Sakura had never seen so much violence caused by one person in her life but instead of frightening her it made her feel extremely safe. Even as the hand she had watched him use to shove a kunai through someone's eye lay on her neck.
"I'm not in any real shape to protect you at the moment. Besides, if we're both together you're just giving them an opportunity to get you as well."
"But I'm protecting you too!" She said earnestly. "I don't want to sit at my apartment alone…" She knew she should sound a little more grown-up, more like the kunoichi she should be, but it was hard when she was scared.
Kakashi sighed as she sat up and tried to make a case for herself. Unthinkingly he moved his hand to pet her on the head as he thought. He quickly stopped because he was afraid of the expected outburst. Sakura hated to be pat on the head, saying that she wasn't one of his ninken.
But Sakura was smiling and she grabbed his lifted hand and placed it back on the top of her head. Her change in emotion was dizzying in its shift and made Kakashi feel that much more exhausted.
"Fine." He'd give-up for now to recuperate and try to get more information later.
Kakashi pushed his pillows around wearily before laying back down his arm crooked around Sakura's sitting form. He waited but she continued to nervously twirl her kunai from one small hand to the other swiftly but surely.
"Are you going to go back to sleep?" He asked finally, his head was starting to hurt again and the bandages around it made it a little uncomfortable to turn his head.
Sakura practically radiated relief and happiness as she wriggled beneath the sheet until she was next to him. It would have been easier to tell her to get lost if she wasn't like some wonderful furnace. But regretfully she relaxed him into sleep quickly, despite the cold hospital room and hard mattress.
Sakura watched him drift away from her and only waited long enough to make sure he was really asleep before carefully moving his hand to her waist. When he didn't wake she settled her face against his chest and followed him into sleep.
Why? Well, probably stemming from my own needs of wanting comfort. But I wanna see if people like my style of 'fluffiness'.
Kakashi keeps thinking its 'wrong' (now relocated tochapter two) not because he's physically attracted to Sakura but because well…it is extremely inappropriate. So don't get all excited 12-14 year old girls out there.
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