Hey everyone! Yes yes, it's my first piece of work, but I hope it won't be too difficult to get through. It's unbeta-ed so if you see any mistakes, feel free to tell me so. I, personally, am ecstatic that it turned out so well. Okay, no more talking for me. Read well!

Disclaimer: Characters used in this story belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

"Kakashi!" The kunoichi that had called him vigorously waved him over. He glanced at her drearily, noting the way she "inconspicuously" peeked her head around the doorway, as if her bright hair wasn't going to attract any attention anyways.

"Kakashi!" She whisper-shouted even more fiercely when he apathetically ignored her and returned to writing his mission report, which had been due a month ago. She glared kunai at him before she checked to see if the coast was clear. In a grossly histrionic demonstration of her irritation, she stomped over to the chair next to him and sat down. Kakashi sighed heavily. The one extremely rare time he felt like sitting down and catching up on all his paperwork, a distraction plops down in front of him.

"Ino, what is your purpose?"

The blonde, beautiful, and busty shinobi huffed at him, "I've been looking everywhere for you! You – "

He cut her off, uninterested in any news she could bring him. "How did you find me? I thought the last place anyone would look for me was the jounin headquarters."

Ino leveled another deadly glare at her elder before spitting out, "It was the last place I looked." Then, after quickly glancing at the shadows from the sun, she added urgently, "And now it might be too late! Kakashi you have to come, quickly!"

His authoritative, one-eyed Not Now look was nullified by her own very, very pointed look. Kakashi received her message and was immediately convinced, tensing up as his near-sixth sense prepared him for what he expected was to come. Discreetly, the two gathered their attire and left the office. They took to the trees once they reached outside. Anxiety blossomed in Kakashi's stomach until he quashed it with a firm foot – he didn't know yet, there was no reason to be worried. As they neared their destination, Kakashi's fear was confirmed as he picked up two distinct chakra signals. The pair landed several meters away from their targets.

At first, all he saw was dark hair and an Uchiha symbol on the back, but he knew the other one was there as well. His words came out in whispered deep tones. Kakashi could only hear soundclips of "long time," "grown up," "so beautiful," "say yes." Then the Uchiha shifted to reveal a smaller figure in front of him.

There was Sakura, sitting on her knees, back against a tree. Kakashi's eye narrowed at the dark figure in front of her, overbearing arms encircling her and intense eyes prompting something from the kunoichi. To both the male ninjas' dismay, she didn't move, didn't blink her wide eyes, she barely even took a breath. The distance between their two faces was nearly negligible in Kakashi's opinion. Slowly, painfully, Sasuke closed the distance between them. He pressed a kiss on Sakura, a kiss that was meant to be intimate and private, but nothing the Uchiha did nowadays could ever come across that way.

For a few seconds, no one moved. Everyone waited for Sakura's reaction. Even Ino, her very best friend, had no idea who she would pick when pushed into this corner of a situation. She nearly moaned in disbelief when Sakura's eye closed gently and her palm came up to rest on Sasuke's cheek. Horrified round eyes glanced back at Kakashi, who seemed to be taking this image in with no sympathy at all – none for himself or for the situation. He was just a perfect statue of indifference … except for the shaking white-knuckled fist he admirably held in check. Ino regained her respect for him and then some when she realized how much he was dying at this moment. Her attention returned to the indisposed couple when they separated. Perhaps it was bias, but she could have sworn the Uchiha showed hints of knowing smugness at Sakura's response.

He knew they were watching them.

The blonde kunoichi stepped back in hesitation, but looked up at Kakashi when he didn't budge. He didn't even seem focused on the boy at all. Of course, Sasuke wasn't the important one here. She needed to stay here and make sure Sakura made the right choice. Ino turned her attention back onto her best friend, whose facial expression was lit with awe and wistfulness. Sasuke moved in for another kiss and Ino tore her eyes from them to watch Kakashi's stoic form, hoping it would be less painful. Wrong. The creases around his eye contorted with anticipatory heartbreak. It was pure torture no matter what!

Then, suddenly, Kakashi's eye widened in the most blatant look of shock she'd ever observed from him, but as rapidly as it came, it went. The girl snapped her head back to the offending pair of shinobi to find that Sakura had stopped Sasuke with the hand that rested on his cheek. The effort didn't show, but there must have been quite a bit of strength to her grip because Sasuke looked like he couldn't move his head at all.

Again, all eyes were on Sakura. Everyone was anticipating her next move. They all watched the evolution of emotions that played through her eyes. Her eyes seemed more focused now, as if she'd gotten her bearings and was now waking up from a dream.

Quietly, she studied Sasuke's face and muttered in pleasant surprise, "You're nothing like him."

Sakura drew her head back to get a better view of the boy in front of her before reassuring herself with a smile. "Nothing like him …" Her eyes hardened and the hand that had caressed his skin moments before stung him with a strong open-handed slap. There was no chakra in there, just all the raging emotions of a scorned woman with no regrets or lingering feelings. As Sasuke reeled back from the abrupt, violent rejection, the kunoichi escaped his trap of limbs and ran far away from him.

The three remaining ninja seemed taken aback by her sudden departure. Awkward silence settled upon them.

The tears wouldn't stop. There was no reason for her to cry, so why was the salty liquid betraying her face? In her heart, she knew this was how it would turn out, so why did she allow Sasuke that one kiss?

She'd been betraying Kakashi this entire time because she had always wondered about Sasuke. Now, she'd finally achieved her truth, but the flicker of familiar chakra she felt brought her devastation as she sped away from the area of shame. It was too late, wasn't it?

But Oh God, she had been relieved after that kiss. Initially, Ino was against her relationship with Kakashi because she claimed that Sakura was on the rebound, clinging to anyone that reminded her of Sasuke. The description definitely fit; no one would disagree that Sasuke and Kakashi shared excruciatingly similar traits. This inkling of doubt had resided in the back of her mind until today.

As she sat there analyzing the kiss that Sasuke gave her and soaking in the details of his face, the truth became apparent. Similar backgrounds and fighting styles were by no means indicative of similar people. Sasuke, a traitor of his own blood, reeked of cold, calculating intentions and self-indulgence. Kakashi was a loyal shinobi of Konoha, every cell in his body radiated with his intent to protect. Kakashi was self-indulgent only in the sense that he took Sakura when he believed he had no right to take her. Still, he did it because there wasn't a speck of his being that could say no to her. She knew all of that, probably more than he did, yet Sakura still doubted him.

She wasn't convinced until Sasuke's lips touched hers. Ice was all that she could remember. Sakura touched her traitorous flesh. Kakashi … she sighed deliciously and hummed. Kakashi's kisses were like warm dark chocolate – dark and slightly bitter because he always tasted of guilt, but incredibly rich because he looked at her with a foreboding intensity, as if he vowed make it up to her with something so much better and sweeter. And he always did.

The tears were well on their way to drying by now and her sobs died down to sniffs of self-pity. Then she noticed the presence behind her, leaning against the opposite side of her tree. The heady aura of his electric chakra signature made her dizzy with excitement. She could predict the position he sat in: right arm resting on one bent knee, the left leg extended because that knee ached from time to time; depending on his mood, his head could be bent at the neck into a deep bow or he could be resting his head against the tree with tired exasperation, but no matter what, he always took off his forehead protector at times like these.

Sakura reached behind her, around the tree, and grasped his free left arm. Her fingers curled into his bicep, Sakura hoped he understood her question of forgiveness. The two of them sat like that for a while. Sakura could feel the tree bark scraping slightly against her arm, which heightened the feel of Kakashi's skin-covered muscle at rest in her palm.

His lack of reaction didn't surprise her, so she skimmed her hand down the shinobi's wiry flesh, closing her eyes to picture the scars and veins she felt marring his forearm, until she reached his hand. She loved it when he wore his masked sleeveless under-armor from his Anbu days. Sakura's fingers lingered on his palm as a question and he answered by tightly grabbing her hand.

He half pulled and she partially jumped into his lap. Settled between his knees, Sakura looked him in the eye and told him, "I'm sorry." She repeated the statement again as she pulled down his mask. She was craving dark chocolate. Without waiting for an answer, she began to lay kisses along his cheeks. "Please. Believe me." Pleading eyes looked at him as she pressed a light kiss on those bittersweet lips. "I don't love him anymore. I promise… I promise."

Why wasn't he saying anything? This was the darkest tasting chocolate she'd ever had, the bitterness coated her tongue and settled at the back of her mouth, but she had to have more! Sakura crushed her lips to his, devouring everything he still offered before it was too late. Something gripped her chin, pulling her head back. Mask or no mask, Kakashi's face betrayed none of his emotions whereas Sakura would never be able to disguise the look of desperate love she was offering him. "Look at me," she wanted to scream. "Everything that's left of me, I'm giving it to you! I want you to keep me!" Kakashi continued to hold her there as both of his eyes memorized that look before he took his turn to bruise her lips with his own self-indulging hunger.

They stayed like that for a while – Sakura, finally able to taste the sweetness of her chocolate and Kakashi finally able to breathe easily since he'd left the HQ.

As they held each other against their tree, Kakashi remembered very clearly the look of spite Sasuke gave him before withdrawing from the clearing. Sasuke stopped and stated, "So you've won. Go claim your prize."

"Sakura was never mine to win. I am hers to choose."

Kakashi was, indeed, very lucky to have been her final choice. There was no more guilt because he knew Sasuke was no longer at the back of Sakura's mind. Finally, Kakashi could love her freely. Sasuke could look at him with hateful eyes as much as he wanted, but it didn't matter. The only thing Kakashi wanted was to see that look of infinite devotion reflected in her eyes – all for him, just for him, only ever for him.

Congratulations! You've finished reading my first story! As a novice, I would really appreciate constructive comments and reviews.

Also, here's a perceptive recommendation from the author: Notice the emphasis and/or lack of emphasis on the word "look" in certain parts of the story. Just a literary device I thought that I would point out to those who didn't notice. I think it might enhance the story a little bit more if readers did notice it.

Until next time, dai.