A/n its happy meal night boo yiggity yeah...and yeah that's all I can really think about at the moment + new MGMT...Tell me who you're hoping Sakura to end up with! I'm still interested.

Sakura contemplated the half-eaten slice of pizza in her hand before placing it back into the box with a content sigh. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been able to eat so much. She reclined back on her arms, enjoying the feeling of the soft carpet of her mentor's living room. His whole house was so modern and luxurious but in a casual and open way that made her feel at peace.

She'd secretly been delighted when Kakashi announced that he'd ordered pizza, it was one of her favourite foods and she hadn't been able to afford it due to her life as a poor university student. She was surprised to find how easy it was to be in his company, she'd expected him to be unbearable and for the evening to be awkward but the night had passed pleasantly with the two sharing an easy conversation whilst sprawled out on his living room floor.

She listened to him talk about holiday overseas he'd recently been on as she, not for the first time that evening, admired his appearance. She hadn't realised it that day but he was in no way an ugly man. For his age, which she didn't know and was not brave enough to ask, he had quite a charming face. His jaw line was strong and stern as he listened to her talk whilst his eyes carried such life and happiness in them. She'd expected him to be all suits and ego when in actuality he sat before her casual as ever in a white shirt and green cardigan, which she had noticed, clung to an angular and most likely muscular body.

She couldn't ignore the tiny voice in the back of her mind that was scolding her for purposely dressing unappealingly. She tried her hardest to silence the voice that was making her heart twinge. It would be silly to admit to herself that the man before her was attractive, silly and foolish seeing as he was her mentor and not to mention a lot older than her.

"This is a really lovely home you have." She complimented him as he finished his story. "Much better than the one I have."
"Oh, and why is that?" He chuckled at her as she looked around the room in awe.
"Because my dingy house is older than time itself and is falling apart, but still I can afford the rent and I live with some really nice girls I go to university with."
"So you live in a share house?" he quirked his eyebrow. "Full of school girls."
She rolled her eyes at him trying to hide her grin at his obviously perverted train of thought. Well maybe he was just a teensy weensy bit perverted.
"Pervert." She scolded him and he held his hand over his heart in mock pain at her insult.

"So you go to university with Sasuke?" He asked coolly. "You two seem to know each other well if the way he was looking at you today is anything to go by."
Sakura scoffed loudly letting her distaste for the boy show.
"He's a jerk." Her expression changed to one of downcast gloom. "He's always beating me at everything so effortlessly whilst I work so hard on everything. It's bad enough we go to university and work at the same grocery store but now I have to share an internship with him."

Kakashi looked on in surprise. He knew Sasuke pretty well due to his relation to the Uchiha clan. He wasn't a boy who took much notice of anyone at all. Some would even go as far to say he was completely ignorant of other people's existences all together. The way he was looking at the young woman in front of him told Kakashi all he needed to know about Sasuke's feelings towards her and they were more than likely not platonic.

"I must say I'm surprised." Kakashi absent-mindedly fidgeted with the cup of water in his hand pretending to scratch at the paint of the print on it. "By the way he was looking at you today I thought you two might be a little friendlier than that."
"Well you shouldn't be, believe me he's just trying to beat me again."
"I see." Kakashi mumbled. This gave him much to think about. For some reason the thought of his cousin by marriage upsetting his female intern made him very troubled. He didn't trust Sasuke; in fact he didn't trust anyone belonging to such a horrid family.

"Excuse me for asking." Sakura bit her lip afraid she was about to overstep herself. "But it seems that you and Sasuke don't really like each other very much, for two people who are supposed to be family." She paused to wrap a loose strand of hair around her ear. "And, um, you said today that you're married. Sorry for asking but where's your wife?"
Sakura had a nibbling feeling to her stomach. If this man was married then she shouldn't be sitting on his floor with him so informally, if his wife were to come home and see she might get the wrong idea. In fact maybe that was the type of husband Kakashi was, he had been attempting to fondle her that very afternoon.

"Oh, that." Kakashi didn't falter for a second. "My wife is dead."
Sakura's eyes widened as she took in the information. Kakashi was a married man but he was a widow. She had just assumed that he was the type of man to cheat on his wife.
"I'm…I'm so sorry." She gave Kakashi a sympathetic look, feeling sorry for him.
"No, that's okay." He waved his hand at her in dismissal. "It was quite a while ago now, three years I think. In fact it's kinda the reason why Sasuke and I might seem to dislike each other." He placed his hand behind his head like he had earlier that day making him look younger than his years.
"What do you mean?" She wasn't following, he'd just told her his wife was dead and his attitude was one of a childish boy.

"Well you see, Sayuri my late wife, wasn't meant to marry me. Instead she was supposed to marry someone else that her family approved of but she didn't love him. She was expected to do as she was told. But she and I were very young and very much in love, we ran away together and got married in secret." Kakashi was looking away from Sakura as if he was watching the memory of his story flicker by.
"Anyways, when her family found out they were very disappointed to say the least. They became quite nasty towards her and ostracised her. It became very hard for her to be happy because her family was important to her and she missed being with them."

"I came home one day and she was…. well she had taken a lot of sleeping medication and she must have passed away in her sleep."
Sakura heart skipped a beat. She could feel tears threaten to flood her eyes and she tried her hardest to keep them back. She placed a hand over her mouth in sorrow.

"But the thing is not a week before she died she changed her will so that I was the main benefactor, this caused her family to believe that I had some part in her death." He shrugged dejectedly. "I guess they thought I killed her for her money."
"That's horrible." Sakura could feel a tear trail down her cheek. "Why would you kill her for money. You have your own?"
"I didn't have any money at all when Sayuri and I got married. I was just a lowly worker in one of the companies the Uchiha family owned." He sighed. "But that's all in the past now. Well, for me at least. Judging by the look of utter contempt Sasuke gave me today he's not so ready to let it go. He was pretty close with Sayuri; she used to babysit him for his mother. We always used to joke and say that he had a crush on her."

Sakura was awash in a sea of emotions. Her heart ached for Kakashi and his late wife; she couldn't imagine the pain he'd had to go through having to suffer the accusation of murdering his wife. Anger and hatred started to bubble up in her stomach for Sasuke. How dare he be so pious? How dare he treat Kakashi with such contempt? His family was guilty of Sayuri's death not Kakashi. Without thinking she scooted forward and grabbed Kakashi's hand.

"I'm so sorry Kakashi. I really am." She could feel her lip tremble. "No one should ever have to go through something like that."
"It's alright." Kakashi brought his thumb to her face and wiped the tear from her cheek. He smiled softly at her. "It's all in the past."
Sakura found herself staring into Kakashi's dusky eyes as he stared back into her watery ones. The two held each other's stare as one tried to desperately reach out for the other. The closeness of their faces had Sakura observing his handsome face closely. His long black eyelashes, his soft looking lips. She moved her face ever so closer to his and he followed. He could feel his warm breath fan out across her cheeks and she found the warmth inviting. She slowly closed her eyes as Kakashi moved to close the distance between their lips.

"Eh hem." Sakura's eyes flew open, she had been expecting her lips to meet with his but instead he was now looking away his fist in front of his mouth as he pretended to clear his throat. Her eye's narrowed she didn't believe his façade for a moment. "It's getting late, I should probably get you home."
Sakura swore blindly that she could see the slightest trace of blush reaching the older man's cheeks. Her eyes narrowed as she watched him shrug his coat on, it was obvious he was refusing to meet her eye.
"Okay, if you say so, boss." She quipped as she crossed the room. She couldn't believe it. The man she'd spent her evening with was completely different to the one she'd met that afternoon and there was no doubt in her mind about that.

She quietly observed him as he manoeuvred his car through the quiet streets of their city. There was such a contrast to the way he and Sasuke drove. Sasuke was attentive and efficient, calculating and purposeful, never taking his eyes of the road for too long. Kakashi on the other hand sat lazily in the driver's seat reclining comfortably, one hand lazily manning the steering wheel, the other placed along the line of his jaw as he watched the road without any care. Sakura couldn't explain the feeling watching the older man gave her. It was a mixture of comfort and intrigue. He was a mystery an enigma and the evening spent with him had her wondering who he really was?

They soon reached her house and she was saying a curt goodbye.
"I'll see you on Monday." She added as she turned back to close the door.
He half looked at her and nodded, waiting until she was inside her home before beginning the drive home.

Kakashi failed to understand what he was thinking. He'd shied away from kissing her when earlier that afternoon he'd been trying his hardest to seduce her. After his wife had passed away he'd gone through a very lengthy process of forgetting her and that involved very many promiscuous encounters with many different women. Not once had he ever shied away from an invitation and never before had he been so interested. Sakura Haruno was not the most beautiful woman he'd ever met, not even close, but something about her managed to make his old heart pump blood at an alarming rate. He placed his hand over his chest and clutched the fabric there, willing his heart to slow. What was this feeling?

Sasuke was pissed. He glared at the slow moving old lady who was struggling to place her groceries on the counter for him to scan. He snatched each item and scanned it fiercely before jamming it into the plastic bag beside her.
"$15.98." Sasuke grunted.
The old lady fished into her purse retrieving a large pair of spectacles with impossibly thick lenses. She then continued into her purse before pulling out a coin purse. Sasuke sighed violently and rolled his eyes up to the ceiling.

"Oy, Yamanaka." He grunted at the blonde standing nearby lazily moving the magazines around on the shelf and pretending to be occupied.
"What?" She narrowed her eyes at him, not appreciating the rude way he'd called out to her.
"Finish up here I have to go help the idiot close."
He yanked the string of his apron and pulled the garment over his head, discarding it on the counter and storming off in the direction of that he'd last seen Naruto.

As he turned the corner he could see his friend's hair poking out from the end of the aisle, but he wasn't alone. He edged closer and could see that Naruto was locked in, what looked like a passionate and heated kiss with none other than Hinata Hyuga. Fucks sake. Sasuke cursed to himself. What type of reality was it where Naruto could get a girl interested in him and Sasuke couldn't? He re-adjusted his path so to go the long way around that he knew would give the couple enough warning of his presence.

He kicked a basket across the floor, his hands deep in his pockets. He'd been in a foul mood the entire evening, ever since he'd last seen Sakura outside the train station in the city. Even in his memory she still managed to look cute. He grimaced at how lame he was. To pine after such an infuriating girl was pathetic. What was worse was the fact that whilst he rotted away at this shit kicker joint, she was in that cheating murderer's house doing god only knows what.

With out meaning to an image of Sakura and Kakashi in the throes of passion invaded his mind eye.
"Fuck!" he picked up a bucket and threw it. If his loud footsteps hadn't been enough to alert the two lovebirds at the end of the aisle then surely the plastic bucket crashing across the floor would be ample warning.

"What the fuck, are you doing?" Naruto poked his head around the corner, his face heated and lips swollen. He observed his angry looking friend; the glare and evil vibe he was omitting was almost enough to make him recoil. Sasuke poked his head around the corner to see if Hinata was still there, seeing that she'd made her escape probably in the direction of the tearoom, he softened his expression some and slumped.
"Nothing, I'm not doing anything." He turned his head feeling stupid under his friend gaze. "Bucket got in my way."

Naruto bent down swiftly and grabbed the poor bucket that now had a dent in it. He could tell that the anger that had manifested onto this bucket was not its fault and much rather the fault of what ever had pissed Sasuke off before he'd come to the Lucky Sucker that afternoon.
"What the shit happened to you today?" He causally brushed the footprint off the bucket. "Did you not get that internship placement after all?"
"No idiot, I got it."
"Oh," Naruto looked almost crestfallen. "Poor Sakura."
Sasuke made a disgusted noise that was somewhere between a painful moan and a growl.

He turned away from his friend and begun walking towards the storeroom. Quite often he and Naruto would sit in there and share a cigarette out of the way of all the other employees. It wasn't all the time and only when one of the pair had a significant issue or dilemma stressing them out.

He slumped onto a milk crate and grabbed the hidden packet from behind a shelf full of cleaners. He placed one of the cylindrical darts in his mouth and thanked Naruto for the lighter he chucked to him, chucking him the pack in return. He lit the cigarette letting the taste of the tobacco wash over him like a breath of fresh air.
"Sakura got the internship too." He leaned forward his forearms resting on his knees.
"What that's great!" Naruto smiled genuinely at his stern looking companion.
"Yeah, great." Sasuke sighed again. "Until we found out who exactly our mentor is."
"Oh?" Naruto mumbled as he lit the cigarette in his hand. "Who is it?"
"Kakashi Hatake."

Naruto's eyes bulged and he coughed in shock, acrid smoke billowing from his mouth. When he had regained his composure his mouth opened lamely as he struggled to find words to communicate his disbelief. All the bad luck in the world had befallen Sasuke that day. He was well clued in to just what had happened between Sasuke's family and this man. And now Sasuke was supposed to address him as a superior.

"That's not even the worst part." Sasuke took a deep drag. Naruto gave Sasuke his full attention still in a state of incredulity. "Sakura is with him right now for a business dinner."
The weight of his words and the implications of them were not wasted on Naruto.
"What the fuck?" The blond said slowly.
"Yep." Sasuke grimaced and shook his head.
"You have to do something about that."
"I already tried. You can't tell her to do anything. She already hates me as it is, anything I try and do she'll understand as a direct attack based on our internship."
"Well, you can't let her follow that prick around like a little lamb being led to the slaughter." Naruto stubbed out his cigarette before crossing the room to leave. "If you did that I'd never forgive you. Sakura's my friend and you need to protect her from someone like that."

Sasuke sat in the storeroom quietly contemplating Naruto's words. He'd expected him to give him some advice or a way to approach their friend but he hadn't and Sasuke felt even more a drift at the prospect of trying to smooth things over with Sakura. She'd no doubt be even more pissed at him for his outburst that afternoon. And he'd been trying so hard to show that he was sorry for kissing her without permission. He felt nauseated again as wondered if Sakura was letting Kakashi kiss her as he sat pathetically on a milk crate in a storeroom surrounded by mops.

He'd just have to find a way to get into Sakura's good graces. It was the only way, to get closer to her would mean putting more space between her and Kakashi. The least he could do was try and keep those two a part. He'd have to constantly be on guard to make sure the two were never left alone. It would piss him off to seem so eager to be in that criminal scumbag but if it meant shielding Sakura he'd do it.