E.H.

This is going to be a series of one, two, or even three shots of my favorite couple. Each of these will be prompt started. This one is for a challenge I'm part of designed by Unattainable Dreams. My prompt was, "Lying tears hurt others, lying smiles hurt one's self."—C.C. (Code Geass) sent by Unattainable Dreams herself. It was a fun prompt to write to! I really liked how it went and turned out. Hope you guys agree!

Also, if you peoples have any prompts, please send them in! I'd love to use some more prompts! Just send them over in a private message or in a review comment. Onto this one-shot! Enjoy!

Rated K+ for Language

The Argument

She was fuming. It was as plain as day to anyone who knew her. She could never really escape her emotions; not when she was a genin and definitely not now. To some it was her biggest weakness. To others, it was her strength. She wouldn't have been able to say definitively one way or the either. But at the moment, Sakura could most definitely say she was livid; her living room was proof of that.

It had been a beautiful morning. The sun was shining, the trees glittering in the slight breeze while their clapping leaves drew her into such a peaceful state. It was her day off and she was all too happy to lay in the grass similar to the way a certain lazy ninja used to do during their academy days and stare at the leaves. There was a zen calm that washed over her when she simply spent time watching the leaves as they danced in the flickering light. It always reminded her of ripples reflecting sunlight in rainbow splotches. Like paint. It was in times like that when she could see what Sai saw in the world. A palette of colors spread over a large canvas that should be recreated in a smaller form. It was in that calm state of mind that he just had to waltz over into her area and cause a problem. On her day off.

"Yo! Sakura-chan!"

She squinted against the sun and turned to look up at her former sensei. "Kakashi-sensei?"

"Ah." He did his signature eye crinkle. "Enjoying the sun?"

"Yes." She sighed and laid back, closing her eyes for a few moments. "What are you up to?"

"Eh…searching for you."

"Me? Why me?" She opened one eye to frown at him puzzled.

"Ah, well, you see…I happened to have dropped something very important behind my headboard and unfortunately…into the vent. My hands are too big to reach it."

"Why didn't you ask Naruto or use some string or something? Maybe Pakkun could reach it?"

"It's too far down."

"…of course it is." She grumbled and rolled over, shoving up to stand. "All right, all right."

"Ah, arigatou!"

Sakura walked with Kakashi back to his small apartment and followed him to his room. Once he'd moved the bed out of the way, she stared into the vent. A large frown worked its way onto her face. "You dropped your book, didn't you?"

"…perhaps…"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Just say yes; I know I'm right." She knelt and moved the cover off the vent. She peered into the dusty hole of darkness. She groaned, "just how far down did it go?"

"Fairly far…"

"Ugh! You're going to owe me big, Kakashi-sensei!" She tentatively began to stick her small hand into the ventilation shaft. He'd been right, it was very snug for even her hand. The moment her hand touched the smooth cover, something scurried over her knuckles. She froze, eyes wide and knew instantly what was crawling over her hand. She shrieked and began ripping her hand free. In her haste, she didn't think about the adrenaline rush to her system from fear and in response…her heightened chakra. Needless to say, the moment she jerked back, the wall around the vent came free with a loud explosion of plaster and groan of metal. She yanked the broken vent shaft off her arm and frantically brushed her arm to remove any chance of the eight legged monster being on her person. She regained her breath only to lose it immediately at the mess she'd just created. Her bright viridian eyes blinked once, twice, thrice before she looked up slowly and sheepishly into Kakashi-sensei's face.

"Eh…ah…well, you can reach it now…" She tried gently. Kakashi-sensei's expression was blank as he stared at the wall in awe for a long while. She gnawed her bottom lip and tried to think of something better to say. He then turned to her and smiled.

"Well, the good news is that I won't have to pay for the damages and I can reach my magazine now."

"You won't have to pay? The manager is that nice?" Sakura blurted.

"Oh no. He's a very strict manager. I meant you'll be paying for it."

Sakura stared at him for a long moment before the words finally clicked. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Me?! I'm not the one who dropped the magazine into the vent! I was trying to escape a spider!"

"Ho…? A spider?" That damned smile continued to stay in place. The longer she looked at it, the more she began to have the desire to forcefully remove it. If his tone hadn't been overly nice and fake, she probably wouldn't have taken it badly but instead felt more remorse over her part in the destruction.

"Yes, a spider! I hate them! You know that! I've always been afraid of them!"

"Yes, but some of us outgrow our fears."

"Well some of us never outgrow our teenage hormones either!" She shot back, pointing at the magazine rolled up and in his hand now.

"Just what do you believe this is, Sakura-chan?"

She began to shake. His usage of 'chan' had been a rather low blow to her. Even though she was his former student, he had no right to look down on her like that. Despite their age gap, Sakura had grown up quite a bit into damn near equal footing with him. She'd reached jounin in the last two years after the war had ended. She had her own place and was doing quite well, thank you! The last thing she needed was this crap from him. She knew the perfect way to get back at him. It was a low thing for even her, but at that moment…she didn't give a rat's ass. She moved chakra to her tear ducts and using her precision control over it, she open the tear ducts and felt the hot torrent of tears fall over her cheeks. Yes, she was making herself cry. It was something she never used. However, she remembered just how bothered Kakashi-sensei always seemed to get by her crying therefore…weapon in her arsenal. She covered her eyes and fled his apartment before she could do any more damage to it. She also wanted to get the hell away from him before she really hurt him.

After fleeing home, she'd set up some tea and stewed. Then she'd gotten even madder. Each time she thought about what had happened, she felt angrier at herself and Kakashi-sensei. Soon enough, her potted plants began to fly. Then after they were smashed, her coffee table came next. After a while, she stood in the midst of dirt, broken pottery, wooden shards, and shredded plant life. She reached her fingertips up and dug them into her pink locks. She glared all around her and blew out a long sigh. A knock at her window actually startled her. She jumped and turned to look. A familiar blob of orange met her vision. She moved carefully over the rubble with her bare feet and opened the window. Naruto dropped in and smiled…until he saw the mess. His bright blue eyes widened considerably.

"Sakura-chan! What happened?!"

"Don't ask." She grumbled before moving away from him. She turned and tenderly picked her way through the mess again to reach the kitchen. "Let me guess…you ran out of ramen at your place and wanted to see if I had my stock pile still?"

"Yeah…" He laughed and rubbed the back of his head while crossing over the mess in his shoes. He stopped at the edge of the kitchen. "…are you okay?"

"Am I okay?" She looked up and snorted. "Of course I'm okay. Can't you tell?" With a quick sweeping motion toward her living room, she turned back to her cabinets. Finding what she was looking for, she turned and handed two containers of instant ramen to her teammate.

"What got you that upset?"

"…Kakashi-sensei asked for my help to retrieve his lost something. I went to retrieve it, had a spider crawl on me and…ripped a hole in his wall on accident."

"…" Naruto blinked and then laughed nervously. "You ripped a hole?"

"Well, yeah! I had to get my arm out quickly before it bit me! Who knows if it was a venomous one or not? And I didn't mean to rip a hole in the wall!"

"Yeah…but, Kakashi-sensei's not in a good money place right now…"

"Who is?" She replied and planted a hand on her hip. "Whose side are you on?"

"I'm not on anyone's. Just…Kakashi-sensei has…refused several S-Class missions and recommended you for them instead."

Sakura instantly deflated and dropped her arm. She stared at Naruto with large eyes. "What…?"

"Yeah. Tsunade-baa keeps warning him that if he hands away too many missions, she'll retire him."

"Bu…but why?"

"Isn't it obvious? Kakashi-sensei's so proud of you and probably feels kinda guilty for not training you like he did Sasuke and me. Maybe he's trying to make up for it, ya know?"

"I…I didn't…why didn't he say—no, don't answer that." She sighed and looked at her living room. With a long frustrated sigh, she turned and headed for the entryway.

"Hey, where're you going?"

"Over to talk to him."

"But what about—"

"There's a whole box in the lower cabinet!" Sakura called as she shut her door and headed for her former sensei's house.

She reached the residence of the one and only Hatake, Kakashi and stared at the ugly old door. She was honestly so befuddled and confused on what to say that she didn't want to face him just yet. She entertained the notion of running away. However, she wouldn't be able to stand herself if she ran from this situation and didn't properly face him as an adult. Taking a deep breath she knocked on the door. A muffled call came before the old door creaked open. She looked up into her former sensei's face.

"I'm mad at you." She stated bluntly. He blinked before he sighed and motioned her inside. She moved inside the door.

"I can tell." He stated in a noncommittal tone. Then, that damned smile that pissed her off. "Tea?"

"No. And stop that."

"Stop what?"

"That fake, lying smile. If you're pissed at me, just tell me. But don't, for kami sake, use that horribly degrading smile. It hurts me and I know it hurts you every time you use it."

Kakashi stilled and turned to look at her blankly before he nodded once. "All right. I'm upset with you."

"Okay. I'm sorry I broke your wall. I'll be paying for it. I should have owned up to that earlier and I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted."

"I'm still livid with you though!"

"Oh?"

"You've been giving away S-Class mission to me!"

"Ah…Naruto blabbed, didn't he?"

"Oh, come on! S-Class missions, Kakashi-sensei! These aren't just simple missions. They pay amazingly! With the few I've gone on…jeeze! You could have found a better place by now!"

"I like my house." He moved to sit on his ratty old couch.

"It's a dump, no offence."

"Hmmm…to you perhaps."

"I'll leave that one alone this time. I hate that you don't take better care of yourself! That you don't try to…I don't know…"

"Find a more suitable place?"

"Not necessarily. I worry about you. About both of you."

"Naruto is doing just find as am I."

"Naruto has Hinata taking care of him. Whenever she'd unavailable, he bothers the hell out of me for ramen."

"True."

Sakura moved to sit on the floor across from him. "You still mad at me?"

"Yes."

"All right…go ahead."

Kakashi stared at her for a long moment before he nodded and allowed some of his ire with her seep into his face. "You shouldn't ever use fake tears on me. Firstly, I could tell what you did. My sharingan isn't necessarily needed in order to tell what your chakra is doing. It hurts me more than you can imagine that you used false tears on me to manipulate me."

Sakura grimaced. "…I'm not very proud of that either…"

"Do you have any idea what your crying does to me?"

"A little…" She admitted with a sigh while looking at her hands.

"Then why would you do that?"

"I wanted to hurt you like you were hurting me. That smile, the tone…I hate it. When you really smile, it lights up and makes your whole face look happy. The simple, forced smile…it's…aggravating. Like I'm not worth a real smile. So I wanted to give you a taste of that back the only way I could think of. And it was wrong."

"I'm sorry as well. I shouldn't degrade you with being false around you."

"I forgive you." Sakura looked up with a smile.

"And I forgive you."

"…think the manager'd notice if I bought some plaster and stuff to fix it myself?"

"Probably not in the slightest."

"Sounds like a plan then."

Kakashi chuckled. "Indeed."

-Fin for Now-

Let me know what you thought! Reviews are always appreciated and would LOVE to hear any prompts you guys have! (I may not get to every single one in any quick manner, but I'll certainly try!)

Erika Hearken