One shot: Kakashi x Sakura.
Secret trainings lead to secret conversations to secret feelings, Will Sakura win this time?
"This..." Sakura said, trying to catch her breath, "this has to stop, Sensei."
"What?" Kakashi asked in his dumbfounded bored tone, "What does have to stop, Sa Ku Ra?" he finished rising on his elbows, looking at Sakura from his position under her.
"Sensei, please," she was already sitting next to him, recovering some of her personal space lost moments ago, "you know what I'm talking about, and it has to stop."
"Sakura, let me remind you that you came to me asking for this. I only please your wishes." A close-eyed smile was painted under his mask, and Sakura hated that idiot expression.
"Oh, come on, Kakashi, don't tell me you don't enjoy it too." She was again losing the train of the conversation, and she knew she would lose her point too.
"I've never said I didn't; on the contrary..." Kakashi said, lifting his chin in a very arrogant Hokage way, "but is you the one complaining and asking me to stop what you asked for."
"Because it's unfair!" Sakura pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Ok... Now I'm not following you." Kakashi said, looking straight at her.
"You are impossible, Sensei..." Sakura spoke, looking tenderly at him. "It's unfair that every single night we train you let me win." There, she finally said it.
"Oooh..." Kakashi said, full of surprise, "Wow... Do you...Do you really think I let you win?"
"Yes, I do!" Sakura said, looking at the sky. To look at him at this moment was too hurtful because she was not only feeling frustrated about her skills but because she wasn't capable of making him see her as a woman who was hopelessly in love with her former teacher.
Sakura had to recognise that it was true that she never told him anything nor made any insinuation about her feelings. Even if, with time, they became close friends and shared a special kind of intimate relationship, nothing seemed to evolve into a romantic dynamic between them, and she felt that it was all her fault.
"Maaa~ Sakura, you can't think that I let you win." He seemed confused, caught off guard, like a little boy discovered doing some mischieve, disarming Sakura to her bones.
"Yes!" She began making eye contact for the first time in what seemed a lifetime.
"Ok, tell me, how do I do it, how do I let you win?"
"Let's seee..." Sakura started, "First you are the great Copy Ninja..."
"Ex." Sakura was sure he would make this problematic.
"Ok, ex, but you know, like thousands of jutsus, you mastered the Sharingan, and you are not even an Uchiha. You are the Hokage, you have years of training and fights, and were a prodigy. And your name is like a dead sentence to our enemies."
"That's all in the past, Sakura. You are talking about ages ago." Kakashi said with longing in his eyes.
"Ok, but what about now? Ah?" Sakura attacked again, "I do your medical exams, and you are more vital than ever for the results. Without the Sharingan draining your Chakra, you are stronger, faster and more robust than any young shinobi."
"I guess what you mean by robust is fatter, right?" How was he capable of making her blush like when she was thirteen.
"Easy... If I din't know you better I could say you are in love." And again, that infamous smile.
"What? No... I mean..." She was in serious trouble now and was giving away too much about her feelings in a conversation that was supposed to have nothing to do with feelings.
"Sakura..." Kakashi began turning serious again, "why can't you praise yourself for once? Suppose everything you said is true, but I'm not in my twenties anymore, and you are not thirteen, either." Was he noticing her? "You are a young woman full of strength with the same training I once had. You are Tsunade's direct disciple. Your chakra control is outstanding. You are a great doctor. I really don't understand how you can doubt so much about yourself." He looked so intensely into her eyes that she felt like flying or dying. What if she kissed him right there?
Would it be that bad if she kissed Kakashi? Of course, it was out of all limits and boundaries. He was not only the Hokage, but for God's sake, he was him, Hatake Kakashi, and she was just she, after all, the always tiny and invisible Sakura. She was abandoning the conversation once more. Daydreaming about the possibilities of one little forbidden kiss, not realising that, in truth, she was bothered about not losing a training fight combat against Kakashi, which was very ridiculous. He was right. Instead of being proud of herself, she felt her victories as undeserved gifts.
"Sakura... Sakura?" Kakashi said, waving his hand in front of her face. "Are you still here?"
"I'm sorry, what...What were you saying?" Sakura returned to reality and had to remind herself that she was not thirteen anymore.
"I was saying that everything you say about me it's true, and even if it hurts, losing the Sharingan maybe it was a kind of a blessing, but you are the new generation now, and you are better than anyone of us, the old ones."
"Do you really think that, Sensei?" Sakura knew her voice was trembling, and she didn't care. "So you don't cheat on me and let me win?"
"Sakura... I thought you know me better by now..." Kakashi said in his beautiful soft tone, and Sakura was melting right there, "I hate losing. I wouldn't even do it on pourpuse."
"Oh... Ok." She didn't manage to say anything else.
"Besides, as Hokage if I have to put my life in somebody's hands, undoubtedly it would be yours," Sakura noted the soft movement but did nothing about it. Kakashi was tugging a revel strand of pink hair behind her ear. "I bet not even Naruto or Sasuke are competition against you."
"Yeah... them..." She let the phrase hang in the air.
"What about them?" His neutral tone suddenly sounded overly uninterested, even for Kakashi.
And Sakura knew that that was the question, 'what about them'. Especially about Sasuke Uchiha. But should she tell Kakashi her feelings? The truth was that she was spending more and more time with Sasuke, but nothing was coming out of it. Once, it used to be her teenage dream, but now it was her adult nightmare, it was obvious that they were not meant to be, but they were forcing this kind of frozen relationship in which they only walked together for hours in silence without even holding hands.
"Well..."Sakura started looking anywhere but in Kakashi's direction, "you know Naruto, he is doing it fine. He is thrilled with Hinata, I think there is a future there..." Sakura spoke with truth and hope in her words. She loved Naruto and his bright, and she knew he deserved his happy ending.
"Yes, I see that too." Kakashi said with what Sakura understood as longing, but he immediately shifted his position, and everything in him changed, "and Sasuke? I heard you two were dating."
Sakura choked on her words.
"You don't need to answer me, Sa Ku Ra. I just want to be prepared if a Chidori comes flying straight to me if he discovered our little secret." Kakashi joked, and she blushed as if secret training was the equal of a sin.
"I don't think the Chidori is his worst attack right now." She smugly answered.
"Yeah... I thought so." And he didn't say anything else.
The soft summer breeze was hypnotic during the summers in Konoha. Even if it was hot enough, like to swear once or twice, the weather was enjoyable, even more if Sakura was seated by night side by side with his secret love, Hatake Kakashi. Even now, that losing a battle was not the worst thing, but speaking about Sasuke was.
"We..." she started, "We are not dating dating, Sensei."
"What do you mean with dating dating? I'm older than you but not that much, Sakura... I don't think things had changed so much since..." But She interrupted him.
"Don't play smart with me, Sensei," Sakura said exasperated, "I mean that we are not... together, like, you know...like..." she was biting her lower lip to the point of almost bleeding. "We are only knowing each other."
"Don't you already know each other a lot?" Kakashi was doing this so on purpose that it almost felt innocent, but she knew better: pestering her was one of his favourite things.
"Of course we know each other a lot..." It was becoming impossible for her to speak. Where were all her eloquent words when she needed them the most?
"We know as comarades, as friends, as team mates, even as enemies, but..."
"But love and romance are something completely different, right?" And for the first time in a while, she observed his face trying to avoid thinking in the moon reflected in his eyes. "I mean..." He continued, "relationships are something else."
Sakura didn't answer. She only sighed in frustration, wrinkling her nose and forehead like she did when trying to solve something. Sasuke was a puzzle, she was a puzzle, for the love of God, they were a puzzle, and she wasn't even trying half her best to do something about it.
"Sakura?" Kakashi asked in a whisper. "Do you love him?"
"Of course I care for him, Sensei! Why? Why are you laughing at me?" Sakura was already towering over Kakashi, still sitting easily on the fresh green grass. Arms crossed over her chest, angry red face and her foot tapping the floor beneath her.
"Did you hear my question, Sakura? Smile in his voice.
"Yes, and I answered you." Sakura replied stubbornly.
"Yeah... I think you need another round."
And in just one soft movement, Sakura was pinned to the grass below Kakashi's body. Arms over her head entangled painfully delighted with his. Too close to avoid his eyes and cologne but too far and questionable to madly kiss him there. Kakashi got closer to her. His mouth to her ear and the soft fabric of his mask over her neck drove her crazy.
"Care is not love, Sa Ku Ra." He began teasingly, "I didn't think I have to teach you that." And he went back to look into her eyes. "And you were right... You can't always win."
"What?" She retorted, to what statement she didn't know.
"Ma~ Sa Ku Ra! You were right... Maybe sometimes I just let you win."
And in a puff of air, he disappeared, letting Sakura lying down on the grass with her heart beating uncontrollably out of her chest. She was mad. Mad about being cheated, mad about her and Sasuke, mad about her lack of answers and most of all, she was profoundly and crazy mad about Kakashi.
