Konoha's Cherry Blossom {REWRITTEN}

Chapter 17

Sakura felt herself flushed as the realisation slammed into her. Shame crawled into her. Blue eyes watched several emotions passing on her face. Panic, anxiety, shame.

"Stop."

Sakura snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Naruto. Then, at Kakashi. Who was still staring at them with his damn poker face.

Naruto let out a curse word under his breath before grabbing a pillow and throwing it at Kakashi that he easily sidestepped, "Kaka-sensei, stop creeping. You'll spook her."

Kakashi's blank face melted into amused one when he saw his pink haired student bristled like an angry kitten at his words before landing a punch on the blonde's head.

"Ow... no, no. I didn't mean it like that, Sakura-chan, I swear! Don't hit me, I'm still recovering!" He whimpered pathetically.

Green eyes narrowed suspiciously, "Recovering? From what?"

Kakashi felt like this was the best time to interrupt. He walked in, calmly shutting the door behind him. He knelt down and checked Naruto's head for any injuries. There were none. Which wasn't a surprise, Sakura didn't use her chakra enhanced strength.

"We had some nuisances to deal with, let's just say.." He replied, "Speaking of which, Where's Sasuke?"

"Sasuke?" She repeated, in disbelief, "are you going to ignore the fact that you walked in on us or Why am I even here in the first place? Why am I not either Shikamaru or Neji-.."

"Sakura."

She rambled on, missing the way both of men's eyes darkened at her words.
Sakura looked at the blonde with surprise at his serious tone.

Naruto looked upset. Why, though?

Kakashi just sat down beside Naruto with a tired sigh.

"This is such a complicated mess. We came back to the village after such a long mission and we had this whole thing plannedto convince you to come back to us, but Naruto was always so filled with guilt over his totally imagined sins", He gives Naruto a look before continuing, "that I had to hunt you down myself to get to know your side of the story. And I understood almost instantly what happened.

"But before we open that pandora box, let me put out in the open: you are important to us, that you made us feel whole. There is absolutely no way we would even consider a team 7 without you."

Now, Kakashi backed away from Naruto and rolled his one eye at him, suddenly less serious, giving Naruto the moment alone that he so desperately needs.

Sakura kept quiet, her mind still comprehending Kakashi's words.

"But this idiot didn’t want to scare you off. He didn’t think you could possibly be interested in coming back, now that you finally have better teammates who aren't broken like us. Nor they have shit ton of issues like we do. Then he found out about that letters and experiment, which is a whole other conversation that we are damn well gonna have – and he got even worse, if you can believe it."

A wet giggle escaped her lips with few tears that were brimming in her eyes when she looked at the pout on Naruto's mouth. Kakashi continued.

“And I had just convinced him to say something when you ran off to work till you drop dead– which is something else we are going to be talking about, don’t even try to get out of it, Haruno Sakura– and then I got your unconscious self here to sleep only to see you getting ravaged by this idiot. You can probably guess the rest. Confusion, very little sleep and two interrogated and tortured elders later-"

Naruto had recovered enough to add, "What he meant to say was, Shikamaru came to us with information in and we might or might not have annihilated those fuckers for even thinking hurting you like this."

"The little tattletale," Sakura said, but she didn’t really mean it. "I knew he would pull this shit on me."

"After he came and volunteered some information and we dealt with those fuckers, we waited for you to wake up so we could find out what the fuck you were thinking." There is a sudden flicker in Naruto’s eyes that she found intimidating. "And also so I could do this."

And she did not even know what was happening, panic settling in, irrational thoughts at home in her mind, until she feel soft lips pressing against hers, so much more gentle this time, but perfect nonetheless.

She had always thought of this moment being wild and passionate and desperate like the one they shared before in the haze of sleep, but instead it feels like coming home. When Naruto pulled back, she was gasping for breath, and when he rested his forehead against hers, she never want to look away from his eyes. She had always been partial to red and onyx, but maybe blue is growing on her.

"I am absolutely in love with you, Sakura," Naruto said. "And I know Kakashi is too, he's too emotionally constipated to tell you that. And before you say anything about it, he wasn’t mad that we kissed, it's because we both were supposed to be resting."

Kakashi manages to bumped Naruto out of the way. His headband off, sharingan eye glimmering in the dark, his mask pulled down, showing off his stunningly handsome face, lips red and shining as if he had been chewing on them, and that alluring beauty mark sitting just below those lips, he was stunning. When he swooped in to ask if he could kiss her too, for a moment she no longer cared about anything else.