"Sakura-chaaan!" yelled Naruto, standing in the gate, ready to leave Konoha at any moment.

Sai, who in turn sat under the pillar, sketching something in his notebook, gave her a slightly interested look, then returned to his activity.

The mentioned one was walking slowly towards the gates, where her friend waved at her and was screaming out loud. Sakura wasn't particularly pleased with the next mission of the team seven. Especially since it was connected with meeting him...

The pink-haired kunoichi frowned as she remembered the day when she not only discovered the face that her former teacher had hidden under the mask, but also lost her virginity only to make Kakashi ignore her for years, forgetting about the rapprochement that brought them together. She was angry with him for not giving her a chance for so long so that she could explain why, the moment Sakura having achieved fulfilment after an intoxicating time with Hatake's company; she almost fell off the bed when Ino knocked on the window, asking her, "Oi, Forehead! How's your 'spin the bottle' challenge?" After these words, there was a bang, a soft curse, and then Ino added, "Did you score Kakashi-sensei?"

For the following years, Haruno avoided this fucking game, because it only caused her problems and in addition made a man who conquered her heart with his beauty and skills in the field of bed, now avoided her like the plague. Well, not literally, but everyone understood the message — Hatake was ignoring her, thinking that she had used him to complete the challenge she gave up the moment she saw the grey-haired shinobi pleasing himself. She had no idea why it had caught her so much about her ex-teacher, but she had learned to live with it. Unfortunately, her obsession with Kakashi hasn't diminished a bit. She had wanted him with every ounce of her own body since then. The only thing she was pleased about was that she had something worthy to remember. Though her heart ached at times when she wanted to focus his attention on herself for a moment, yet he turned his head the other way.

"Oi, Naruto," she greeted her friend, smiling brightly at him, then welcomed the other member of team seven with a nod. "How long have you been waiting?"

Uzumaki snorted.

"Equally half an hour," Sai replied matter-of-factly.

Sakura sighed resignedly. Hatake always had a tendency to be late, and they knew he would always come an hour later, and so they always appear an hour late to match to Kakashi's delay but today he was clearly going too far. Haruno had some suspicions why he put off this meeting so much, but she preferred to keep these observations to herself. And while Naruto didn't notice absolutely nothing extraordinary in Hatake's behaviour, Sai looked suspiciously at their leader, then at her, as if he had figured out what was between them a long time ago. Although he shouldn't, because Sakura told them all that she chickened out and didn't complete her challenge.

Today, the mission of the team seven was to take place, the first real one in a long time, but someone here completely didn't take into account the seriousness of the situation with the rebelled ninjas, who didn't accept that all countries were connected by a long-standing alliance and finally the peace in the world.

Nevertheless, Haruno was a bit apprehensive about this meeting, especially since she had hardly seen Hatake, who was often on solitary missions, in the last few months, but always failed to mention to his former students what missions they were. It was as if he was running away from her.

"He's never been so late for a mission," Naruto muttered dissatisfied.

Sakura nodded, not wanting to comment on it in any way. Sai looked at her posture for a moment.

"Perhaps we will go on it by ourselves," Haruno wondered aloud.

"We could, if we had a scroll of mission data," Sai put in deliberately, his lips stretched in a friendly smile.

"I'd rather go on a solitary mission," Sakura snorted, crossing her arms over her chest.

Naruto looked at her questioningly, but didn't comment on her attitude in any way, while Sai sighed.

"Friends should talk about the problems that bother them," he said after a moment.

Sakura glared at him threateningly.

"I have no problems," she hissed.

"Judging by the way you and Kakashi-sensei relate to each other, both of you clearly have a problem."

Naruto was surprised by Sai's words, so he looked at his friend in surprise.

"Sakura-chan, what is he talking about? Is it true...?"

Haruno, in turn, clenched her hand into a fist, until the material of her gloves crackled.

"When I say I have no problems, that's what it is!" she roared, walking towards Sai, who swallowed loudly, but at the same moment Uzumaki started to help him, standing in her way.

"I can see that you're ready." His voice sent a shiver down her spine. She stopped immediately and hesitantly turned her head to glance over her shoulder at Kakashi, who was right behind her.

Her eyes widened just as their eyes met for a moment. And then her cheeks bloomed with blushes as his gaze moved over her silhouette, then focused his attention on Naruto and Sai. So, he was still ignoring her...

Haruno snorted dissatisfied.

"Yoshi. Ikuzo!" Hatake instructed and started towards the gates while the other members of team seven had to rush after him.

She didn't have too much trouble keeping pace with their leader, but it was definitely not her day, or maybe it was more about how he looked at her outfit — black leggings and a red tunic with a large neckline and a cut to reveal a part of her belly, and then like that he just looked away. She might as well get used to it, because that was what he had been offering her for several years — his lack of interest, or rather the fact that one moment he seemed to want her, and the next he completely ignored her existence.

As they raced through the forest, Sakura had a moment to observe Hatake who ran at the head of their formation, she followed him, then Naruto, and finally Sai so he could cover the back. No one was looking at her, so she could see Kakashi's body without embarrassment, clad in too loose clothes to be true of his slender but trained body, worked muscles, pale shade of skin marked with small scars. Haruno drifted away into memories again, remembering how Hatake was bending over her in moments of elation, while they made love to each other for the first time. Actually, it was really the first time for her because she hadn't dated anyone yet and hadn't had a sexual partner yet. And Kakashi turned out to be an amazing lover. And she didn't care if he copied all these techniques with his sharingan, or if he may have copied them from his books, but at least her first time was worth remembering of every moment.

Fortunately, Sai was running from behind, so he couldn't notice how Sakura was looking at Kakashi with flushed cheeks. It's true that Naruto was rushing right behind her, but he wouldn't be able to immediately conclude that something connected her with Hatake. Although it could be possible, if he had suspected something first, but he certainly didn't think Sakura would fall in love with their former sensei.

Kakashi stopped, looked around, then turned to face them. Haruno stopped as he did, but Naruto crashed into her back when he didn't stop in time.

Sakura turned her head towards him, glaring at him threateningly.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan, dattebayo!" he said, stepping back from her.

Sai laughed as soon as he joined them.

"What's so funny?" Haruno snorted.

"You're a well-matched pair," Sai said, as if he wasn't aware that he was just digging his own grave.

Kakashi glared at the three of them.

"Shall I remind you that we're on a mission?" he growled, looking towards Sai and Naruto, completely ignoring Sakura. "You're not children anymore," he added in a low voice.

The young kunoichi snorted as he tried to ignore her once again.

"And you're not our teacher anymore," Haruno hissed.

Sai once again began to observe the attitudes of the two shinobi — Kakashi, who skilfully avoided looking at Sakura and even ignored her verbal taunts; and Sakura, who was trying to provoke him on purpose. He didn't know what had happened between the two, but he could guess that something was up, more than the usual relationship between a former teacher and a former student. Only Naruto didn't see anything extraordinary in their behaviour.

"That's true," Kakashi said, then quickly crouched down, then unfolded the scroll of data on their current mission. He passed his gaze over the faces of his companions, then said, "A merchant's caravan will pass both sides of the ravine. At this point..." here he pointed with his finger the points marked on the scroll, "...on both sides of the gorge, the carriages of traders who travel this way are attacked every week. Today's transport will be deliberately divided in half so that we can determine from which side of the gorge the rebelled ninjas will attack. And that's why we will divide into two groups."

Sakura raised an eyebrow at their leader questioningly, she was almost sure that she wouldn't be assigned to Hatake, because he was ignoring her. As soon as their eyes met, Kakashi announced, "Sakura will go with Naruto and Sai with me."

Haruno snorted furiously.

"Of course... as usual, you break up the excellent Naruto and Sai duo just so I don't have to go with you," she growled, facing her eyes with his. "You know very well that my cooperation with Naruto is bad, he and Sai should go together."

Kakashi blinked once, watching her with a blank expression on his face.

"All right," he muttered after a moment in reply. "Then you're coming with me."

Then the man explained to them the details to which they should pay attention to, when to contact and how. In addition, Kakashi created his clone, which he sent after Naruto and Sai, before turning towards Sakura.

"Here we go," he announced, then ran through the trees along the line of the second path that ran around the mysterious gorge.

Sakura didn't protest, she just chased after him. In the end, she got what she wanted anyway — alone time with Kakashi, and that was all she wanted to do at that moment. A wicked smile twisted her lips as she leaned to a faster run as she ran through the thicket of trees in the wake of her companion.