I Found You

Sakura stopped.
This is stupid and childish, she thought.
Then why was she doing it?
Because......
Sakura took a deep breath.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are," she muttered, resentful.  When had this ridiculous little game started?
Her mind drifted lazily back to her conversation with Kakashi, the beginning of it all.
"Sakura-chan, let's play a game."
"A.....game?"
"Yes.  A finding game."
"A......what?"
"I'll hide and then you have to find me."
"Kakashi-sensei, what......?"
"Think of it as training."
"Training?"
"Exactly.  Now, to make it more interesting, I'm willing to give you a little.......reward."
"Reward?"
Kakashi tapped his mask.  "If you can find me by sundown, I'll let you see what's under my mask."
Was he joking?
Sakura wanted to ask, but didn't get a chance.
"Ready, set, GO!"  Kakashi said cheerfully.
Then he was gone, leaving the girl gaping stupidly.
So now she was walking around aimlessly, cursing every second that she spent looking......
I'll give him credit, though, she thought.  He's hidden himself well.
Something flashed briefly at the very edge of her vision.  A blur of green, blue......and grey.
"Kakashi-sensei!"  she cried, just as he disappeared from sight.
She started to go after him when another green-blue-grey blur sped past at the edge of her sight.
And another.......and another.......and another......
And when she whirled around, she saw four more run by out of the corner of her eye.
Shadow clones.
"Dirty, rotten.......," Sakura couldn't think of a word horrible enough to spit.  She was angry at Kakashi but also angry at herself.  How could she have expected it to be EASY?  This was her SENSEI she was talking about......
And he called it TRAINING, she reminded herself bitterly.
More blurs sped by.  
Taunting her, she thought.
"Now, where's the real one?"  she wondered out loud.  The trees gave no answer, only the blank silence she was used to.  
Would it be wise to just pounce on one at random and hope for the best?  No, that would be too much of a risk.  It was nearly sundown.
This could be the only chance I'll ever have to see what's under Kakashi's mask, Sakura reminded herself.
But what could she......?
A clone sped by, so close it actually brushed against her.
Her reflexes kicked in a moment before her mind did.  She caught the clone in the stomach with a well-aimed punch.  She watched with both dismay and smugness as it erupted in a cloud of smoke.
"CHEATING BASTARD!"  she exploded, suddenly enraged.

"CHEATING BASTARD!"
Kakashi cringed at Sakura's angry words.
Was he a cheating bastard for using the shadow clones?
She has to learn, he reminded himself fairly.  Besides, I can't make this look like a simple game of hide and seek.
He felt confident that Sakura would find him before sundown.
And if she didn't?
He might show her what was under his mask anyway.

Sakura found that focusing her anger on annihilating Kakashi's shadow clones made her feel a lot better.  Naturally, she also wanted to punch the REAL Kakashi.  But for now his clones would do.
It was only when she stopped seeing green-blue-grey blurs to go after that she remembered that sundown as fast approaching and she still hadn't found Kakashi-sensei.
Now she was even more determined to find him so she could kill him.
What a dirty trick!  she thought angrily, punching a tree.
A TREE.
Sakura's mind began whirring.
Why hadn't she thought of it before?  
Sure, she had looked BEHIND the trees......
But.....
Sakura carefully placed one foot on the tree trunk.

"Almost sundown," Kakashi said in a voice scarcely louder than a gasp.
He wondered if Sakura had given up.  Or maybe she simply hadn't found him.
The latter didn't worry him as much as the first.
If Sakura had given up, it meant that she didn't really care if she saw what was under his mask.  Didn't care about what sort of face, handsome or ugly, her sensei was hiding.  
Didn't care about HIM.
The thought was unbearable.
"I care about you, Sakura," he said, suddenly not caring if she heard him or not.  "I almost.....love you."
His mind sensed what was going to happen before it did, but he didn't move.
He felt a hand on his shoulder.
"I found you," Sakura whispered, directly into his ear.

"Do you like it?"  asked Kakashi, a little anxious.
Sakura stared, trying to keep her mouth from dropping.
Here it was, at last.  Her sensei's real face......
"Do you like it?"  Kakashi repeated, his voice rising slightly out of his anxiousness.
Sakura didn't answer.
She gently touched Kakashi's cheek, tracing a faded scar with her thumb.
She pressed her lips against his, for a brief second.  It was a kiss, yet it wasn't at the same time.  It certainly suggested a kiss, but it also suggested a casual touching of lips between two people who weren't quite sure what to do to express their feelings.
Kakashi didn't ask the question again.
He knew the answer.
He also knew that he had found something, too.
Love.
Without a single lingering thought, Kakashi closed his eyes and kissed Sakura, wrapping his arms around her waist.
Sakura kissed back almost immediately, barely giving the matter a second thought as she wrapped her arms around the back of his head.
It was very obvious to the two ninjas that they had both found the same thing.
True love.