Hello, this isn't my first story that I've published ever, but it is the first on this account. Well, as a disclaimer, I do not own any rights to Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto.

Sakura Haruno had become a wonderful kunoichi. She was confident in her ability to perform and she was revered by many as one of the strongest shinobi of her generation. It was flattering to know that she had come so far since her days as a lowly genin. She finally felt worthy of being called a ninja. After being assigned to Hatake Kakashi's team, she was both excited and wary. Her priorities as a young girl had been skewed. For a long time, Sasuke had represented all that she yearned for. She wanted someone to love, someone to care for, and someone to love her back. The insecurities she felt as she grew older had only intensified these feelings until she became fixated on Sasuke as an outlet for them. She had never dreamed that she would have been on his team and when it happened, she thought that the universe was finally giving her what she had always wanted.

She should have known better than that.

Sasuke had never really been a real love interest when she looked back on it. He was just a fixation for her, and she had really only liked him for his outward appearance. She hadn't known about his devotion to his family, or the way he still looked forward to his brother arriving home from a mission, or the way he worked so hard to make his brother proud. He had simply been a cool, attractive boy. She had liked him based on superficial aspects and it was a bit embarrassing to think about.

She still loved him, but not in the way she had before. Or at least in the way she had convinced herself that she loved him. He was one of her best friends and he felt like a brother to her. After spending such a large chunk of her life neglecting her training in order to pursue the Uchiha, she had finally snapped out of it when Sasuke left with Kakashi to train for two years. Sasuke had pushed beyond his limitations in order to become stronger. Although one of the brightest of his age, he was nowhere near the genius that Itachi had been. He had to work much harder to become strong. The pressures of his family and the desire to make his brother proud had motivated him in his goal. He wanted to become as strong as he could.

Naruto was a great rival for him. Sakura understood that her presence had been an annoyance because she simply did not care about becoming stronger. She had only wanted him and he had no reason to spend any time on her because she was weak. He had never really hated her, however. He had always seen the dedication she had to him and had secretly appreciated the amount of faith she had always placed in him when he was constantly facing being a disappointment to his family.

During the Chunin exams, only Sasuke and Shikamaru had passed. Sasuke had been relieved that he wouldn't have to tell his family that he hadn't made it. Itachi had graduated from the academy at seven, mastered the sharingan when he was eight, passed the Chunin exams when he was ten, and became ANBU at eleven. Sasuke had only just became a Chunin and he was almost thirteen. When Itachi was thirteen, he was made an ANBU captain. He had a lot to live up to. Naruto was disappointed at not becoming a Chunin, but Sakura had expected her own failure.

That was the start of her changing her mentality. When she cut her hair, she sacrificed something that she thought would make Sasuke happy in order to defend her team. It was a small step, but it was progress.

Eventually they left her. Sasuke left to train with Kakashi and Naruto left to train with Jiraiya. That was when she really saw what she had been doing with her life. She did not resent the neglect that Kakashi had placed on her training. Even if he had put as much effort into her training as she had with Naruto and Sasuke's, it would have made no difference. She had not cared about that. When they left, she finally saw herself as others saw her. She was a mess. She was blindly following a boy instead of becoming a girl that boys would follow willingly. Instead of working on herself, she was trying to improve her life through others.

She had decided that she didn't want to live that way.

She found her way to Tsunade and she had never looked back. It was hard work training under the lady, but Sakura was bright and she wanted this. She didn't want to be left behind anymore. She wanted to become a real member of Team Seven.

"Hey, forehead!"

Sakura groaned. She had just gotten off a rather gruelling shift at the hospital and wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and sleep. Her long time friend, however, had other plans.

"Pig, I'm tired."

Ino had gained even more confidence as they had gotten older, even if it seemed impossible to do so. "Sakuraaaa, you promised that we would go shopping today. It's only three in the afternoon for Christ's sake. How can you be tired?"

Sakura sent her a glare. "Unlike you, I've been working for the past forty eight hours. We had three genin teams come in within the span of two days. My chakra is so low that I'm probably suffering from chakra depletion. So, pig, I am tired."

Ino sent her a sly smile. "Oh shut up, forehead. You wouldn't be sassing me now if you were that tired. Come on, we'll stop at that cute little coffee shop on the way there."

Sakura sighed. There was no winning against the busty blonde that she called her best friend. Ino hooked her arm around Sakura's, dragging her off towards the newest addition to the civilian's district. A man named Haruma had recently bought an old house and renovated it, creating a chic little café that the females of Konoha had immediately taken to. Ino had been begging Sakura to go with her all week. As they wandered through the streets of Konoha, Sakura finally had time to relax. She hadn't been lying when she was complaining to Ino about how exhausted she was. She felt like it was oozing out of her pores. Surely she had gigantic bags under her eyes. The people around her were probably wondering who had let the hideous monster out of the dungeons beneath Konoha.

She was greeted warmly as she passed by the many faces of Konoha. Ino was busy complaining about the drama in her life and how she had slept with a skeazy man the other night that would not leave her alone and now it was biting her in the ass.

"I hope you were safe, Ino-pig, everybody knows that Kosei is riddled with STDs. I swear to god, if you get chlamydia, I am not getting rid of it for you." At this, Ino scowled.

"I'm always safe, forehead. Like you would know anything about that, you virgin." At Ino's loud interjection, Sakura felt her face heat up.

"Ino! Not so loud!"

Ino simply grinned, eyeing up the civilian men that quickly turned their heads away, shy at the mention of a woman's virginity, especially one as pretty as Sakura. Sakura may have been modest, but her looks were not. She was under the same impression that she was still the gawky little girl with the huge forehead. She had grown her out out again, and her body had filled out in a way that had even Tenten envious. Tenten had remained tall and lanky, her body not quite changing as much as she would have liked. Ino had filled out more so than any of them. She often complained of the troubles of wrapping her breasts, but could not compare to Tsunade's rather endowed pair. Ino often described Sakura's as a pair of oranges on a good day, apples on a bad day. To this, Sakura always rolled her eyes, but did not argue Ino's method of measurement. Ino had a knack with guessing bra sizes, something Sakura guessed was due to her odd fruit comparisons.

Sakura had her fair share of admirers, but most men did not notice her. She tended to hide behind comfy clothes. Sakura had very quickly decided that she did not want to act like she had as a child. Instead of wearing skin-tight clothing and dresses, lately she had opted for clothes that hid her rather fit figure. She had stopped herself from getting into the fad of makeup when it had started to find itself into the lives of her friends. When she had finally decided to change who she was, she went all out. Although her friends would never admit it to her face, they all thought that Sakura had gone a little too far with distancing herself from worrying about her appearance. Not that she looked bad without makeup, for she had a distinctly pretty face, but they thought it was a shame that she only dressed up on special occasions.

When they reached Touka Café, Sakura's eyebrows rose in mild shock. The place was far nicer than she had originally pictured it. Haruma had definitely put a lot of work into it. The exterior was done up with a soft sand-coloured brick, the windows trimmed with a cute light blue trim. Flower boxes framed the renovated house, lighting up the place with colourful pansies and daffodils. Through huge bay windows, it was easy to see that the inside was just as quaint as the outside.

"No wonder even everyone can't stop talking about this…" Sakura murmured, instantly impressed at the effort put into the place.

"After some tea―or better yet, coffee for your tired ass―we'll go shopping! Forehead, I've been dying to get you into that new lingerie store. Maybe you'll actually find someone to pop your cherry if you start wearing some."

"Shut up, Ino-pig!" Sakura giggled, allowing Ino to pull her into the café. They sat down at one of the few free tables, quickly scouting the place for anyone that they knew. Most of their friends were off on missions, meeting their expectations when they saw only civilians littering the room. A young woman in a cute yukata came by to get their orders and the two kunoichi shared guilty looks when they ordered extra sugary lattes and a slice of strawberry shortcake each.

"So, Sakura, I heard you were considering joining ANBU." Ino grinned, dipping her fork into the generous slice of cake.

Sakura sighed. "I'm a bit torn, to be completely honest. They need me at the hospital, or at least I'd like to think they do, but I've been dreaming of this forever. Tsunade has been egging me on to challenge the exam. And, you know, Sasuke and Naruto are both signed up for it. I really want to stick with my boys."

"Kakashi is back in ANBU again, isn't he? So you, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sai, right?" Ino paused. "But there needs to be a Captain… so one of you guys won't be on the same team."

Sakura froze. She hadn't thought of that. "Oh, fuck. I guess so. With my luck, it'll be me." She laughed, taking the news much better than Ino had thought she would.

"Oh, well. I hear there are a couple of openings in some really good teams." Ino said hopefully.

"I was really looking forward to being with my boys… Maybe I'll stay at the hospital."

Sakura was put out despite her earlier laughter. She had assumed that Team Seven would always be together. With Kakashi having left them six months prior in order to serve as an ANBU operative once more, they had resorted to sticking together even more so.

"Don't you dare, forehead. C'mon, let's get going. You're starting to depress me."

Kakashi woke up late most days, especially after long, gruelling missions. When Uchiha Itachi's team had an opening, they had specifically requested that he come back into service and fill it. Kakashi had tried making the excuse that he still had a team to look after, but they had pointed out that his team was grown and eligible for ANBU themselves. Kakashi had sighed, mulled over it a bit, and then agreed. It was a tremendous honour that they had requested him. Although, looking back on it, he was the most qualified person that they had. Itachi's team was the highest performing squad on the village's roster. Made of ANBU Captain Uchiha Itachi and Shiranui Genma, the team was sent out on some of the most difficult missions. With Hatake Kakashi thrown into the mix, they were lethal. Kakashi felt bad for the fourth member of the team, however. It was well known that team Uchiha had a bad luck streak; their fourth member had never last for more than a month with them. Right now they had no fourth member and were seriously considering keeping it that way. They functioned far better than most ANBU teams with only three people, and the fourth was usually so far beneath them that they ruined the cohesiveness of the team.

Kakashi had a feeling that one of his students might succeed in filling the position. Ultimately, it was up to Itachi. Although a quiet, reserved man, Kakashi knew that it was getting to him. Itachi was getting frustrated at the deaths of the shinobi that had attempted to fill the position. Quite a few had been low-level Uchihas and Hyuugas. It was tough knowing that any person that joined the team was likely to die on their first or second mission.

Kakashi sighed and sat up, stretching. He groaned as his sinewy muscles flexed and resisted the motion. His back cracked and he pulled himself out of his bed, wearing only a pair of black boxers. Stumbling to his shower, he combed a hand through his unruly silver hair. He quite liked being at home. He was free to walk around maskless. Only his ANBU teammates knew where he lived, so he was at no risk of being disturbed by his annoying students.

He did miss going on missions with them. He missed Naruto's overzealousness, Sasuke's tendency to act like he had a stick up his butt, and Sakura's fiery attitude. It always amazed him to think about the difference between the Sakura of the past and the Sakura of the present. She was such a strong, confident kunoichi. And she had grown up. Naruto and Sasuke would always be the little twelve year old boys that he loved, but Sakura had really changed. For one, her body had matured. Sakura had taken to wearing looser clothing so he was entirely unaware of how much, but she was definitely not the same little girl. And on the other hand, she had gotten so strong. Kakashi loved sparring with Sakura because she presented a challenge more so than Naruto or Sasuke. Kakashi knew them inside out but because he had missed so much of Sakura's training, and she was so smart herself, she always managed to give him trouble.

It was refreshing.

He smiled against the hot water streaming down his face. His favourite part of being home was showering. With his hand, he eased his stiff, sore muscles into more relaxed versions of themselves. Their last mission had been terrible. In the Land of Rain for two weeks, constantly cold and moving, it was really done a number on his muscles.

Toweling off his hair, he slipped into his standard outfit. A longsleeve black shirt with an attached mask, along with his standard navy blue jonin pants, he slid his hitai-ate down over his sharingan. Slipping his feet into the standard open-toed shoes that all shinobi wore, he opened his door and headed out.

He had nothing in particular to do, he simply wanted to get out for a bit. This wasn't entirely out of the ordinary. Considering that he was normally a shut in, he liked to wander around the village from time to time just to get some fresh air. After their last few missions being so arduous, Tsunade had ordered them to take some time off. There were other teams that could handle their workload collectively.

Kakashi, being the pervert he was, enjoyed passing by the lingerie store from time to time. He made it his habit to take the particular route passing it whenever he wanted to stroll through the village. The store always reminded him of his various encounters with women, and it always served to cheer him up whenever he saw a piece that he had particularly enjoyed on one of the women that he had had the pleasure of sleeping with.

Although his former students did not know this, Kakashi was something of a skank. He slept around quite a bit, but he always stuck to civilian women. He had no intention of becoming romantically involved with someone he knew.

Kakashi was always thinking of the future.

Kakashi was not expecting, however, to see his young, innocent student in the store. His first instinct should have been to keep walking, but Kakashi was curious. He wanted to bash himself in the face just for thinking about it, but he wasn't going to try to deny that he was, indeed, wondering what kind of underwear his student was shopping for. Ignoring the fact that he was now blatantly standing outside the store looking in, he observed that the pink haired female was with Ino.

Ah, that explains it.

Turning to walk again, he caught a flash of red and stopped. Ino had just handed a rather intricate set of material to a blushing Sakura. It made Kakashi want to laugh just seeing the matching shade on her face. Sakura gingerly accepted the material and held it up to her face to inspect it. Or rather, to inspect what it was missing. Ino pushed her to the back of the store, making Kakashi squint just to see what was going on. Sakura disappeared behind a door for a few moments, then reappeared. Kakashi found himself the one being embarrassed as he looked on in astonishment.

Oh no. She didn't.

Although she was at the back of the store, Kakashi could see that she had changed into the skimpy red outfit. He realized with a start that she did, indeed, have curves, and that she had somehow managed to hide them in the years since she had hit puberty. Being so far away, however, he couldn't see much more than a confirmation of her body.

He was so lost in thought that he missed, for a split second, Sakura looking up and out the window. When he clued in, he saw her face turn scarlet and her eyes widen. At this sudden turn in events, he promptly disappeared. Hopefully she would think that she imagined something.

Sakura couldn't believe what had just happened. Kakashi had seen her in just her underwear. And not just any underwear. He saw her in the least modest underwear she had ever worn. She was mortified. She reluctantly allowed Ino to convince her to spend way more than she had wanted on three sets of bras and panties, and even more so purchased the red ensemble that Kakashi had spotted her in.

"Now we need to stop by a clothing store and get you something to wear besides those sweats and joggers of yours. You've even been training in loose clothing. You're getting a new wardrobe today." Ino rambled on, ignoring Sakura's dazed look.

"But―"

"No buts, Sakura. I'm serious. All of Konoha is sick and tired of your lack of effort. What's the point of going to see a doctor if she isn't hot as fuck?" Ino slyly smiled, pressing her cleavage together with her arms.

Sakura rolled her eyes in exasperation, already beginning to forget the incident between her and her ex-sensei. "Because they need medical attention?"

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto's blonde head popped up as he gave her a big hug, swinging her around. Sakura laughed, begging him to let her go.

When he finally set her down, he grinned and pointed to Sasuke with his thumb. "Me and the teme are going to Ichiraku's, wanna come?"

As Sakura began to accept, Ino pulled her away. "No way, Naruto. Sakura is coming with me. I am forcing her to redo her wardrobe because she is embarrassing to be around."

"Ino-pig!"

"It's true, you loser."

Sakura sighed. She'd been doing a lot of that recently. "I'm going to have no money after this."

Naruto interjected excitedly. "The ANBU exams are being held at the end of this month! Don't worry, Sakura-chan, your pay will go up when you pass!"

Sakura didn't have time to reply before Ino began to drag her down the street, cheerily calling out goodbyes to the two shinobi that were left behind.

When Sakura flopped down on her bed at seven o'clock that night, she didn't wake up for another sixteen hours.

Well, that's it for now. I really enjoyed writing this. Not sure when the next chapter will be out, but please tell me what you think. I didn't want Kakashi and Sakura to start off as immediately liking each other. Otherwise, I think it would be a bit creepy. It implies that Kakashi has always seen Sakura that way and ew. So yeah.

Thank you!