This will be a series of one shots and drabble pieces. Updates will be when I feel like it and ratings will go from PG-13 to Mature. Please, when reading, pay close attention to the chapter titles as the rating for that chapter will be mentioned in it. I'm not going to be sticking an author's note up for every Mature article. If you notice it says "MATURE" and you still choose to read it ... it's all on you.

On that note, hope everyone enjoys! Thanks for reading!

Kakashi very nearly sloshed his drink all over the counter when someone suddenly decided his back was the perfect place to drape their self.

"Hi, Kakashi-sensei! I didn't know you'd be out tonight," Sakura called cheerfully over the din of the bar crowd, flashing a brilliantly bright smile as she slipped into the empty seat next to him.

"Yo," he replied, though with a good deal less enthusiasm than his counterpart. In all honesty, he'd never intended to take part in the Hokage's birthday. It just so happened that the event was taking place at his favorite bar, that was all. And, judging by the way Sakura had settled herself in the chair and ordered an incredibly pink colored drink with about a million cherries in it (okay... it was closer to twelve than a million, but that was twelve too many in his opinion), his idea of having a quiet night to himself with a tumbler of whiskey was out of the question.

"So, what are you drinking?" she asked as she slowly popped a cherry, stem and all, between her lips.

Kakashi watched the action, oddly fascinated by the way she pushed it between her lips and gave it a quick suck before letting it disappear. "Um ... whiskey. Want some?" He tipped his glass toward her and she wrinkled her nose distastefully.

"No, thanks. It tastes like alcohol."

"Alcohol is supposed to taste like alcohol."

Smiling as she plucked a perfectly knotted cherry stem from her mouth and set it on a napkin, Sakura took another cherry from her drink before sliding it closer to him. "Want some of this?"

If he didn't know any better, he would have sworn she was offering a little bit more than a sip of her fruity looking drink. Kakashi shook his head and brought the whiskey to his masked lips for a healthy gulp. "I'll pass," he replied, watching curiously as yet another knotted stem was placed on the napkin.

Sakura shrugged and said, "Suit yourself," before wrapping her lips around the straw and giving it a deep suck.

And suddenly, he was very jealous of that girly drink. Kakashi shifted uneasily as she ate another cherry, her tongue flicking over her lips to get the last of the stickiness from them. "Is there a reason why you keep doing that?"

"What?" she asked innocently. Too bad for her he knew she was anything but.

"That," he repeated, motioning with his hand toward her lightly working jaw. "The stem tying."

"Oh, this?" she asked around the stem peeking between her lips. She shrugged and placed it next to its knotted comrades. "Well, I made a bet with Ino that I could tie a hundred cherry stems in one night, and she said it's not possible."

The things kids did these days. "So, how many have you done so far?"

"Umm... About twenty-five."

"And your tongue's not cramping yet?"

"Nope," she answered with a proud grin and another cherry stem.

He had to admit... that was pretty impressive. "Do you get bonus points for double knotting them?"

Sakura wrinkled her nose and poked his arm playfully as she added yet another stem to her pile. "You can't double knot a cherry stem! That's impossible!"

Kakashi arched a brow and regarded her levelly. "How do you know?" he challenged.

"Because it just is," she insisted stubbornly. "The stem's far too short to get two knots out of it."

"I can do it."

"Yeah, right!"

Kakashi gave her a long, hard look and reached out to snag a cherry from her drink. Sakura's eyes narrowed suspiciously as he tugged his mask away, without taking it off, and popped the cherry into his mouth. Several seconds past where he got rid of the fruit portion (which tasted disgustingly fruit punchy due to the drink it'd just been in) and she watched him closely. Then, Kakashi pulled his mask away again, reached down ... and produced a perfectly double knotted cherry stem.

Sakura's jaw dropped in surprise as she took it from him, twirling the small bit of stem left between her fingers to see it from every angle.

Smirking, Kakashi leaned a little closer to her and said, "Care to see my next trick?"

He was being yanked off his bar stool and dragged into the women's bathroom before he could even finish explaining that his next trick was actually braiding the stems together.