The Proposal

Itachi really tried to be reasonable about everything, as much as possible at the very least. But Hatake Kakashi was making this impossible for him. Why the man felt the need to be such a pain, Itachi couldn't fathom. The Kakashi he had known during his early days in ANBU had been easy going, friendly and laid back. The Kakashi he was getting to know now was irritating, deliberately infuriating and just a pain in the ass, pardon the language.

The man has just managed to make popping up at very inopportune moments an art form, he'd perfected it. And this art form he used, frequently. Sakura, dear, sweet, innocent Sakura, of course simply enjoyed the sudden interest her usually aloof team leader took in her training. Itachi wasn't as blind, or as naïve, he took Kakashi's interest for exactly what it was – provocation.

The Copy Ninja had somehow sensed Itachi's less than innocent interest in the young kunoichi and was now making a game of it. A game where he popped out of nowhere, at any given moment, sometimes staying concealed until he could interrupt something more interesting than meditation or sparring and sometimes just appearing behind Itachi with the clear intention of scaring him. Itachi had yet to fall for the tricks, but the older man was persistent and was clearly taking some kind of perverse pleasure in tormenting him.

And now there was a huge problem Itachi had no idea how to solve.

Sakura had just been soundly evicted from her tiny little apartment on some unreasonable grounds that neither of the three of them could make sense of. She paid rent on time, wasn't loud, didn't have any pets and kept her apartment clean and tidy. And she was only there mostly to sleep, as she was a busy girl, up and about the majority of the day. The only reason Sakura could think of was that the landlady's niece had been there looking for a room a couple of days ago and she'd simply been thrown out to accommodate said niece.

Sakura had filed a complaint and Itachi had no doubts that the Hokage would punish the landlady severally, but the problem still persisted. Sakura had no place to go that night.

Naruto had left the village on some quest with Jiraiya and Ino was out on a mission. To make matters worse, Sasuke had also taken a solo mission and would be gone for at least two weeks which left Itachi with no excuses he could use to invite Sakura to stay in the Compound. His parents wouldn't mind, they were both very fond of her, especially his mother, but without Sasuke there, it would be extremely awkward.

Then Kakashi made a proposal.

"You can stay with me for a while, Sakura," he'd said with that unflappable smile of his that intimidated all enemies and charmed everyone else. It really was infuriating how he managed to be so expressive while covering 80% of his face with a mask.

"Eh? Can I really? Wouldn't I bother you, sensei?"

"Not at all," that damn smile again. "We're both out most of the day, so it's not like we're gonna crowd each other. You can have the bed; I mostly crash on the couch anyway. And I know you don't mind the dogs."

Sakura was glowing by then and Itachi knew he'd lost. What exactly he'd lost, he had no idea, but the Copy Ninja had one upped him. Again.

Suddenly, Itachi had the frightening realization that if Kakashi decided to become a rival for Sakura's affections (Lee's words), he'd lose. The way she'd just laughed and launched herself at the older man pretty much said it all. Kakashi may not be in it for real, may only be toying with Itachi for some perverse reason, but if he ever got serious it'd be over. He'd snatch Sakura away in a heartbeat…

Like his Uchiha pride would ever let that happen. Game on, Hatake-sempai. May the best man win. And Itachi would make damn sure that he would be the absolutely best one, no questions asked.

AN: So yeah, misleading title, but that was kinda intentional. Maybe. Totally. Lol.

Ahem. Anyway, here an installment full of Kakashi. I hope no one is surprised I took this route. To clear few things up. Kakashi really just is screwing with Itachi's head. You could say he'd testing him. In my head-canon Naruto and Sasuke take the in-your-face, really aggressive approach while fighting off Sakura's admirers with a stick and a kunai or two. Kakashi, a man whose name and face (mask on and all), are enough to scare lesser men witless likes to play mind games. He's close to Sakura and he's not afraid of using that to his advantage. Don't worry though, he'll back down soon enough, hint, hint.

By the way, I decided to keep the one-shots, it'd be too much work to make it a more-chapter series right now in the middle and I'd lose all the wonderful reviews. So as of right now, this series has a name. How the mighty have fallen. I'll include it in the summary with the next installment.

Aside from this little series I'm working on a multi-chapter GaaSaku piece that I'm gonna start posting as soon as I get it written at least half-way. I've been working on it (summary, research, rough chapter outlines and some dialogue scenes, plus actually writing) for almost two months and am writing the fifth chapter now. With as much time as I spent planning it, I feel like I have a good grasp on how my characters are supposed to evolve as the plot progresses. Now I just have to really sit down with my laptop for more than 30 minutes at a time and concentrate on writing. I hope some of you will give it a chance once it comes out, it's gonna be pretty long too, around 30 chapters all with an average word count of 3-5k.

Side note: Wherever in the world you're reading this, I hope you keep safe. #StayAtHome #StaySafe #StayHealthy