Ain't That a Kick in The Head?

16 - Chez Guy

Sometime during the middle of Team Seven's after-mission treat, Kakashi-sensei stands up abruptly and signals for Sakura to follow him.

Uh oh, says Inner, looks like we're in trouble.

Shut up, Sakura snaps back at her. Though Inner may actually be right. Her fuck-up almost caused the mission to be a failure!

There's a feeling of light burning in her stomach as she jumps off of her stool and slips away.

Not that Sasuke or Naruto notice or anything, too busy arguing like they're married. Sigh. Sai does shoot her a curious look, to his credit.

Kakashi-sensei leads her to a nearby park where several Acadamy-age children are playing, supervised by their mothers. He sits down on a wooden bench on the perimeter of the playground and immediately flips his book open. Sakura opts to stand.

"Sensei, why are we at a park?"

Kakashi shrugs. "I was feeling sentimental, I suppose. The gang's all back together."

Sakura makes a small noise of contemplation.

Neither of them say anything else for several minutes as they observe laughing kids playing Ninja. Eventually, Kakashi stops pretending to read and cocks his head up at her. "Sakura, about the mission–"

Oh no–

God, how embarrassing–!

"I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei! I know I nearly failed the mission but–" she dips into a deep bow.

"Sakura," he cuts her off. "It is true your actions at the beginning of the mission were indeed reckless and could have cost the clients their lives."

Here it comes, she thinks.

"But," Kakashi-sensei continues, "They didn't. You came up with a plan on the fly in a crisis then executed that plan flawlessly. You took account of your team's strengths and weaknesses and devised a strategy to best utilize and cover for them."

She stops bowing and scrunches her eyebrows together. Sakura realizes she's being praised. "Sensei, it was just a C-rank..."

"A C-rank that was incorrectly ranked," he counters. "I truly believe that only because of your leadership did this mission succeed."

Sakura flushes. "You don't really mean that..."

"I do," says Kakashi with an eye-smile, "That's why I've recommended you for jounin."

Inner lets out a whoop. Hell yeah! We're the best! Cha!

Sakura, however, feels like her soul has left her body. In a good way. "Recommended? Like, past tense?"

"As soon as I filed the mission report."

"Oh," she says. Her chest feels like it's about to burst.

Kakashi stands up and places a hand on her head, ruffling her hair. "I'm proud of you, Sakura. You've done well."

"Yeah," she says. She feels like she's dreaming or something. Or like she might cry tears of joy. And also like she has to call Ino and tell her RIGHT NOW.

HELL YEAH, BITCHES!

They walk back to Ichiraku's. Sai smiles at her. With teeth. It's deeply unsettling and gives Sakura the impression he is displeased to have been left behind third-wheeling. Naruto, as usual, has consumed an inhuman amount of ramen, and Sasuke is.... there.

It'll take her a while to get used to that.

"Ugly has returned," Sai announces, and while usually she'd give him a couple bruises for that, Sakura's in such a good mood she thinks she'll let it slide.