Work Text
Friday
“Good evening, Kakashi-sama. Please follow me.” The host gave a bow, and Kakashi sighed but followed dutifully. Five years into his role as Konoha’s sixth Hokage, he had grown weary of admonishing people’s insistence of referring to him so formally.
He still protested with those closest to him, but had grudgingly accepted it from the local merchants and workers among the village.The host brought him toward the back of the restaurant to the booth he now frequented every Friday evening after hanging his robe and hat up for the day. It was the perfect spot for such a meeting: the waitstaff were professional and discreet, the booth offered both privacy and comfort, and the food was as delightful as the conversation with his table mate.From across the room, he could see a firm calf peeking under the table, indicating she was already there and waiting for him. When he slid into the seat opposite her, the smile she offered him filled him with excitement: She definitely had something to share.“I already ordered for us,” she told him, then took up her glass of wine. His own glass was already filled and waiting, so he took it up as well.“Are we celebrating this evening?”“We are,” she confirmed. “Iruka and Ayame are on a date as we speak, and it isn’t at Ichiraku.”“And no interference from Naruto?” Kakashi inquired.“Hinata has him busy, so no chance. I made sure of it.” Sakura lifted her glass and held it out toward him to toast. “To another win under our belts.”Kakashi pulled down his mask with one hand while the other held out his glass to meet hers. Their satisfied smiles matched as their glasses clinked together.“To difficult but necessary work,” he added, and she laughed in delight then took a sip of her wine.Kakashi did the same, noting she had picked one of his favorite white wines; Sakura was as gifted at observation as Shikamaru, and it was only slightly annoying to Kakashi it had taken him so long to notice. He could have used her in many more covert operations before she rose among the ranks at the hospital. As one of the head medical specialists in Konoha, he could no longer send her out on the field without incurring Tsunade’s wrath.His mask back in place and his glass returned to the table, he leaned back and considered her. “Do we have a new target, or are we going to wait until Iruka and Ayame have a few more dates?”Sakura waved her hand in dismissal, and Kakashi understood. Given their track record, Iruka and Ayame were likely well on their way to coupledom.Naruto and Hinata. Ino and Sai. Genma and Shizune. Izumo and Kotetsu. Tenzō and Tenten. And now Iruka and Ayame.He and Sakura were good at matchmaking. As a team, they were five for five with no failure in sight.“I do have someone in mind,” Sakura admitted. Kakashi watched as her eyes lowered to the table, her fingers carefully caressing the stem of her glass. “I’d like your honest thoughts though. She may be our most difficult match yet.”Kakashi leaned forward in interest, resting his chin on the top of his hands. “Please, keep talking.”By the time their dinner arrived, Sakura had laid out the reasons why Kurenai should be their next target. Kakashi was, admittedly, reluctant at first; loyalty to Asuma and protectiveness for Mirai made him bristle at the thought of Kurenai coupling up with someone new. But Sakura made a compelling case.“Mirai is old enough now to know the difference between her father and another man in her mother’s life. Shikamaru and Kurenai have made sure no one would ever replace Asuma as Mirai’s father,” she reasoned. “And it’s been—so long. Surely Kurenai must be lonely at times.”“Kurenai and Asuma were quite dedicated to each other. And she hasn’t indicated—“Sakura tilted her head, curled her hand under her chin and gave him a sly look. “Are you that much of a romantic?” She asked, and he felt his ears burn.“Maa—Sakura, I don’t know about all that.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t know if Kurenai would be open to marrying someone else.”“Oh, we don’t need to consider marriage,” Sakura dismissed. “But a nice man who will spoil her and bring her on dates—wouldn’t it be best for us to sift through the men of Konoha and find someone worthy of her affection? I doubt Asuma would want her to be alone her whole life.”Kakashi wasn’t one to speak on behalf of the dead, but he knew Asuma would want what was best for Kurenai. He supposed someone to spend time with was within reason.But who could come close to Asuma in her eyes?When he posed that question, Sakura, who usually had a list ready for their matchmaking schemes, merely sighed.“I was hoping you would have some suggestions,” she admitted, then shoved a dumpling into her mouth rather aggressively.“The pairs are your expertise, not mine.”“Do you think I should ask someone from Kurenai’s team? They may have some ideas of the type of guy Kurenai may find attractive—“Kakashi shook his head. Asking someone from that team felt like a dead end. “I think the better way to go about this would be to ask Asuma’s team. Who do they think possesses some of Asuma’s best qualities?”Sakura’s eyes lit up. “Good idea. I’ll check with Ino next week. Would you broach the topic with Shikamaru?”Kakashi scoffed. There wasn’t a chance in hell he was going to talk to Shikamaru about matchmaking. “No, but I will ask Choji.”“We have a plan then.” Sakura swiped another dumpling and chewed it carefully this time. “We’ll meet next Friday with two candidates. Both of us.”Kakashi didn’t miss the emphasis. “Alright,” he relented. It was easier to let Sakura have her way than face her wrath. He was overdue for a routine medical exam and avoiding it as long as possible meant remaining in her good graces.The first phase of their new plan in place, they enjoyed the rest of their dinner work-free. For his part, Kakashi did most of the listening, happy to watch Sakura’s face light up with enthusiasm as she spoke of topics that shifted from a new local food mart opening up to the upgrades she was making in her apartment. He shared a bit of his own exploits from the week while she enjoyed dessert, and then he put their meal on the Tower’s primary budget—something he enjoyed doing because it looked as though he had paid the bill, but it only served to frustrate Shikamaru and Shizune when they balanced the books at the month’s end.Darkness had fallen by the time they left the restaurant, and although Sakura was well-past needing protection, Kakashi walked her home anyway. During their fifteen minute stroll, they finally touched on some work matters as if they were airing them out so they didn’t carry them into sleep. They said their goodnights at the start of her walkway, and then Kakashi began to meander to the main path to head home, all the while aware of three pairs of eyes carefully watching him. Since they posed no threat, he let them continue entertaining their curiosity.From their position in the trees a few meters away, Ino and Tenten shared an exasperated sigh as they watched Kakashi stroll away from Sakura’s home without a care in the world. Beside them, Sai was fussing over the drawing; the nearby streetlight lacked sufficient light for him to work.“Those two are never going to get together if they keep their focus on pairing up everyone else,” Ino lamented. “We need to intervene.”
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Monday
When Monday rolled around and Sakura finished her early shift at the hospital, she immediately hurried over to the Yamanaka flower shop to interrogate seek out Ino’s opinion on someone who might have some of her old sensei’s personality traits. She fully expected to see both Sai and Ino as she entered the shop—Sai was usually helping with new inventory or sketching in the corner—but only her best friend was present.Knowing flattery would get her everywhere with Ino, she wasted no time laying it on thick. “Ino, I’ve racked my brain with this problem. I need your advice.”Ino peeked her head out from behind a large bunch of wrapped lilies. “What kind of problem?”“A dating problem.” Sakura watched Ino’s eyebrows shoot up toward her hairline.
Got her.
“You’ve come to the right place, of course,” Ino replied quickly. She carefully set aside her bunched flowers onto the countertop. “Do you need to know the best place for a discreet date? Oh! You need help with outfit ideas, don’t you? Well—”“Not for me, Pi—Ino.” Sakura barely managed to keep her tone sweet as her ire rose. As if she would need Ino’s advice on an outfit for a date!“Oh.” Ino pouted.“Anyway.” Sakura waved her hand as if to push both the previous idea and Ino’s clear disappointment away. “Who do you think might be a good match for Kurenai-sensei?”“Asuma-sensei,” Ino responded immediately, her face serious.Sakura sighed. She knew this might be a sensitive topic, but it had been years. “Come on, Ino. You know Asuma-sensei wouldn’t want her to be lonely.”Ino leaned forward, one hand moving to her hip as the other lifted to point an angry finger at Sakura. “I know he wouldn’t, Forehead. But I’m not going to betray him by trying to find a replacement!”Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes. This talk of betrayal felt very similar to the guilt she had to talk Kakashi out of on Friday evening. That she needed to help people deal with such feelings baffled her. Did everyone expect Kurenai to remain alone forever because Asuma was killed? Would everyone feel the same if their own partner died?“If Sai died, would you never show interest in another person for the rest of your life?”“Well—” Ino worried her bottom lip between her teeth as she thought for a few moments. “I wouldn’t get married again.” Another pause. “Probably.”And with that admission of hypocrisy, the saccharine left Sakura’s tone completely. “And that’s why the word I used was dating. So, a little help here, Pig!”She sat down on the stool nearest the counter where Ino was still standing and glaring at her. “Who has the same good qualities as Asuma-sensei?”It felt like a win when Ino finally dropped her hands from her hips and sat on one of the stools on the other side of the counter. She leaned her elbows on the table in front of her and seemed to give the idea some serious thought.“He would need to be cool,” she offered, and Sakura could hear the reluctance—and sadness—still lingering in Ino’s voice.“Of course. Asuma-sensei was very cool,” Sakura agreed. She could work with ‘cool.’“And smart. But no sense of fashion. Kind, but not in an obvious way. Easy-going—”Sakura nodded along as Ino continued her list of criteria, eliminating potential candidates in her head. For half a beat, she wished she and Kakashi hadn’t played matchmaker for Genma and Shizune so early; Genma held a lot of Asuma’s most important qualities.Sakura was still wondering who else she considered ‘cool’ when Ino’s expression changed. She watched as an idea sparked Ino’s interest, and then her smile widened in triumph.“You thought of someone?!” Sakura asked, leaning forward over the countertop.“Yes!”“Who?!” Maybe she and Kakashi could plan a meet up between Kurenai and Ino’s suggested candidate this week. This was going to be easier than she had anticipated!“Kakashi-sensei,” Ino announced proudly, and Sakura slammed her fist down on the counter to resist punching Ino in the face.Although he had initially told Sakura otherwise, Kakashi ultimately decided it best to broach the topic of Kurenai’s potential matches with Shikamaru. His assistant had grown close with both Kurenai and Mirai in the wake of Asuma’s death; in Kakashi’s mind, there was no better person to assess a potential partner outside of asking Kurenai herself.The dilemma was how to bring the whole thing up.“Good Morning!” He greeted when he entered Shikamaru’s office with that afternoon’s mission assignments and it sounded lame even to his own ears. He hoped Shikamaru was in a giving mood; after all, there was a first time for everything.“The answer’s no.”Guess not. Shikamaru hadn’t even bothered to look up from his desk, and Kakashi briefly mulled over the idea that he might be the least-respected leader in history. “I haven’t asked anything,” he pointed out, doing his best to look wounded.This time, Shikamaru looked up to openly glare at Kakashi. “Doesn’t matter. I can smell one of your silly plots. Leave me out of it.”Kakashi raised his hands in surrender. Maybe a threat would work better. “You got me. But if you don’t want to help me with suggestions of potential romantic matches for Kurenai, I guess I’ll have to tell Sakura you won’t cooperate.”He watched with glee as Shikamaru grimaced. As annoying as Kakashi knew he was, Sakura’s persistence was unmatched and much more annoying. Shikamaru would rather avoid it.“You’re playing a dangerous game,” Shikamaru warned, and the comment caught Kakashi off guard.He raised a brow. “Oh? Do you think Kurenai will be angry?” It was, admittedly, one of the many reasons why he’d tried to talk Sakura out of this attempt. Kurenai was a traditionalist and a dedicated woman, and he was of the impression she was focused on raising Mirai, not finding a potential love interest.Of course, that logic had only encouraged Sakura, who had given him an unnecessary earful about how women were more than capable of having interests and relationships while still being a good parent.By the end of the evening, Sakura had doubled-down on her insistence that Kurenai would be their next target, and Kakashi had surrendered to his fate. Where Sakura led, he would follow.Shikamaru scoffed at him. “You’ve got bigger problems than Kurenai.”Ah. Well…yes, but he wasn’t going to admit that.“I have no idea what you mean,” Kakashi feigned ignorance.Shikamaru only offered a pointed look in response. “Better figure it out before you run out of people to pair up.”Kakashi grimaced under his mask and looked back down at the mission assignments. He knew when he’d been bested.“Hmm, is that so? I’ll think about it, then,” he offered as he dropped the assignments on Shikamaru’s desk and turned back to the door. It was time to make his retreat.“Pig! Be serious.”Ino glared down at the crack Sakura had created in her countertop and then back to Sakura herself. Her voice was surprisingly calm when she spoke again. “You're paying to repair that. And I am serious. Kakashi-sensei fits a lot of my criteria.”“He does not!” Sakura was a little embarrassed by the pitch of her voice as she folded her arms across her chest, but she was annoyed.Ino raised the fingers of one hand as she ticked off some of the criteria. “He’s around Kurenai-sensei’s age. He’s kind, and smart, and even if you don’t think he’s cool, a lot of others do, both within and outside of the village.”Sakura felt her face heat up. “I never said I didn’t think he was cool,” she muttered, making sure to shift her gaze to anywhere but Ino. Of course Kakashi had an element of cool to him: he was strong, and clever…dangerous, powerful, and the mask gave him an aura of mystery—and his aloofness was sometimes less infuriating and more—Sakura swatted that train of thought away. All of those things were besides the point. Kakashi would be a terrible choice for Kurenai.“Kakashi-sensei isn’t—” she began, ready to argue even though she didn’t have all the evidence thought out yet.Unfortunately, Ino wasn’t interested. “Just admit I solved your problem, Sakura. You can suggest it to Kakashi-sensei and use the time you two usually spend scheming—”“We don’t scheme!”“—to plan a nice date for Kurenai-sensei. She deserves that.”Sakura snapped her mouth shut at that. Kurenai-sensei did deserve a nice time; that was exactly why Sakura had thought of her in the first place.But Kakashi? There had to be someone else. She simply had to do more digging.“I’ll see you later, Pig.” Sakura left Ino to her flowers, feeling thoroughly ruffled and unsure why.Sai came out from the back room and leaned against the open door frame once Sakura had left the flower shop and was out of sight. The exchange he had overheard between the two women confused him.“I thought you were trying to get Kakashi and Sakura together?”Ino spun around to face him, a wide smile across her face. “That is exactly what we’re doing, Dear. And after this, it won’t be long before it happens. There’s no way Sakura is going to set Kakashi-sensei up with anyone.”“Ah, I see. You’re using jealousy.”Ino nodded. “Mm, yes, but we won’t need to go too far with it. Sakura just needs a little needling to pay attention to her own feelings.”Sai could see that, he supposed. But Sakura was one person in this plot. “What about Kakashi? Are you going to pretend to set Sakura up with someone?”Ino snorted and picked up the flowers she had abandoned earlier. “Oh, we don’t need to worry about Kakashi-sensei. He’s already completely devoted to her. We only need Sakura to see it.”Sai hummed thoughtfully. While he wasn’t worried—he had no care one way or the other if Sakura and Kakashi ended up together—he had some concerns about this plan. There seemed to be a lot of room for error and misunderstanding between the involved parties.Of course, he didn’t share that observation with his girlfriend. While he would probably always be a bit in the dark with relationships of all types, even he knew the quickest way to a problem of his own was to doubt Ino’s idea.He liked both Kakashi and Sakura just fine, but he wasn’t willing to risk Ino’s ire for anyone’s sake.
Wednesday, Early Afternoon
Kakashi wasn’t able to catch up with Choji right away, which left him a little worried; if he didn’t come with at least two candidates to dinner on Friday, he was going to get an earful from Sakura. Thankfully, the Akimichi clan head was attending a meeting later that day which meant Kakashi could intercept him before he left the Tower.To kill time and get away from his growing list of political headaches, he intercepted Tenzō for some lunch during a break in the workday to see if his kohai had any useful suggestions.“Are things going well with you and Tenten?” He had asked innocently after they had ordered food. If they had broken up, it wouldn’t technically have to go in his and Sakura’s loss column and Tenzō could be one of Kakashi’s two names.“We’re doing fine,” Tenzō replied cheerily. “Thanks for suggesting I visit her shop. Next week we’re going to head out to Suna to examine a sword collection she— ”Kakashi nodded while Tenzō carried on discussing their plans, making a mental note to anticipate a request of leave for next week. He couldn’t recall the last time Tenzō had requested time off, so he wouldn’t give him too much of a hard time.Their food arrived and Kakashi waited until Tenzō was focused on his meal to drop his mask and take a few bites of his cutlet.“It’s not like you to engage in this kind of small talk.”“I’ve been lectured on the need to—” Kakashi paused to consider the correct word-choice—“inquire on how people are doing outside of work situations,” he admitted.Translation: Sakura had lectured him a few months ago on doing a better job of maintaining his friendships instead of “burrowing deeper into his books.” He had been affronted at the suggestion that anything would be better than reading Tactics at the time, but Sakura had continued to badger him until he agreed to go out to dinner with her one Friday evening after work.And that was how this whole thing started. If Tenzō couldn’t help him with the current matchmaking plot, then Kakashi would use him to show Sakura he was “being a good friend.”“Sakura-chan sure has you wound up, Senpai.” Tenzō chuckled. Kakashi frowned in annoyance: That now made two of his close allies making fun of him. Shikamaru having the upperhand on him was one thing; Tenzō was his precious kohai that he enjoyed annoying. Thankfully, Tenzō was much easier to punish for his transgression than Shikamaru.A few minutes later, Kakashi watched from the safety of a tree a few meters away as Tenzō fumed, then reluctantly pulled out his wallet to pay their bill.“You’re a cheapskate, Senpai!” Tenzō shouted in the street, causing a passersby to startle.From his hiding spot, Kakashi chuckled and opened his book for a small break from other people. An important meeting with the Konoha clan heads, council members, and a delegation from Tea was starting in the next hour, and he had a feeling it would be a long, tiring one.