A/N: Hey everyone! This is my first submission to the site. To be honest, I wrote this a year ago; but by the time it was done, Kakashi's birthday had already long passed, so I decided to wait another year before posting it. I'm really proud of this one, though. Normally I'm not a huge fan of Sasuke or Sakura, but writing them out seems to have cured that a little.
Anyway, I hope you guys love reading this just as much as I loved writing it! Reviews are rewarded with cake and love!
Birthday Surprise
"Hey, you guys know what today is, don't you?"
Naruto and Sasuke glanced at the pink-haired kunoichi. The three of them were currently waiting at the bridge for their sensei to show up.
"Um…Saturday?" Naruto replied dumbly. All his answer had earned him was a roll from the eyes of both of his teammates.
"She's talking about Kakashi-sensei's birthday, dobe," Sasuke said flatly.
Sakura nodded, "Yeah…so, what do you guys think?"
Naruto stared at her blankly, "About what?"
"About today!" Sakura's agitation was apparent in her voice by now. "I mean, he's remembered all of our birthdays so far this year…don't you think we should do something for him?"
"You mean like, get him a present, or something?"
"Now you're catching on!"
"He'd probably be happy enough with the fact that we remembered," Sasuke said. "We have training today; let's not waste our time with shopping for something useless. There's no point to it."
Sakura looked dejectedly at him, "Sasuke-kun…"
"Aw, 'c'mon! Don't be that way, Sasuke-teme! Besides, it's still going to be a few hours before Kakashi-sensei actually shows up!" Naruto pointed out. "It's not like we don't have time to waste. It beats standing around here, doesn't it?"
For once, Sasuke agreed with him.
"Hm, let's see…what does Kakashi-sensei like?"
Sakura thought hard as her eyes scanned each shop of Konoha's marketplace. Her mind traced itself back to when they first met their sensei, trying to remember if he mentioned anything in his introduction. She was disappointed to recall the fact that the only thing he really said about himself was his name.
Naruto's voice pulled her out of her thoughts, "What about that book he's always reading? He'd probably jump for joy if we got him the latest volume!"
"Oh yeah! I forgot about that!" Sakura exclaimed. She quickly spotted the nearest book store, and the three of them began their search.
They spent a good 30 minutes combing the entire shop from top to bottom. Kakashi's favorite little orange book was nowhere to be seen. Sakura was eventually getting fed up with their futile attempt, and grabbed the other two.
"I give up! Let's just ask someone if they even sell it here…"
"That's a good idea, Sakura-chan, but…" Naruto said thoughtfully, "do we even know what the book's title is?"
"Of course we know! It's Icha…um, Icha…Icha Icha something…"
"Paradise," Sasuke said in his usual monotone.
"That's right! 'Icha Icha Paradise!' You're the best, Sasuke-kun!"
"Hn."
They quickly found the check-out desk, and approached the nearest employee who didn't look like she had her hands full.
"Excuse me," Sakura said politely.
"Yes, dear? How can I help you?" She was a rather old looking woman, with bushy, light brown hair and a pair of glasses set neatly on the bridge of her nose. She had definitely been working here for a while, by the look of it.
"We were hoping you could help us find a book…"
"Certainly, dear! Reading is good for young minds, you know! I don't see very many young ones working as active readers these days."
Sakura smiled a little nervously, "Actually, it's not for us. We're getting it for our sensei."
The woman looked a little disappointed, "Oh, alright then. What title are you looking for?"
"You wouldn't happen to have the latest volume of Icha Icha paradise, would you?"
Suddenly, Sakura was beginning to get the feeling that she said the wrong thing. The woman's face began to redden dramatically with pure rage, and her bushy hair was frizzing in random directions. She was just barely able to control her shaking voice.
"I-I'm sorry, I'm afraid w-we don't sell that series here. This is more of a family book store, after all…"
"Oh…" Naruto replied, not quite catching onto the anger in her voice. "Then…would you know where it might be sold?"
That did it. "Why don't you just go tell your sensei to pick up the damn book himself! Honestly, making children buy something that is so completely inappropriate! What the hell is this world coming to?!" With that, she stormed off; muttering to herself about 'indecency of adults' the whole way.
The whole shop had heard the employee's little outburst. Heads were turned from all directions, staring at Team 7. Without a word, the three of them made their way out of the shop, and decided that they would never speak of this again.
"Well, that didn't work out too well…" Naruto said. The three shinobi were back to square one; the bridge. Their sensei still showed no sign of showing up anytime soon.
"You think?" Sakura replied sarcastically. Sighing, she continued, "Well, we can't give up yet. We just need to think of something else Sensei might have led on liking…"
"What about ramen?!" Naruto said excitedly. "Birthdays are always most special with bowl of Ichiraku's!"
"Baka, that's what you like!"
"Fine…"
The three of them stood in silence for a while. Each thinking of Kakashi's past actions in an attempt to find any hint of an interest.
"Oh, I have an idea!" Naruto said finally. "We'll just sneak into his apartment, and see if we can find anything! I'm sure he has stuff he likes lying around somewhere!"
Sakura frowned in agitation, "That's called breaking and entering! It's illegal!"
"Not if we don't get caught! Besides, this way we're also getting a little training done in the process!"
"But still…" the kunoichi looked to her other teammate. "What do you think, Sasuke-kun?"
Sasuke closed his eyes, "Why not?"
"What?!" Naruto and Sakura exclaimed, completely shocked by the Uchiha's answer.
"Like the dobe said; it's training. And if we find one of Kakashi-sensei's interests, it's basically killing two birds with one stone."
As much as Sakura wanted to disagree, she refused to let herself argue with Sasuke. So with that, Team 7 went off to find Kakashi's apartment.
"He's not here."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive. I don't see him anywhere."
"Just because you don't see someone, doesn't always mean that they're not there, dobe."
"Fine then, Sasuke-teme! You check!"
The three shinobi found themselves at the window of Kakashi's home. Sakura and Sasuke were standing on either side of it, while Naruto crouched low below it and peaked inside.
"Move," Sasuke ordered, pushing Naruto aside to scan the apartment himself.
"Anything?" Sakura asked.
"No, I don't sense his chakra at all."
The kunoichi nodded, "Right, then. Let's go in."
Carefully opening the window, Team 7 climbed into the apartment with absolute stealth. After cleaning up every trace of their entry, they began their search.
Sakura was a little surprised to find out how…small…their sensei's place was; It had a medium sized bedroom, a tiny bathroom, and a small kitchen with a wooden table sitting in the middle of it.
She had also taken notice to how bare it was. The only thing that wasn't an essential or weapon was a small bookshelf that held several volumes of the 'Icha Icha' series.
'I guess I can see how living alone can result into a small place,' she thought to herself as she looked at her teammates. 'Hm…I wonder if Naruto and Sasuke are the same way…'
"Ug…" Naruto complained. "We've searched his entire apartment already! There's nothing here!"
"You think?" Sasuke shot back. "Let's just head back to the bridge, it probably won't be much longer until sensei shows up. What a total waste of time."
"No," Sakura said, "I know what we can do, now."
The other two turned to look at her, noticing that her attention was on the picture frames that stood on Kakashi's night table.
"Really?!" the blonde exclaimed. "What is it?!"
Sakura smiled, "Follow me."
Kakashi stared at the large stone in front of him. His eye scanned over the same three names repeatedly; memorizing each stroke of kanji.
Uchiha Obito. Namikaze Minato. Rin.
Everytime he came here, the pain of losing them always seemed fresh. He remembered watching the process of each of their names being engraved. All three of those times, he had cried. He just sat there for an entire night and sobbed his heart out.
Sandaime would sometimes join him in his silent mourning. Every time, he had said the same thing.
"Kakashi, I know how much you miss them. But you just can't afford to come here for hours on end every day anymore. You have to live and let go! Besides, I know they wouldn't want to see you torturing yourself for their sake. It's not your fault."
He knew this. Especially since he had students now, he knew he needed to stop making his visits so frequent. But he felt like he wasn't honoring their memory unless he came every day. Deciding that he had spent enough time there, he bid his former team a silent farewell, and made his way to the bridge; trying to figure out what today's excuse was going to be.
Kakashi was surprised to see the bridge deserted when he arrived there.
'Did I tell them to meet me somewhere else?'
He leaned up against the railing of the bridge, and thought hard.
'No, I don't think so. I don't remember giving them the day off, either…Is there something special about today?'
That's when he remembered today's date; September 15th…His birthday.
Obito had always tried to prank him on his birthday. They were always really old or lame tricks, so Kakashi could usually see them coming. Rin baked him cakes, while Minato-sensei would do something really embarrassing (Like dancing around in the middle of a restaurant singing the 'Happy Birthday' song…really loudly…)
"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto's voice snapped the man out of his thoughts.
"There you guys are!" Kakashi said as he walked up to them. "I was beginning to wonder. I never get here before you, though, where were you three?"
Naruto flashed a wide, fox-like grin, "Making something for you!"
"For me?"
Sakura nodded, "Yup! We decided to do a little something special for you, since it's your birthday, and all."
Kakashi scratched the back of his head, "You didn't have to do that!"
"Don't be that way, sensei!" Naruto said happily. "You always remember ours!"
"So now we're doing the same for you!" With that, Sakura handed him a small envelope that appeared to be no more than a card.
Curious, Kakashi carefully tore open the envelope, and emptied its contents. All that was inside was a single photograph, but it was what was on the picture that made Kakashi go temporarily numb.
'This…this is…'
Naruto was standing in the middle of the three; dressed in a Jounin uniform with an oversized, white and red trench coat. Sakura stood on his left; wearing a lavender colored top, white shorts, and a brown, short haired wig. She also had two purple markings on either of her cheeks. Sasuke stood on his right; clad in a black jumpsuit with orange-rimmed edges. He had a pair of goggles around his neck, as well. They dressed up as his old teammates.
"Happy birthday, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto and Sakura said at the same time. Sasuke just smirked a little, and nodded.
Kakashi had an extremely huge impulse to hug his students; but so he wouldn't embarrass them, he gave them the most genuine smile that he had given anyone in a very long time.
"Thank you, guys…You're the best."
A/N: Well, that's it! Sorry guys, I have no idea what Rin's last name is...I decided to play it safe and not give her one.