A/N: Inspired when I was lurking on the KakaIru LiveJournal community (I really should consider getting an LJ myself) and found the scanlation of the special chapter about Team 7 trying to get Kakashi unmasked. Judging from the last panel, he's pretty damn hot under that thing, so here's my little blurb about it. No real pairings, unless you want to count a basic KakashixEveryone-he-comes-across. What exactly does he look like under the mask?
The title, BTW, is a pun on Kakashi thinking everyone else is acting "strange," and himself being a "stranger" to others.
I'd appreciate any comments you can give me. I'm still doing drabbles and one-shots right now, but hopefully I'll be able to start a serious chapter fic soon. Until then, -MeeLee
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
The Strange and the Stranger
BEGIN
He could not explain what was happening that day. He had merely decided to go for a walk in the morning, as he had no missions, but everyone had been looking at him differently. It wasn't a bad kind of different, mind you—but it was different. And it made him uneasy.
It started as soon as he stepped outside of his apartment. The old lady who always swept the hallways turned to give him her usual morning greeting—but today, she froze upon sight of him. He blinked as she spluttered and her face turned red, and he was about to ask her if she was having a heart attack when she grabbed her cleaning materials and sped out of sight.
Scratching his head at the strange behavior, he shrugged it off and slowly walked down the stairs and onto the streets of Konoha. He passed the Ichiraku ramen stand and, as expected, ran into Naruto there. Popping in to say hello, he was mildly surprised when the boy did not automatically start babbling to him; in fact, for perhaps the first time in his life, Naruto stared up at him, speechless. Slightly confused, he turned to Ayame to place an order—only to have her blush and swoon the instant they made eye contact. That bewildered him even more, and he left.
It wasn't long before he ran into Sakura and Ino, both carrying large bouquets of flowers, most likely meant for Sasuke. He greeted them with his usual "Yo," but was surprised when the girls did not respond. Instead, they were both staring rather intently at him, and as he watched the blood rush to their faces, he wondered whether or not there was a fever epidemic on the rampage through Konoha. Then suddenly both Sakura and Ino shoved their bouquets into his hands, stuttering, blushing and giggling as they retreated quickly around the corner.
Having no use for such lavish bouquets, he decided to go visit the memorial stone, where such flowers would be most appropriate. On the way there, he passed Hayate and Genma making their way slowly down the street in the opposite direction. Hayate was having another one of his massive coughing fits, and one could see the annoyance in Genma's usually apathetic expression as he dragged his friend along, probably either to Hayate's apartment or to the hospital. The younger jounin had the bad habit of refusing to take his medicine, after all.
He went over to them to see if they needed any help, and again something strange happened. Upon taking one look at him, Hayate stopped mid-cough. Genma swallowed his senbon whole. When both special jounin suddenly became occupied with strangely spontaneous nosebleeds, he quickly excused himself and continued on.
He passed the academy training grounds a few minutes later, where Iruka was teaching his students some basic taijutsu moves. Knowing it would do no harm to distract the teacher a bit since the students were so inexperienced, he stopped briefly and gave the chuunin his laidback "Yo." Iruka turned, a smile of greeting already beginning to form on his face, but froze when he caught sight of him. The smiling expression melted into something that could only be described as a holy-shit look, and the teacher was promptly nailed in the eye by a roundhouse kick. He would spend the next week in the hospital, nursing his injured eye and his constant nosebleeds.
Watching as the children surrounded their fallen teacher, he sighed, still confused, and continued on. Eventually he reached the training grounds, where Gai was currently doing his nine-hundred-ninety-ninth pushup. Almost instinctively his steps turned away, but it was too late—Gai had already spotted him. Instantly he prepared for another barrage of eternal-rival, springtime-of-youth speeches, but instead was greeted with a scream of "Cheating! That's cheating!" before Gai promptly lost his concentration and collapsed to the ground.
Deciding not to stick around, he hurried off, finally finding himself standing in front of the memorial stone. And as he laid the two bouquets before the solemn black tablet, he noticed something strange in his reflection on its polished surface.
Well…shit. Hatake Kakashi had forgotten to put on his mask that morning.
FINI