Skin Gets In The Way
Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto..?
Author's Notes: I am highly influenced by the doujin by Sakura Date/25Ans, so if you've read them, keep them in mind I guess... and if you haven't read them before, I highly recommend them. This is just for fun... if you have a problem with this sort of pairing, don't read it. Reviews and Favourites are greatly, greatly appreciated.
P.S. The characters are 'speaking' in Japanese. Because I dislike their English voice actors…
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It wasn't difficult to see. It wasn't difficult to guess. Not from an adult's perspective, anyway. The difference between grown-ups and children are as clear as day, yet the transition in between may be difficult or nearly impossible to understand…
Chapter One
It was mid-day and Hatake Kakashi was relaxing beneath the shade of a large tree while enjoying his favorite "romance" book. His grey, messy hair blew slightly in the flower-scented wind that always seemed to be present in Konoha; his appearance was unique compared to other ninja, as he wore his head-band lopsided, covering his left eye, and wore a cloth mask that hid his nose and mouth from view. The one eye that was exposed had a constant look of lethargy that made him appear to be always bored or tired with his surroundings… which usually wasn't too far from the truth.
He wasn't sure when it started or how the feelings originated exactly. He could only guess that they had always subconsciously existed since the day the two of them first met. He considered that day very important to him. Though he would never outright admit it, it had been the first time in a long while that he'd actually felt some hope for the Land of Fire. The day he found a group of genin that he finally saw potential in.
Across from their sensei sitting in the sunny part of the glade was his "team", of which consisted of the loud-mouth Uzumaki Naruto, the love-sick teen Haruno Sakura, and his personal favorite, Uchiha Sasuke. Sasuke sat partially away from the two, eating quietly by himself, while Naruto and Sakura argued furiously over something Kakashi guessed was ridiculous and juvenile.
The three kids were all eating boxed lunches, taking a break from training. Today's had been about practicing chakra control- a standard lesson, one that Sasuke had already practically mastered with just a little push from his teacher. Sakura, as Kakashi understood from observation, got the basics but still had trouble in application ..and… well, Naruto still had a long, long way to go.
Though he knew it was unfair to play favorites, he couldn't help but to do so; he knew from the very start that Sasuke was different from other children he'd tried to teach. The boy had impressed him in ways that even jounin never had before. The boy had nearly caught a bell during their very first examination, and was already skilled enough to use advanced jutsu. Not to mention that Kakashi had soon learned that he was very intelligent and clever- but mysteriously withdrawn, living within himself and apart from other children his own age.
Not to mention he'd immediately noticed how adorably small, sullen and cute the boy was.
It made Kakashi want to get to know him more... personally.
Kakashi looked up from his book as he noticed that Sasuke had abruptly stood up and had begun walking away from the group and into the forest alone. He couldn't help but feel a small ounce of curiosity at this.
"Sasuke kun!? Where are you going?" Sakura called after him, but Sasuke ignored her. The pink-haired girl seemed to become more and more distressed the further inside the forest Sasuke walked.
"Who cares about him? We can train by ourselves, right Kakashi sensei?" Naruto asked, striking a dynamic 'believe it' pose. Sakura smacked him across the head, yelling at the top of her lungs, "You're just jealous because you'll never be as popular or as skilled a ninja as Sasuke is!"
"Ow! What are you talking about? I'm a thousand-times better ninja than Sasuke is!"
"Yeah right!"
"I'll prove it!"
"Shut up Naruto! Ew don't touch me!!"
The two of them carried on like that for several more minutes, leaving Kakashi to his own devices. He slowly stood up from his resting place beneath the tree and turned the opposite direction, easing his way into the forest to avoid attracting the two bickering junior-ninjas' attention.
Searching without really knowing why, he walked through the forest vaguely in the direction of where Sasuke had headed. The further Kakashi ventured within the forest the more he began to sense the scent of water and realized that Sasuke probably went towards the river.
He wasn't even sure why he was looking for the kid- he usually considered whatever others did not his business.
Sure enough he began to hear the calming sounds of running water and slight splashes up ahead.
Pushing tree branches aside, he stepped out onto the riverbank and spotted Sasuke bathing several feet away. Kakashi was taken aback at realizing that his pupil was completely naked. Smoothly, he stepped behind the closest tree, glad of his stealthiness and that Sasuke hadn't seen or heard him in his moment of surprise.
He watched beyond the tree in secret, feeling very sneaky and somewhat pleased with himself. He couldn't take his eyes off his pretty, slender body, his pale, smooth, wet skin that knew no imperfection. His silky pitch black hair, dripping and bedraggled over his tiny shoulders... He wondered briefly to himself what it would be like to dig his fingers into that black hair, to have his own flesh touching and moving up against that soft skin...
Kakashi shook his head, confused as to whether he wanted his imagination to keep wandering or not.
Despite himself, he still stared fully, examining and taking in fully every part of Sasuke he could see from behind. His pretty shoulder blades, his small, tight rear, his perfectly thin legs and arms- he just couldn't stop.
Though shortly his attention was grabbed by the sound of a great rustling farther behind him and feet shuffling noisily through the fallen leaves- only to then hear Naruto's high-pitched voice yelling, "Kakashi senseeeei!" at the top of his lungs.
Kakashi winced, and inside the intense urge to break Naruto's neck suddenly felt much stronger than usual. Of course Sasuke immediately turned around towards the voice, his black eyes searching suspiciously at the tree line where Kakashi now hid.
Kakashi would have been worried about being found out, except that Sasuke was looking painfully embarrassed and watched as the boy plopped down into the water so that no one could see him below the waist, his face blushing pink.
Revealing himself, he made his way onto the river bank in front of Sasuke and playfully covered his eyes with his hands.
"iie iie, I can't see a thing! I promise." He said in a smooth voice.
The hint of lecherous sarcasm in his voice only caused Sasuke to become even more embarrassed, sinking further into the water and covering his face with his hair and hands. "Kakashi sensei..."
Kakashi opened his eye and became slightly more serious. "Sasuke kun, it might be a good idea to get out of the water. I doubt you want your friends finding you like this, especially not a girl like Sakura…"
Sasuke thought it over with himself, looking down in contemplation at his reflection in the water. Then he looked up at Kakashi with a small, humiliated pout that only secretly made Kakashi want to grab him and hug him and pet him and other such things.
"Sasuke kun.. if you're still self conscious about your body, I won't look," Kakashi said, covering his face with his hands but spreading his fingers so that he could still give Sasuke a daring, teacher-knows-best-look, "If that's what you really want."
Still blushing and adorably wet, Sasuke shook his head in defiance, beads of water going everywhere. "I'm not self conscious! Why would I be? I'm not!"
The Jounin laughed softly and rested his hand on his hip. "You needn't be ashamed, Sasuke kun. We're both boys, right? Is there something you're embarrassed about?"
Sasuke, though still looking slightly hesitant, still had some pride and wouldn't admit that he was 'self conscious' after Kakashi had said it in such a tone, and got up from the water suddenly and waded back to the shore. He marched right up to Kakashi, defiantly naked and wet and Kakashi couldn't help his wandering eyes on every part of him.
The kid had absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about from where he was looking.
Sasuke put his hands on his hips, trying to look very confident; though his underlying modesty made this painfully and, sadly, adorably transparent, "I'm not 'self conscious' or anything like that. I just.."
Sasuke jumped in surprise (or fear) as he heard Naruto and Sakura's voices yelling at a very close distance away, "Kakashi senseeei! Sasuke kuuun!"
Kakashi chuckled to himself as Sasuke immediately began darting around looking for his clothes. The boy's face filled with confusion and fret as he realized they were gone. "I put them right here before I left…"
Kakashi crossed his arms. "Well you should at least wear your underwear infront of them... and even that will have them giggling... never mind being nude.."
"You're not helping!" Sasuke yelled, blushing furiously, "I put them right here, I know I did!"
Kakashi saw that the boy was truly becoming distressed. Though he felt mildly delighted at the situation in his own way, he knew he had to do something for the boy lest he be humiliated.
"Come here," Kakashi said, opening his green vest and slipping it off in one fluid motion. Underneath was a long-sleeved black shirt that he untucked from his black pants and pulled over his head.
Sasuke glanced over and for some reason seeing Kakashi sensei's very broad, adult shoulders and chest and his chiseled, roughly muscled stomache made him feel infinitely small and upstaged in comparison. But for some reason he couldn't look away and was enamored by how fit and nearly perfect everything about his instructor was. Given his personality, he wouldn't have guessed- Kakashi sensei seemed much too lazy to care so much about his appearance or the health of his body to have such a perfect form. But at the same time, it made him even more respectful of Kakashi sensei.
And for some reason, much more interested.
Kakashi walked over to the now staring-blushing-struck dumb for words boy named Sasuke with his shirt and said, "Lift your arms. Up, up, that's right." Sasuke did so with only mild recognition, still staring at the older ninja in a daze, and Kakashi dressed him in his own shirt
Sasuke looked down and examined the sleeves which were far too long and glanced at the hem which came down to the middle of his thigh.
Kakashi smiled through his mask, ruffling Sasuke's messy wet hair. "You look good in that. Someday you'll grow up and one of those shirts will fit you... but.. I like you the way you are right now."
Sasuke looked away and distractedly played with the sleeves of the shirt his sensei gave him. "Kakashi sensei... to say such things…"
He didn't really understand what Kakashi sensei meant, but the way he said it made him feel.. uneasy. The way Kakashi sensei was looking at him, even more than usually, felt invading. Foreign. He didn't understand the smooth, calm tone in which Kakashi sensei spoke to him nor why he teased him so much. He didn't know whether he liked any of this yet or why he couldn't keep his eyes away from Kakashi sensei's impressive body.
He was just.. kind of confused.
"Well," Kakashi said, "You look alright now, but... I don't think you can train anymore today, at least not in those clothes. And if you don't dry off you'll surely catch a cold."
Sasuke looked down at his feet and frowned. "Well.. I just.. I feel sort of bad.. Messing up today's training."
"Hah," Said Kakashi, placing his hand on Sasuke's shoulder, "Well, don't feel bad. All the times I've been late or haven't shown up, I haven't. You shouldn't put your friend's needs in front of your own when faced with the choice."
The two of them began walking along the river, Kakashi's hand still resting on Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke felt it. It felt... heavy. For some reason, he thought it felt good. Different. He'd never felt anything like this before.
Sasuke had being thinking about Kakashi's words and looked up at him suddenly with a questioning expression. "But.. wasn't the whole point of our exam to learn that teamwork was the most important thing about being a ninja? If we just leave Naruto and Sakura behind now, we'll be stopping the team from practicing and getting stronger.."
Kakashi looked down at Sasuke with a tired expression in his eye. He'd hoped that Sasuke wouldn't notice, but what do you expect? The little boy was smart and thoughtful.
"Well..." Kakashi said, squeezing Sasuke's shoulder affectionately as they walked, "I mean, I'm just talking about this circumstance... You know, this very moment. Of course teamwork is important..."
Sasuke sniffed, rubbing his nose with the sleeve of his oversized shirt with a bored look, "You're just like an adult, Kakashi sensei…"
Kakashi smiled. "Hmph. I suppose so. I guess this is what happens when you grow up, right Sasuke kun? Even someday you'll grow up and have to say the same things."
"Maybe…" Sasuke said.
They both became quiet for a short moment, still walking side by side, and Sasuke didn't know at all where they were going. Kakashi sensei was acting awfully familiar with him, more than he ever had before. But Kakashi had always given him special attention apart from Naruto and Sakura in particular, and this was the first time they'd been around each other in this kind of context, so perhaps it was natural for Kakashi sensei to be so "friendly".
And though he felt really strange about acting so familiar with and having a conversation with an adult, much less Kakashi sensei, he didn't necessarily dislike it. When he'd first met Kakashi sensei, he'd felt that he was just lazy and not worthy of teaching him. But he was beginning to wonder if he was much more than that.
He glanced up at Kakashi and stared at his still masked face, wondering what lied beneath it. Sure, he could see the outline of his face, but- why did he hide it? Was he attractive or not? Handsome?
Sasuke became flustered, wondering to himself why he even wanted to know.
"Hmm?" Kakashi said, noticing Sasuke was suddenly blushing, "What's wrong? Are you cold?"
"Oh!" Sasuke said, startled out of his thoughts, "No, I'm ok. Um, where are we going exactly?"
"Well, my house is closer. We could go there. Would you like that?"
"Your house…" Sasuke said to himself. For some reason he was interested in seeing where Kakashi sensei lived, what it was like. He just wanted to know more and more.
"Well... lets go then." Sasuke said, blushing and touching Kakashi sensei's gloved hand on his shoulder gently.
Kakashi looked surprised. Sasuke was so cute and now he was touching his hand. He instantly felt warmth inside that he didn't know where it came from… or that he was able to feel things like that after all.
Excitement.
After all that had happened to him… was he still capable of these kinds of feelings?
"Hm. As you wish." Kakashi moved away from Sasuke and before the boy could say or do anything in protest, he swiftly scooped the boy up in his arms, careful not to touch anywhere inappropriate or underneath the shirt- holding him like a bride the simplest way he could with no straying touches.
"Ah!" Sasuke yelled in surprise, "What are you doing!?" This was way out of his comfort zone, to be carried by Kakashi sensei while he was practically naked besides a shirt. (That belonged to Kakashi sensei himself!) It was crazy and his heart was racing a mile a minute.
Kakashi sensei looked like he was smiling up at him from behind his mask, "Sasuke kun, this is the first time I've seen you lose your composure. It's interesting."
"No! Well- I mean" Sasuke gave an exasperated sigh, "Why are you picking me up?"
Kakashi looked into Sasuke's eyes for a long moment with a blank stare.
"… Why shouldn't I?"
"Kakashi sensei!" Sasuke yelled, flustered. It felt weird to be in Kakashi sensei's arms, especially while he didn't have a shirt on. Well, it was exciting, but in a really strange way. He didn't know how to describe it. He felt edgy, like his heart was going to explode.
"Calm down, Sasuke. You've been training all day- you deserve a rest. Plus, it's quicker this way."
Sasuke thought about this for a moment and though both of Kakashi sensei's reasons were true, he didn't like to outright admit that he was tired or that Kakashi sensei was much faster than him. But, they were true, and he tried to convince himself that they were perfectly plausible reasons for Kakashi sensei to be doing this.
"Well," Sasuke muttered, "Ok…"
"Hold on to me tight," Sasuke, half wanting to and half not, curled his arms around Kakashi's neck and hugged softly, "There we go. And I have something good for you once we get there."
"What?" Asked Sasuke, but suddenly Kakashi jumped high into the trees, jumping from branch to branch, and suddenly Sasuke was holding very very tight to Kakashi sensei with his head tucked into the crook of his neck.
The wind whistled around them as Kakashi sensei jumped from tree to tree until they breached the canopy and were up at the very top of the forest. The smell of the wind and the scent of Kakashi sensei's hair were somehow… soothing. His eyelids started to close and he realized that Kakashi sensei had been correct about him being tired- he was about to fall asleep in his arms.
Sasuke rested his cheek against Kakashi sensei's chest. It felt warm and strong. Kakashi sensei's skin was soft… even though he was an adult.
He liked it.
(To be continued)
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