Disclaimer:Sure I own Naruto. Sure, I'm Masashi Kishimoto who, for some reasons that should better remain unrevealed to general public, likes to pretend he's a teenage European girl so that he could freely combine crack-pairings in suspicious-looking fanfics…
„Hello, I came to see Chouji Akimichi!" a cute blond girl with a bright smile leaned over the reception desk of Konoha's hospital.
Dark eyes eyed her incredulously. „Ah, yes, Chouji again. Honestly, that boy's becoming a regular customer. You're one of his teammates, right? Why don't you look after him better?" the grumpy nurse grumbled as she searched through papers absent-mindedly.
Although her eye twitched, Ino chose to ignore woman's rude tone. She'd gotten to know the ever frowning medic-nin well over the past few months since she'd been teamed with Chouji, so she knew bickering was futile.
„Can I have his room number, please?" she continued coldly.
„Yes, yes, patience please?!" the irritated nurse exclaimed, waving her hand impatiently and knocking over a cup of tea. The dark liquid spilled over hospital records and the woman swore colourfully.
As Ino rushed to help her, another medic-nin with a bewildered look on her face came running into the waiting room.
„Nuri-san! It's… I… stop him… couldn't…!" the young apprentice reached for her chest, trying to catch her breath.
„Who?!" the older woman snapped at her.
„Patient… he… room… empty…"
„WHO?"
„Lee-san!" the breathless medic-nin uttered and collapsed against the wall.
A vein popped out of the older woman's brow.
„AGAIN?! Won't that foolish boy ever learn?!That's it, I'm drugging him!" Nuri-san stormed out of the room, followed by the agitated subordinate, leaving a confused kunoichi behind.
Rock Lee, huh? Ino smirked at the thought of Sakura's strange, exuberant admirer. He did strike as a handful.
But how would she find out Chouji's room number now?
Smeared sheets of paper caught her attention. They were classified, but it wasn't like she was going to misuse them, right? She just needed one little number...
Quickly peering down the hall and glancing through the windows she checked every corner of the room. All clear.
Ino innocently walked over to the reception desk and, faster than a lightning, snatched the first page. Scanning it for a familiar name…
Yes! Room 156!
Or was it 136?
The tea smudges made the already unreadable handwriting even harder to decipher.
Oh well, she'd just have to check them both.
The blond girl scooped up the fruit basket and bouquet of freshly picked flowers she'd brought for her team mate and headed towards her destination.
She slid into the room 156, barely avoiding collision with a frantic looking staff member who kept yelling something about missing ninja and green jumpsuits.
Ino held a sigh and turned around, smiling happily.
„Hi, Chouji!" she almost uttered, but…
Wait a minute.
Ino blinked in confusion.
That wasn't Chouji.
Blue eyes slid over a sleeping form sprawled in the bed. Silver-grey hair. Masked face. That most definitely wasn't her chubby teammate.
Curiosity caught onto her.
What was Billboard Brow's sensei doing in a hospital? Why was she asking herself such an idiotic question? And more importantly, why hasn't she left the room already?
Her gaze was locked to the dark fabric that covered most of the man's face. She stood rooted to the ground, as if hypnotized by the steady lifting of his chest. He didn't wear a headband so the silver strands fell over closed eyes, drawing attention to the big, usually hidden scar over his left eye.
A scar, huh? I wonder how he got that.
Another minute passed, and the blond kunoichi still didn't move an inch.
'Is that the reason he wears a mask? Is his whole facecovered in terrible scars?'
'But Shikamaru's dad also has scars, almost all the ninja I know do, and they don't hide it', she reasoned.
'Maybe it's because of a birth defect of some kind?' unflattering images filled her head, each worse then the last.
Minutes were passing by as her mind rambled on and on, from incredible conspiracy theories including top secret missions carried out inside the village, to the hollow conclusion that he was probably too lazy to shave and kept things simple…
Finally, she gave up with a sigh. Why bother trying to think out the truth when she would never have the chance to test her theories anyway.
'Or could you?' struck her like lightning.
Blue eyes widened.
'What was that?'
'What if you could peek under the mask?' the idea reappeared.
'Think about it…'Inner Ino continued, her tone dangerously sweet.
'How many people managed to see Kakashi-sensei's true face by now… You'd be the first and only! Just imagine the look on Sakura's face when she finds out you saw her sensei and she didn't.' A devilish grin plastered on the idea's nonexistent face.
'But that doesn't seem right. Won't I get in trouble?'
'Of course not! No one will know, if you don't say anything. I mean, he looks pretty beat up…'
That part was certainly true. Deep fresh cuts covered almost every visible centimetre of his skin. His chest, which was hidden by the same material as his face, was thoroughly bandaged and he was attached to various machines.
'…and he's unconscious. No way he'll notice if you remove the mask for a second or two.'
Ino frowned.
'I don't know. It's just not fair. There must be a good reason he's hiding his face! Won't this be disturbing his privacy? Also…'
'Sasuke-kun will be impressed and he'll want to talk to you.'
A pale, thin eyebrow raised.
That - she cannot argue with.
'Ok, ok! So how will I do it?'
Inner Ino's grin grew even bigger, and a green glint shone from the corner of her eye.
Silent as a creeping shadow the girl snuck to the bed and put the fruit and flowers on the nightstand, not making a sound.
'This also counts as ninja training.'
Every excuse helped.
Her shaky hand slowly reached for his mask. She hesitated a bit, staring at the innocent-looking, sleeping man before her.
'What are you waiting for?! Come on already!'
Ino gulped and determinedly went for the mask.
„I started to think you wouldn't do it after all." A bright trademark eye-smile flashed at her just a centimetre before she touched the fabric. The eyes opened and a pair of colourful irises met her startled blue ones. One black and the other shiny red. She froze.
…
„Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Ino screamed as if she was being slaughtered and ran through the doors at the speed of sound, leaving a sweat-dropping Kakashi behind. She was still screaming when she almost knocked over two figures in the hallway.
„Was that…?"
Kurenai-sensei shook her head and led a very confused Asuma towards the room number 156.
The doors were wide open. Strange.
They cautiously peeked from the door.
„Hello, Kakashi. Feeling better?" Kurenai asked, examining her wounded comrade thoroughly.
At least he was awake. And at least he'd stopped bleeding, she thought as the unwanted sights appeared in her mind once again. Asuma leaned against the wall absent-mindedly.
„A bit", he smiled and feebly reached for the little orange book on the nightstand.
„Apparently well enough", Kurenai sighed, when a bouquet of freshly picked flowers caught her attention.
Even stranger.
„Since when do you have a secret admirer?" she asked intrigued.
Kakashi followed her gaze. „I don't. Ino-san must have left it."
Asuma twitched.
„So I was right! Would you care to explain why did one of my students (my female student!) ran out of here screaming like mad?!" He gave his fellow Jounin an accusative glare.
Kakashi shrugged lazily, flipping a page. „I don't know why she came here, but she tried to see my face."
„No wonder the poor girl was terrified", Kurenai attempted to joke, unable to hide a glint of curiosity.
„She didn't succeed, though, but you'll probably have to explain my Sharingan to her, it seemed to scare her", the copy-nin sighed.
Asuma eyed him suspiciously one more time before he started filling him in on the latest news in the shinobi world.
Soon Kakashi's thoughts wandered off, towards the blue and white petals scattered across his nightstand, and he remembered the startled, shiny eyes he'd woken up to.
The dark fabric of his mask absorbed a hidden smile.
Disclaimer: for the brighter readers (my favourite kind!), no, I don't own Naruto.