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Chapter 2
Kakashi realised a few weeks after the incident at the bar, that he had been frequenting there with Genma more than was usual for him lately, and that he had let the man drag him off to the bar almost every night that week, barely bothering to try and excuse himself from the task.
Of course, his horny friend had taken this to be a brilliant thing, because it meant that he had the pleasure of Kakashi's company almost twice or three times as much as he usually did. This also meant that he managed to get more free rounds out of Kakashi; not having to pay anything himself for Kakashi; seeing as Kakashi always refrained from ordering anything. The exception to this was, of course, on the off chance that he had just made it back from a mission, and had decided to purchase some time with a pretty bar maid; who were always willing to offer their services.
Of course, Kakashi had never had much trouble with 'getting any', because of his status in the village. Of course, he was the infamous copy-nin, the man who had mastered over a thousand techniques. Most were also interested in exactly what lay under his mask.
Kakashi was sure that the amount of people who had actually seen underneath his mask at the present time could be counted in one hand.
There was Tsunade, obviously, she was currently the only person who healed him; aside from sometimes Sakura, or random ANBU medic nins who healed him on missions. Of course; they never needed to heal his face, so his mysterious air remained in tact.
Of course, the two at the ramen stand had seen his face; Ayame and her father, but that was inevitable, having eaten there with his team enough times; also, the fact that they had seen his face quite obviously pissed off his team to some extent. So he might have accidentally made sure that they had seen his face.
The look on Naruto's face was priceless; not to mention Sasuke's. The ever emotionless boy, having once again been thwarted by the infamous copy-nin.
Sometimes Kakashi missed his cute team mates.
He couldn't say the same for Sasuke, but he was quite happy for Naruto and Sakura, who had had the best teaching possible over the last few years; Jiriya and Tsunade were indeed brilliant ninja.
The last person who had definitely seen him without his mask on was Gai, who had also seen Kakashi off-his-face drunk. He was sure that he'd had good times on those nights; but he couldn't honestly remember.
To be totally honest; Kakashi thought that was about it, he couldn't even remember who the last person to see his face was. He guessed that there may have been one or two others in Konoha who had been granted the pleasure of seeing him mask-less. Of course; it would only have been by accident.
The fact that he had let Genma drag him down to the bar more than usual lately was quite disconcerting to Kakashi. It was also true that, although he had kept his eyes peeled, and knew that Genma did to, he had not seen either of the two women from 'the night of the incident', as Genma had lovingly dubbed it.
In fact, the only sign that the women had even existed, apart from Shikamaru's confirmation, was the big envelope of cash that had been shoved through Kakashi's door; which he had discovered upon returning from a recent mission.
Of course, he could not be sure that this was, in fact, repayment for the drinks that he had paid for, since some people in the past had decided to leave him tips. However, he had a nagging suspicion that this had been left by them. Kakashi guessed that someone at the bar had told them who had paid for said drinks – news travelled abnormally fast in a village full of ninja – because they would never have guessed alone that he was the one who had paid for them; given his cheap-skate nature.
Of course, he had no real reason to be cheap at all. Being the last of the Hatake clan had left him with a considerably large bank balance; as had the numerous missions that he had undertaken. However, in truth, he found himself enjoying other people's squirming and discomfort once they discovered that he had left them with the bill. It wasn't that he was sadistic, per say, he just needed to get his kicks somehow.
It also made him look a lot better when he did do something nice, like pay for people's drinks. He sure knew how to make someone feel special…
Despite not seeing the women again, he thought about them an awful lot. He saw Kunimitsu from time to time, and had taken to wondering whether the taller woman – Yuki – had managed to get her claws into him yet.
The shorter one still remained nameless, and, although he had done a little research; A.K.A. he had called in some favours in ANBU, nobody seemed to know who she was.
It was surprising, but not impossible - in a village as big as Konohagakure you were always sure to find someone that you didn't know.
Kakashi had given up when the villages biggest gossips – Anko and Genma – themselves didn't know who the woman was. They had, however, made several snide comments about his new found interest in the female side of the species.
Kakashi thought he had better let it drop before the shock went to their heads and made them spontaneously combust – Tsunade wouldn't take kindly to that.
Meanwhile, Genma had found a new conquest, in the shape of a 'hot little medic nin', who had apparently just changed to the night shift – which meant that Genma saw her a lot more often than he had done previously.
Apparently this woman's name was also Yuki. Kakashi was glad – he didn't think that Genma would manage to learn two names in one month; much less two weeks.
Since he had nothing better to do, Kakashi busied himself with lots of missions; ranging from assassinations to guard duties. This slog of missions not only allowed him to focus on something other than the girls, and brought in a lot of cash; but also gave him a valid excuse to avoid Genma; and, indirectly because of this, being shanghaied, guilt tripped, or otherwise forced into going to the bar with said horny friend.
It was three weeks before he took a break from the constant onslaught of missions; which made it a month since he saw the two women, before he saw them again.
He was quite surprised to find them in a very interesting situation when he did see them again.
Kakashi had decided to do some training or his next mission, so he had headed over to the ANBU exclusive training grounds.
It was just as he was approaching the clearing that he heard a very familiar sound. He jumped over the few remaining feet with chakra enhanced steps.
'Sasuke!?'
The sight that met him, however, was not his former student, and the sound of a thousand birds had not been created by said former student wielding a chidori.
Instead, he found two women in the clearing; one with her hands in a seal, standing perfectly still, with what could only be described as a chakra shield surrounding her. The other was running full pelt towards the woman, a hand full of screeching chakra being dragged along behind her; a look of sheer determination on her face.
He watched as, when she was about a metre or so away from her partner, the running woman forced her chakra filled hand up in front of her, pushing it outwards towards her companion.
He wanted to yell at the taller of them, Yuki, to move; but instead he watched in awe as the shorter woman ran towards the shield; arm outstretched.
The chidori seemed to have penetrated the shield; but came to a halt just before it hit its' target. At first Kakashi thought that the girl had stopped it on purpose; but it became apparent in the next few seconds that she hadn't.
The chidori went out like a lamp. The chakra in her hand just suddenly disappeared.
The girl who had been wielding it was thrown backwards; flying for a few metres, before hitting a tree and falling to the floor, gasping for breath.
Yuki let down her shield and walked towards her friend.
"Enough", she told the girl on the ground.
"But Yuki!" The girl protested, "I'm so close! I've almost got it!"
"I said enough, Aya", the woman replied, holding out her hand to her friend. "You'll use too much chakra; do you want to die?"
"Hai, hai", the shorter woman gave in, reaching up and taking the proffered hand, and pulling herself up.
'So her name's Aya?' Kakashi thought to himself, reaching up and scratching his head.
He let his chakra flare, to let them know that he was there, and started walking towards them; still a little hidden by the trees.
"Get behind me Aya!" Yuki's voice commanded.
"But! -" The other woman started.
"You're weakened, get behind me!"
A tree cut off Kakashi's vision, but when he entered the clearing, it was to see 'Aya' peering out from behind Yuki's back. Yuki was standing in a defensive position.
As soon as he entered the clearing, Kakashi felt a small shock to his body. He guessed it might have been the woman's shield technique.
As soon as the shock had gone, Aya stepped out from behind Yuki; smiling. She waved towards him.
"Hatake-san!" She called to him.
Yuki gave him a dirty glance, but let down the shield that had been surrounding her and her friend; it wasn't as if he was going to attack them after all. He walked towards the two.
"Yo!" He called out, raising a hand in greeting.
"Thank you for the other time Hatake-san!" Aya sang out, smiling still; she now had her hands clasped behind her back, and was leaning towards him. "It was very kind of you!" She spoke in a very 'sing-song' voice.
"Ah", he replied, "no problem. The barmaid didn't know what to do, ha ha."
"Sorry we had to leave in such a rush", she said, straightening up and glancing at her friend, "stuff to do, people to see; tee hee!"
"Ah, it's a shame; there was good music that night!" He informed her.
"Does that not happen often?" She looked confused.
"Only on special occasions", he grinned at her.
"Me and Yuki-chan will have to come more often! I want to dance next time!" She told him excitedly. He was about to tell her that he'd be sure to dance with her, when Yuki interrupted.
"Ayame", she said, sounding serious. 'Ah', he thought to himself, 'so that's her full name.'
"We will be late", the woman continued, shooting a glance at Kakashi. 'Ah', he thought, 'It seems that she's heard of my…reputation.'
"Ah,
of course Yuki-chan!" The girl said, smiling up at her friend;
"let's go then!"
She turned to Kakashi.
"It was nice seeing you, Hatake-san!" She gave him a blinding smile, before running out of the clearing, towards Konoha.
Yuki waited until the other girl had left the clearing, before running after her, clearly she was a little protective of the shorter nin.
Kakashi had to wonder which of the two was the higher ranking nin. The obvious one would be the taller of the two. She was protective over the shorter nin; and had managed to block the chidori with her shield. Granted that the chidori wasn't complete; however, she had still managed to block it. She also appeared to mother the shorter nin, aside, of course, from trying to protect her. Furthermore, she had given her a command earlier in the day. 'Get behind me, Aya!'
Then again, Tsunade was the best ninja in the village, and she had four hunter-nins protecting her.
Kakashi trained his chakra for a good three hours that day, before Gai came along, and his was forced to practice his Taijutsu skills, and then his running skills, in quick succession.
He went to bed exhausted that night.