Pairing: Kakanaru eventually perhaps some other pairings mentioned along the way.
Rating: PG-15 for language and mention of an adult novel
Disclaimer: All characters depicted in sexual situations in this post/fanfiction/fanart (including material in the comments) are fictional and are intended to be and considered to be by the author of said material of the legal age of consent in the United States state of California, regardless of what age these characters may be in the material they are derived from. Also, song is "Boston" by Augustana.
Notes: I did make the Whirlpool Village have the Kansai dialect; but it won't play much of a part, but I thought I would mention that it is a true dialect. Un-betaed.
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in the light of the sun, is there anyone? oh it has begun...
oh dear you look so lost, eyes are red and tears are shed,
this world you must've crossed...you said...
you don't know me, you don't even care,
you don't know me, you don't wear my chains...
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Breakfast was satisfying when it was warm and you could feel it filling your stomach. After all, he wasn't without feeling; he was just stoic for the most part. But, he reminded himself with a swift dose of pain (intentionally biting his tongue), that Naruto was not. Naruto was an emotional being; and so started a chaotic day for the Genin, Uzumaki Naruto.
"Itai!" Okay, so the instant ramen was scalding if he didn't remember to blow on it first. Perhaps Sakura was right in her statement that he was a masochist—though it would only be subconsciously. He certainly didn't mean to hurt himself or look clumsy. His cerulean eyes clenched closed, then reopened after the initial wave of pain washed over him. That was more like it—he should be acting more like Uzumaki Naruto. He huffed, then, forgetting his ramen, trudged over to the mirror, pulling faces like Naruto would. Once he found the grin he was looking for, he got it: he was completely in character now. He dressed with vigor, rummaged through his weapons closet and found the ones he used as a genin, yet toyed with the thought of showing up with a katana on his back (but remembered he was Naruto).
Finally he ended up locking the apartment door behind him, racing down hallways and down stairs, skidding to a halt, then tip-toeing by the second door on the left on his way out of the apartment building.
"Naruto!" He froze, a scared look crossing his features before he grinned, spinning around.
"Heya, Haru-san!" And to think he would normally sit down and talk to the man, but today, darn it, he had missions.
"Trying to sneak by me again, huh? Well, that doesn't matter, Iruka and I were wondering if you would want to go to Ichiraku's tonight. On me, of course. What do ya say Kitsune-han?" Ah, his dialect was showing again. He always ended up calling him by an affectionate ending more like 'chan' than anything else, but suited to his homeland, the old Whirlpool Village. He was the one that had given Naruto the knowledge about his mother, well; he had been Naruto back then. Now, Haru avoided using that name because he knew otherwise, not to mention they had grown close over the years. But, in all fairness, he would never pass up a chance to hang out with his two favorite people.
"Sure, should I be there for seven, like always?" He grinned, happy that someone would still acknowledge him, even though he was playing Naruto's hand in living. A nod answered his inquiry, and then waves were exchanged. With a glance around, he transported up onto the roof of the neighboring building. It would be quicker this way, to get to the bridge where Team Seven always met for missions. He leapt from rooftop to rooftop, making his way over to the pink-haired girl and the Uchiha-bastard. He dropped down, careful to make the movement seem less than graceful as he thudded down then ran with the thumping of sandals onto the bridge.
"Phew, made it." And then they would wait. Normally, if he was forced to wait around for more than ten minutes, he would have brought along Sudoku, a sharpener for his weapons, a Rubik's cube, or possibly if he was feeling leisurely, a book. Sure, okay, so the book was usually on something such as strategy, protocol, a different village, something to that extent. He thought it was leisurely. Besides, the only times he went with someone other than Genin teams was if ANBU needed help, or the Jounin team was down one, or if he was made to escort someone through dangerous territory. Instead, he decided to sit down and pretend to sleep while assessing his knowledge of Sand's situation.
And of course, the moment he was actually getting somewhere with his theories, his predictions, and his logic (three hours later), Hatake Kakashi arrived. Well, for upsetting his time to think about the problem, he supposed he could yell at the Jounin for being late.
"Hey! You're late! You made us wait three hours this time!" Sakura backed him up on his spew of complaints. Kakashi just curved his eye, waved, and dismissed it with a lazy excuse.
"I just happened to walk by a store and remembered that I needed to buy more shampoo, so then I had to run it back home, and ended up staying there a little late because Gai showed up and asked me for a small competition, and I can't ignore him because that's rude, so I had to go through with it. Sorry I'm late!" Blinking, the blond haired boy attempted to look baffled by Kakashi's long winded story. However, he was anything but, instead of acting on his suspicions, he shoved his hands into his pockets and looked off to the side of the bridge, analyzing everything around him. Yes, something was amiss, but it didn't seem threatening.
He went through the day, watching as Sakura's and Sasuke's minds worked out that Kakashi wasn't actually Kakashi-Sensei; indeed, the blue-eyed blond had long since deduced who it was, and where Kakashi was watching the quartet from. However, his form seemed to say he hadn't noticed anything wrong with the day's comings and goings. Weeding a garden between Sakura and Sasuke was the hardest part, especially since he could be of some use to Fire Country if he was elsewhere. He knelt there, frowning as he sweated and yanked at plants, bickering with the others. When they were done weeding the garden, they moved off to a lemonade stand, which is how Sakura finally figured out what must be going on with their Sensei. She was cued by his reaching up to tug down his mask without distracting them. Sasuke noticed to, so he stood, facing a lone tree that stood near the bench they sat on.
"You can come out now, Kakashi-Sensei. We know that this is in fact Umino Iruka with us, and not you." Naruto blinked, looking back and forth between the fake Kakashi, the tree, and Sasuke. Well, at least Sasuke knew who it was, although it took him quite a while to figure it out. Sakura finally spoke up.
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essential and appealed, carry all your thoughts across
an open field,
when flowers gaze at you...they're not the only ones who cry
when they see you
you said...
you don't know me, you don't even care,
you don't know me, you don't wear my chains...
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"Yeah, we knew when we entered the garden to weed, and the fake Kakashi-Sensei looked towards the Academy, then pretended to just be looking to see if Ichiraku's was open. We all know Ichiraku's is on the edge of Konoha, not near the center. Besides, you wouldn't have pulled down your mask to drink without distracting us first." Kakashi stepped out from behind the tree trunk and grinned, scratching the back of his head.
"I just wanted to see if you guys were on your guard or not. Although Naruto should be more careful, he should have noticed on his own, not having to be told that something was wrong." Sasuke huffed in his direction, Sakura didn't mask her disgusted look well, and Naruto? He just attempted a grin, which caved into a grimace, a laugh that tapered off to awkward silence.
"Anyway, thank you, Iruka, for going out of your way to do this for me. Although I'm sure you can see that these three are doing fine now that they're not in your Academy class." Iruka lost the henge of Kakashi, and then gave the same wilting smile that Naruto had just given the Jounin, moving off a few steps.
"Well, I'm just glad that they seem to have a suitable instructor. Thank you, Kakashi, for allowing me to do this." He paused, and then turned to Naruto. "And I'll be seeing you at seven?" Naruto let loose a grin, and nodded. Iruka wandered off while Team Seven had their break, then went off to catch fish for an elderly couple who were hosting a gathering for retired shinobi. While Sakura took care that the fish stayed fresh in containers, which she ran back to the Kiba, Hinata, and Shino who were cooking them, Naruto and Sasuke caught fish. Only when the bickering got too heated would Kakashi interrupt them.
"I'm not having any trouble catching fish; in fact I've caught more than you, Sasuke-bastard!"
"Whatever, just stop being so loud and floundering around; you're scaring the fish away, dobe."
"I'm not a dobe, teme!"
"You guys, I would focus on catching the fish now, we don't want retired Jounin running after you all because you didn't catch enough food for them all to eat." His voice held a sort of warning to it, such as 'don't mess with those guys; they'll rip you to pieces'. Naruto huffed, crossing his arms and stilling as he waited for the fish to congregate around them again. Sasuke settled into a brooding silence, glaring down at the empty waters, Kakashi just hid his face behind his porn book again.
Later that evening, Naruto walked from his apartment, down to Haru's, knocking on the door loudly. Haru opened the door, smiling and joining him on their way to Ichiraku's. On the way, he made a bit of small talk.
"So, how were the missions today? Anything above D-rank?" Naruto gave him a sideways glance.
"You really believe they'd let that team do anything but? We're a wreck, even after Kakashi's know-it-all speech on our trial period. If Sasuke wants he can work with me perfectly, but Sakura… let's just say she's nothing really useful to the team except her analytical mind. She's almost as quick as I am, but I dare say that I have plenty of experience on her." He gave a wry smile. "But how have your missions been? Anything classified?" A chuckle followed that inquiry.
"I wish, however, I believe that tomorrow you're getting a C-rank; in any case, hopefully those two can catch up to you at some point, you shouldn't harp on them too much you know." He looked over at the shorter of the two, "Can you believe that they have me assigned for duty tomorrow? I thought you said I'd be off for at least another week." Naruto laughed.
"Sorry, I forgot how quick you are at bouncing back from things like that. Perhaps someone else would have been out for two weeks from a stomach wound, but you're lucky your genetics cover for you." He grinned and allowed the man to cuff him on the shoulder. That was the end to the conversation though, as they approached the ramen stand. Naruto grinned and extended his arm to its full length above his head, waving to the other man they were meeting there.
"Hey, hey, Iruka-Sensei!" Iruka turned, smiling, their order already being placed down on the counter.
"Hey, how are you, Naruto? Kakashi didn't keep after you about earlier, did he?"
"What happened earlier?"
"Iruka-Sensei pretended to be Kakashi-Sensei for the first half of the day," he glanced up at Iruka, "But no, he didn't say anything else." He grinned, showing the man he was alright. Though he couldn't tell him that he had been the first to know that he had been his previous teacher, not actually Kakashi, he could tell Haru later. The three ate the ramen, talking until two hours later, when Iruka split from Haru and Naruto. With a yawn, Haru turned to him.
"Lemme guess, the rant you were on earlier about your teammates has everything to do with what happened this morning. You're all upset over the fact that you can't actually be clever and all smart like the prodigy you are." He looked over at the older man.
"Of course. I have every right to be upset that I have to blunt my abilities this much. And Sarutobi knows how upset I am, but he still tells me to lay low." Haru gave him a small smile.
"Well, we should stop talking before we get to the civilian district. But just remember, it's better for the country if you're not out all of the time. That's the mistake other countries make, like Sand, for instance. Their Hontokage's dead now, or, we assume that he is." Naruto frowned.
"And for some reason I believe that he's not, hence I could be doing something other than D and C ranked missions with Genin teams." Haru laughed bitterly then rested his hand on Naruto's shoulder, giving him some silent support as they walked through the twilight towards their apartment complex.
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she said I think I'll go to Boston...
I think I'll start a new life,
I think I'll start it over, where no one knows my name,
I'll get out of California, I'm tired of the weather,
I think I'll get a lover and fly em out to Spain...
I think I'll go to Boston,
I think that I'm just tired
I think I need a new tow, to leave this all behind...
I think I need a sunrise, I'm tired of the sunset,
I hear it's nice in the Summer, some snow would be nice...
Boston...where no one knows my name...
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