A/N: First of all thank for reviews, favs. fallow. This chapter start a bit slow, but ends up with a bit of drama (I think).

5/13/15: Edited by een nihc


Direct Talk.

Kakashi was grading papers in the teacher lounge. It was lunch time but he didn't eat like the rest of his colleagues. That would require him to take off the mask that covered the half lower part of his face. He wouldn't do that, not in front of anyone, anyway.

It had been almost four weeks since school started; all the teachers in the room were talking about the freshmen. To be more specific, about classroom 1-E. Kakashi's eyes were on the essay paper that he was grading, but his ears were listening.

"Well, that's a crazy bunch," Asuma, the History teacher said, "but they are my favorite group."

"I must agree with you, my friend. They're a fantastic and energetic group. I can't wait for lunch to be over and witness one more time how their youthfulness overflows my gymnasium." Gai said with a big grin on his face while moving his arms animatedly. "But not all of them are the same - Shikamaru-kun won't move even if the place is on fire."

"He sleeps during my class. I don't know how he passes my tests. I think he cheats. But I never caught him, so I can't accuse him of that." The math teacher said with a frown.

"Oh, no. He doesn't cheat, Kurenai," Asuma said, "He's a bright student, very intelligent. I thought the same thing. Until I figure out that..."

"He has a photographic memory and fast deduction." Kakashi cut him off. Asuma nodded proudly, arms folded across his chest.

"The one I always catch cheating is the Uzumaki kid." Genma, Geology teacher, joined in the conversation.

"He wants to become the President." Kakashi said, his eyes still on his work.

"Oh God, have mercy upon us." Asuma sighed with his arm gesturing to the heavens, making the rest of the staff to laugh. But soon enough, they stopped when the door flew open and a screaming, young assistant teacher entered.

"Kakashi-san!" he yelled as he approached the silver-haired man. Very angry, by the way.

"Yes? Iruka-san." Kakashi asked. He was very confused. 'Why is he yelling at me? I manage to be on time today.'

"When will it be the day that you do your job like a professional that you're supposed to be?" The brunet man said with his hand on his hips.

All the teachers stopped their activities and turned around to look at the screaming brunet. Then, their attention was turned to Kakashi, waiting in anticipation and amusement as to what kind of response the English teacher was going to come up with. They got used to the squabble between the two (more like Iruka yelling at Kakashi), it was very entertaining. The sarcastic and cynical replies were more than funny and Iruka's angry face was simply priceless.

"What did I do this time?" Kakashi asked with genuine interest.

"You didn't complete the monthly uploading of grades in the system, for both of your classes in room 1-E. The deadline is in two hours." Iruka said without lowering his voice. In the contrary, he was yelling even louder.

"I did complete it." Kakashi replied calmly.

Upon hearing this answer, Iruka shoved his tablet to Kakashi's face to show him the file. Kakashi took the device with disbelief. He did upload all the data. "You're mistaken. All the data's there." He returned the tablet with indifference and went back to his work.

"That's not true. Sasuke Uchiha's data is missing... See, F in both of your classes." He said by pointing the screen.

"I saw it and that is correct. His grades are F's for both of my classes."

Everyone in the room was astonished. That could not be true. Sasuke Uchiha with not just an F but two? That was simply impossible. The kid was a genius. Kakashi was at fault for sure. It wouldn't be the first time.

"What? That can't be true. Are you sure that you didn't forget to put in his data or forgot to grade his work?" Genma asked in utter disbelief.

Kakashi flipped through the papers in his hands and as soon as he found the 'essay' that he was looking for, he offered the plain sheet to his co-worker to see for themselves. Kurenai was the one who was holding the paper and the rest was looking over her shoulders. The teachers' eyes widened in surprise. Kakashi was telling the truth.

"Something." Gai read. "Something?" He asked.

Kakashi sighed. "I told him that I wanted him to hand over his paper with something on it. And he gave me that." He glared at Iruka. "Somebody owns me an apology."

"I'm sorry," Iruka said with a blush across his face. Kakashi made sure to let the brunet know that he was smirking in victory under his mask.

"I don't get it. This is not his usual behavior at all. Well, he is kind of sarcastic with his classmates. But he is very responsible and very respectful towards adults." Asuma said, still shocked.

"I'm pretty sure he hates me." Kakashi simple replied.

"That make no sense. Why would he risk his academics, just because he hates you?" This time Genma voiced his confusion.

"Teenagers, who understand them?" Kakashi said with a shrug.

"Do you want me to arrange a parent conference?"

"No. That won't be necessary, Iruka. I'll have a chat with him today." Kakashi said as he grabbed the sheet of paper that Kurenai was returning. The bell rang indicating that lunch was over and everyone went to their respective classes.

It was fifth period and Kakashi was teaching English to his freshman group of room 1-E. The room was not entirely quiet. The students convinced him to let them work with partners. The only noise that he was attentive to was a loud outburst, courtesy of the blond sitting in one of the last seats. Said student didn't have a partner to work with.

"Come on, teme. Help me out, I don't get this. You're supposed to be my friend."

"Naruto, could you just shut up? You're getting really annoying." Sasuke replied.

Kakashi got up from his desk and walked toward the boys at the back. He stopped next to the blond at the right side. "Naruto, if you have questions, you can ask me. I never said you couldn't." Naruto let out an awkward laugh as he rubbed the back of his head. Sasuke scoffed and kept his eyes on what he was doing.

"Okay, let me see what you have so far." Kakashi looked at the worksheet and he mentally seconded Asuma's prayer. The kid didn't have errors, but horrors.

"Naruto, tell me how is this possible with a genius as a father?"

"You know my father?" the blond asked, very surprised.

Kakashi nodded with a smile and his eyes crinkled in an inverse U. "He used to be my professor and mentor when I was in the University. He wasn't the Dean at that time. We're good friends now."

"I knew that I have seen you before. You were the weird guy that lived with us for a while when I was around six."

Kakashi's right eye brow arched up in annoyance for being called weird.

Sasuke stopped to write. It took him all his might not to turn and look at the pair on his right. His effort doubled to hide how shocked he was.

'He was that damn close?' the black haired teen thought. Sasuke and Naruto were best friends since they were six. How could he not see him before? Maybe he did, but at that time, he didn't exist in his world. He shook his head and paid solemn attention to what they were talking.

"It took you a long time." Kakashi sighed. "Now, I owned your mother twenty bucks."

The blond teen looked at him confusedly and Kakashi explained, "We made a bet on how long it would take you to figure it out."

Naruto frowned and Kakashi laughed softly. "Let me show you an example. Then you can try by yourself and I'll help you from there." Kakashi picked up a pen from Naruto's pencil case and started to write.

"WOW." Naruto exclaimed, more than excited, "Sasuke, look."

For some reason, Sasuke turned his head to the blond. He could see that Kakashi was holding the pencil between his index and middle fingers, both fingertips in the upper part, and his thumb used as support. The only difference was that he was left handed and Kakashi right handed.

"He holds the pen the same weird way you do." Naruto finished his sentence.

"So?" Sasuke asked as he resumed his previous activity, praying that his face didn't betray him and reflect his shock. "I don't see the big deal about it. And it's not weird, just uncommon." he finally said, almost felt offended.

"The big deal is the odd coincidence." The blond teen said, still fascinated by the fact.

"There's no such thing as coincidence. Don't you think, Sasuke?" Kakashi said almost cynically, only Sasuke got it and for the very same reason, he ignored it deliberately. Kakashi's eyes were focused on the raven-haired student; he noticed what he was doing. "Oh, History homework huh? This is English period. So I would appreciate if you put that away and do the assignment for this class." Sasuke knew from the look of his eyes that Kakashi was smiling. But his tone was serious and perhaps threatening.

Sasuke closed the history book and folder and put them under his desk, while muttering, "I'm done with it, anyway." But he didn't even look at his English assignment.

Few more minutes passed and the bell for the long recess (a twenty five minutes break) rang. The student didn't take long to exit the room. Naruto and Sasuke needed to pass by their teacher's desk in order to get out of the room. As they were getting closer to him, Kakashi spoke.

"Sasuke, I need to have a word with you." The Uchiha, for the first time obeyed the sensei by staying. "Alone." Finished Kakashi, looking at Naruto that wasn't leaving. After two second that took him to process the words spoken to him, the Blonde left.

Kakashi waited for everyone to leave his classroom, before he addressed the Uchiha. Pointing the chair next to his desk, he said, "Have a seat."

Sasuke did as he was told. "I'm all ears," he said with a cynical smirk.

"For someone so smart, you're pretty dumb."

"Excuse me?" That erased his smirk and he looked confused instead. He didn't expect to be insulted so openly.

"I mean it's very clear that you hate my guts. Very understandable." He nodded in agreement to himself. "I don't blame you. It's your right to hate me. But what I don't understand, Sasuke, is how getting F's in my classes is a way to get at me? Please explain that to me." He said calmly with the blank expression on his face.

Sasuke was taken aback for a moment but he recovered fast. "Who said I hate you? And me trying to get at you? Ha. Those things require time. My time, something that you don't deserve." He shot back with cockiness.

"Fair enough. So, if you don't want to get at me, I only presume that you wanted my attention. Congratulations, you got it. Now, what is it that you want? An apology? Let me tell you that, that's not going to happen. I don't regret anything or the decisions that I made. Because I know they were for the best for everyone."

Sasuke's confidence started to shake. The urge to run was strong, so was the feeling of rejection. It was painful enough that he got it from his father, and now this guy too. "This is ridiculous, I'm out of here." He tried to get up from the chair, but Kakashi got a hold of his wrist.

"I'm not done talking." Sasuke returned to his position and Kakashi let go of his hand.

Sasuke said nothing, trying his best to not show his conflicted feelings. He prayed that the older man didn't notice that he was shaking. Kakashi felt the awkwardness in the air and addressed the subject that needed to be resolved.

"I'm more than willing to give you a chance to catch up with your work. So by the end of the first nine weeks, you can actually have Bs for both classes, if I'm feeling generous. But I need your corporation. The patience I had towards you was long gone. I'll take action if you keep up with this." Kakashi warned.

Sasuke let out an angry sigh. Now that things were put under better perspective, he could see that having two F's out of seven classes was going to be a problem. A big one at it. "What do I have to do?"

"I already talked with Principal Tsunade. Considering your excellent grades in the rest of your classes, she will spare you from an official detention or other punishment. So it won't stain your record. We'll do the following. Starting from tomorrow, you're not going to have long recess and workshop."

Workshop was a series of classes of just thirty minutes, right after recess. The workshops were held in the auditorium. Every three weeks, there a new topic. It always ended by giving a certificate of completion to each student. The first topic was about bullying and the new topic was about peer pressure.

"During that time, you'll be with me, in the classroom, catching up on all the work that you haven't done. I'm expecting you to do your work in class and do your homework from now on. Tsunade-sama will let you do the workshop online."

The teen's eyes were wide open. Great, he had to spend more time with this guy, who ironically was the reason he came to this school. Teenagers, who understand them? Kakashi would say.

"What if I don't want to give up my free time?"

"Then, I'll have to arrange a teacher/parent conference. I don't think you want to know what your father would do if he finds out you have F's. And if he knows I'm your teacher, that will not end up pretty either."

"I'm curious. Tell me, what he can do if he does?" Sasuke asked scornfully. This was the only way to hide what he was really feeling.

"The moment he sees me, he'd go straight to the main office, pull you out of the school and send you to a boarding school. So that I won't have any access to you."

That looked like what his father would do. Sasuke knew that very well. Fugaku threatened him once when he neglected his studies. But heck, he'd let Kakashi be right. "What makes you think my father would do such thing?"

"I don't know how you found out. I really don't care that much. But I'm one-hundred-percent sure that he didn't tell you that you're not his son. Even less likely that he would tell you I am your biological father. We both know that he'll do everything to keep it 'hidden' from you and the rest of the world. Don't look so surprised, we both know what we're to each other. I don't know about you but I'm really tired of this game. I like to call things by their name."

Sasuke's mind was running hundred miles per hours. There was so much he wanted to yell at the man's face. How could he say out loud such delicate matter so calmly and so indifferently? Like he was talking about the weather? However, losing his composure would make Kakashi the winner.

"Is there anything else? Or can I go now? I'm missing my break."

"No, that's all. Just let me know by tomorrow what you'll do. If I am you, I won't like being pulled out of the school where my friends are."

Sasuke got up from his chair without another word and walked away from the older man. When he finally got out of the room, he did not forget to slam the door as hard as he could.

Kakashi let out a heavy sigh as he removed the mask from his face. He felt suffocated in it.

TBC


A/N: Sorry if it was too long, I usually keep chaps shorted than this, but I didn't want to split it.

I don't know if the way that Sasuke and Kakashi holding pens when they write was very clear. You can pm me so I can send you a link of picture or you could google Taylor swift holding a pen/pencil, which is very similar what I have in mind, (I didn't get inspiration from her, but a classmate I had in 6th grade)

Please let me know what you think :)