A/N:
Hi guys!
First, I want to apologize for not answering the reviews and assure you that I read all of them. It's kind of hard to answer reviews, since I don't really know what to say most of the time...
I want to warn you that my Kakashi will act very different. At first, it will only be when Naruto is involved but it will become a norm to him later.
VERY IMPORTANT: There's a poll in my profile about a pairing, because I can't decide. Please vote!
That said, I hope you like this chapter and leave some more awesome reviews!
Kiss
Chapter 3
Graduation and Hatake Kakashi
Today was the day of his graduation. Naruto was prepared for anything that could be thrown at him and more to come. The only thing he was dreading was that he had to hide his abilities and let Sasuke be the Rookie Of The Year which would make the raven boy's ego even bigger than it already was.
As he woke up in his bed in the master bedroom, he couldn't help but smile since he was one step closer of reuniting with his older brother.
Yes, he ended up choosing the master bedroom since the ones that were closer to the living room, the kitchen and the library were already set for someone… There was one for Kakashi, one for Jiraiya and one for Tsunade. There was also one made for him, but since he wasn't a baby anymore, he couldn't use the crib and he didn't want to change the room his parents prepared for him so he was saving it for when he had children of his own.
He got up, got dressed and left the house right after eating his breakfast as he would always do. Halfway towards the academy, he met with his clone, who was faking living in his messy old apartment and ordered him to dispel himself. Somehow, Naruto was able to hide from everyone, even the Hokage, the fact that he was not living in the apartment since he found the Namikaze state approximately four years back.
Reaching the academy in record time, he quietly slipped into a seat in the back row and opened one of his fuinjutsu scrolls, preparing himself to wait for his peers. He knew that anyone, besides Iruka and Shikamaru, who was able to peek at the scroll would disregard it as strange drawings resulted from the delusions of the class idiot. If it wasn't so advanced, Touji Mizuki, Hyuga Hinata, and Aburame Shino might also be able to pick up on it; as it was, it was somewhat safe for him to work on it in the classroom.
As the classroom began to fill, he was able to stay unnoticed by everyone just by being quiet and continuously scribing in his scroll. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before Shikamaru entered the classroom so he had to quickly put away his things and fake being asleep. Therefore, when Iruka and Mizuki entered the room and the former yelled for the blond to wake up, no one found it strange that they didn't notice he was there because he was supposedly sleeping the whole time.
The exams were a breeze for Naruto. If he didn't know about the second test, he would be really worried about the level of the ninjas from Konoha since he couldn't believe how easy it all was. Somehow, he was able to restrict himself to do the minimum and pass as the dead last, earning a death glare from Mizuki and a slightly relieved smile from Iruka.
The blond didn't care much for Iruka but that was not to say that he disliked him. After a little incident in which Naruto let the kind sensei think he saved him, the scarred chunin started to try harder to be there for the blond and even bought him ramen from time to time, probably because he felt guilty over almost letting one of his students get hurt on his watch. Iruka seemed to like his happy-go-lucky persona well enough after that, but the chunin didn't know anything about the real Naruto, so the blond always put walls around his heart when he was with the brown-haired young man.
Sasuke was, of course, the Rookie Of The Year and Haruno Sakura the Best Kunoichi and therefore Naruto knew he would be on the same team as those two.
He liked Sasuke once, but the dark-haired boy became an arrogant, power seeking jerk, yet the blond still hoped that he could save the Uchiha from himself.
Sakura, on the other hand, was a different story! He had a crush on her since the first time he saw her, he found her very pretty, shy and intelligent. However, when she started to hang out with Yamanaka Ino, as well as idolizing Sasuke, he gave up on the girl who seemed to lack common sense. He knew she was going to be a nuisance on the team unless he was able to bring back the girl he once liked so he would at least try to get along with her and restore her to who she used to be.
Somehow, he was happy that Sakura was the one that would end up on his team and not Hinata or Ino. Ino would be more annoying and much more difficult to break from her fangirlism; Hinata had a major crush on the blond and would probably become a liability on a mission if or when she passed out because he talked to her.
With the exams over with, Naruto quickly escaped the academy after seeing the dark and mischievous gleam on Mizuki's eyes and the hopeful one on Iruka's. He wasn't in the mood to his academy's senseis, he just wanted to quietly celebrate that he was finally done with the academy and closer to reuniting with his brother.
XXX
Two weeks later, he made his way towards the academy again for the team placements and finally start his career as a shinobi. He dressed as he usually did, but he decided that he would let his naturally quiet persona show.
When the room was filled and Iruka entered the room, he wasn't surprised to see him alone since he had heard that Mizuki tried to steal the Forbidden Scroll from the Hokage's office merely to be caught by the old man before he could leave and was sent to the prison, the fool!
After a long and tedious speech, the chunin started to present the team placements, until it came to team 7.
"Team 7 is Uzumaki Naruto…" Iruka started to say, gracing the blond with a curious and slightly worried stare. Naruto almost laughed out loud, he couldn't believe the irony! Well, he should have known... It's in his blood, after all! Nonetheless, he was on team 7 like his godfather, his father, and his brother before him.
"...Haruno Sakura…" The chunin continued, making the pink-haired girl groan and Naruto sigh softly in resignation. "...and Uchiha Sasuke."
The last name led to a torrent of screams and shrieks from all the fangirls and groans from the male population because of all the noise. When everyone calmed down, Iruka quickly announced the last two teams which were team 8 with Shino, Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba and team 10 with Ino, Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji.
After a quick lunch break, the possible future jounin sensei started to enter the room and take their possible future teams with them, leaving behind team 7 with Iruka. The only sounds in the room were those of their breathing, Iruka's pen writing something on a scroll and Sakura's failed tentatives of engaging Sasuke in a conversation.
Two hours later, the scarred chunin was long gone and team 7 was still waiting in the classroom. At some time, Sakura and Sasuke started to wonder what happened to their blond classmate since he hadn't uttered a word all day and just looked bored out of his mind. They even started to throw him slightly worried looks, but the blond didn't seem to pay them any mind.
As it was, the two young genin-hopefuls almost jumped out of their skin when they saw Naruto's head audibly snap up and in the direction of the door, his eyes wide with surprise. They didn't know about Naruto's improved senses, so they didn't have a way to know that Naruto just recognized the scent and the sound of the soft footsteps of a certain silver-haired jounin. As the man in question entered through the door, Naruto couldn't believe his luck as he got the confirmation that he would actually have his brother as his jounin sensei if he passed the test.
"Hatake… Kakashi…" Naruto spoke softly before he could stop himself, never taking his wide shining eyes away from his brother's suddenly wide one.
Kakashi could only stare at his possible new student with a mix of awe, joy, and confusion at being recognized, the little theatricals that he had prepared for that day completely forgotten.
The other two occupants of the room were thoroughly confused. The Naruto they were seeing today, was one they had never met. He was quiet, patient and seemed to know the person who probably was their jounin sensei.
"Do you know him Naruto?" Sakura asked, being her normal insensitive self while Sasuke tried to look nonchalant when he was so obviously interested in the answer too. The two genins were surprised with their teammate's soft voice and that he finally spoke.
"Every good ninja, not only in this village but also in the whole world, knows him Sakura. Your point?" Naruto retorted calmly and sarcastically without taking his gaze away from his brother, effectively insulting and angering his two teammates and making Kakashi want to laugh.
Before it could escalate in a discussion, the silver-haired jounin quickly interrupted Sakura and Sasuke who had their mouths wide open, ready to tear on their teammate.
"Anyway, meet me on the roof in 10 minutes." Kakashi said before quickly shunshining to the roof and Naruto quickly followed leaving two dumbstruck rookie genins behind.
As the blond arrived at the roof about 5 seconds after the silver-haired man, Kakashi turned to Naruto startled for a few seconds before relaxing a bit and putting the young boy under his scrutinizing gaze.
"How do you know who I am?" Kakashi finally asked, after not coming to any conclusion by himself. "It's true that ninjas around the world know me, but they have access to a bingo book, which you don't. There would be no way for you to know who I am."
"What kind of person would I be if I didn't know who my own brother was?" Naruto questioned with a serious and somewhat hurt expression, making the other stare, surprised before looking a little hopeful. "Do you think I am someone who would forget the people who took care of me, Inu-nii-san?"
At this, Kakashi's single visible eye widened and he looked ready to cry under the blond's piercing gaze.
"No, Naru-chan." The silver-haired male answered softly, instinctively reverting to shorting the blond's name like he did when he was in Anbu, a soft look on his visible eye. "I just didn't think you would recognize me without the Anbu mask."
Naruto could see that the other was telling the truth and his eyes softened as he smiled softly to the older man. That simple action seemed to break the dam for Kakashi because the next thing he knew, the blond was being hugged tightly.
"I thought I had lost you forever." Kakashi whispered as he pulled the younger boy tighter against his chest, his voice breaking as the blond felt his golden hair getting a bit damp, making him realize that his brother was silently crying. "I never dreamed that you would recognize me. I thought you would never know, that you would never treat me the same way you did when I was in Anbu and that I had lost my chance to be your older brother."
"That could never happen Kashi-nii." Naruto stated calmly, hugging his brother back for dear life. "I would have recognized your scent anywhere."
After a couple of minutes, Naruto carefully disentangled himself from the older boy, took his dad's letter out of his pouch and gave it to Kakashi for him to read. When the silver-haired jounin finished reading, his eye was wide again as he looked into his little brother's eyes and he had a few tears still streaming down the visible part of his face towards the mask which was getting damp.
"Where I found that letter, I also found his journal. He wrote there about you and your team as well as various other things, like your code-name in the Anbu." The blond informed in his naturally soft voice. "That was how I knew your name, but I would know you were Inu anyway because of your scent."
"I see…" Kakashi mumbled after a few more moments of silence, finally composing himself and erasing the evidence of having been crying while giving Minato's letter back to the blond.
Naruto pocketed the letter and hugged his brother tightly, savoring Kakashi's warm presence until he caught Sakura and Sasuke's scents and chakras.
"Sakura and Sasuke are almost here." He commented as he regretfully stepped away from the hug. "Promise me that we will talk after this, today!"
"I promise! However, it will be better if we don't get out of here together so neither of your teammates can scream favoritism, ok?" Whispered Kakashi, touched by the almost desperation in his little brother's voice. "Meet me at the memorial stone after this. Do you know how to find it Naru-chan?"
"Yes Kashi-nii, I know where it is. I'll shunshin there as soon as you dismiss us here." Naruto grinned.
The silver-haired young man didn't even bother asking how the blond knew the shunshin, but he couldn't help himself and smiled at the younger boy while ruffling his hair, before Sakura and Sasuke could make it into the roof. It was his first real smile since he had to leave the Anbu and consequently his brother behind; it wasn't anything like his fake one, where he closed his visible eye, it was one that could only be seen by the soft look, the emphasize of the laughter lines on the corner of his visible eye and the slight shift in his mask.
"Here they come! The duck butt and his loyal follower..." Naruto snorted just a few seconds short of Sakura and Sasuke's appearance, his resigned and slightly impatient expression making Kakashi laugh, a deep contagious laugh that left the blond laughing with him.
That was the scene that the two missing genins found when they made it to the roof. As they draw closer to the two, their previous anger and annoyance evaporated as they saw something that they had never seen before: Naruto's eyes were lit up, sparkling even while he laughed. His laughter wasn't the usually obnoxious one but a clear and soft one that made Sakura blush at the sight and Sasuke's gaze softened, a tiny smile on his lips.
Considering what they were seeing, the genins could only assume that this was the first time that they were seeing their blond teammate truly laughing since they met him and that all the other times he was laughing were fake. It was at that moment they were starting to wonder if they really knew Naruto.
"Why were you laughing?" Sakura inquired looking between the two after they stopped laughing.
"I don't really know, ask him." Naruto shrugged, inclining his head towards his brother. "He started laughing and somehow it made me laugh too."
That caught the young Uchiha's attention and made him look incredulous at the blond who had turned his gaze towards the sky.
'Were we that bad?' The dark-haired boy asked himself. 'Were we so bad that someone can make Naruto laugh so freely after less than ten minutes of them being together, while we had, at least, two years and never saw it before?'
He was suddenly struck by the realization that yes, they were that bad. They all were! At that moment it became obvious for Sasuke that the blond showed his obnoxious persona to everyone because that was what everyone expected to see. He always wondered why the Hokage seemed to be so close with his teammate when the blond was so obnoxious. That was the moment that the answer was finally crystal clear for him: the Hokage had the desire to get to know the real Naruto so the blond showed it to him but since no one in their class was really interested in the boy, no one saw his real self!
Sakura hung her head in shame as she also reached the same conclusions about the blond as her dark-haired teammate. Now that she had finally seen the real Naruto, she didn't want him to revert to what he was before that day.
Meanwhile, as the blond was distracted watching the clouds, Kakashi was observing his other two cute genin's reaction to the sight of his little brother laughing. Since he heard the Hokage saying that Naruto was a loud happy-go-lucky kid and Iruka describing him as slightly obnoxious, the jounin knew that either they weren't talking about the same person or his little brother was using that attitude to hide his real self. Seeing the Uchiha and the Haruno's reactions, he knew that it was the latter.
"Well, introduce yourselves so we can get to know each other better." Kakashi encouraged, eye-smiling.
Sasuke was indifferent to it while Sakura and Naruto had completely opposite reactions. While the girl seemed happy that the jounin smiled at them, the blond almost cringed at the fake smile as it seemed to make him feel slightly uneasy.
"How about we start with you, Naruto?" The silver-haired young man suggested after seeing that no one was taking the initiative.
"I'm Naruto." The blond began, seeing no way out. "And I'm twelve years old."
He was ready to end it there, but seeing his brother's interested expression, he didn't have the heart to cut his introduction short.
"If I told you everything I like, we would be here the whole day." He continued with a bored expression. "I dislike arrogant people, fangirls and the ones that can't tell the difference between a kunai and its container. Lastly, my dream is to be Hokage one day and make my family proud."
As the jounin looked into that shiny blue eyes, he knew that the blond wasn't only talking about Minato and Kushina but also Kakashi himself. It was a bit overwhelming for the silver-haired man to see such admiration and care directed to himself; this boy he always considered his precious little brother, although they weren't blood-related, was the only one who ever looked like that to him since Minato and Kushina died. It took him a bit to understand that it was unconditional love that he was seeing in Naruto's eyes: the type of love that you normally only see in your family. Kakashi couldn't help himself and had to smile at his brother.
Sasuke felt uncomfortable after hearing his teammate's introduction. It didn't escape him that both himself and Sakura were in the blond's list of things he disliked and, for some reason he couldn't explain, it irked him. However, that wasn't the only thing that upset him. Naruto was looking at their sensei like Sasuke himself used to look at his brother Itachi, but he knew they weren't brothers since they were nothing alike. Yet inexplicably, he wanted to be closer with this new version of his blond teammate and he wanted that look directed to himself…
Sakura was oblivious to her sensei and her teammate's musings, she was too occupied watching Naruto. She could now remember another quiet and younger version of her blond teammate, from before the clans' kids joined the academy; she could now remember, that he only started to turn himself into a loud and obnoxious idiot after being thoroughly ignored and even put down by everyone for months. She finally realized that Naruto was wearing a mask to protect himself and her part in it. She also noticed how handsome her teammate really was.
'His blond hair has a golden shine to it and his shiny blue eyes are striking. He is almost as handsome as Sasuke-kun!' She thought, feeling herself blushing. 'Why didn't I ever notice all this before? I was there when he created that stupid mask and I saw him grow! I should have questioned the sudden change and I should have tried to be his friend. Instead, I'm probably near the top of the list of people he doesn't like…'
Naruto, who had started to watch the clouds again, looked at the others after no one talked for a while and saw the three lost in thought.
"Shouldn't we get this done? I have somewhere to be after this, you know?" He hinted, interrupting their thoughts and looking at his brother who smiled at him.
"Yes, of course!" Kakashi chuckled. "You're next Sasuke."
"My name is Sasuke. There's very few things I like and a lot that I dislike. My dream is more of an ambition: I want to kill a certain man." The Uchiha said with contempt.
"What he means is that he likes tomatoes and training, dislikes fangirls and everyone else that breathes too close to him and wants to kill Itachi to avenge his clan." Naruto pointed out with a bored tone.
'So Naru-chan knows about Itachi.' Kakashi concluded. 'I guess I shouldn't be surprised, he was always more observant than anyone gave him credit.'
As he exchanged a look with his brother, he knew they were thinking the along the same lines. 'If we don't do something about this revenge crap and fast, it will come back to bite us in the ass.'
The raven looked at the blond startled, he never knew that Naruto knew him so well. It made him feel even guiltier for not noticing his teammate's true self before.
Sakura just looked between his teammates and sensei in obvious confusion.
"Sakura?" Kakashi simply asked.
"I'm Sakura and I'm also twelve years old." She stopped, biting his lip before continuing, a little uncertain. "I like reading and dislike being wrong about something or someone. My dream… Being a good kunoichi, I guess."
All three males looked at Sakura in slight disbelief.
'Wow! She didn't talk about Sasuke even once.' Naruto thought, confused.
'Wasn't she a fangirl?' Kakashi mused as confused as his little brother.
'Hn! Is she finally taking this serious?' The raven asked himself, feeling slightly hopeful.
As Sakura was starting to wonder why they were all looking at her with odd looks, Kakashi shook his head and got out of his funk.
"Well, with the introductions done…" He started just to be interrupted by a certain blond.
"You didn't introduce yourself Kakashi." Naruto deadpanned.
"Oh! Right! Sorry…" The silver-haired man smiled apologetically under his mask. "As you already heard, I'm Kakashi. I'm 26 years old and while I don't want to be Hokage, my dream, likes, and dislikes are the same as Naruto's."
'I can't believe I actually forgot that I didn't introduce myself!' He raved to himself, embarrassed at his distraction. 'That's what I get for only paying attention to Naru-chan and the amusing reactions that he can get out of Sakura and Sasuke. I should be more attentive. I'm a jounin, for god's sake! I guess I missed him even more than I thought...'
'The same as me?' Naruto looked at his brother in mixed curiosity and disbelief. 'What are you trying to accomplish with that introduction, Kashi-nii?'
Sasuke frowned at the man he was starting to dislike more than he dislikes every normal non-fangirl person. 'Hn. Why is he rubbing on our faces that he is close with Naruto and we're not? And why does Naruto like him so much? What does he have that we don't?'
'Wow! He and Naruto seem close.' Sakura thought, finally noticing her sensei's relationship with her blond teammate. 'Do they know each other from before today? But they both seemed surprised when they met. Arg! Those two don't make any sense!'
"Now that it's done..." Kakashi started with an amused expression, already imagining his genins hopeful's reactions. "You need to know you're not genins yet."
"WHAT?" Sakura and, strangely enough, Sasuke yelled as Naruto winced at their loud voices and stared at his brother with a calculating and slightly amused look.
"Well… You see, the academy's exam is only to herd out the hopeless ones." The jounin explains. "The real exam is given to you by your possible future jounin sensei. This exam generally has a 66% failure rate, so out of the 27 of your graduating class probably only 9 will make the cut."
Seeing the incredulous yet determined expressions on two of his cute little student-hopefuls, Kakashi couldn't contain his amusement and giggled softly. However, as he turned his attention to his brother he still saw a calculating look, it felt like the blond was trying to catch some hidden message in his words and while he knew he wasn't being nearly as intimidating as he intended to be at first, it pleased him to see that one of the genin-hopefuls was already trying to see underneath the underneath.
"What will this exam consist of?" Sakura asked slowly as if afraid of the answer, making the older male look at her in guarded approval which went unnoticed by the girl.
"I'll tell you the details tomorrow morning." The jounin answered calmly. "Just be at the training ground three with all your ninja tools at 6 AM. And well, don't eat breakfast."
Seeing that even his brother looked bewildered now, he couldn't help but chuckle before delivering the killing blow and shunshining out of there. "If you eat, you'll puke… See you!"
After a few moments of staring at the place the jounin had just vacated, the three genin-hopefuls exchanged bewildered looks before Naruto stood up without a word and started to walk calmly towards the edge of the roof, seemingly ready to jump to the ground. Alarmed, Sakura and Sasuke quickly caught up to him and caught one arm each.
"What are you doing?" The duo almost screamed, surprising the blond with the concern that he heard in their voices.
"I'm going home?" Naruto informed them, but he was so confused that it sounded more like a question than a statement.
"By jumping out of the roof?" The girl of the group demanded, her expression etched in pure disbelief gaining incredulous looks from both of her teammates.
"Don't be stupid, Sakura. We are ninjas, we are supposed to jump out of roofs and from rooftop to rooftop." Sasuke stated to the pink-haired girl who had the decency to blush in embarrassment, before turning to his blond teammate. "You're not going anywhere unless you answer some of my questions."
"I'm sorry Sasuke." Naruto said after prying himself off his teammates' hold. "But I'll have to answer your questions other time, I have a place I need to be. See you!"
Before his two teammates could react to his words or his display of flexibility to escape their hold on him, he had already shunshined away to the memorial stone to meet with his brother.
"What just happened?" Sakura asked to no one in particular, feeling slightly dazed and her only answer was a "Hn" from an equally dazed Sasuke.
After a few moments of quiet contemplation, Sakura decided that she needed a bit of her normalcy back and let herself fall back in her usual fangirl tendencies, effectively making Sasuke flee to his home to get away from her.
Having been left alone, the pink-haired girl headed home and locked herself in her room to think about everything that happened in peace.
'Am I really one of the people Naruto doesn't like?' She mused, feeling depressed. 'And why I am I worrying about what he thinks of me? He is an idiot, THE CLASS CLOWN!'
"You know that's not true... You're lying to yourself!" Her inner-self accused, frustrated. "You found out today that he was using a mask almost all the time you were in the academy, you got to that conclusion by yourself. You don't know what was fake and what wasn't... I am willing to bet that he is actually quite intelligent and that that awful jumpsuit is part of the mask of an idiot that he created to protect himself!"
Sakura knew that her inner-self was right, but it didn't make it easier for her to accept that she had misjudged one of her classmates so badly that she made herself a disliked person to him. However, no matter how she many times she thought about it, she couldn't understand why the mere thought that she lost the opportunity of being his friend and that he disliked her made her upset that she wanted to cry her eyes out.
With her world turned upside down, Sakura decided to rely on what normalcy that she still had and focused on her crush on her dark-haired teammate for the time being.
Meanwhile, Naruto appeared at the memorial stone, not acknowledging his brother immediately as he focused on his parents' names carved on the stone. Finally turning to Kakashi after a few minutes of silence, the blond looked at the silver-haired man adoringly for a moment before taking his hand.
"Let's take this to a more private place, alright?" Naruto asked, barely waiting for the other's nod to disappear in a swirl of leaves.
