Situational Hazard

CHAPTER FOUR

Kakashi sighed. He should have known Naruto would lock the door. But, since it was his house, and Naruto seemed to be forgetting that he was a ninja, a Jounin at that, he easily reached up and pulled out a hairpin from his silver mane. It was easy to pick the lock.

He walked in, fully dressed in his gear and ready to leave. He would wake Naruto and make him get dressed so that they could find someone better suited to watch the boy. Obviously, Naruto didn't trust him worth a damn, not that it wasn't particularly his fault.

Naruto was sprawled out wildly on the bed, his legs spread haphazardly and one of his arms hanging off the edge while the other was draped across his drooling face. Kakashi frowned. The brat was practically desecrating his pillow with his disgusting drool.

"Wake up Naruto. It's time to go do what I said we were going to do."

Naruto's eyes slowly slid open and he sat up, rubbing them wearily. Who could have been waking him up today? He knew he had no missions becau----

"Ah! You!" He quickly yanked the covers over his half exposed form and pushed himself up against the wall.

Kakashi sighed again. "Get dressed." He tossed Naruto's clothes in the blonde's face and briskly exited the room.

Naruto blinked. Well….that was rather sudden…. and rude. Naruto crept out of bed and to the bathroom. The room was still a bit dark, as if the sun hadn't even risen yet. Naruto peered out the window to see that it was still raining, just not as heavily as before. It looked like the storm had only let up enough for people to go outside, and he was as ready as he was ever going to be to find someplace else to go, though he highly doubted anyone would have taken him in. It was worth a try. So he quickly got dressed and grabbed his small bag of belongings and ran into the den to see Kakashi standing there waiting for him. The second he saw him he felt guilty.

Kakashi was holding the doorknob in one hang while the other was stuffed into his pocket and his head was bent toward the floor with his eye closed. He opened it when he felt Naruto's presence.

"I have an umbrella we can share, that is, if you aren't worried about me molesting you in the rain." Naruto blushed fiercely and tried to hide his face in his high collar jumpsuit sweatshirt. Kakashi eyed him plainly before picking up the umbrella behind the door and walking outside. Naruto hurried after him and stood next to his sensei under the umbrella.

It was the first time he had ever been so close to the man, even with the weird behavior from yesterday, Kakashi had never really come this close. Their arms were brushing with every step and Naruto could feel the heat searing up his neck, despite the cold October wind that swept the village.

"I'll tell you now. I don't think we're going to find anyone to take you in, but I'm doing this to ensure that if there is a person that will allow you to stay with them, that you won't be as uncomfortable around them as you are around me. You know, even though you are supposed to trust me with your life."

Naruto looked up at him with his expressive blue orbs and blushed even more. "It wasn't like you weren't enjoying my discomfort."

"Yes. I was having some fun at your expense, but I guess it would be wrong to blame you. Either way, I guess the first step will be finding another place for you to stay. The second will be to get you better missions to help you get back on your feet. I've been careless in giving you too many breaks, but the Hokage doesn't allow more than a certain amount of missions per month. Genin are allowed a certain stipend a month, and unfortunately, there haven't really been any missions lately that are on the Genin level. I wish I could tell you that you'd be back on your feet in no time, but I then again I don't."

Kakashi stared straight ahead, effectively looking for all to see like he was walking alone. Naruto couldn't blame him. If Kakashi made it look like he were walking down the street with the demon brat in anything that even remotely looked like something he thought was worth doing, then Naruto himself would never hear the end of it. The villagers had a way of going on and on about the little bit of people that pitied him enough to act like they were his friends, his sensei included. Fortunately for Naruto, he had learned not to care. After much ridicule and hate-filled glares that usually were reserved to make him uncomfortable, Naruto could compare his team's behavior to be something of a vacation, even if it did involve work.

Kakashi, who had never even so much as smiled at him, was the only exception he had ever found to the norm of his abusive life. Kakashi played with him, he even had a laugh at his distressful expense, and that was more expression than Naruto had ever seen on the silver haired perv. For a pervert, Kakashi was unusually quiet and dull, not at all the kind of person he'd figure to enjoy messing with people's heads. He was lazy, pushy in a silent I'm –watching you-so you better-get-to-work way, and he was weird.

And that mask…

If that didn't freak Naruto out, he didn't know what else about the man did.

The mask was the icing on the mystery cake. One never knew what he was thinking, or if he even thought much at all. The only expressions he had even seen his teacher make were surprise and a smile. Or at least, that's what his eye had intended for it too look like he was doing. Having been acquainted with the guy for little over a year, he paid as much attention to Kakashi as Kakashi had ever paid to him.

Of course, Kakashi's eye was the most expressive thing about him, and that really wasn't saying much when he looked at people like they were simple houseplants most of the time. Naruto vaguely wondered if Kakashi actually smiled under that mask. Probably not. But….he had smiled at Naruto once yesterday and Naruto hadn't even bothered to see what he looked like up close.

From where he was walking next to Kakashi, he couldn't get a single glimpse of Kakashi's face (or eye) because as it was he was walking on his left side.

Not that Naruto would have looked. And certainly not that Kakashi couldn't tell if he was, without even letting on that he could.

Kakashi could feel the boy's eyes glance up at him every other minute and while he wouldn't show it, it was getting quite annoying. It wasn't as if he had anything out of the ordinary on his face. Or was he trying to figure out what was underneath his mask? Well, it wouldn't be the first time. He distantly wondered how much longer Naruto would keep looking at him before they reached the Hokage tower in the middle of the village. Wearing a mask all of his life since he was five years old, he was used to the unnecessary curiosity that anyone within a 2 mile radius of him exuded. Everyone had some stupid desire or another to get a look at what was under his mask, when really, he wasn't hiding anything interesting at all.

He had a face. Some people thought that he didn't, but he did. Sure, he would never prove it to them, and they could never prove that he didn't, he would simply attempt to wait out the generations of curiosity. Even Yondaime had ventured to ask what it was that his little Chuunin student hid under that piece of cloth on his face. Needless to say, he was just in the beginning stages of his' mask-wearing' and showed the future Hokage. All Yondaime said was, "Huh." Like he had been expecting much more and had gotten a lot less. Or at least, that's what Kakashi took the sound to mean.

"Uhh….Kakashi-sensei?" The unsure voice of Naruto reached his ears and without looking down he responded, "Yes, Naruto?"

Naruto's hands wiggled around in his pockets nervously as he tried to remember what it was that he had wanted to say. The moment Kakashi responded, he had forgotten and now he felt like an idiot all over again. He didn't want to look retarded just walking and looking like he was lost, so he quickly came up with the only thing he could think of.

"Why are you so creepy?"

Kakashi chuckled for the second time Naruto had ever heard.

"Am I creepy, or are you just paranoid?"

Naruto's brow creased in thought. Of course, he had a point. Naruto had been thinking along the more directly paranoid lines of thought and it could have been just that he didn't understand the older man that he came to the conclusion that he was creepy. Or, he really was just creepy.

Naruto wasn't sure which one it was, but it sure made him feel uncomfortable and damned if his jumpsuit sweater wasn't itchy at the moment, making him want to scratch his arm anxiously. But he refrained, and decided that it would be best to not make eye contact with that particular villager again.

Ignoring the odd looks and harsher than usual insults about someone being dumb enough to go near him, he almost sighed with relief when they reached the tower. All of a sudden, Naruto felt like a little child again. Up until the time he was 10, people had been dragging him to and from the Hokage's tower, all for the same reason. Either they wanted him out of their home, or they wanted to know why he was even in their home to begin with.

Naruto had been through situations in which a mean drunk ninja had taken him home per the Hokage's orders, as if that wasn't unsettling in itself, and the wife of the ninja had walked into the house demanding to know why there was a demon in her den. He had been forcefully, ruthlessly, carelessly dragged out of the home and back to the tower, and it had been the same thing for years until he finally made Genin and was offered by Sandaime himself the only place on the market that would let him hang around. Granted, the apartment he used to live in wasn't anyone's idea of happy home, but it was a place for Naruto to sleep at night somewhat peacefully without people arguing about how much they didn't want him around.

He must not have been listening because before he knew it, the Hokage was waving her hand in front of his face and he was lost to her attempts to call him back to reality.

"Naruto!" He looked up, eerily calm for someone who had just been snapped out of a reverie.

"Are you back with us? I know you're depressed about losing your home."

"Losing my home?" He almost forgot about that.

Tsunade looked at Kakashi as if the Jounin's student had gone a little crazy.

"Yes. Anyway, you know that even though I'm the Hokage, the villagers all have certain rights. It's not like it was when Sarutobi was around. I can't get your old place back, but if you'd like I can try and find out if anyone one else is willing to put you up for a few weeks. I'd have to pay them of course…."

"Willing? Pay them? Godaime, don't you think that's a bit sad? I mean, I'm 15, most kids already have their lives planned out and are on their way to being Chuunin and me….I haven't done anything. I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know where I'm going, and now I'm a teenager, and I still have trouble finding a place to live. I'm grown, nobody is going to want to take care of me. Me of all people. Do you know what some people would expect from you for that?"

"Naruto, I may not be as influential as Sandaime was, but I---

"I find it hard to believe," Naruto continued on as if Godaime's words were nothing but a gust of wind. "that I'm the most useless, irresponsible ninja in town and yet I'm still too dangerous for anyone to consider housing me without being ordered to by the Hokage. You know, it's the reason why I want to become the Hokage."

Tsunade frowned and sat back in her chair. While this wasn't the young passionate child she had met a few months back, she was indeed sighing in relief on the inside that Naruto was finally letting some of his frustrations out. It was about time. If the kid kept anymore of his emotions bottled up inside longer than necessary, the results had the potential to be disastrous. It was obvious he had nobody to talk to it about, and if Iruka Umino was any person to judge, she'd say that the Chuunin had not gotten the chance to hear what his ex-student truly felt on the inside. Then again, if he were there….

"I want to be able to be the kind of Hokage who doesn't sit for those kinds of things. You're a good person, Lady Tsunade, but I should really be trying to help myself. Kakashi sensei put up with me for a whole night, that's more than anyone I know besides Iruka sensei is willing to do for me. I've been thinking, and maybe it would be a good idea if I left the village until---

"No."

"---until I made enough money to afford the rent around here. Still, nothing can stop the landlords from raising it when they're having a shit month and the Kyuubi kid is living two floors away. That's more money than I'd even care to give away."

Kakashi watched his student carefully, seeing his body tense with barely restrained emotion. It looked like Naruto wanted to cry. Not that he would. If he did, he just wouldn't be Naruto. He had much more to cry about, and yet to experience it. Kakashi had gone to the Hokage knowing full well that whatever happened wasn't going to turn out well for the young Genin, but he hadn't taken anything for granted since the regretful decisions of his past. Tsunade had only been the Hokage for little over 2 years now and all she had to offer was her remorse. Just because she was the Hokage, didn't mean she could do anything. Unfortunately, the higher ups were on the side of the villagers, as much as they claimed that this fact was untrue, they did not wish to aid Naruto in any way that would result in his success as a Konoha citizen, or shinobi. And he himself, could do nothing.

Well…..

"Naruto, it was worth a try. The most conducive thing to do is to allow you to come back and live with me. You don't much of a choice, unless you'd rather leave the village. But you know if you do that, then you can just kiss that dream of becoming the Hokage goodbye."

Naruto's bewildered eyes shot up to his in surprise. His teacher…was offering him a place to stay!

"Huh?" He asked eloquently. It was all so sudden. In his depression-induced thoughts, he had never even considered the possibility that Kakashi would let him go back with him. Not in a million years.

"Thank you Lady Hokage, but I think I'll be taking him with me. You don't have to pay me anything. I thought I should let you know. If it's possible, if you have any side jobs that he can do, please let us know. He will need money for himself, because I'm not his guardian."

Naruto smiled sadly. Just yesterday he had been accusing the man of trying to do something to him, and now he was feeling almost eternally grateful for his offer to let him stay at Kakashi's apartment. Before he could stop himself, he stepped in front of his sensei and threw his arms around the unsuspecting man.

Kakashi wasn't surprised that Naruto would hug him. He was an eccentric kid that way. Kakashi's arms hung limply by his sides as he made no move to hug the boy back. He fixed his bored gaze into the beautiful Hokage's big, hazel eyes and nodded. She gave a firm nod and went back to sit at her seat, spinning her chair around to the wide window behind her, dismissing them silently.

"Thanks Kakashi-sensei! I promise won't get in your way. You won't even know I'm around!" Naruto said ecstatically when they got outside. Kakashi said nothing, and pulled out his little blue book to ignore the blonde's profuse and loud exclamations of gratitude.

TBC…

Alright time for a break! Although the story is finished already, so you won't have to wait for an update, I want to see if anyone is interested enough to tell me what they think of this story so far. I can't technically finish it here, but I can give you guys an alternated ending, so I hope you enjoy it when it comes. I haven't edited or checked for spelling errors, of which I am sure there are many, but it's too troublesome to deal with right now, maybe I do it later. Please, read and review!

Ja'ne.