Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, its characters and/or ideas. All rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto.
Warnings: Listings are available in the first chapter.
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Chapter 7
"A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down." – Arnold H. Glasow
The transition of summer leaves to autumn leaves on numerous trees can be often an overlooked development that is in fact one of the beauties and wonders of nature. Kakashi, in all his tardiness with having to arrive at his job, was absently staring at one of these mentioned trees with something akin to amazement.
His beloved orange book was nearly forgotten on his side as he rested the paperback on his outer thigh with the tip of his fingers. A single leaf suddenly ascended downward effortlessly, landing right on top of his left shoe. He glanced down at the fallen greenery for a long extended period of time, his mind in a haste of questions yet was slow with its copious of answers. Just like with nature – simple yet complex…
"Is this why you're sometimes late to class? Because you are too busy staring at absolutely nothing?"
Kakashi snapped his head to the voice, slightly flabbergasted that his blonde student was standing right next to him, watching him, and the older male hadn't even noticed nor sensed his presence. What was even more shocking was that the boy appeared more bruised than before and his clothing was layered and baggy. His dark hoodie covered most of his golden head; his bangs were the only locks of hair exposed.
"What happened to you?" The middle school teacher questioned in reply as he viewed the teen's battered face while cleverly disregarding what the boy had asked him.
"Don't you remember, sensei?" Naruto began airily, as though the man should have known the answer. "I got into a fight at school."
Kakashi frowned and put his book back into his deep pocket. "Don't insult my intelligence, Naruto. I know you didn't have that many bruises on you the other day. So, tell me now – what happened?"
"Oh, I get it," Naruto replied evenly, the identifiable haze of coldness appearing on his face, "I'm supposed to answer all your questions, and still be okay with you not answering mine."
Not waiting to see whether the man would respond to him or not, Naruto shoved his hands in his pockets and turned away from the other to start walking on the sidewalk in the direction of his school that was a few feet in front of the two.
As expected, Kakashi hurried along and fell in step with the young teen as both made their way inside the building and into the almost empty hallway. A few students that were late to their own classes peered at the teacher and younger male in curiosity, yet both Kakashi and Naruto ignored their inquisitiveness.
"You told me you had nothing to hide. Were you lying to me then?" Kakashi brought his hand down on Naruto's right shoulder in a friendly gesture as they continued their trek. The boy shrugged it off with a glare.
"Leave me alone."
Naruto sauntered forward, an angered scowl emerging from his lips. But, right before he was able to reach the door to Hatake's classroom, said man grasped both of the boy's shoulders and spun him around to face him, an uncharacteristic seriousness to his seen face.
"I know those bruises didn't just come from here," Kakashi repeated himself, suggesting that he meant the school and the fight the blonde had been involved in, "if someone is hurting you – someone at home – I'm required by law to alert–"
"Can you please just drop it already? Nothing's wrong here."
"Why don't I believe you, Naruto?" The silver headed man was continued looking at him, the older still not persuaded.
"What difference does it make?" The blonde lost his anger and sighed in resignation. "And anyway, why are you so concerned all of a sudden? You're just my teacher."
"I'm concerned because I'm your teacher."
Naruto shook his head, feeling more exhausted than he could ever recall. He didn't answer the older male as Kakashi looked at him with the same concern. He just raised his hands to remove the other hands from his shoulders and entered the class without so much as a backward glance. The only thing to come out of his mouth was one word:
"Liar."
The noise inside the cafeteria seemed to become livelier as more and more teens poured into the dining hall. Naruto was keenly isolated at a circular table from the various groups of his peers he had; he was sitting all the way in the back of the room near the exit doors. Eagerly, he was eating at his lunch as though it were his last meal before an expected execution.
Outwardly, he appeared as any other teen with the exception of being by himself. Yet, his thoughts were on overdrive, and he couldn't help but feel annoyed with his silver haired teacher that less than a couple weeks ago hadn't cared one way or another about him. What was worse, the blonde had no doubt that the man would call social services on him if he found out about his living conditions.
I'm just going to have to make sure he doesn't find out.
He was so absorbed within his own thinking that he was unaware that a certain someone had came and sat down with their food tray at his table. Distractedly chewing on his morsel, the blue eyed boy was clearly not paying attention to the dark haired figure that was gawking at him with both irritation and amusement.
"Hn. Still a dobe."
Raising his head up at the familiar insult, Naruto inwardly bristled at his childhood friend across from him. Instead of voicing his ire, however, he spoke rather calmly. "You're sitting at my table."
"Way to state the obvious, genius," Sasuke Uchiha said sarcastically with a smug smirk, "I could sit wherever I please."
"Yeah, I know. I'm just surprised you'd want to sit next to someone like me."
Sasuke looked incredulous. "Someone like you? What is that supposed to mean? Can you honestly sit there and act like you don't even recognize me?" Naruto resumed swallowing his food impolitely, seemingly acting as though the other boy wasn't there. Sasuke's eyes flashed with anger. "Don't ignore me." He said dangerously.
Naruto inattentively regarded the pale Uchiha with a tilt of his head, yet the glaze in his eyes told the older teen that he wasn't actually looking at him, but he was in fact looking through him. Sasuke ignored the twist in his stomach at the way the blonde was staring at him and at his beaten looking countenance. He was about to say more until girlish squeals reached their table.
A collection of girls had stalked toward the two boys; the three up front happened to be Sakura and Ino, along with a redheaded bespectacle girl named Karin. One of the females in the middle of the cluster elbowed Sakura with a nudge so that she would have to take the initiative to speak.
The same girl happened to whisper in what she believed had been secrecy, "Go ahead and ask him." Even when everybody surrounding her had heard, she still felt the need to cup her mouth.
"Uh, hi, Sasuke-kun," the pink haired girl greeted shyly, a blush appearing on her cheeks when the Uchiha's eyes focused on her, "we were wondering...if you wanted to come and sit at our table."
"No."
Sakura and the rest of the girls looked taken aback from his straight out refusal. With a quick look at Naruto, Sakura bravely bent down to whisper near the Uchiha's ear. "Please, Sasuke, it would mean so much to us. Plus, you don't want to sit next to him," she then again looked at the Uzumaki, this time with a frown, "he's bad news."
Ino, who had heard her friend quite clearly, said haughtily and loudly. "You should listen to her Sasuke-kun. I mean, just look at him. He probably has some sort of disease."
The mean spirited females laughed outright while Ino folded her arms and gave the other blonde a superior grin. Sasuke felt his anger rise and was about to lash out at the Yamanaka, but Naruto's impassive voice stopped him.
"They're all right, you know," all eyes glanced at him with surprise, not expecting him to speak, Naruto's eyes were gaping right at the Uchiha's unblinkingly as he spoke, "I'm contagious."
The group of girls actually took steps back at his admission.
An unanticipated silence then fell on the crowd of middle schoolers neighboring around the circular table. Sakura and Ino were both looking back and forth between the two males staring each other down in confusion. Sasuke was determined to break through the wall his used-to-be best friend had built to protect himself from the outside world. As the Uchiha figured out that Naruto was challenging him with the uncomfortable gaze, he knew he had to do what ever it took to reach out and reconnect with his friend.
"As I said before, no. I'm staying right here." Sasuke leaned back and smirked in his decision.
"But Sasuke..." Sakura began to protest.
"What part of the word 'no' don't you understand?"
The girl Karin suddenly rounded on the blonde boy who had pretty much tuned out the conversation, and started with a screech. "What did you do to have Sasuke-kun turn on us like that? Why is he sitting with you, you nasty-"
"Because I wanted to."
Karin halted in her rant and was bewildered and a bit frightened to see her ultimate dream guy glaring so hatefully at her. She snapped her mouth shut and backed away from Naruto. Said boy continued to eat his lunch nonchalantly.
"I'd rather sit with him, then sit with any of you leeches."
The mass of females glanced at one another with crestfallen expressions on their faces. Not completely sure what to do with themselves and with Sasuke still peering at them angrily, the girls turned away and dispersed amongst themselves leisurely, some giving the uncaring blonde glares of their own. Naruto, still not even looking at the girls, started to finish his food. His indifference to the whole affair just rose their anger.
Once the girls were out of ear shot, Sasuke brought half of his anger onto the blonde. "What was that?" Naruto didn't say anything, but gave the older teen a look as if to say 'what was what?'
Sasuke continued with annoyance. "You just sat there while those girls insulted you. Why didn't you defend yourself?"
"Because I don't care." Naruto said, like it was the most simplest thing in the world.
"You don't care?" Sasuke repeated to himself in disbelief. How could someone not care that they were basically getting smashed on like that?
"That's right." Naruto countered before getting up off the seat of the table.
"Where are you going?"
"I finished my lunch, so I'm leaving," he threw his remaining food in the trash and said over his shoulder with an unintentional grin, "See ya, Uchiha."
"I'm going to sit next to you tomorrow." It was a promise, not a question. A jaunty wave was all he got as the younger teen left the cafeteria through the back doors. Sasuke internally smiled to himself about that. He was going to get his friend back, no matter what.
The staff of the middle school seemed to erupt from the conference room as many educators exited from their doors and headed their way to the parking lot to go on home. Kakashi had an urge to rub his temples with his fingers after all the headaches and stresses he had had to deal with all day. While lazily stalking down the school's hallway, the masked man took out his trusted hentai paperback and opened it with ease.
He witnessed as some of the other teachers gave him looks of disgust or exasperation. He didn't pay them any mind though; he just resumed his walking, wanting to remove the wandering thoughts of a certain student from his mind.
Truth be told, he was beginning to feel that his worrying over the kid could lead to him possibly losing his job. It wasn't as though he had an inapproriate interest in the boy, but with how a majority of the people at school treated the teen and with his own unwanted fixation, others might start suspecting something.
Reaching the now darkening outside within minutes, Kakashi dug in his pocket and quickly grabbed his car keys, his Corvette being the last vehicle at the end of the parking line. He had just opened his car door when another vehicle rode along passed him, a familiar brunette teacher waved at him from the driver's window before taking off. He stared back at the Umino's vehicle even after the other man had turned into the main street.
He decided to wait for most of the cars to be gone before starting up his. Kakashi slowly sat himself down in the driver's seat with the door ajar and opened his book even more. When a shadow appeared near his car, he thought nothing of it; he assumed it was another teacher leaving the school's building. He was proven wrong when a tentative knock on his front window was used to get his attention. He was surprised to see Gai standing there nervously.
"Gai," he said, pocketing his book, "what are you doing here?"
"I remember you saying something about working at this school once, my rival and friend." The dark haired man responded without his usual enthusiasm. "I've been waiting here for you for awhile."
"Yeah, I had a long staff meeting that was boring as hell. What do you want? If this has anything to do with running laps with you all over the city, my answer's still no."
"No, no, it's nothing like that. It's something else..." he trailed off unsurely.
"Well, could you hurry this up? I'm really tired and I just want to go home."
Maito was having an internal battle with himself, that much was clear to the Hatake. He was almost tempted to snap at the other man and tell him to get on with what ever needed to be said. And even though Kakashi didn't necessarily dislike the other man, he did at times wish that the two had never even came into contact, let alone came to label themselves as 'friends' and/or 'rivals'.
After a long pause of silence, Kakashi said almost jokingly. "If you're just going to stand there and waste my time, I'm going to have to leave." He was in the process of shutting his door when a strong hand stopped him and prevented him from doing so.
Gai, with a look of concentration Kakashi hadn't seen in ages, spoke softly. "Wait. I need to talk to you. It's about your student, Naruto."
Seventh chapter complete.
