"I wonder why Kakashi never mentioned he had a wife?" Ino wondered aloud to Choji and Shikamaru as all three sat around a small barbeque pit embedded in the table.
"Who knows? But she's pretty amazing if she can put up with someone as mysterious as Kakashi-sensei." Shikamaru mumbled out unenthusiastically to his teammates.
Choji plucked a piece of grilled beef off the hot grill with his chopsticks, "Seeing how he is around here…I'm actually surprised that he even saw a woman that way."
Ino couldn't help but laugh lightly at Choji's words as he shoved the hot savory beef into his mouth. Shikamaru silently agreed as he smirked. That part was very true as he thought on it. As far as Shikamaru could observe or even remember, the copy ninja had never shown interest in people in general, let alone shown romantic feelings for anyone.
"What do you think she's like?" Ino suddenly asked, taking a sip of her cold brewed green tea.
Shikamaru shrugged leaning back in his seat, "I dunno. Naruto just said she was a pretty brunette."
"That's it?" Ino asked, feeling a bit bummed that that was all anyone knew.
"He wouldn't say anything else after that." He added with a sigh, "…either way, I wish her luck, she'll need it with someone as odd as Kakashi sensei."
***0***
"Are they still talking about us?" Jinju asked with a knowing smile.
Kakashi sighed miserably in his seat, sliding his head band back over his left eye. Although he hardly ever used it for such a frivolous reason, his sharingan allowed his to read lips from a distance. He and Jin had decided to go out for lunch at her suggestion since all Kakashi had wanted to do was sulk in his apartment after what had happened yesterday in the park.
"Why are you even stressing over what people think?" Jinju asked, lazily plucking a piece of broccoli out of her stir fry bowl.
"I'm a private person Jin." He said with a frown.
"Private? Ha! That's rich coming from you." She said as she brought the vegetable to her mouth with jer chopsticks.
"And what do you mean by that?" Kakashi asked suspiciously, lightly crossing his arms.
"You didn't seem the least bit so when you were showing your privates to me every night."
Kakashi's cheeks suddenly grew a deep red color out of the sheer embarrassment. Although he couldn't ignore the anger that suddenly bubbled up, his head feeling hot from his blood boiling inside him. She was one joke away from getting punched in the face, and Kakashi considered himself for the most part a gentleman.
"Why are you such a pervert?!" He hissed out angrily, just above a whisper.
Jinju snorted, rolling her eyes, "That's the pot calling kettle black…"
"What? How am I as big of a pervert as you Jin?" His brows knitted together in anger.
"I can't help it now can I? I literally learned it all from you." She said with gentle smile that seemed to mock the copy ninja.
"You couldn't possibly have learned all those dirty things from-" Kakashi suddenly froze in mid sentence. At first, her retort had seemed innocent enough. But suddenly his mind put together some obvious puzzle pieces.
Now it was his turn to smirk and poke some fun at Jin.
She frowned at his reaction, suddenly confused as to why Kakashi had stopped talking and seemed to be staring her down like prey, "What's that look for?"
"You learned it all from me…because I was your first. Wasn't I?" Kakashi expression turned into an amused one when he saw Jinju suddenly blush and fumble to form a sentence.
"What? Why would- that's not-" She suddenly huffed and looked away, taking a deep breath and regaining some composure enough to make a small and simple retort, "That is irrelevant right now."
"Aw~ Jin. I'm truly flattered." He teased as he smiled behind his mask.
"Don't stroke your own ego there, Kakashi." She snapped at him as she put her chopsticks side by side cross the top of her bowl.
Just as she was about to stand up to leave, her face still burning with embarrassment, Kakashi couldn't help but at least take this opportunity to turn the tables and make a joke about her instead, "Jin, if I remember correctly…you did way more stroking then I did when we first got together."
She huffed in anger and embarrassment and left Kakashi, unable as well as unwilling to look him in the eye after his comments.
Kakashi chuckled as he quickly stood up and followed after her, "Not so much fun when it's you getting teased, is it?" He teased as he lightly patted her shoulder reassuring.
"I can handle anything you can dish out." She snapped with a huff, continuing to walk down the street with Kakashi at her side, both of them momentarily forgetting any eavesdropping ears or prying eyes.
"Oh I know you can. You can handle it all." He teased, amused with watching her squirm to keep her proud and cocky composure.
Her eyebrows knitted together in anger, although her cheeks, which were heavily tinted with pink, told another story altogether.
But jokes aside, Kakashi couldn't help but wonder what his partner was like before he met her in general, "What were you like?"
"Don't even try to make me feel better." She snapped in an annoyed tone as they walked side by side.
"Come on Jin," Kakashi pleaded playfully, "Is it so wrong to want to know somethings about my future wife?"
It was Jinju's turn to laugh and be playful at this point. She covered her mouth, muffling her laughs with the sleeve of her light green kimono, her dark hair fluttering in the warm summer breeze as it blew by them.
Kakashi momentarily forgot their differences, the entire city of Konoha melting away as he took in the scenery. Her plump lips parted in laughter, her black hair dancing, her tanned skin which had gradually lightened in tone from the lack of being under the tropical sun. For just a moment, Kakashi had to admit that she looked perfect.
"Future wife?" She managed to say aloud, looking ahead of them, oblivious to how Kakashi had been staring at her.
"Technically we aren't married in fire country yet." Kakashi pointed out with a gentle smile.
Jinju sighed, although smiling as she did so, "Well you got me there. What do you want to know?"
Of all the things he didn't know, there was only one real question that he wanted to know, "Who are you?" He blurted out.
"Wow really?" She asked skeptically, shaking her head a little and rolling her eyes.
"Yeah. Who are you? Who were you before I came along?" Kakashi asked honestly, shrugging his shoulders a little, unsure how else to word what he meant to ask.
"Well…" She began slowly, with a frown suddenly gracing her full lips, "I guess it starts with my parents."
"The infamous Khe Sanh clan that possesses the kiss of death." He added as a statement, that being the only real thing he knew about her in general.
"Yes. My father is the head of the clan. He…" She sighed angrily, "He's a disgusting lecher."
"Oh?" He added lightly, surprised that Jinju started off so strongly.
"He was 50 or so when he started having an open and public affair with my mother." She said in a quiet seething tone.
"What? No way…" he said almost hoping that she was joking.
"Yes really. My father was married with children and grandchildren…when he decided to have an affair with an 18 year old servant and got her pregnant with me."
"Jin, I'm sorry." He said with a frown, hanging his head, feeling sorry that he even asked.
"No. It's ok, it's in the past. I was only raised among them and the other children of my clan, despite being a child from an affair, because I was born with their kekkai genkai. I was pretty much raised on hatred and the idea that I only lived to become an assassin. Not really a life worth living."
"Until I washed up after the storm." Kakashi added.
"Yeah. I was tempted to just fry you and toss you back into the ocean." Jinju reminisced with an amused smile.
"Thanks for not doing that." Kakashi said, feeling his heart sink at the image of that.
"I know it was just because you were physically hurt…but no one had ever depended on me, needed me, or…." She blushed as she looked down, whispering the next part, "…ever looked at me, or touched me like you did."
"So you fell hard for me?" He teased, nudging her ribs with his elbow playfully.
"It was easy too, after I met you." She said, ignoring his teasing.
"Same." Kakashi admitted with a gentle smile.
"You were so vivacious back then. You showed me so much emotion, so much passion…" her voice trailed off as she smiled, reminiscing over Kakashi's younger self.
"It was bound to happen. We were young, good looking, alone, full of passion, on an isolated beach-"
"Were?" She asked with a snort, "I'm still good looking and full of passion. I'm just not as young."
"I doubt it. I bet you were so stuck on me that fire went out when I left." Kakashi said with a snort of his own.
"Wanna bet?" She challenged, her full lips setting in a frown, a dangerous and challenging look in her eyes.
