Man Behind The Mask

Kakashi's POV.

There are things in life which you don't forget. Like the soft finger of your mother on your head when she tucked you in. Or the strong smell of your father's whiskey. Another thing that is hard to forget is the sound that a pair of five-hundred dollars heels made. She made me bought it as an apology for arriving late at her birthday dinner.

The said footsteps are currently echoing in the empty hallways outside my classroom. The footsteps stop by the door and I know by heart who is the silhouette that appears on the door's window. Without wasting time, she opens the door with a huge grin on her face to announce her presence. As if I wouldn't notice her.

"Hi there. How's my favorite person doing?" She closes the door behind her, and then walks towards my desk.

"I'm doing well. How about you?" I reply as I put Sasuke's work aside. I like to give her my full attention. After all, that is what she deserves.

She sits on top of my desk and crosses her legs. "Now that I get to see you, it's great." And I notice she is eyeing the paper in front of me.

"What brings you here?" I ask her, poking her knee with the back of the pen that I'm holding playfully.

"I was doing a follow up on one of my cases in the area. So I asked myself: 'Why don't I pay him a short visit?" Then she leans forward towards me with stretched-out arms to scoop my masked face with her hands.

"I miss you." She says breathily.

Our faces are really close and I can read her intentions like a book. I hold her wrists gently as soon as I feel her thumbs running along the hem of my turtleneck.

"Anko." I call her name and she pouts. She understands that I don't want her to pull down my mask. She knows I dislike doing so in public. But that never stops her to give it a try. When she understands that I won't give in, she let out a sigh before kissing the fabric on top of my lips and resumes her previous position.

"So... What did I interrupt?" She asks, smiling. I love her smile. It makes me feel that nothing else around me matters. That it's okay to move on and start over. That's what it made me fell in love with her in the first place.

"I was just grading homework."

On last Friday, after my 'chit chat' with Iruka, Kurenai and I crossed paths and she took the chance to ask me to spare Sasuke from my 'punishment' for a few days. She needed a replacement for the Mathematical Olympics. I laughed inwardly - the kid wasn't going to accept her request. It felt like a punch on my guts when she told me that he was the one who volunteered.

Sasuke came up with a crafty way to get away from me. And if he thought that I would let him get away with it, he thought wrong. Of course I was going to let him join them. Only if he could hand me half of the work that he owed me (which was a lot). On Monday, by the end of our one-on-one session, he placed the work that I required on the desk. It has been three days since and I'm still grading.

The brat beats me this time.

Anko takes the pile of papers and starts to look through them. She arches her eyebrow when she notices that all of them belong to just one person. "Is this the homework from the student that hates your guts?" She asks.

I just nod as I take the papers from her hands. "Do you mind if I keep working while we talk?" I ask sweetly.

"Of course I don't' mind, babe." She pauses momentarily, "I saw Sai on my way up here; he was talking with a blonde chick. By the glare she gave me, I think I interrupted her confession."

"That's Ino, she's really into him." I mumble.

"How is he adjusting to the new school? He told me he's doing well but you know how blunt his social skills are." The tone of her voice is filled with concern.

Anko has a weak spot for Sai. He was the first child on her care when she first started her career as a Social Worker seven years ago. She would have adopted him herself if it wasn't for her job.

Sai was the link that binds us together. One day when I went to tutor him, she was having a session with him. After their meeting, she thanked me. According to her, because of me, he has become more open socially. Few weeks after that, she asked me out on a date. At first I denied her invitation, then Sai convinced me otherwise. It's been three years since that first date. Now I can't imagine my life without her.

"I think he's doing pretty well. He hangs out with my sensei's son's group." I tell her as I start to read the next assignment.

"His name is Naruto, right?" I nod. "It's good that he's making friends."

"I wouldn't say those two are exactly friends. On his first day Sai called him dickless, he almost got punched."

Anko starts to laugh hysterically, "That sounds totally like something he'd say." She says while wiping a few laughing tears from the corner of her eyes.

We talk about random things for a while, telling each other how our day went. We weren't able to spend time together for the last couple of weeks. She was really involved in a case where she suspected that a foster father was beating the child. Because of her intervention, that little girl was saved.

Then suddenly Sasuke enters the classroom. He stands there for while, his dark eyes looking at me and Anko with a very confused frown. "Sorry for disturbing. I'll come back later." He says.

Anko looks at him and practically jumps out of the desk. And with a big grin, she says, "No need for that. I was about to leave anyway."

"Okay." Sasuke makes his way back into the room, eyeing her awkwardly. I'm most certain that she noticed it as well. A chilly sensation runs down my spine.

"I'm sorry for my rudeness. I haven't introduced myself." Anko says as she walks towards the teen, offering him her hand to shake. Sasuke takes it of course, as he introduces himself. He is a polite and well educated child. He just acts like an ass when he's with me.

"I'm Anko. His fiance." I can tell that he is taken aback. He wasn't expecting this sort of news. "You must be that student that wrote the poem about wishing for someone to drown. I got a good laugh with it."

It may not look like it, but I do observe Sasuke a lot. And I come to learn so many things about him. Like when he's thinking or he's nervous, he taps the desk with his pen. Sometimes with his index finger if his hands are empty. Or how embarrassed he gets when he fails at looking away when the Haruno girl takes her seat. And how oblivious he is for not noticing that she sway her hips on purpose.

I can tell most of his face expressions to know that his deadly glares are not that deadly or how he wrinkles his nose when he makes a mistake. I can tell that when he is uncomfortable, he becomes stiff. And now, Sasuke is uncomfortable with this situation.

I can tell that when he noticed my future wife's small baby bump, he was shocked. I can feel it in my bones how sad he is. He is upset and frustrated. My son feels betrayed. I saw it in his eyes when he shot me one of those glares. This time it works, because a part of me died (yet again).

I should have told him. But how do you tell the son whom you left to be raised by other man that you are going to have another child? That you are going to be there for this baby? You wish the baby is a girl, so that you won't have to wonder if the baby will be like him.

"Yeah." Anko's voice brings me back from my train of thoughts. "We're expecting. But don't think that this is the reason why we're getting married. No, no, no. He proposed to me before that. We're waiting for the baby to be born first before setting a date."

What she does next made me get up from my seat and I almost lose my composure.

"You can touch if you want." And before Sasuke has the time to deny the offer, she takes his hand. "Come on, you don't have to be shy about it."

Sasuke's eyes widens out of the surprise. As soon as his palm touches the bump that carries my unborn child (his future sibling), his hand becomes rigid. The rejection is obvious. You have to be blind not to see this is the last thing he wanted to do. His facial expression is the same as the one he had when I confronted him with the biological relation between us a few weeks ago. He wants to run from here. And I want to pull him away from her and tell her not to touch him.

'Leave him alone. Don't put him through this. Can't you see he doesn't want to?' My mind screams.

The tension in the room is thick and heavy. And Anko seems to be the only one who is unable to read the atmosphere. I wouldn't expect her to. I have told her that I had an inappropriate relationship with a married woman at a young age, and a child was conceived out of it. But I didn't tell her that I'm currently his teacher. I'm afraid of what she will do with the information.

'Let's go find him.' She once told me.

A part of me told me that she is well aware of what is going on and who he is.

"Anko." I call her with my normal tone. I don't want either one of them to perceive how shaken I am.

When she turns her head towards me, it causes her grip on Sasuke's hand to loosen up. This gives him the perfect opportunity to break free, rather abruptly, I may add. Without wasting time, the teen rushes to his seat and pretend to occupy himself by taking books out from his bag. But I know he's listening to us.

"Yes, dear?" She purrs as she turns around completely.

"As much as I love your company," It is my time to make an excuse, "I need to concentrate on my job, and with you around, it's kinda hard to do so."

She rolls her eyes and with a smile, she heads to where I am. "I get it. There's no need for the sweet talk. I'll leave." She tip toes to reach up to my covered lips to kiss them, "I'll be waiting at your place. I love you. Bye-bye, Sasuke-kun, nice meeting you." She says at last while waving, on her way out of the door.

Anko is gone but the tension in the air doesn't. I sit back on my chair, and Sasuke takes his seat on the desk next to mine. Falling into the routine that we set, he opens his folder and starts to work. His head is lower than usual. I presume it's because he doesn't want me to notice the unshed tears that he is trying to hold desperately. But I do notice. And it pains me to see it. How come I always end up hurting him in one way or another? Even when I try so hard not to?

"I thought you were practicing for the Mathematical Olympic." I break the silence between us as if nothing happened.

I'm getting tired of pretending.

"It was canceled," he starts to explain, his voice is uneven. "Kurenai-sensei had to get Kabuto to the infirmary. He got a nosebleed when she bent to examine the work of the guy next to him." He snorts. "Teachers should have a dress code too."

I laugh out loud. I have to agree with him. The woman does distract the males with her short skirts.

The room goes silent again as we continue to work. I want to let go what happened earlier, not bringing up the subject again and stay true to the deal we made. But my heart doesn't stop pounding hard, and I have a knot in my throat. I have a sudden urge to fix this.

"I was going to tell you." I blurt out.

"Tell me what?" He asks, still concentrating on his homework. I can't tell if the question was genuine or not. His tone was neutral. I can't recall if he ever used that tone before.

"About Anko and-"

He doesn't let me finish. He sits up straight and looks at me with a blank expression that I know very well. It's obvious that he takes after his mother, but when he makes that face (that I've never seen on him), he looks just like me.

When did he become this collected? He was on the verge of crying a minute ago.

"Why would you?" He asks me in that same tone.

'Because it is your right to know.' I want to reply, but I can't find my voice to.

"Teachers shouldn't share their private life with their students, 'sensei'. So, you don't have to tell me anything that's not school related. Because you're my teacher and I'm your student." There was no sarcasm in his words. He made them sound plain, with no feelings. They were hollow.

He doesn't wait for me to respond, with that said, he resumes his work. Either way I have no words to say to him - he has made sure of it.

But inside, I'm screaming.

'Don't say it like that. Don't call me sensei. Forget the pact that I forced you to accept. Curse me. Tell me that you hate me. Shoot me one of those glares. Do anything. But don't show me that expressionless face. Don't be indifferent to the matter. Because even though I know that it's a mask, to think that sooner or later you won't really care, it hurts me.'

Karma bites me hard. But it's fine; I deserve the pain this time.

Tbc...

A/N: First of all thank you for the faves, fallows and reviews.

Special thanks to my beta een nihc, she's amazing beta and writer. I recommend to check her stories.

She came out with the awesome title for this ch. The whole story was revised and edited by her, there are some changes, not critical ones, but if you want to read them again feel free to do so ;D.

I had been dying to get to this part of the story. This chapter we can see a little bit more from Kakashi's perspective (literally). I haven't really wrote in his perspective, (aside from ch5) so I write in his pov to compensate it. It may take a while to get to more details about him. Kakashi is not that bad, he has his reason to act like the way he does.

Please let me know what you think.

Ps: I opened a Community title Kakashi and Sasuke Father/Son Obsessed with fics about Kakashi being the parental figure for Sasuke. If you are obsessed with this subject you may want to check it. The link is on my profile. If you're interesting on being staff let me know.