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Chapter 14; Meetings—Part 2
In the twenty-three odd years since he'd been made a gennin, Kakashi hadn't had more than a single day to his own devices.
So, he wasn't really sure what to do with himself now that Team Seven was disbanded. Slinking through the shadows as the sun sat, nursing a hyper extension in his elbow, complements of one Obotsu Kumo.
Kumo and Kakashi had graduated the academy the same year, the brute of a man a good seven years Kakashi's senior.
Kakashi did have to agree with Iruka on the point that uncontrollable rages and violence were genetic in the Obotsu family, he'd personally seen that man, at twenty-two, pick up and throw the then sixteen-year-old Gai as if he weighed nothing at all.
It wouldn't have been so impressive if Gai hadn't been completely laden with his impossible weights at the time.
And as if the man could sense someone even thinking his name, a thick, heavy arm dropped around Kakashi's shoulders.
"Ah, there you are!" He said in a terribly calm voice. He smiled blindingly and pulled Kakashi into an eerily loose hug; "Happy birthday!"
"Who are you and what have you done with Gai."
"Ah," He gave Kakahsi's head a friendly push to the side and crossed his arms over his chest; "My students don't believe it's possible for me to be anything but enthusiastic. And I must admit it is difficult, but entirely possible."
"You made a bet with your students?"
"Twenty-four-hours of Zen, I think they called it. And if I'm able to manage it, they've each agreed to a concession."
"A concession?"
"Yes. Tenten said she would dress as a lady, makeup, hair down and everything. Neji said he would himself prepare a dinner for us, and Lee said he would run five-hundred laps in a dress." Gai put a finger to his chin, eyes asparkle; "I thought it was rather ingenious of him actually."
Kakashi thought that it was suspicious, but didn't say anything, as strange and unsettling as a calm Gai was. He wondered if maybe the Gods weren't smiling down on him.
"I understand that you saved a particular chuunin academy teacher from complete obliteration via Obotsu today."
Then again, maybe this wasn't the blessing it was disguised as.
"You know the Obotsu are rather… Brutal in their thirst for revenge, correct?"
And suddenly Kakashi knew why Gai was being quiet. Knew why the other man still had his arm around Kakashi's shoulders.
"You didn't make a bet with your students… Did you."
Gai just smiled brightly, eyes straight forward.
"We're being followed, aren't we."
"There's twelve of them."
"Ah."
Kakashi twisted his head slightly to the left and made as to scratch his forehead, pushing the edge of his hitae ate up, just enough to peek from beneath it over his shoulder, and in the dimming autumn light, he could see the elongated shadows of at least half a dozen large men.
With an inward sigh, Kakashi faced forward and straightened his back, "Well then… How are we going to remedy this problem?"
Gai just kept smiling; "WE, aren't… I don't have to be a medic to know you're injured. Your shoulder is tense, and I can smell the ointment you used."
Kakashi opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment he felt Gai's aura darkening, and decided to remain silent.
A pale flicker to his right caught his attention, and Kakashi could just barely make out the curve of an ANBU's shoulder where they sat perfectly hidden against the chimney of a house half a block up. And as quickly as he'd seen it, the ANBU melted back into invisibility.
"Ah, good then!" Gai stretched his arms over his head, muscles bulging through his clothes in an almost obscene way, and with a surprisingly gentle hand on Kakashi's back, he pushed him toward a restaurant on the opposite side of the street.
Kakashi slipped in, not surprised when he turned back and saw Gai was gone.
"KAKASHI-SENSEI!"
Blinking he turned toward the booths in the corner of the room, shoulders sagging when he saw the colorful packages and Sakura's slightly sunburned face.
Kurenai and Asuma were seated across from one another, deliberate distance between their feet under the table, Iruka was waving, though not nearly as enthusiastically as Sakura, who darted from the booth and wrapped her arms tightly around Kakashi's middle, squeezing him so tightly he swore his back popped like a xylophone.
She stepped back waving a hand before her face; "Ew! You smell like horse liniment!" Promptly she was poking and prodding at him. "Iruka-sensei told us what you did! Did you pull a muscle or something?"
Her sharp little fingers jabbed painfully into his ribs and he flinched away, holding out a hand to ward her off. Training with Tsunade made her a little too touchy-feely in his opinion, the exact reason he didn't like going to doctors to begin with.
Kakashi didn't particularly like being touched you see.
"Come on, get over here… If we have to suffer through this, you have to too!" Asuma called in a half growl.
Sakura grabbed his hand and pulled him, with surprising strength, toward the table and pushed him in beside Asuma.
"Asuma-sensei told me you were turning fifty, but I think he's lying." Sakura said plopping down on a chair she'd tugged over from a nearby table.
"No, I said a hundred-and-fifty." He propped his chin on his hand and eyed the 'Specialty Drinks' menu lying on the table, half hidden under a brightly wrapped package.
"Anyway, I know he's lying," Sakura said giving him a distasteful look from the corner of her eye. "Naruto came to see me at the hospital this morning and I had to remind him today was your birthday… Since I'm pretty sure he didn't get you anything, I took the liberty—"
Kurenai nudged his feet beneath the table and gave him a purposeful look, flicking her eyes toward the entrance.
Kakashi glanced to his right, noticing the two gorilla shaped thugs standing there, and he felt the hackles on the back of his neck standing on end.
Sakura kept chatting away, seemingly oblivious, but Iruka had caught the gesture too, as well as Asuma, and they were all warily watching the two Obotsu men making their way across the room.
The restaurant was quickly emptying and still Sakura was chattering away, about this or that, and other strange things fifteen-year-old girls were interested in now-a-days.
The vaguely mountain shaped shadow of the two men fell over her right as she was reaching an emotional point in her tale and blinking, Sakura fell silent, turning in her seat, eyebrows scrunched down in agitation a vein throbbing on her forehead.
Without taking her eyes off the two men, Sakura spoke; "Iruka-sensei… Is this—"
"Yes." Was all he said.
"Should I?"
"Yes, I think you should." Iruka said, shifting slightly in his seat, squishing himself backward against the wall.
Kakashi expected for Sakura to simply slip to the side and away… What actually happened though, was something quite different.
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"Cliff Hanger, hanging from a cliff! And that's why he's called Cliff Hanger!"
-'Between The Lions', PBS-
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