Chapter Twenty Six: A Shinobi's Guide on How to Live a Proper Life
A group of children were standing outside, forming a circle. At the center of the circle was Iruka Umino, who stood towering over all of the students, and two young boys: Naruto and Sasuke. One was known to be dead last in the class, always the ones with the worst grades, worst jutsu performance while the other was known to be a prodigy of their generation, who seemed to be good at everything. Yet it was still a toss up of who might win the match.
While one knew the textbook style taijutsu format down to all of the miniscule details and would get full marks for his stance and katas every time, the other had an unorthodox fighting style and an endless amount of stamina on his side. One was predictable; one was not. One expended just the right amount of energy to land the most fatal blows; one used his endless amount of stamina to land continuous blows.
No one knew who would win. It was the eighth official spar between the boys since entering the Academy. Sasuke had taken victory in the first match, while Naruto made a comeback in the second. Sasuke proceeded to figure out the weakness in Naruto's fighting style then trained himself to counter that. Then Naruto would come back with another unpredictable move to catch Sasuke off guard. Win-lose-win-lose and so on.
If the pattern held true, and Sakura Haruno liked seeing the patterns in things, then it would be Naruto's win.
On either side of her, there were two girls cheering for opposite sides. One was a loud mouth blonde, Ino Yamanaka, the beautiful heiress that wasn't afraid to make it known that she was rooting for Sasuke. The blonde girl also wasn't afraid to admit her undying love for the dark haired boy either, much to the boy's annoyance, but her declaration helped to ward away some of the more timid girls' affections. On the other side of her, there was the Hyuga heiress, who unlike the Yamanaka girl, was staring quietly as the spar proceeded. A slight blush colored her cheeks as she pressed her two pointer fingers together, anxiously. Her eyes were downcasted onto the dirt, only lifting her head up to watch the spar, in a manner that suggested Hinata felt like she was snooping.
Aside from Hinata, Sakura was sure that she was the only other female in the class who wasn't openly rooting for a certain boy to win. In fact, Sakura secretly hoped for Naruto to win, just to keep the pattern going.
Patterns were good; patterns kept things predictable. But patterns didn't tell Sakura Haruno that there would be another female who didn't root for either side.
The woman was leaning against the trunk of the particular tree that had a swing attached. Her arms were folded across her flak jacket, her brown eyes fixated on Naruto and Sasuke's spar. Though Sakura was still young, she saw something akin to guilt and regret in the woman's eyes as she seemed to relish in the elongating shadows as the sun changed positions. Sakura didn't miss the soft smile that played on the woman's lips, the quirk of the corner of her mouth as Naruto pulled one of his unpredictable moves, and the soft sigh that she emitted when the spar ended in a draw.
At that point, Sakura wasn't even concerned that the pattern was broken. No, she was more curious about the mysterious woman, who seemed to know either Naruto or Sasuke or both. The hitai-ate on her forehead indicated that she was a Konoha shinobi, but she wasn't an Academy teacher, so why was she here?
And why was she turning to leave without saying anything?
While Iruka was busy ushering the rest of the students back into the classroom, Sakura tugged at the bottom of his right sleeve, garnering the friendly man's attention. After pushing along the rowdy Inuzuka heir and Naruto into the direction of the classroom, Iruka bent down to look at the pink haired girl eye to eye.
"What is it?"
Sakura pointed in the direction of the mysterious woman's retreating back. Her back was still visible to them, and as far as Sakura knew, that meant the mysterious woman wasn't in any hurry to leave. According to the Academy textbooks, shinobis had the capability of disappearing in the time interval of a blink of an eye.
"She was watching the spar the whole time," Sakura informed him. Iruka craned his next to follow the direction in which her small finger was pointed at.
"I see. Go back to class, alright?" Iruka gave her a light pat on the shoulder, gesturing in the direction of the classroom before he stood up, jogging lightly to catch up with the mysterious woman.
Sakura knew that she should have followed the rules and gone back, but curiosity got the best of her, so darted to hide behind one of the trees, just within earshot of the two shinobi's conversation.
Even with her advanced knowledge, there were some words thrown around that Sakura didn't really understand, but it was abundantly clear to her that the conversation revolved around Naruto. If Sakura was interpreting the conversation correctly, then Iruka sensei hated Naruto? And the woman was trying to convince him otherwise?
Eavesdropping on the conversation raised entirely too many questions for the young girl.
Iruka was thoroughly surprised when one of his students pointed out the retreating backside of Rin Nohara. Though he had never really met the woman face to face, other than in passing, her reputation preceded her. Every shinobi knew of her and Kakashi Hatake. Right after the Uchiha Massacre, there had been nasty rumors floating around that the two even aided the Uchiha cousins in the act, but pushed all of the blame onto the Uchihas.
At the time, Iruka had been a newly promoted chunin, just a little under a year, so he wasn't all that privy to the chunin gossip, much less the jonin one. It had taken a lot of time for him to gather information about their legendary status, of how they were once a team.
The nasty rumors continued during that time. The disapproving jonins lectured their genins about the detrimental effects of spreading false rumors. Iruka's own jonin sensei even let it slip that he thought the rumors were the reason why the two of them hated being in the village, why they constantly requested the hardest and most suicidal missions. The older generation simply lamented the fact this seemed to be a repeat of what happened to Sakumo Hatake all of those years ago. Many were worried that his own son would crumble under the same pressure.
The rumors began to subside as the shinobis gained newfound respect for the pair for eliminating some of the largest threats to Konoha, including two of the Legendary Swordsman of the Mist. The rumors were never mentioned again as it was heard that Rin Nohara had attempted to kill Itachi Uchiha the night of the massacre.
From there, a massive pile of both Kakashi and Rin's achievements were uncovered, pointing towards their allegiance to the village, including their roles in protecting the village from the Kyuubi attack.
By the time the rumors died completely, the damage was still done. The two had alienated themselves from Konoha, even if they still worked on the behalf of the village.
So to call Iruka surprised to see her in the village, much less at the Academy, was an understatement. What was even stranger was Iruka gathering the courage to go up and approach the woman.
When Iruka called her name, her steps faltered. A lapse between Iruka getting her attention and when Rin finally decided to turn around spanned a total of one minute. One long, agonizing minute for Iruka, who wondered if he was the cause of the awkwardness. One long, agonizing minute for Rin, who was still deciding if she was worthy of facing Naruto's sensei and thus reestablishing their once fragile relationship.
But she and Kakashi vowed they would live a proper life from there on out and it wasn't like Rin was facing Naruto himself, so she eventually turned around to face the newly minted Academy instructor.
"Iruka Umino, right?" Her voice was soft and hesitant, almost like she was unsure of his name. In reality, it was more like she was unsure if she wanted to speak to him at all.
"Right. Uhm," Iruka was unsure of how to continue the conversation, reaching to rub the back of his neck nervously. "Is there anything I can help you with?"
"If you could watch over Naruto…"
"The Kyuubi container?"
As an Academy instructor, Iruka was to remain impartial and he really did try. But every time he saw the blonde boy, his mind couldn't help but flash back to the night of the Kyuubi attack. Unwilling, his mind made the association between the two and now he couldn't look at the young boy as anything but the one who killed his parents.
It wasn't fair to the boy, Iruka knew, and he thought about submitting a request to switch him to a different class, but he wasn't sure how to even begin wording the request to the Hokage. For almost two years, the boy was still in his class and Iruka did his best to ignore him. But it was hard when everything he did practically begged for attention…
"He has a name, you know. His name is Naruto Uzumaki." There were no hints of anger in her voice, just disappointment.
"I know, but I think of all the people, you can understand that I can't see him as anything other than the Kyuubi container. Not when the Kyuubi took both of my parents away from me in the attack."
When did Iruka become this bold?
"The Kyuubi is the Kyuubi and Naruto is Naruto. They are two different beings that simply coexist in the same body. It is simply ignorant and foolish of you to see the boy as a murderer when in fact, he is a hero. If not for him, where would the Kyuubi go? Perhaps still destroying Konoha until there is nothing left but a pile of rubble."
"I know that, it's just that I don't know how I'm supposed to face him."
Rin shot him a glance. "I suppose you should treat him as you would with any other Academy student. As an orphan, all he really wants is someone to care about him. Just like how his parents cared for me. As his Academy teacher, well...I would say he looks up to you the most."
"But what about you and Kakashi san? Are you not…?"
She shook her head sadly. "A lot of things have happened, but...neither of us are deserving of his forgiveness."
"Naruto is a very open minded, kind hearted child. I'm sure that he will forgive you and Kakashi san…"
Rin smiled wryly. "For someone who claims that they don't know how to face Naruto, you sure understand him a lot."
Iruka flushed at her comment.
"Regardless," Rin continued, her eyes fixated on something over his shoulder. Iruka resisted the urge to look. "Thank you for taking care of him. The most that we can do now is to look after him from afar."
"I understand."
"Well, I better get going." With that Rin turned around, ready to walk away from the Academy once more. "By the way, one of your cute students is stalking you."
By the time Iruka turned his head around to look at who was behind him, Rin was already gone. The swirl of leaves were the only indication that she had even been there in the first place.
Sakura had wisely chosen to scamper back into the Academy classroom before Iruka sensei caught her. She took the last open seat, next to Naruto right as Iruka returned back to the classroom, ready to start the next lecture.
For the first time since starting the Academy, Sakura's attention wasn't focused on the lecture. Instead, her mind drifted to the conversation that she eavesdropped on. In particular, her mind was fixated on the bittersweet expression that the woman had. From what Sakura could gather, it was her who had done something to Naruto and didn't expect forgiveness, but for what?
There was no way to find out other than asking the person in question, who happened to be sitting next to her.
When the lecture let out, Naruto was the first to leap out of his seat, dashing towards the doorway, muttering something about food. Sakura quickly followed, catching him right as he exited the Academy, tugging on his sleeve to get his attention.
His round blue eyes blinked rapidly as he stared at her. "Eh, Sakura chan?"
"Ne, Naruto, I wanted to ask you something."
A growl from Naruto's stomach tore his attention away from Sakura. "Sorry about that, haha…"
Sakura reached for one of her boxes of lunch, pressing it into Naruto's hands. She had originally made the extra to share with Ino, as a show of gratitude for helping her stand up against her bullies the other day, but she couldn't ignore a starving boy.
The two of them sat down in a particular spot underneath one of the many trees surrounding the Academy. After thanking her once more, Naruto split the chopsticks in half before digging in. Besides him, Sakura ate her lunch at a more moderate pace, while Naruto seemed to almost inhale his food.
"So what was it you were saying?" Naruto asked, his mouth full of food.
"I was just wondering if you know a lady with long, brown hair? I saw her watching you and Sasuke spar and she seemed kind of sad, so I was just curious as to why."
Naruto swallowed his food as he seemed to ponder thoughtfully about her question.
"Maybe it's Izumi nee. She's the teme's cousin."
Sakura didn't even need to ask who teme was referring to. Naruto's loud outbursts during class, usually incited by Sasuke's avoidance or a scathing remark, made it abundantly clear to the rest of the class.
"Are you sure? The lady was talking about you the whole time with Iruka."
At this, Naruto's interest peaked. "Really? Do you know who she is?"
Sakura shook her head sadly. "Her name never came up in the conversation, but someone called Kakashi san was mentioned? Do you happen to know him?"
Naruto fell quiet and didn't bother to answer her question. Instead he continued to ask Sakura questions. "What did the lady say?"
And so Sakura told him based on her own interpretation of the conversation. She omitted the part about the Kyuubi because she wasn't sure what that was, but informed Naruto that Iruka sensei admitted that he didn't know how to face him. The mysterious woman gave him advice, before thanking him for taking care of Naruto. Then finally, Sakura reached the part where the woman said she didn't deserve Naruto's forgiveness.
The look in the woman's eyes had been so haunting that Sakura couldn't forget it even if she tried.
"I see. Thank you for telling me, Sakura chan."
And that had been the last of the conversation. Sakura effectively got zero information out of Naruto, and she knew better than to push him.
For the rest of the day, Naruto was so quiet, looking like he was lost in his own thoughts that it was almost strange to not hear his boisterous voice contribute to the chatter in the classroom. Even Sasuke looked slightly concerned at his silence, from the way the dark haired boy who sneak glances when Naruto wasn't looking.
Naruto didn't notice, but Sakura did.
Who said she wasn't observant?
"You should take a break," Rin advised Kakashi, who was very tired. "At the rate you are going, you'll collapse from chakra exhaustion before you figure out the jutsu."
Kakashi plopped down next to her on the grass, his hand reaching for one of the canteens of water. He mistakenly took hers, but by the time Rin cared enough to notice, Kakashi had already downed half of the contents down his throat and was in the middle of placing his mask back into place.
Rin sighed as her eyes flickered back to the formula seal she was working on. With all of her attempts combined, this had to be around her nine hundred something attempt. But she was getting closer with each attempt, so close that she could feel it.
"Any progress?"
"Shhh," was her response as she finished the final stroke on the formula seal. Dipping the paintbrush back into the ink holder, Rin began to roll the seal over one of her senbon. She didn't really expect any results, but Rin tossed the senbon away from her anyways.
Then she closed her eyes, feeling for a prickle to her senses, just like Minato sensei had described. According to him, all of the seals and places he marked turned into a blinking dot in his mind map. All he needed to do was concencentrate his chakra towards one blinking dot and the rest was history.
Rin felt it. Latching onto the feeling, she began to channel her chakra there. In the next moment, her eyes snapped open and she found herself now sitting ten meters away from Kakashi.
Picking up her senbon from the ground, Rin ran back to where Kakashi was, still slightly in shock. Completely disregarding Kakashi's dislike of physical contact, Rin jumped into his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and shoulders while laughing happily in his ears.
While Kakashi's first instinct would be to normally push her away, her touch didn't feel foreign to him anymore. While Kakashi would normally be irritated at having someone this close to him, her laugh sounded like music to his ears.
"We did it!" Rin exclaimed excitedly.
The warmth and comfort of Rin's touch immediately vanished when rolled off of him, unwrapping the sealing formula once more. From that point, Rin began to babble on about the intricacies of each stroke and how she manipulated it to fit her chakra mold. She was saying something about adapting it so that Kakashi could use the Hiraishin as well.
But he wasn't really listening to what she was saying.
All he could concentrate on was how excited she had been, to give credit to him as well for the technique, even when Rin did 95% of the work. All he could focus on was the way she slightly cocked her head to the side as her mouth babbled on. All he could see was the radiant smile on her face.
And that was when Kakashi realized it: he wanted to always be the first person that Rin came to.
Regardless of the reason.
It was Rin who reminded him that Naruto's birthday was coming up. His own had passed last month, and they had a small get together for the first time in a few years. The details were a bit hazy, as Kakashi did agree to another one of Gai's drinking challenges, but he remembered the important things.
When they first started, Kakashi swore he heard Rin grumble something about "not again." Some time through the drinking contest, Kakashi overheard Rin complaining to Izumi about how she had to haul both of their drunk asses back home last time. Something about how heavy he had been to carry up the steps of her stairs.
Right then and there, Kakashi decided to throw the challenge, much to Gai's outrage. Though very drunk, Gai was no slop and was the first to call out Kakashi for letting him win. He remembered making some bullshit excuse as to why he was quitting, but for the life of him, he couldn't really remember what it was. All he could recall was Gai insisting that this challenge didn't count in his favor because Kakashi had purposely lost and would seek him out for a different challenge another day.
Then Gai promptly collapsed, hitting his head loudly against the table.
It was Kakashi who ended up carrying an unconscious Gai home, while Rin walked with him as Kakashi's apartment was in the same direction as Gai's home.
"At the rate both of you were going, you could have easily won, you know. So why did you throw the challenge?" Trust Rin to ask him all of the hard questions.
"Ah well, I didn't really feel like it." Kakashi knew that Rin saw right through his bullshit, but hadn't pressed the matter any further.
Kakashi didn't regret his decision when he woke up the next day with only a small headache.
At the mention of Naruto's birthday, it reminded Kakashi that Rin's own was coming up next month. Perhaps he was a terrible friend, but he barely remembered her birthday most years until Izumi or Kurenai mentioned it. In his defense, he even forgets about his birthday until someone mentions it.
But in recent years, Kakashi had burned one date into his mind: November 15th. September 15th was his birthday, but that didn't matter as much. He had Rin to remind him of that. And she needed someone to remind her of hers.
While Rin dragged him through the Konoha market to look for a gift for Naruto, Kakashi's eye were sweeping the items for an idea of a gift for Rin. He paid special attention to everything that Rin looked at, but it seemed that all of the items were potential gifts for Naruto and not actually what she was interested in.
"What do almost eight year old boys even like?" Rin asked as Kakashi approached.
"Ahhh well at that age I was already a chunin so weapons, or being taught a new jutsu."
"That's so unhelpful."
Kakashi shrugged. "Well you asked."
Out of ideas, Rin walked into the weapons shop at one point. One look however changed her mind as she figured that everything in the shop was too dangerous for him to use. And at this point, Naruto would have already owned his own kunai and shurikens.
Speaking of kunais…
"Why don't we just give him sensei's kunai?"
"I want to save them for when we are on speaking terms," Rin told him, her eyes still roaming around the market in search of a perfect gift. "When I give it to him, I want to tell him all about his father and mother."
Right as she finished speaking, both of their eyes landed on a pair of green goggles.
"The goggles…"
On the morning of October 10th, Naruto yawned as he lazily swung his legs off of his bed. Tossing his blanket off his torso, Naruto wearily ambled his way to the bathroom, where he began his morning routine.
He didn't really want to go to the Academy and listen to boring lectures, but it was better than staying in an empty apartment by himself. Besides, Naruto consoled himself with the fact that he was going to go out for Ichiraku ramen right after class to celebrate his birthday. And Sasuke had promised to teach him some shuriken throwing tricks…
When he stepped into the kitchen, his eyes began to blink rapidly. Was...there a package on the table? Maybe a bomb?
Naruto approached it with caution, like a real ninja would. With his pointer finger, Naruto poked at the plainly wrapped package. Nothing happened. Plopping down in his seat, Naruto made quick work of tearing away the paper to find a new pair of goggles enclosed. A note was attached that simply wished him Happy Birthday.
His eyes began to tear up as fat drops of water dripped down his face and landed onto the wrapping paper.
Someone remembered! Someone cared!
But who?
From a nearby rooftop, Rin and Kakashi watched as Naruto pulled the goggles over his head, right on his forehead. It would eventually be replaced by his hitai-ate, but that was alright. The two of them darted across the rooftops, showing up at the Hokage Tower exactly thirty three minutes late.
It had been worth it.
On the morning of November 15th, Kakashi was nowhere to be seen, no doubt at the memorial stone. That wasn't the strange part.
The strange part was that there was breakfast on the table, still warm.
There was a note on the table wishing her Happy Birthday in Kakashi's familiar lazy scrawl.
A smile was present on her face for the rest of the day.
"Maybe it's time for me to move out." Rin expected her comment to be met with Kakashi's usual apathy, but she was in for a surprise when Kakashi practically bolted off of the couch, dropping his book on the floor.
"But why?" There was a mixture of whininess, which Rin hadn't heard from Kakashi since he was a chunin, and reluctance. Did he really care that much about whether or not she lived with him? It wasn't like they wouldn't ever see each other again; they would still see each other more often than not, as they were still constantly placed on the same teams or would meet up to train on their off days.
"Wouldn't want to cramp on your bachelor lifestyle. The first year was because we were never really in the village to begin with and then the second, well I guess it just slipped my mind that you have your own life too."
"You know," Rin continued to babble. "You should have told me to move out earlier. I wouldn't have been offended, I promise. And besides-"
"I didn't ask you to move out because I wanted you to stay."
Kakashi figured that there was no time like the present. Usually he preferred to beat around the bush with his words, and usually Rin knew him well enough to understand his true meaning, but he went with the direct approach this time. If he didn't, Kakashi suspected that he would let Rin slip through his fingers again.
"Are you sure you don't want me around to save on bills?"
Kakashi shrugged. "I haven't asked you to split bills or rent with me in the last two years, have I?"
Kakashi: 1. Rin: 0.
Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You just want to leech off of my cooking, right?"
"Don't I do that anyways, even before you lived with me?"
Kakashi: 2. Rin: 0.
"Ah! You just want me around so that you don't have to do chores anymore, am I right?"
"My clone is perfectly capable of doing my chores for me. No need for you to dirty your hands."
Kakashi: 3. Rin: 0.
"What is it then? Spit it out." When her arms were folded across her chest like that, Kakashi knew Rin meant business. He had approximately two minutes before her patience wore out.
"Is it so hard to believe that I want to spend the rest of my life with you?"
"As more than friends," Kakashi clarified, upon seeing the confusion etched across her face. "I mean I think we were always more than friends to begin with. And I know I said a lot of dumb things to you as a teenager and I wish I could take them back, but I think I realize what I was trying to deny back then.
"And I know I'm a boring person. All I really do is eat, sleep, train, and go on missions. And I'm sorry if every conversation starter I ever had has something to do with missions or training because I don't know what else to say. Heck, I'm not even sure what is coming out of my mouth right now."
"Just shut up and kiss me."
And Kakashi did. Who was he to disobey her orders?
For all of the things that Kakashi was known for, nobody ever said that he was a romantic. But that didn't matter to Rin.
She wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
A/N: Hello again!
Ahh this chapter. It'll become more evident later on, but Sasuke isn't his canon self and I think it's justified he's less hell bent on revenge because a)Itachi never incited his hatred by putting him in the Tsukuyomi b) Sasuke still has Izumi c) Sasuke has Naruto as a friend. The rivalry between the two of them is still there of course because this wouldn't be Naruto and Sasuke without any rivalry lol. As for Sakura, as you can tell, I changed her personality because I wasn't about to write a fangirl into my story haha. I figured if she didn't have eyes for Sasuke all the time, then she would be the quiet, intelligent, observant type, but that's just me.
The story of the green googles! I honestly had no idea what I was going make the gift be until I remembered the googles and thought it would be perfect for the occasion.
Ah and the romance, not my strongest suit and not the focus of this particular fic, but I figured they deserved a moment before the plot starts to ramp back up.
Next chapter aka my favorite chapter is coming up soon! Excited to share with you. It's called They're My Idiots. :)
As always, thanks for reading. Until next time!
-MM