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Waking from the Dream
A Naruto fanfic
By yasuhei
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Chapter One - Kakashi
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He'd dreamt about Rin again.
It carried over, the sadness and the definite sense of peace that dreams of her always brought him. It was different dreaming of her than thinking of her, because when he dreamt although he would still become melancholy the truth of her absence was hidden from him and he could, if only for a little while, believe that she was still in his life. He still felt like the warmth of her from the dream was still with him, more comforting and pleasant than any duvet.
Then the headache began to make itself known, beating at him in time with his pulse and gradually increasing in strength. It was amazing the way that dreams of Rin could keep even hangovers at bay for a time. It was going to be bad, he knew it, making him wonder if maybe he shouldn't have indulged so much the night before. He definitely shouldn't have, remembering that his students had been there too. He was supposed to be setting a good example for them, well maybe not a good one, but not acting like that. The problem was that when Iruka had arrived Anko had been with him, and together the two off them had a way of egging him on. Iruka tempted him to act up just to irritate the teacher, and Anko was worse still - irresponsible, competitive and the devil's advocate. He should have decided not to drink the moment he saw the two of them.
But the warmth was still there, Kakashi realised. Even now that the dream was fading, and he let himself wonder if perhaps by some magic his dreams had been answered, and that Rin really was here with him now, brought here by is dreams hopes or desires.
No, Rin was gone for good, but the warmth wasn't, and come to think of it, there were other signs too. Signs as ominous as the warmth was nice. His right shoulder was pressed right back against a wall, but there was no room for movement in front of him either. Something soft and heavy was pinning him there, cramped but somehow comfortable too. He tried to think around the fog and pain in his head to try and work out what might be causing this. Vaguely he remembered another time where he'd gotten too drunk in the presence of Anko, and she had filled his entire apartment with stray cats. He hadn't had much room on his double bed that night either.
Slowly, expecting to see a complete disaster, Kakashi cracked open his eye. No disaster, no cats, just the semi-familiar decorations of Iruka's spare room. Still, there was definitely something, or someone in bed with him.
He hadn't, had he... not with... Iruka?
No, that didn't make sense, if he had, then why would he be in the guest bedroom. Besides, a muted and fuzzy memory reminded him that by the end of the evening a drunk (though less perhaps less drunk than the rest of them) Anko had all but glued over Iruka's body. If he'd ended up in bed with anyone then it would have to be her. He might be too gallant for his own good sometimes, but last night he had definitely been too drunk for his own good.
Oh god, they'd all been far too drunk. They'd made complete fools of themselves, and in front of Kakashi's own genin team too. Well, he supposed at the age of 16 they were probably capable of making their own decisions about what was appropriate behaviour, and it wasn't like they hadn't been drinking too. Come to think of it, they had had a fair bit themselves. Sasuke had become improbably loud, before getting even more quiet and sullen than usual, not a happy drunk that one. Naruto was boisterous, of course, ending up involving himself in the pissing matches between Anko and himself. Sakura had passed out for a while, then the rest of the evening rambling out streams of words that were little more than gibberish, but that had seemed really quite amusing at the time.
Oh no...
Sakura...
Suddenly filled with dread, Kakashi looked down, and carefully peeled the duvet back from the woman beside him. A huge grin split across his face as he found not a crop of pink hair but instead blonde. Not Sakura after all. He was...
...safe?
Beautiful, sleep-addled, blue eyes opened beneath the twin blonde pigtails as Naruto awoke.
"Huh? Kakashi sensei? What are you doing here?"
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Coffee would help, Kakashi was sure of it. All he had to do was move quietly enough, and maybe he could get himself some coffee without waking anyone else. If he could get enough coffee inside himself then he was sure he'd be able to deal with this whole mess.
Maybe...
Maybe lady luck really hated him, because Iruka was already out in the kitchen cooking something on the stove. Anko was there too, sprawled out over the couch, one arm shielding her eyes and grumbling quietly to herself.
"Ahh Kakashi," Iruka said, somehow managing to smile despite the amount he'd drunk the night before and the dark bags under his eyes, "So you didn't make it home then?"
"Shut up," Anko demanded louder now, "and just make the damn food." She reinforced her well articulated position by blindly throwing a cushion in the cook's direction. It nearly found its way into the saucepan of miso soup.
"Coffee?" Kakashi tried, not feeling up to a more complex conversation yet.
"Food!" Anko growled.
"You'll have to get it yourself, sorry Kakashi. My hands are a little full here, preparing this wonderful feast for us all."
"Shut up," Anko said again, and then, perhaps in case anyone had forgotten, "Food!"
It took a few tries to find where everything was, but soon enough Kakashi had a steaming cup held to his lips. Even just the smell seemed to be pushing the pain and fog back a little, enough even to let him think a bit.
He'd woken up in bed with Naruto. Naked.
That was pretty bad. Pretty awful really, because he was pretty sure that the blonde hadn't remembered anything happening, and might not even understand the implications. Maybe in time he'd realise, or remember, but Kakashi could remember bits and pieces right now, which meant it was his problem, and his alone.
Worse, what little he could remember was good. Clumsy, drunken, but good. Even the memory was starting to stir him. Not good. Naruto was his student, not some one night stand he could avoid seeing ever again.
Worst of all, Naruto was also Iruka's student, or had been at least. When Kakashi's friend found out what had happened he was going to kill him.
Maybe, Kakashi realised, it was time to go. Time for a rapid strategic withdrawal with coffee in hand. But he couldn't do that to his friend, so instead he decided that perhaps the best defence would be an offence, or at least to control how the information was released. Information warfare at its... seediest?
"Iruka. I think I might have slept with one of my team-mates."
"Oh really? Dreaming of Rin again?" Iruka asked, walking out of the kitchen two hand Anko a bowl of rice and egg, and a bowl of miso, "Serve yourself Kakashi."
The food was unimportant for now, all that mattered was setting the battlegrounds himself. And the coffee.
"Yes. I dreamt of Rin, but that's not what I mean. I'm really worried that I might have slept with one of my team-mates."
Kakashi could see his friend's hands tighten on themselves, and could see the disapproval in the tensing of his back. There was a long pause before the younger man finally spoke, his voice a little less warm than it had been just a moment ago.
"You mean... Sakura?"
"Not... exactly..."
Now he just looked confused as he turned around to face Kakashi, which was possibly better than before. Kakashi just had to sound remourseful about the next part, and there was the chance he'd live through the morning. He had the perfect way to phrase it too. He opened his mouth and...
"Kakashi-sensei," a groggy voice interrupted his thoughts, "Do you know where my clothes are?"
He turned slowly, his stomach twisting as he realised that he hadn't laid his ground-works fast enough. Naruto was there standing in the doorway to Kakashi's de-facto room, wrapped nothing more than a bed-sheet. It probably could have been a very alluring look, if had been on a beautiful girl, instead a sixteen year old boy.
A loud clattering filled the sudden silence as chopsticks fell from Iruka's numb fingers and bounced of the coffee table.
"N..naruto...?"
Anko's laughter followed shortly after the school teacher's startled words, far too loud for this time of the day, and setting Kakashi's nerves on edge.
"In my favour," Kakashi tried, "He was a girl when I first woke up."
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"Back soon."
The front door shut behind the shuffling Naruto, and Kakashi found parts of himself relxing, and parts tensing. He'd gone for Ramen carrying Iruka's money and wearing Iruka's clothes, which meant he'd probably be gone a while at least, which was fine by Kakashi. If he could get a little space from Naruto then maybe he'd be able to figure it all out. He needed some time to think.
But time wasn't something that that Iruka seemed inclined to give him.
"You need t fix this Kakashi. You need to fix it now."
He seemed angry, and not in his usual style either. Not the snappish outbursts that Kakashi usually provoked when he pushed at Iruka' boundries, but instead an intense and simmering anger at his core. As fierce and dangerous as a lioness protecting her young.
But it didn't matter. Iruka's anger alone couldn't change anything.
"What do you want me to do Iruka?" Kakashi was surprised at how tired his own voice sounded. He wished that he could shrug this all off with a 'maa', and some evasive comments, but Iruka was his friend and deserved better. Naruto did too. "You want me to summon the pixies to take me on a journey back through time? You want me to pray to the kami, make them turn it all into just a bad dream? I did it Iruka. It's already done. No matter how hard I wish I can't un-fuck Naruto. It's too late for that now."
Iruka visibly tensed up all over before sagging back, drooping and dropping heavily down onto the couch beside Anko.
"He's only sixteen Kakashi. He's not even a particularly mature example of a sixteen year old. He's got no family, just me and you, and the rest of his team. How do you think he's going to react to this when he remembers what he did? I'm pretty sure that was his first time. I'm not even sure that he really understands sex, or the emotions or repercussions that come with it. Now the choice of what to do about it has been completely taken out of his hands."
"I know." Kakashi rather felt like sagging himself, but the hard-backed chair by the table that he'd taken didn't make any sort of relaxed posture particularly easy to maintain. "But the choice was out of my hands too. Naruto wasn't the only person too drunk to know what he was doing."
Iruka nodded if only minutely, and the two remaining men in the room lapsed into silence. Melancholy settled over them heavily enough that Kakashi was almost surprised that it wasn't a visible blanked draped over the two of them.
Anko, however, seemed unfazed. She stretched her arms languidly above her head, arching her back as she did and then somehow managing to slide, or slither from sitting to standing.
"You ladies are so completely full of shit," It wasn't the pep-talk that Kakashi had been expecting, although given that it was Anko perhaps he should have known better. He watched as she slowly made her way to the kitchen, calling back over her shoulder, "So you fucked. So fucking what? It's just sex. He had to have sex sometime. What's the worse that can happen? Maybe he learns not to drink so much. Maybe she learns to be careful who she spreads her legs for because the next morning they might not want to even talk to you. So fucking what? Same shit that he'd have to deal with anyway. Or do you have some serious venereal disease you haven't told me about yet Kakashi?"
She stopped there, grabbing a glass from the cupboard and starting to fill it with water. Kakashi couldn't help but notice how familiar she seemed with the kitchen's layout.
"Ahh, Anko," Iruka started, "I don't know that it's quite the same. Naruto never knew his parents. He doesn't have anyone to act as his role model, to help him understand what sex or love really are, or what he's feeling now. He doesn't have anyone outside his team to turn to if things are painful. And he's a boy too, even if he was a girl when it happened, he's still really a guy."
"How the fuck much input into my life do you think my family had?" Anko countered, actually starting to sound quite irritated, "You think I had many role models I could count on? And do you think that I felt better being fucked and discarded just because I really am a girl? He's not the first girl to fall into bed with the wrong guy. He'll survive it."
She paused for a moment to take a swig of her drink, throwing it back like she was angry with the fluid itself.
"You know what you are really worried about Iruka, 'cause I do even if you don't. Sometimes when you look at him you don't see Naruto, do you? You see yourself instead. Is that why you are so scared for him? Worried he'll become too attached after a quick roll in the hay. Scared he'll be rejected because his lay can never truly love him, or perhaps because he's just too chicken-shit to ask?"
"Naruto is different. He's vulnerable and he's alone. He doesn't have many friends and now one of them might be..." he shrugged his shoulders hopelessly, "This is the worst thing that could have happened to him." To Kakashi's horror he realised that his friend had started slipping into his lecturing voice.
"You know what Iruka," Anko put her glass down on the kitchen bench with exaggerated carefulness. From the sound of her growl she would just have soon smashed it to pieces, "It's far from the worst thing that could happen, and Naruto isn't the only one to not have many friends. You are full of shit, and I'm out of here."
She stopped just before the door, spoke again without turning around.
"Kakashi, you need to hurry up and work out what the fuck you want and what the fuck you are willing to do, before you hurt him even worse."
Iruka winced as she slammed the door behind her.
"So then," Kakashi asked, "How long has she been staying over for?"
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