The afternoon was warm as the couple made their way through the bustling streets, heading towards the bookstore Naoko had discovered. Kazuko was excited; she hadn't read a good book in a long time, as she was normally too busy with missions to find time to read. The bell chimed as Naoko opened the front door of the bookshop, stepping aside to let Kazuko go first before walking in behind her. She took her time, scanning the shelves slowly while reading the blurbs of books that caught her attention.
"Found something you like?" He asked, sidling up beside her.
"Uh-huh, quite a few actually." She grinned at him, a rare sight since that tragic incident happened three years ago.
Naoko had almost forgotten just how beautiful Kazuko was when she smiled. He knew that books were one of the only things that could bring out the old Kazuko in her, and he loved seeing that woman very much.
"Would you like me to buy you a few?" He asked her.
She nodded in response, already filling her arms with novels. "Yes please." Her face turned into a grimace when something caught her eye.
"What's wrong?" Naoko came to stand beside her, wondering what had made her pull such a face.
"That." She replied, scrunching up her nose while pointing to the 'Make-Out Paradise' series. "Those books are disgusting."
Naoko laughed, plucked the books she was holding out of her arms and headed to the counter. "Just these, please." She heard him say to the worker.
The bell chimed as someone entered the shop, but Kazuko took no note as she continued to peruse the books on display.
"You like mystery books?" Kazuko turned to see Kakashi standing beside her, his eye smiling at her.
Kazuko shrugged. "I like the suspense." And I can relate to them, she almost added, but stopped herself just in time. Kakashi gave her a strange look but she ignored it, turning away to continue examining the shelves. She didn't notice how he gave her a once over, his gaze lingering on her left hand, his lips pulling into a tight line.
"Airi, I got them for you. Was there anything else you wanted?" Naoko asked as he walked over to where she stood, absorbed in the blurb of an action/mystery novel. "Earth to Airi. Hello?"
She gave him a sheepish look. "No, thank you. Thanks Hiromasa, we can go now if you want."
"You're leaving?" Kakashi walked up to the duo, a book in his hand. Kazuko grimaced when she saw it, one word coming to mind. Pervert. Seeing her grimace, Kakashi grinned under his mask. "You don't like the Make-Out series? They're excellent books."
"For perverts, maybe." She mumbled. Looking back at her 'husband', Kazuko made a face Kakashi couldn't see. "Can we go home?"
"Of course." Naoko smiled at her before turning to the Jounin. "Kakashi, we would like to have you over for dinner one night, if that's okay with you."
Kakashi's smile seemed to widen at the invitation. "I would be delighted to have dinner at your place." He replied, his visible eye glancing at Kazuko momentarily, though the couple didn't notice.
"Great! How does Thursday sound? That will give us a couple of days to prepare for it. Is six okay for you?" Naoko ignored the glare Kazuko sent him.
"Six is perfect. I'll see you then." Naoko wrote their apartment number on a piece of paper and gave it to the silver haired Jounin before they said their goodbyes
"What the hell was that for?" Kazuko growled as they walked back to their apartment.
"What was what for?" Naoko replied innocently.
Kazuko glared at her partner. "You know what!"
Naoko chuckled, holding his arms up in front of his body. "Settle down."
"You know we work at night. We don't have time to get acquainted with the Leaf shinobi."
"Ah, don't be such a stick in the mud. We'll be fine. Besides, we don't start work until nine. Kakashi will be long gone by then."
Kazuko scoffed, not satisfied. "He better be." She mumbled, arms folded across her chest. Naoko chuckled softly, glad to see his plan was in motion.
.
.
.
As Thursday night rolled around, Kazuko's anger seemed to rise. She had a distinct feeling that Naoko might was trying to set her up, and she didn't like it one bit. Naoko had been extra cheerful since inviting Kakashi to dinner, even taking it as far as singing in the shower. Yeah, he must have something up his sleeve, she decided.
"Honey, I'm home!" Naoko sang, laughing as he carried two bags of food into the apartment. "Here, I bought ingredients for dinner; you just have to cook it."
He wasn't even home for a minute and already she wanted to thrash him. "Me? No way! You invited the man so you can cook for him."
"But isn't that what women were put on this earth for; to cook and clean for men." Kazuko's eyes darkened and she ignored his raucous, teasing laughter as she lunged at him, landing a punch to his face.
Later, while Kazuko was cooking dinner—Naoko had forced her into it, much to her chagrin—Naoko returned to the kitchen, a bag of frozen peas still pressed against his swollen eye. "Mm, smells nice, Kazuko."
"I bet it does." She mumbled to herself. "Can you set the table then, since you're not busy doing anything?"
"I'm injured! Some crazy lady punched me in the face before."
"And if you don't set the table, she'll punch you in the face again. You don't want two black eyes, do you?" She threatened, cracking her knuckles as she turned to him.
"Okay, I'll do the table." Laughing nervously, Naoko exited the kitchen quickly, grabbing the necessary cutlery on the way out.
Outside, the sun was beginning to set and the streetlights flickered on, lighting the way for those wanting to stay out late. Inside the house, the clock ticked over to quarter past seven, irritating the female Suna ANBU immensely. Hadn't Naoko said six? Kakashi was more than an hour late! Fuming, Kazuko paced the apartment, barely resisting the urge to punch her partner in the face when he came up to talk to her.
"Relax Kazuko. I didn't think you'd be so nervous." He grinned, waggling his eyebrows.
Kazuko growled. "He's an hour and fifteen minutes late! We have to start getting ready for the mission soon—we don't have time to have dinner now!"
"Hey, settle down. Maybe he just got caught in traffic. He'll be here."
"Got caught in traffic? There is no traffic here! I knew this was a bad idea." She began pacing again, furiously trying to calm her anger.
Naoko chuckled, opening his mouth to say something. Before he got a word out, the doorbell rang. He raised an eyebrow at Kazuko and smirked. "What'd I tell you? He's here." Kazuko just sent him a glare as he opened the door.
The silver haired Jounin stood there, his eye smiling delightfully. "Hey. I hope I'm not too late."
.
.
.
Kazuko felt as if she'd explode any second. She had the urge to walk up to the newcomer and hit him. Hard. Instead, she forced a smile on her face when Kakashi looked her way. His eye turned upwards in a smile and he waved at her.
Naoko stood aside, letting Kakashi in before closing the door. "Dinner is ready. I'll show you to the dining room and Kazuko will bring it out for us." Ignoring his wife's angry retort, Naoko laughed and placed his hand on Kakashi's upper back, guiding him to the dining room.
Kazuko fumed as she stormed into the kitchen to plate up dinner. She could hear them having an animated conversation in the dining room, laughing occasionally. She looked at the clock, barely resisting the urge to throw something at it. It was almost half past. Dinner itself would take about twenty minutes, and knowing how the two seem to be getting along so great, they'd be talking for at least another half hour after that.
Kazuko finished plating up dinner and carried all three meals out to the dining room, placing a fake smile on her lips when the two males looked at her.
"Smells delicious, Airi." Kakashi complimented, his visible eye twinkling brightly as she placed his meal in front of him.
"Thanks," Kazuko replied, her fake smile tightening.
"So," Kakashi started as he eyed the couple. "How'd the two of you meet, if you don't mind me asking?"
Naoko reached over to pat Kazuko's back when she started to choke on her food. She punched her chest a couple of times before swallowing. "Sorry," She said gingerly, reaching for her glass.
Naoko smiled brightly. "You wouldn't believe it if I told you." He warned. "We were five—"
"You were five, I was eight." Kazuko corrected, sighing.
Laughing, Naoko rubbed the back of his neck. "Right, right. Our parents arranged a play date for some of the kids. Airi took one look at me from across the room, sauntered over, and punched me right in the face. We've been best friends since." Naoko finished, grinning over at his partner.
"Is that so?" Kakashi asked amusedly, his eyebrow raised.
"Unfortunately, yes." Kazuko sighed. "I should've kicked you in the balls instead; that way you wouldn't have been able to walk back over and plant one on me."
Naoko laughed and ruffled her hair. "She's a feisty one, but I wouldn't trade her for the world."
"Seems like the two of you have a strong relationship." Kakashi observed casually.
"We wouldn't last if we didn't." Kazuko mumbled, causing Naoko to laugh. She eyed Kakashi cautiously, wondering where such a comment had derived from.
As dinner progressed, Kazuko grew more and more suspicious of the silver haired Jounin. His choice of questions was strange—they weren't questions one would usually ask a married couple, especially if they had just met. She sat back, watching the two males talk, glancing at the clock every so often. At present it was half past eight.
"Is something wrong?" Kakashi asked her. "You keep looking at the clock."
"We had plans for later this evening. That's why Naoko asked you to come so early."
"My apologies for keeping you, then. It's getting late so I'll get going." Kakashi stood got up and stretched leisurely. "Thank you for the lovely meal."
"I'll escort you to the door." Naoko offered.
"Thank you. Good night, Airi." Kakashi smiled at the entrance, his eye holding a secret as he gazed at her.
Kazuko found she didn't want to know what that secret might be. "Good night, Kakashi."
Naoko entered the kitchen as Kazuko was cleaning the dishes. He waggled his eyebrows at her with a grin. "He was nice."
"And he stayed too late." she bit back. "The ANBU won't be happy if we're late."
She was right. As Naoko, Kazuko and Kazuko's clone walked towards the waiting ANBU, they could sense the irritation in the air. Once again, Kazuko was acting the civilian, wearing casual dress that she hoped would appeal to any psychotic freak out there, while her clone and Naoko wore Konoha ANBU masks, ready to start work as lookouts.
"You're late." The captain growled.
"Really? I hadn't noticed." Kazuko's clone drawled sarcastically. "We were held up."
The captain glared at her. "Don't make a habit of it. Let's get to work, shall we?"
"Of course. Sorry we kept you waiting." Naoko apologized politely, always the peacemaker.
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Kazuko sighed as she made her third round of the streets. That speck is looking awfully familiar. She mused, unimpressed.
It had been over a week since their dinner with Kakashi and they hadn't gotten anywhere with the mission. If the Night Demon was in the village, he was either smart enough to know what they were up to or waiting for exactly the right time to kill a poor, innocent civilian. What if we were wrong and he didn't come here after all? She wondered, her eyes on the lookout for anything suspicious.
She let her mind wander to her dinner with Kakashi. She hadn't seen him since that night, and she found herself thinking about him more than she would have liked.
Shaking her head to rid herself of the thoughts, Kazuko continued her rounds.
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.
.
"Kazuko!" The combination of the hands shaking her and the loud voice was too much for her to handle. Without opening her eyes, Kazuko punched the intruder in the face. "Ow! What was that for?"
"I was sleeping." She replied, sitting up slowly to see Naoko clutching at his nose. She could see blood dripping from his fingers.
"It's bleeding!"
"Go get a tissue, cry baby."
"You're lucky it's not broken." He growled.
Kazuko pretended to shake in fear. "What are you gonna do, beat up your wife?"
Naoko left the room only to return a few minutes later, a bunch of tissues held against his nose. "I came in here to tell you that Kakashi asked us out to lunch today. He wants us to meet his squad."
"I decline."
"You can't decline. I already said yes." Naoko lifted the tissues to grin at her. "Get ready; we leave in half an hour."
Thank you for following this story. I'm falling more and more in love with Kakashi lately and I'm enjoying getting back into this series.