AN: So I've gotten some comments on both this fic and my version that the drawing I posted last chapter looks too much like a man. I would like to now say that 1) the reference image I used for it was Gina Carano, a trained MMA fighter (she has muscles, as women do), 2) I've studied human anatomy and figure drawing for over two years now and am currently working towards my degree in digital art and animation so I'd like to think I know what I'm doing, 3) I'm not trying to make her look sexy (she's twelve for crying out loud!), and 4) I'm not drawing anime proportions so any chance of seeing a defined waist and tits from that angle is just absurd. Also Sakura is relatively flat chested and not curvy, so... Sorry for the rant, but aside from that, thank you to everyone who has commented and left kudos, y'all are amazing! This chapter and the next /should/ be the last ones in this filler arc before we get back to the REAL stuff. And the reason for having the filler arc was to add more the character growth for each one and put some space between one big scene and another. I can't just go from the Wave arc to the chunin exams after all. So, aside from that, this is un-beta'd as always. So expect mistakes. Enjoy!
They reached the inn by the time the sun started to sink into the horizon. As summer was just about to start, the days were growing longer, leaving them with more hours in the day. It also meant it was later than usual and they were all starving and in need of a good rest.
"I call shower first," Sakura announced, tossing her bag onto one of the rolled out futons. Naruto opened his mouth to argue, but Kakashi quickly slapped a gloved hand over it, successfully shutting him up. There was a muffled squawk, but luckily no action was taken to remove said hand. Good. At least his student was smart.
Some time later, when Sasuke was out getting them their meal from the innkeeper and Naruto was in the shower, Kakashi aprouched Sakura.
Now for the moment he'd been dreading.
"Sakura," he started, voice wavering only slightly. "I noticed on the trail today that you um, you had to…" God, how was he supposed to say this? Was he even supposed to talk about it? Surely her mother had already covered it. But he was her teacher, which meant he was in charge of her growth and development. But that was only for being a shinobi. No one said anything about, well, the teenage part.
"I had to…?" She echoed, looking up at him questioningly. Kakashi coughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck, a habit he'd unfortunatly picked up from Naruto.
"I… smelled blood," he tried. "And I know it wasn't from an injury…" This was so awkward. This was so awkward. "And if you've noticed anything… odd, about… your body-"
Next to him, Sakura's face dropped and turned the color of an Uzumaki's hair. She knew what he was trying to get at.
"OhmyGod! Sensei please, just, please stop. Please," she rushed, hands waving desperately in hopes to shut him up. "I know where you're going with this and you really don't need to," she continued. "And yeah, I already know what's going on, I mean, you don't have to explain anything, so please, don't."
Next her to, Kakashi was making absolutely zero eye contact. If he were to take off his mask, his face would be the same shade of red as his students.
"So, you understand what's… going on, then?" He asked awkwardly.
"Yes," she said, voice muffled because her head was now in her hands.
"And you… know what to do?"
Another muffled yes, this time sounding more like a groan.
"Okay," he breathed out. Then, "Good talk," and disappeared out of the room, presumably to help Sasuke with dinner. But really just to escape the situation.
When Naruto came out of the shower to see Sakura sitting mortified on the ground, eyes wide and glossy, he decided he didn't want to know.
"Hey sensei," Naruto spoke up over dinner. They were sitting in their shared room eating simple rice and curry provided by the inn. It wasn't anything special, but it was filling.
"Hm?" Said sensei replied, absorbed in his book. His bowl was already clean even though they hadn't seen him eat anything.
"Why do you where a mask?"
The question caught him off guard. He blinked. What brought this on? He said as much.
Naruto merely shrugged in response. "I dunno," he said. "It's just, like, we never see you eat or drink and you're always wearing it so there's gotta be a reason, y'know."
Kakashi hummed thoughtfully at the response. He would have expected he demand to see what was under it, as most people did. Well, most people didn't demand to know but they were always thinking it.
Looking at the other two genin, he saw similar looks on their faces as Naruto. Curious, but not imposing. Like they wanted to know just as badly, but knew better than to say anything. How very mature of them…
"Well," he started, setting his book down, still disguised as Icha Icha. "What do you know about the Inuzuka?"
"Huh?" Naruto started. "What's that got to do with anything?"
Kakashi ignored him and gestured for him to answer. Rolling his eyes, Naruto did as he was told.
"Fine," he sighed dramatically. "They're the dog clan. They all have ninkin and are kinda like dogs themselves. 'Cept they all got those weird marking on their cheeks." A pause. Then a loud gasp. "Wait, Kakashi-sensei, are you an Inuzuka? Do you have those marks and hide them cuz you actually ran away and don't wanna be found out?"
"Don't be an idiot, Naruto," Sakura cried, whacking him on the head and immediately shutting down that train of thought. "Kaka-sensei isn't an Inuzuka. And why would he hide it if he was? Besides, he looks nothing like one."
"Then why'd he bring it up?" He moaned back.
"Maa, go easy on him Sakura," Kakashi tried. "I suppose it was a valid question. But, to answer that, No I'm not an Inuzuka. But we do share something in common."
"The dogs?" Naruto tried.
"Close," he admitted. He didn't want to outright tell them, as that would both ruin the fun as well as stop them from drawing their own conclusions based on little information, as ninja should be able to do. It was Sasuke who reached the conclusion first.
"Your sense of smell," the Uchiha stated.
Kakashi nodded, slightly impressed. "It's not a common known fact, but the Hatake clan possess a very powerful sense of smell, just like the Inuzuka. It makes us great for tracking. However," he added. "The Hatake's have always had sharper noses than our cousin clan, and sometimes it works a little too well. It's rare, but on occasion a person is born with a hyperactive olfactory center. As useful as that is, humans simply aren't meant to process that amount of input, and it can be debilitating in the long run."
Or, in layman's terms, the nose worked too well and whatever poor sap had that could smell literally everything in a clerity not meant for humans to process.
"And as you might have put together, that is the case with me."
A glance at his genin told him the meaning had gotten across to them.
"So… you wear the mask to basically block out smells?" Sakura tried, frowning. "Or, as a buffer, rather?"
He nodded. "Correct."
For some reason, all three drooped in disappointment. Naruto most of all. It wasn't overly obvious or anything, but definitely more gloomy than before.
"Ah man," he moaned. "I really hoped it was because of buck teeth." Next to him Sasuke rolled his eyes, but Kakashi couldn't help but feel the Uchiha secretly agreed with him.
"But wait, I still don't get it though," Naruto groaned. "Nothing can smell that bad, right?"
Next to him, Sakura let out an insufferable sigh and leaned over. "Naruto, it's like that time you farted in Kiba's face when he had all the chakra in his nose. Remember? But instead it's all the time."
Naruto winced at the reminder before the realization seemed to dawn on him. "Oh," he breathed. "Yeah, that would suck."
Kakashi didn't even want to know.
The next day brought with it clear skies and the promise of another hot day. Thankfully it was still cool when they packed up and left the inn, as it was still rather early, but Kakashi knew the sun wouldn't wait for long before cooking them. Thankfully though the summer humidity hadn't yet set in, as it was only early June. But he knew it wouldn't last forever. Come the end of the month, Konoha would be filled to the brim with sweaty, lethargic people. But that was just life.
The journey to their client only took a few hours, as they'd covered most of the ground yesterday. It was just after lunch that they made it to a reasonably sized farm a few miles outside of the village the festival was being held in.
"Ah, you're here," the farm owner exclaimed, wrinkled face bright and happy. "We weren't expecting you four until sundown."
Kakashi just gave him a kind eye smile. "Well, we are shinobi. It's our job to be quick."
The man let out a laugh at that before ushering them onto his grounds, showing them the way to their guest room. "I'm Kaito Sakamoto," he introduced. "And my daughter is Sara. You'll see her around, but she's going to be staying here to watch the farm instead of coming with us. Usually it would be my wife that stayed but…" Kaito's eyes drifted off into the middle distance in a look all four of the shinobi knew all too well. "Well, she's not around anymore," he finished. "But," he added, brightening up possibly too enthusiastically. "That means I get you four!"
All four of them (well, three) put on what they hoped looked like supportive smiles (really it was just Naruto and Sakura who smiled while their sensei tried to make the same expression with only a quarter of his face showing. Needless to say he didn't quite get the expression across).
After being shown their room and letting them unpack, Kaito led them around the farm and showed them what needed to be packed up and prepared for the festival. Mostly it was lots of grains and cured meats that needed sorting and packing. Each bag had to be measured and checked off for inventory, then stored in the barn until tomorrow. Kaito ran a food stand that was fairly popular each year, and as such had a lot of inventory to bring with him. It was easy work, but it was menial.
They finished just before dinner.
Three genin, dirty and sweaty, made it into the house with their sensei in tow, still reading that blasted book of his to find a young girl around their age with brown hair preparing a tasty looking dish of katsudon.
"Hi!" Naruto immediately greeted as he took off his sandals. "You must be Sara!"
The girl turned to them with a timid, but earnest smile. "You're the shinobi that my dad hired," she said. "It's nice to meet you all." She ushered them to take their seats around the table while she started dishing out the meal. A few minutes later Kaito joined them, giving his daughter a quick peck on the cheek before taking his own place at the table.
Soon enough, all their bowls were filled with delicious smelling food.
And of course Naruto dug in like his life depended on it.
"Wow, you're really good at cooking," Naruto said, swallowing a mouthful of rice and pork. "This is amazing!"
"Thanks," she blushed. "I've had a lot of practice since, well…" She trailed off, bubbly demeanor gone. "Things have been… difficult lately," she admitted, eyes downcast in obvious greif. "Mom used to do all the cooking, but now that she's gone…"
"We're sorry to hear about your mom," Sakura offered, genuine sympathy in her voice. "I know what it's like to lose someone important to you, and I'm sorry you had to go through that."
Unbeknownst to her, Kakashi's eye narrowed at her words, mind already working through what she said with more intellect than he let on.
Across from her, Sara dipped her head in thanks, a sad smile on her face. "It happened a while ago, now," she said absently, chopsticks pushing around her rice. "But I guess it still hurts. Although dad and I are managing pretty well, so I think she'd be happy about that."
Sakura offered a supportive smile in return. "I'm sure," she said. "It might be hard now, but trust me when I say things will get easier. Before you know it, you're gonna be doing amazing things on your own."
Both Sara and Kaito smiled softly, a hopeful air about them.
"I hope you right, Sakura," Kaito said. She gave them both an assured nod.
Next to her, Kakashi was looked as if he were trying to work out a puzzle.
It struck Kakashi later that night just what exactly was so different about his students than all the others he'd observed.
It was mostly because of what he'd observed during their diner.
They were confident in themselves.
Not in the body image way or what have you. But in the sense that they knew who they were as people, and had mastered their emotions more or less. While all the other teens were still figuring out where they stood and who they were going to be as shinobi and as people, his three had already figured it out. There was no uncertainty. When Sara, a girl their age had turned remorseful over a dead parent, Sakura had stepped right up to comfort her, appearing confident and self assured. Not awkward at all as Kakashi knew he would have been at that age when trying to comfort someone (as if he ever would have at that age).
And it wasn't just Sakura. Kakashi remembered bath in Wave when young Inari had broken down at the table and told them they should all give up, and that it was all hopeless. Kakashi would have expected Naruto to jump up and start shouting right back, but instead the boy had surprised him and gave an inspiring speech about not giving up, and fighting for what you believe.
It was far too mature for a normal twelve year old to give.
It was curious.
So all in all, emotionally, they reminded him of fully fledged chunin. Chunin have have lived the shinobi life and understand loss and pain. Confident and sure in their abilities. Young chunin, yes, but mature. They even had the same look in their eyes that seasoned shinobi all had. Hardened and weary, but still up to the task.
But they were genin. It all made no sense.
Sighing, Kakashi accepted that this mystery would continue to elude him until he got more information. Until then, it might just be best to let them be. There wasn't anything wrong with them anyways, so there was no point in trying to "fix" them.
Or at least, he hoped that was the case.
Kakashi fell asleep that night with a very uneasy feeling in his gut.
AN: Go check out my AO3 version for this chapters art here!
Kaito (介人: Supportive Person) because I think of him as a kindly, supportive man. Sara (倖良: Good Fortune) because I imagine when owning a farm, you would want your only child to be named something lucky in the hopes that they and you're own family has good fortune
