A Sensei's Responsibility:
When he was sure that the door was closed and no one was in the room that Tazuna's family had lent the team, Kakashi slowly unzipped his flak jacket, and after a moment's hesitation, pulled his long sleeved shirt off as well, leaving on his tight, black tank top.
His students were currently changing into their nightwear as well; Naruto and Sasuke, with great difficulty, had compromised to undress together in a spare room, while Sakura had taken the bathroom down the hall for privacy, being the only girl of the group.
Reaching into his backpack, Kakashi procured a pair of neatly folded sweatpants, ones that he often donned to bed. The jonin quickly pulled off the slacks he had worn the whole day and replaced them with the said pajama pants, tying the two dangling strings at the waist.
While they were changing in separate rooms, the team was actually going to sleep in the room that Kakashi was currently inside of, so as to not burden Tazuna more than they already had.
A small crease of confusion became apparent between his two silver eyebrows as the loose pants slid down to his hips, even with the knot at the waistband tied firmly in place.
That's strange…They're too big for me now?
Kakashi undid the knot and tied the two strings tighter than he was used to, so that his pants would not fall down again.
He knew that he had lost weight—more than just one person had pointed that out to him—but what confused him was that the pants were still loose, even after he'd been forced to have two servings of each dish that Tsunami had put her heart into making. Everyone had been so concerned about how he'd "collapsed" earlier in the day that they'd stuffed him to the brim with the food at the dinner table.
Kakashi still remembered it clearly: As his daughter set the table with a gracious smile, and proceeded to serve everyone ample amounts of seasoned rice and boiled fish, Tazuna casually mentioned the incident on the boat, even going as far as to say that Kakashi didn't eat breakfast or dinner from the previous night!
So, as he ducked his head in embarrassment, Tsunami had scolded him and piled enough for two onto his plate, snidely remarking, "Why is it that whenever you come to the Land of Waves, you end up fainting?"
Despite his bloated stomach, it'd been a nice meal to eat, and not only because of the admittedly fine preparation of the salted saury. The atmosphere at the dinner table had been warm and lively, laughs ringing through the air as if they were destined to do so. It almost felt as if the team had been invited into Tazuna's small family.
The jonin removed his ungloved hands from his waistline, relieved that his pants were no longer in danger of falling down and ridding him of his remaining dignity. His eyes flitted around attentively, once again checking to see if anyone was nearby. After concluding that he was alone, Kakashi took his rumpled shinobi uniform and stuffed it back into his rucksack, his hands coming back up with an orange, cylindrical bottle.
Quickly, he screwed off the cap and shook two out into his pale palm. After turning away from the sliding entrance and pulling down his characteristic mask, Kakashi tossed the pills into his open mouth, swallowing them dry. The jonin covered his face once more and silently tucked the container back into his backpack, having done the very thing he had anxiously been waiting to do the whole day.
The copy ninja trudged to the provided futon, his favorite book in his grasp. Slowly, he lowered himself onto the thin mattress and pulled a warm blanket over himself, sinking his head into the soft, white pillow. Kakashi heaved a contented exhale and opened his novel to where he'd left off.
Three other futon had been laid out to his left, spaced out evenly. They were neatly made with standard white sheets, a single pillow oriented at the top of each. Basically, they looked exactly like his, before he had inhabited it, of course.
Looking over at the mattresses next to him, Kakashi wondered with another sigh, this time not contented, what his students were up to.
Right then, as if on cue, the door to the modest space opened with a loud whoosh, jerking his attention away from his lewd novel. Naruto and Sasuke barged in with thudding, angry footsteps, their raised voices making it blatantly clear that they were in the middle of an argument.
They had both successfully changed into T-shirts and lounge shorts, Naruto's outfit being much "brighter" than Sasuke's, but it was apparent by that point that something had happened while they'd been gone.
"I'm never changing with you again!" Naruto proclaimed huffily, plopping onto the futon next to the copy ninja, his back to Sasuke, who had taken the mattress on the far left to put as much distance as he could between himself and the "blonde idiot".
"Neither am I!" Sasuke hissed in return, angrily turning away to face the wall, his lips pulled into a deep scowl. Kakashi sighed and wearily sat up, snapping his book shut.
"What is it now?" he questioned tiredly, his baritone voice laced with annoyance.
"It's him!" Naruto started vehemently, eyes wide, "he peeked at me!" Sasuke whirled around at the accusation, ready to defend himself.
"I thought you were done, idiot! It isn't my fault that you take so freaking long!" the Uchiha exclaimed in embarrassment, a shamed blush dusting the apples of his cheeks.
"Enough…" Kakashi said lowly, massaging his temples. Their angry, strained voices were beginning to blend together, aggravating the ever present pain within his skull.
Please…just be quiet…
"Yeah, right! And don't call me that!" Naruto growled, jutting an accusatory finger at his teammate.
"Call you what, idiot?"
"I SAID DON'T CALL ME TH–"
"Enough, already!"
Naruto and Sasuke stopped abruptly, staring at their sensei with unmasked surprise at his uncharacteristically loud tone. It was perhaps the first time that the man had actually raised his voice at them and actually sounded angry.
"Stop fighting," he started with a fatigued exhale, pinching the bridge of his nose, "You're both boys, so even if Sasuke had seen you, then it would be fine, Naruto…and don't talk too loud, or else you'll disturb Tazuna and his family."
They nodded quietly, not in agreement that it was okay to see each other naked, but because they didn't want to stir Tazuna, Tsunami, and Inari out of their sleep. The two Genin also didn't want to rile up their sensei again.
"You guys should probably go to bed. It's getting late," Kakashi suggested upon seeing that they were still in sitting position, the sheets untouched.
Naruto yawned and slipped into the covers without putting up a fight, drawing them over his head, and leaving just a few blonde locks peeking out from the top. Sasuke hesitated for a few moments, but soon enough, he too sunk into his mattress, laying straight and stiff as a log as he stared up at the ceiling.
"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto called out, his voice muffled under the blankets.
"Hm…" the jonin grunted in response, his droopy gaze fixed on the sliding doors.
"…Where's Sakura? Shouldn't she be here by now?" the Uzumaki wondered aloud. Sasuke remained quiet, but internally, he was asking himself the same question.
"Don't worry. She's probably just taking care of some business," Kakashi reassured the two of them. But, after a few more minutes of waiting for his remaining student to arrive, he was only rewarded with Naruto's loud snores and Sasuke's even inhales and exhales, an indication that his genin were fast asleep. Well, at least two of them were.
They must have been tired…
He sighed for probably the hundredth time that day, and shifted onto his side, squinting his heavy eyes shut as he felt the events of the day weighing down on him. After having fainted on the boat, all he wanted to do was get some sleep.
Where is she…? He thought, looking over at the empty, untouched futon between Naruto and Sasuke. Before he could get up to find her though, the door slowly opened a crack, a lone green orb peeking through.
"Sakura?" Kakashi croaked, "Why are you standing there like that? Come in."
She fidgeted uncomfortably behind the door, her eyes flitting around nervously.
"Sakura," he said again, this time a bit more firmly. The kunoichi made no movement to come inside, or even open the door any wider, for that matter.
"Kakashi-sensei…can you come over here? Please…" she asked timidly, almost as if she were desperate, breaking into a cold sweat.
His gaze softened at the anxious energy she was exuding, and after a few silent moments, he hesitantly peeled back his blanket and stood up to his full stature, knees cracking. Kakashi slowly walked to the door and slid it open, stepping out to talk to his student.
"So, what's the problem?" he asked coolly, once he was situated in front of her. The jonin noticed that she hadn't changed into her pajamas like the rest of their team had; Sakura was wearing the same red qipao dress that she had donned for the mission.
Before the young kunoichi answered his question, she reached over and shut the door completely, not wanting her other two teammates to witness their conversation.
"It's…well…" Sakura's legs trembled, her gaze drawn to the floor in embarrassment. Kakashi raised a silver eyebrow at her strange behavior.
"What's wrong, Sakura?" he asked once more, this time with a hint of concern in his voice.
"U-Um…I…" she started with a deep gulp, "I'm on my…"
Kakashi waited patiently to hear what she had to say, crossing his arms, and stifling a yawn.
"I-I got my…It's that time of the month…" Sakura squeaked out, her face beet red. She hoped that he would understand, and that she wouldn't have to go into any more detail.
Fortunately for her, Kakashi-sensei did get the message, a slight blush dusting the top of his pale cheeks. It wasn't that he thought periods were gross or anything—his student had just caught him a bit off guard.
"Oh, I see…Is this your first time? Do you need me to explain it to you?" he questioned straightforwardly, not very eager to actually describe to her how a woman's body worked.
"N-no…I just didn't think to bring any p-pads," she replied with quivering lips, mortified that she was having to tell her sensei, a man, this.
Oh. So that's what this is about.
"I-I only came to y-you because I didn't know who else to g-go to…"
After that, Sakura lost it. Tears freely tracked down to her chin, her throat producing small whimpers and hiccups. She had lost all of her dignity!
His eyes widened, as he was unsure of how he was going to get her to stop crying.
"Now, now, there's no reason to cry. It's okay, Sakura," he reassured her awkwardly, "…So…you didn't pack any pads, huh?"
She nodded solemnly, another sob escaping through her parted lips upon hearing Kakashi utter the word "pad".
"Oh…I see…well, I'll go and…get you some?" Kakashi told her uneasily, scratching the bit of skin between his forehead and nose. He wasn't even sure how he was going to do that.
I'm really not in the mood to go to some random convenience store in a town that I'm barely familiar with.
The jonin glanced over at his young student, whose cries of humiliation had died down to a series of wet sniffles.
Wait…Sakura's a girl, and so is Tazuna's daughter…that means they have the same bodily functions. Perhaps she has some…
"Hey, Sakura, have you tried asking Tsunami?"
"Y-you're the only one I came to…" she replied timidly, her gaze fixed on the wooden floor.
"Well, why don't you ask her, then?" he suggested tersely, rubbing the back of his stiff, aching neck. After hearing Kakashi's innocent proposition, Sakura almost started crying again.
"My dress…is ruined from the back," she whined noisily, a few salty tears tracing down her round cheeks. Kakashi nodded tiredly, trying his best to understand her predicament.
"Alright. I'll go down and find a few for you," the copy ninja relented with a sigh, "You'll need more than one, right?"
"Mm-hmm…" she mumbled incoherently, wiping her running nose with a pale forearm, and leaving her issue in her sensei's hands.
"Just stay put, I'll only be a moment," Kakashi told Sakura with a weary smile, attempting to cheer her up with a few light pats on the head.
With that, he trudged down the hall and made his way down the narrow stairwell, careful not to make a single sound. Kakashi ventured out into the rest of the modest home, wandering first into the dimly lit kitchen, which, to his disappointment, was empty.
Man, I don't want to go out and buy them right now…
"Kakashi-sensei?" The jonin jerked toward the noise, exhaling in relief when he realized that it was Tsunami herself who had called out to him. He trudged to the living room, observing how the woman was reclined on a shabby armchair as she knitted a child-sized sweater, with sky blue thread. Kakashi halted a few feet from the couch that Tsunami was occupying, suddenly not sure of how he was going to ask her for a pad, out of all things. She'd probably think he was a weird pervert, or something…
"How can I help you?" the older of the two adults asked with a polite smile, looking up from her unfinished piece of clothing, "Are you hungry, Kakashi-sensei? I can make you a plate."
"No, no, that's okay…"
The jonin shifted his weight uncomfortably, wishing that his sweatpants had pockets he could stuff his hands into.
"Um…well, you see…my student is a girl, and…and…" he trailed off awkwardly, mentally berating himself for starting off his sentence in such a weird way.
"You mean Sakura? She has very beautiful hair," Tsunami commented casually, always having a keen eye for anything "pretty".
"Yes…I'm talking about her," Kakashi replied, gulping nervously, "the thing is…"
"The thing is…?" The woman followed with a raised eyebrow, curiously waiting to hear what he was taking so long to say.
Kakashi cleared his throat. I really did not sign up for this.
"Sakura seems to have started her…menstrual cycle," he uttered quickly, the visible portion of his face taking on the shade of tomato, "and unfortunately, she didn't pack any pads…so, do you have any that she could use?"
Tsunami's eyes widened in realization, a slight blush dusting across her own cheeks. But then, the hilarity of the situation hit her; the copy ninja, a man who was feared by nations, was asking her for a pad. The woman started to chuckle, and those chuckles soon escalated into hearty laughs, which made Kakashi all the more uncomfortable.
Well, I suppose that could've gone worse…
"Why didn't she just come and ask me?" Tsunami thought aloud between amused giggles, wiping a small tear that had escaped through her eye from laughing so hard. The man shrugged in return, rubbing the back of his silver head of hair.
"Okay, I'll be back in a sec," she told him as she stood up, setting her knitting materials down onto the armrest of the couch and disappearing into one of the first floor rooms of the house. It was probably her own, he assumed, leaning against the wall and gazing up at the ceiling as he waited.
Tsunami returned after a few moments, just as she had promised, clutching a plastic grocery bag.
"Here," she said, thrusting it out to him, "I put in five or six so she can travel comfortably tomorrow."
"Thank you very much," Kakashi uttered with a smile, taking the bag, "I'm sure Sakura will appreciate it."
Tsunami smiled in return, waving off his thanks, "It's no problem, really. And I think it's very sweet that you did that for your student."
She plopped back onto the couch, picking up her knitting from where she had left off.
"Well, I'd better go back up…Sakura's waiting for me," the jonin said, pivoting on his heel to make the trip back to the team's current room.
"Yeah, good night. Don't hesitate if you need anything else!"
When Kakashi plodded up the stairs and down the hall to the room they had been lent, he found Sakura curled up on the ground in the hallway, the same place he had left her. The kunoichi's arms were wrapped around her knees, head nodded forward to the extent that her pink locks obscured most of her face from view.
She must be exhausted.
"Sakura," he called softly, crouching down to her level. She didn't respond coherently, as she was half asleep; it was pretty late in the night, way past her bedtime. Kakashi yawned, his eyes watering.
"Sakura, you need to get up," the Hatake tried again, lightly patting one of her slumped shoulders. This time, she groaned, rubbing her hands over her face and readjusting her position on the hard floor.
"…Kakashi-sensei?" she said sleepily, squinting up at him, "Did you get them?"
"Yeah," he replied, handing her the plastic bag, "Now hurry up. I don't want you to miss out on sleep."
Sakura nodded gratefully, before hastily getting off of the ground and dashing to the bathroom, which, thankfully, was only a few paces away.
After watching his student dart off, Kakashi stood up from his crouched position and tiredly slid open the entrance to their room, Naruto and Sasuke's snores immediately becoming known to his ears as he made his way over to his futon.
Heaving a weary, defeated breath, Kakashi slid into bed, pulling the warm blankets up to his masked chin. He shifted to his side, the one facing away from his three students, and curled up into a fetal position, closing his burning, exhausted eyes, and immediately feeling himself beginning to drift off.
The door slid open suddenly, jerking Kakashi out of the semi-conscious state he had entered. Sakura quietly shut it behind her, clad in a pair of matching pink, cotton pajamas, and promptly collapsed onto her own futon, the one in between her two male teammates. She was so tired that she didn't even fangirl about how she was sleeping right next to her precious Sasuke.
"Oh…I almost forgot…" the kunoichi mumbled, her face buried into a pillow, "Thanks, Kashi-sensei."
"…Anytime…" he murmured in return, eyes still closed shut.
And with that, the whole team had fallen asleep. Well, at least for an hour or two.
Being the lone jonin of Team 7, Kakashi was able to detect the slightest noise or movement, the smallest of aberrations in the atmosphere, while his genin were not skilled enough to do so. Taking this into account, it was no surprise when, in the middle of the night, Naruto's fitful sobs stirred the copy ninja out of his slumber.
His dark orbs opened groggily, met with a dim sort of darkness and the small, snoring forms of his three students to his left. Well, two of them, Sakura and Sasuke, were sleeping soundly, but the Uzumaki was tossing and turning, his breath catching convulsively as he wet the blanket with uncharacteristic tears.
Kakashi sat up abruptly, a deep crinkle of worry becoming apparent between his eyebrows upon seeing the usually joyful and charismatic ninja crying, mumbling incoherent sentences between pitiful hiccups.
"P-please…y-you can't l-leave…" Naruto murmured, clenching his blanket tightly, his forehead beaded with sweat.
He's having a nightmare, Kakashi realized dryly, having had his fair share of unpleasant dreams.
"Naruto…" the jonin whispered, gently placing a palm on one of the blonde's trembling shoulders. It was better to just wake him up from the upsetting dream rather than having to witness him suffer through it.
"Naruto, wake up. You're having a nightmare," Kakashi said urgently, shaking him lightly.
The Uzumaki shot up into a sitting position with a gasp, his breathing rapid and uneven. Naruto's cerulean orbs flitted around in panic, widening as he realized that he was not in the comfort of his own bedroom.
"Calm down, Naruto," Kakashi uttered sternly, upon hearing the Genin's quickening breaths. Naruto's eyes darted toward the familiar voice.
"S-s-sensei?" Naruto questioned tremulously, salty tear tracks marring the tan flesh of his round cheeks.
"Come on now, lie down," Kakashi prompted softly, gently pushing him back down onto the mattress.
"So, you had a bad dream, huh?" the copy ninja asked once the child had calmed down enough, still sitting up on his own futon. Naruto nodded silently, wiping away the wetness on his face with a loud sniff.
"…Do you want to talk about it?" The child shook his head vigorously, tightly closing his eyes and biting his bottom lip.
Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of what to do.
"C-can…can you…tell me a story?" Naruto choked out with a gulp, turning the other way in embarrassment. He was starved of any kind of parental affection, and it was in times like these that he so desperately yearned for it. Kakashi's eyes widened in surprise.
"You want me to tell you…a story?" he questioned incredulously. The Uzumaki curled into himself, gulping down the growing lump in his throat.
"Never mind…M' sorry for asking…" Naruto whispered, his form trembling unconsciously. Kakashi's gaze softened.
"Don't apologize. I'll tell you a story, but be warned: I'm sort of bad at this kind of stuff," the sensei told his student sheepishly. Naruto smiled, shifting so that his back was to Sakura and his gaze was fixed on Kakashi's crisscrossed lap.
He's my sensei's son…I should take better care of him.
"Ready to hear it?" Kakashi questioned nervously, rapidly formulating a cliche bedtime story in his mind, remembering bits and pieces of tales that he had been told by the White Fang himself. Naruto nodded and closed his eyes, his lips pulling upward into a grin.
"Er…Once upon a rhyme–I mean, time–there was a hideous goose that lived in a, um, forest," he started with a gulp, "And all the other animals ridiculed it for being so plain and ugly."
Right away, Naruto knew something was off about the story. Wasn't the "Hideous Goose" supposed to be an Ugly Duckling?
"Actually, it was adopted by another family of birds, I think, but these birds were beautiful swans, unlike the hideous goose," Kakashi continued, a bit more confident than before, "All of their friends were very confused; they didn't understand why there was a random goose child living amongst a family of beautiful swans. But they had their own theories, of course."
"A family of gossiping beavers started to spread rumors about the mother swan having an affair with a goose, and all the animals, believing the beavers, left the forest in disgust—"
"Stop, just stop! You're getting it all wrong, Kakashi-Sensei…It's an ugly duckling, not a hideous goose, and no one spreads rumors about an affair!" Naruto corrected, his eyes snapping open at the last bit about a swan having an affair with a goose.
"Hey, It's the only one I've got, so take it or leave it," Kakashi retorted with a shrug.
"Fine, fine…go on," Naruto grumbled after a few moments, rubbing his tired eyes.
"Okay, so where was I? Oh, yeah—all the animals left the forest after hearing of the rumors that the beaver family spread. Eventually, only the swan family was left," he proceeded, "Soon, the hideous goose became very upset, because he thought the swans would leave him too, just like all the others did. So one day, as the remaining family swam across the pond as a flock to find food, he distanced himself from them, scared that it would hurt when they left—"
"They're leaving?" Naruto murmured sleepily. Kakashi sighed.
"Just listen to the story, Naruto," he chided lightly, before going on.
"The hideous goose kept trying to get further and further away from them, so that he could get used to the pain of loneliness if they were to leave him on his own. But the swans noticed, and it saddened them that he was drifting," Kakashi said with a muted yawn, "So one night, when he was sitting outside of the house and gazing up at the stars, crying and wondering where his biological parents were, the swan mother came out with her husband, followed by their other children…"
"They're leaving, aren't they…" Naruto trailed sadly, his eyes losing their spark.
"But instead of starting the journey out of the forest, the swan mother and father came to the goose and spread their wings around him protectively," the jonin uttered with a warm smile, "Then, the little swan children waddled over as well, completing the group hug."
Naruto smiled, laughing joyfully at the happy ending.
Are you watching, Minato-Sensei? I made your son laugh.
"So, you see, in the end, the hideous goose didn't need to become beautiful, or even find his biological parents. He already had his real family, one he formed through bonds of… love," Kakashi finished with a slight cringe, wondering if he had made his story too childishly cheesy.
"…Naruto?" Kakashi said, when he didn't get an answer. Upon looking down at the futon to his left, he realized that the Uzumaki was fast asleep, his breathing even, a contented smile on his face.
Kakashi trudged down the narrow stairwell, fully clothed in his jonin uniform, backpack slung across one shoulder. All of his students were already downstairs, tucking into the breakfast that Tsunami had prepared for them before they were to leave.
He had been the last one to fall asleep, so consequently, he was the last one to rise in the morning. But even though he had gotten at least a few hours of undisturbed rest after attending to Naruto's needs in the middle of the night, Kakashi still felt so sore and weary.
The copy ninja trudged toward the dining room where he assumed everyone was seated, and remembering that his pants didn't fit around his waist as well as they used to, he decided that he was going to eat a big breakfast, whether he liked it or not. Kakashi didn't want to lose all of his muscle tone, or even fat, and become a literal scarecrow like his name suggested.
Entering the dining area, though, he saw that everyone, which included the three Genin and Tazuna's family, was sitting around the large table, laughing jovially, but with cleaned plates. And upon inspecting the scene even further, he noticed that the platters holding the main dishes were empty as well, save for a handful of steamed rice and a piece of rolled, probably cold, omelet.
So much for trying to gain weight…
Tazuna, finally noticing Kakashi standing by the entrance, his face unimpressed and dark circles shadowing his eyes, quickly ushered him in.
"Hey, why don't you join us?" the older man prompted with a smile, gesturing for him to take the remaining chair at the far end of the table.
"…By now, we should actually be back at the village," Kakashi replied placidly, everyone's eyes on him.
Lady Tsunade will start to wonder if I'm injured, or dead, since this was originally a mission that should've taken a single day, not two, he thought to himself.
"But you haven't even had breakfast yet!" Tsunami pointed out, "Hold on, I'll whip some more up for you."
Before she could even get up though, Kakashi quickly said, "No, no, please don't bother. I'm not very hungry, since I ate a bit too much last night."
He didn't want to trouble her more than he already had, and it only seemed right to refuse the gracious offer. But the woman, being a mother, had a keen eye for any kind of weight loss, so it was hard for her to ignore that he was a bit "lankier" than the last time he had stayed at their house.
"It'll only take a few minutes," Tsunami said slowly at his lack of an appetite, her eyes narrowing as she took in his thinning frame.
"There's no need, really. If I get hungry, then I'll pick something up on the way," Kakashi started politely, embarrassed at all of the attention, "And besides, we should get going as soon as possible. Lady Tsunade will get aggravated if we're too late, since she has other missions to give us."
This was a lie, of course—the hokage had made it very clear that she didn't want to give him any more missions.
"Hold on, we'll pack you something to eat," Tazuna said authoritatively, throwing a meaningful glance at his daughter, which prompted her to hurry into the kitchen for a bento box that she could put his breakfast in.
And so, with a container filled to the brim with pieces of fruit and the leftover breakfast on the table, Kakashi headed back home to the Hidden Leaf with his three genin disciples.
A/N: I know this was basically all fluff, but shit is about to go down! Thanks to anyone who is reading my story, and be sure to leave reviews!