Kakashi was wrong when he thought Naruto would cause him the most trouble. That wasn't to say that Naruto didn't cause him any trouble, he still did, but Sasuke took it to a whole new level.

First, it had been the little things, which Kakashi could ignore, but when it started escalating, Kakashi was convinced that something was seriously wrong with Sasuke.

A few days after Team Seven formed, Kakashi found out that Sasuke always showed up a mere five minutes before he did. It was such a natural occurrence that Naruto and Sakura never questioned it, just like they never questioned Kakashi's tardiness anymore. Kakashi wasn't all that surprised to find out about Sasuke's behavior; he'd always been the smart one after all.

What was the point in showing up early if their sensei wasn't going to be there until three hours later? That was what Kakashi would have thought if he was in Sasuke's position, but Kakashi liked to argue that it could be used as quality team bonding time.

Sasuke probably used those three hours to train somewhere on his own. While Kakashi would prefer that he trained with his teammates, training individually was fine with him since Sasuke cooperated during team training. He'd even seen Sasuke helping out Naruto and Sakura a couple of times, something that Kakashi never did when he was on Team Minato. At least, it was nice to see that Sasuke wasn't becoming a second him.

Maybe Kakashi had spoken too soon.

One time, Kakashi arrived early. He hadn't planned on it, but another shinobi had come by to pay their respects to the memorial stone. Having already been there for almost three hours, Kakashi knew that he couldn't be selfish and allowed his fellow comrade to have some privacy. Having nothing better to do, Kakashi decided that he might as well show up early.

Only to find that Sasuke had just arrived, in the middle of delivering an excuse. One that was eerily similar to what Kakashi used.

"Sorry. I was helping out an old lady carry her groceries home and then a black cat stepped in my path so I had to go the long way." Sasuke somehow delivered it in the same serious tone that Kakashi did.

"Ah save it! You sound just like Kakashi sensei," Naruto groaned. Sakura didn't comment; just gave him a weird look before they began their team exercises.

By the time Kakashi decided to show himself, he was still reeling from the revelation that Sasuke Uchiha of all people was using his excuses to the point where he had forgotten to give one of his own. No one mentioned it; Sakura and Naruto were sick of hearing the same set of excuses come from two of their teammates.

They secretly wondered what possessed Sasuke, while Kakashi wondered if he was being a horrible influence for the last Uchiha.

Team Seven had been assigned their seventh - or was it eighth, Kakashi couldn't really remember - D ranked mission. Like usual, Naruto groaned about getting another boring mission, picking up trash, while Sakura accepted the mission quietly. Sasuke showed no reaction.

The team agreed on a time, but everyone knew that Sasuke and Kakashi wouldn't show up at the agreed time. Kakashi supposed that Sakura's penchant for following the rules kept her from copying what Sasuke had done. For Naruto, where Sakura was, he was too.

However, Kakashi was called in later that day and was assigned an A ranked mission following Team Seven's D ranked mission. It was set to start an hour after the D ranked mission, which normally wouldn't be a problem, except that meant Kakashi couldn't be late. As unnecessary as it was, jonin senseis had the duty of supervising them and ultimately signing off on their mission.

Naruto and Sakura would have a field day when they saw that he showed up on time, for once. As for Sasuke, Kakashi would need to track him down tomorrow to inform him of the change of plans.

Kakashi was up bright and early in the morning. He made a quick stop to the memorial stone, this time conscious to keep his visit short. On his way to their meeting spot, Kakashi made a slight detour to Sasuke's house to collect him. If he wasn't there, then he would check the training ground that the Uchiha frequented.

Kakashi perched on the windowsill; he never did like doing things the conventional way. His hand was raised, knuckles ready to rasp the glass to get Sasuke's attention when he faltered. Sasuke had walked back into the room only half-dressed, presumably having gotten out of the shower. Everything seemed to be completely normal...except for the fact that there was a mask that donned the lower half of Sasuke's face.

A navy, blue mask just like his own.

The sight had shocked him to the point where Kakashi slipped from the windowsill. He didn't even try to fight it, allowing himself to land on the ground next to Sasuke's apartment complex.

The lateness he could excuse. The excuses were probably just to mock him. But the mask? Kakashi was becoming more and more convinced that this wasn't just a coincidence; Sasuke was deliberately doing it. What was his motive? To freak him out? But Sasuke was at home and no one would ever see him wear his mask.

Kakashi tried to eradicate the cursed image from his mind, but it stayed firmly put. Running up the stairs of his complex, Kakashi knocked on his door - doing it the right way this time - slipped a note under his door to inform him of the change of plans, and then dashed away.

He couldn't look Sasuke in the eye for the rest of the day.

Sometime after that horrific incident, one that Kakashi tried to forget but couldn't, Sasuke showed up with another surprise. He came to training one day, with his headband pulled down covering his left eye. The worst part was that Sasuke acted completely natural about it, like he had always done that all along.

"Ano, is there something wrong with your eye?" Sakura ventured to ask.

Sasuke gave her an offhand response. "My eye hurts." And that had been the end of that conversation.

His eye was hurting and Sasuke didn't choose to go to the hospital, didn't choose to take a day off of training to rest, but instead had chosen to cover his eye in the same manner that Kakashi did. Kakashi strongly suspected that Sasuke was lying, that it was just an excuse so they wouldn't continue pestering him.

Naruto and Sakura may have not noticed, but Kakashi certainly did. While he wasn't fighting, Sasuke's left eye seemed fine albeit sometimes his eye would twitch uncontrollably. While sparring, Sasuke had the habit of subtly closing his left eye, but not for extended periods of time lest it roused suspicions. It seemed that when both of his eyes were open, his depth perception was off, but when his eye was closed, the problem went away.

Like today, Sasuke fought perfectly, living up to his prodigy status. In previous spars, some of the mistakes that Sasuke made, like the misjudgment of distance seemed so rookie, but Kakashi hadn't given it a second thought since he was still a genin.

Now he understood what was wrong. And he couldn't fathom why.

Why the hell was Sasuke fighting like he had years of experience without the vision of his left eye? Most shinobis needed both eyes to fight effectively, losing one or both eyes signalled the end of their shinobi careers. Kakashi had been the exception, but even so, it had taken him a ridiculously long time to get used to fighting one eyed. And then for him to get used to fighting with both all over again when he used the Sharingan.

Kakashi decided an intervention was in order; he needed to find out what was going through Sasuke's head, so he pulled him aside after training. Sasuke looked like he wanted to be anywhere but under his scrutinizing gaze, but he wasn't surprised that Kakashi pulled him aside.

Kakashi didn't bother with the semantics; he got straight to the point. "Why are you covering your left eye?"

Sasuke must have sensed that the "my eye hurts" excuse wouldn't work on Kakashi or if it did, then he would earn himself a ticket to the hospital, so he didn't bother to dish it out again.

"I'm training."

"Training," Kakashi repeated. "Training how?"

"Training how to fight with a disability," Sasuke explained. "I'm going to have the Sharingan one day and the clan books say that the Sharingan causes blindness from overuse. I'm just preparing myself in case that happens; I don't want to be a liability on the battlefield."

That explanation made sense. If it had been anyone else, they would have bought into the explanation, but Kakashi didn't. Despite that, he still sent Sasuke on his way home, knowing that he wasn't going to get anything more out of the tight lipped boy. He would just have to figure it out himself.

Because his explanation didn't explain why he knew how to fight with one eye like he had been practicing for years.

Mystery shrouded his student. Although Kakashi had more questions than answers, he was determined to not get in too deep. Prying into other people's personal lives was something that Gai did, not Kakashi. As long as Kakashi pretended that he didn't know that Naruto practically lived off of ramen or that Sakura had gotten her first period during their last mission or that Sasuke secretly wore a mask in his own apartment, then everything would be fine. He would retain an image of his innocent, clumsy genin students, while he was their perpetually late, lazy sensei.

It was a mutual understanding that Kakashi would not pry into their personal lives, while they wouldn't bother his life either. If they saw each other in the streets, Kakashi would simply nod in acknowledgement and his student, whichever one he happened to run into, would go along their way. Most of the time it was Sakura, she seemed to enjoy frequenting the market with her blonde friend, so that wasn't a problem.

Unlike Minato sensei, Kakashi did not want to keep an open door policy. Sakura wouldn't abuse it, but Naruto might come banging at his door at all hours to go out for ramen. Kakashi used to think that Sasuke wouldn't even bother to come by, just like Kakashi always had to be dragged to Minato's house, but the more he learned about his student, the more of a mystery he was becoming.

It was just safer if he never extended that invitation. Who knew what he would do next?

It was Friday afternoon. His team finished their mission early and Kakashi was feeling generous for once, so he allowed them to take the rest of the day off, rather than dragging them to the mission desk or continue training. After all three of them were out of sight, Kakashi contemplated on what he could do.

Training was out of question; he'd already scheduled a training session with Gai later today. His hand unconsciously reached for his back pocket, ready to pull out his worn copy of Icha Icha, but refrained from doing so. Kakashi already read the entire book during their D ranked mission earlier; there would be no joy in finishing it twice in one day.

Jiraiya seriously needed to hurry up and release the next book.

Kakashi sighed as he thought about what he was going to eat for dinner. He supposed that he needed to get groceries. Not the way he wanted to spend his time off, but it was a necessity, so he started heading towards the village market.

He knew Naruto frequented the ramen stand, so Kakashi took care to take the roundabout way to avoid walking past it. If Naruto saw him, he would inevitably rope him into eating ramen with him and then Kakashi would be saddled with the bill. No thanks.

Taking the roundabout way hadn't been all that bad because Kakashi passed by a bookstore on his way to the fruit stand. He heard of this bookstore, but it was located two streets away from the main street of Konoha's market that Kakashi always opted to go to the one on the third block of the main street for the sake of convenience. All the books that he ever wanted were always there, so he never had the need to come to this one.

It was a surprise that this bookstore could still stay open, despite most of the foot traffic shifting to the more popular bookstore located in a more desirable location. Some said that this store offered some classics that couldn't be found in the other store or in Konoha's library, so that might have added to the appeal.

Kakashi was already here and he had some time to kill, so it wouldn't hurt to take a look around. He stepped through the front door, the bell above his head ringing as he opened the door. Nodding at the girl behind the counter as his way of greeting, Kakashi began to wander up and down the aisles.

It was just as the others have said; there were books and scrolls from his childhood that he hadn't seen in a while. There were even works that even predated his generation, spanning all the way back to the Warring States Era. It was a pity that no one had an eye for classic literature anymore.

And despite what everyone else thought, Kakashi didn't only read Icha Icha. It just so happened that Icha Icha was his go to book to carry around, but that didn't mean he didn't read anything else. For the record, he was pretty well read, having scoured through the majority of works that the Konoha Library had to offer.

Kakashi plucked a few titles off of the shelves, tucking them under his arm. He had been so absorbed in his book hunt that he hadn't realized there was another person in the store until he rounded the aisle. And then proceeded to duck back on the other side of the bookcase, before he cautiously leaned forward, craning his neck to look over at the other aisle.

He hadn't been hallucinating. The person he had seen was Sasuke. His student was currently thumbing through the pages of a book, smiling as he read the contents. Kakashi glanced at the metal plating on the side of the bookshelf, noting that it was the Adult section, but the label gave no more specifics beyond that. Most of the aisles he had gone through were labelled as the Adult section too.

Sasuke reading wasn't all that weird. In fact, Kakashi was more weirded out that he had to run into his student in such an obscure place, but he never did have such luck avoiding annoying people. Gai was a testament to that. As Kakashi turned to head to the front counter to pay for his stack of books, he froze when he heard a giggle.

A fucking giggle. From Sasuke's Uchiha's mouth. That made him so uncomfortable on so many levels that Kakashi couldn't even begin to explain.

Kakashi took another peek, trying to make out the title of the book, but Sasuke's hand blocked it. When he saw Sasuke's other hand go up to his mouth, in an effort to hide his giggle, Kakashi pulled away, feeling a bit of bile forming at the back of his throat.

There was a reason why Kakashi didn't want to know anything about his students' personal lives. The image of a stoic prodigy had been effectively shattered in his mind. He could never look at his student the same way again.

How did this kid turn out so differently from his brother? That was a mystery that he would never find out.

Kakashi swore up and down that he didn't want to know anything about his students' personal lives, but he couldn't help the curiosity that washed over him. When he saw that Sasuke finally left the shop, after putting the book back on the shelf, Kakashi took the chance to sneak over to where Sasuke had been standing moments before. His eyes roved the spines of the books, trying to pinpoint the location where Sasuke had placed the book back.

Hmm, most of them were relatively normal titles and Kakashi was starting to think that maybe he had overreacted when he found the book that Sasuke had been reading.

Icha Icha Paradise.

All the books fell from his hands, clattering to the floor in an ungraceful heap as Kakashi bolted out of the bookstore.

He resisted the urge to scream.


Even Naruto knew that Sasuke has been acting strangely since the day that they became a team. The worst part was that he wasn't even trying to hide it and it made him wonder where the stick up his ass had gone. For one, Sasuke acted like he actually liked working with them. Of course, Naruto had his suspicions that it had all been an act to pass the bell test, which was why he agreed to work with him in the first place, but when the kindness continued, Naruto was so sure that there was an ulterior motive. Or maybe it was a prank, but Sasuke-who-had-a-stick-up-his-ass-Uchiha didn't do pranks.

Naruto didn't know what was going on, so he asked Sakura. Sakura was smart; she would know. Turned out, she was as confused as he was.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Naruto asked. "Aren't you supposed to know that teme better than me?"

Sakura shrugged. "Not anymore, I guess. Don't you feel like he became a completely different person?"

Naruto nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Maybe it's because we didn't know him that well in the Academy," Sakura theorized and Naruto latched onto every word because she was the smart one. "Like maybe we had a picture of him being a cool, aloof prodigy, but now we're finding out his real personality since we're a team. It's inevitable that we get closer."

Naruto frowned. He didn't know what the word aloof meant, but he could guess. "But wasn't he like that? He didn't like to talk to anyone and he always gave off the vibe that he thought he was better than the rest of us. And now he acts like he actually likes us?"

"I don't think he can fake that. Maybe he was just quiet in the Academy and we misunderstood him."

Naruto was still skeptical, but he was willing to have an open mind about Sasuke. The debacle during their Land of Waves mission proved Sakura's theory was right; Sasuke did care about him, so much that he would shield him from a few senbons. Since then, Naruto was dead set on treating him like a brother.

There were still some times that Naruto felt Sasuke knew things that he shouldn't, like what excuse Sensei was going to give them, or look at Sensei weirdly, like when he did while Sensei fought Zabuza the first time, but overall, Sasuke wasn't too bad.

So when the time came, Naruto didn't hesitate to include Sasuke in on his plan.

"We got to see under Kakashi sensei's mask," Naruto whispered furtively, aware that Sensei had just left not too long ago. Just a precaution, in case he was still in the vicinity.

"What?" Sakura asked. "Why?"

"Aren't you curious about what's underneath his mask? What if he has big lips? Or buck teeth?"

Sakura pondered for a moment, before adding, "Maybe he has some facial disfigurement."

Naruto's eyes swung to Sasuke. "Are you in or are you out?"

"Fine," Sasuke grounded out, a hint of his former self leaking out. "How are we going to do this?"

And when Naruto started spilling his plan, both of them admitted that, for once, he had a decent plan.

They found themselves at Ichiraku Ramen stand. Sensei took the seat closest to the wall, followed by Sasuke, him and Sakura. All of them took turns warding off Sensei's suspiciousness that they were trying to pull a prank on them, Naruto was glad for Sakura's quick thinking. When finally, Sensei had finally let down his guard and agreed to eat the bowl of ramen without any reservations, Naruto was practically on the edge of his seat.

Breaking the chopsticks. Finger reaching for the tip of his mask, moments away from pulling it down.

And then the moment was completely disrupted when Team Ten appeared out of nowhere. Sasuke let out a yelp as someone rammed into him, forcing him to stand up. Naruto's eyes widened; Sasuke was blocking the damn way!

"Damn it Sasuke, get out of the way!" Naruto yelled above the assortment of noises that both teams made. By the time Sasuke finally sat back down, Sensei had already finished eating, masking already back in place.

Their jaws dropped. After seeing heart-shaped eyes on both Teuchi and Ayame, their curiosity intensified tenfold.

I really want to know…

His next brilliant plan was to stalk Sensei, which was met by various counterpoints from Sakura.

"He's a jonin; he'll sense us."

"We can just say that we're doing stealth training."

"He's not going to take off his mask in public."

"I know. We're going to try to figure out where he lives. Then we can watch him through the window or something; he's gotta take off that mask in his own apartment, ya know?"

"And what if he has his blinds pulled?"

"Then we'll break in!" Naruto exclaimed. "I don't know if it'll work, but it's the best idea that I got. It's worth a shot at least."

Surprisingly, Sasuke was the first to agree. "Sure." Upon Sakura's skeptical look, Sasuke amended his statement. "The dobe's plan almost worked the first time and there's not much else we can do other than invite him to eat again. And he's already suspicious of us."

"Fine."

They took turns following him. Each of them returned to the rendezvous position, with a defeated look on their faces and informing the rest that they managed to lose track of him. Sensei was a jonin, so it was natural that he would be onto them. If one pair of eyes weren't enough to keep up with his whereabouts, then surely three pairs would be sufficient?

From then on, the three of them followed him together. Naruto's tactic worked for a while, if someone was turned the other way, someone else would spot where Sensei went. The game continued and the trio had been at it for hours, but it seemed that Sensei liked to take his sweet time traversing the village.

Naruto groaned; why couldn't he just go home?

His interest was reignited as Sensei began walking down a less crowded district, towards the residential area. All three of their senses were alert, hardly daring to even blink lest Sensei disappeared from their sight again.

This was finally it. They would find out where he lived and then they could commence with plan two.

Or so Naruto thought until he heard a loud boisterous voice pierce through the silence.

"Ah my eternal rival!" Their heads snapped to the right, to see a man clad head to toe in a green jumpsuit with orange leg warmers. Besides him, Sakura shuddered upon registering his atrocious hairstyle. Sasuke was surprisingly jumpy and Naruto had no idea why.

Much to his shock, Sensei actually addressed the weird man.

"Ah Gai. Did you need something?"

"Are you up for a youthful spar today?"

"Well…" Sensei eyed the grocery bags in his hands and then flickered to meet Gai's eyes again. "I have to get these groceries home first."

Yes! Naruto inwardly cheered. Sensei was finally heading home; they were moments away from finding out where their ever elusive Sensei and then-

And then Sasuke fell off of the roof, landing in between Gai and Sensei, cutting off the former who was in the middle of agreeing to postpone their sparring match until Sensei's groceries could be safely stowed away.

Sasuke fucking Uchiha fell. Naruto couldn't quite believe his eyes. His jaw dropped, mouth gaping like a fish who was out of the water. Besides him, Sakura was equally shocked and confused, her eyes riveted on the scene below.

Sasuke picked himself off of the ground, wiping the dirt off of his white shorts. Gai was asking if he had been injured in the fall, while Sensei simply looked amused that Sasuke appeared out of nowhere. Amused, but not shocked.

"Ah so it's you three that's been following me today," Sensei commented.

Sasuke didn't get a chance to respond, not when Gai planted his hands on his shoulders, turning him around and around to check for any injuries. From above, both of his teammates were too absorbed in the scene, highly amused at Sasuke's predicament.

"Serves the teme right for falling down," Naruto murmured.

So amused and so absorbed, none of the three genins noticed that Sensei had taken the opportunity to slip away unnoticed. By the time Sakura noticed and voiced her inquiry aloud, Naruto searched the vicinity for a sign of their sensei.

And promptly cursed underneath his breath when he realized that Sensei was gone.

Team Seven had given up on the idea until their next C ranked mission rolled around. After hearing that it was a mission out of the village, Naruto's creative mind was ignited once more as he thought of the possibilities.

Pushing Sensei into a lake so that he would be forced to change...sneak up on him while he was sleeping...watch him while he ate...convince him to go to the hot springs…

And when he relayed all those plans to Sasuke and Sakura, the two of them needed less convincing than the first time around. During the walk to their destination, Naruto couldn't stop snickering and he was pretty sure Sensei was completely weirded out by his eccentric behavior.

Naruto couldn't help it; the thought of finally being able to best Sensei made him giddy.

When they settled down at the inn for the night, Naruto was practically bursting with excitement. Dinner time couldn't come fast enough and soon, they were all seated on the mats around the dining table. All three of them had chosen to sit across the table, knowing that they would get a better vantage point this way.

Sensei raised an eyebrow. "Oh? No one wants to sit next to me?"

Sakura bit out some excuse of how they were smaller so all three of them could fit comfortably on this side of the table while Sensei should have the entire space to himself. Sensei nodded, accepting her answer.

But he just wouldn't eat. Instead, he nodded at his students to start eating.

Sasuke was the first to pick up his chopsticks, shoving a mouthful of rice. Sakura followed, taking care to only bend her head down for a split second lest she missed the show. Naruto and Sensei simply had a stare off. Sensei's chin jerked towards the food.

"Not going to eat, Naruto?"

"Ahaha, it's impolite to eat before my elders." Besides him, both Sakura and Sasuke's eyebrows twitched, almost as if to say "when have you cared about formalities."

"Maa, but I'm giving you permission to eat first. I wouldn't want my students to starve."

Fine, if it was going to be that way, then Naruto would have to do something drastic. He stood up, grabbing the teapot from the middle of the table. Naruto made a show of pouring himself tea, then Sakura and Sasuke, and lastly moved as if he were going to pour tea for Sensei as well. At the last moment, Naruto released his grip on the handle and sent the teapot flying towards Sensei's face.

"My hand slipped!"

Sensei's reflexes were lightning fast. He had ducked and flipped the table just in time for the teapot to hit the wooden surface. All of their food slid down onto the mats, gone completely to waste. Sensei set the table back down.

"Ah sorry, I just reacted," Sensei murmured in a manner that suggested he was far from apologetic. "But at least Sasuke managed to save some food for you."

Naruto's head jerked to his right, only to see that Sasuke had managed to secure two plates of food from the wreckage. How had he known to do that? Or perhaps, his reflexes were just as quick as Sensei's was.

After citing that he wasn't hungry, Sensei left the room, leaving the three of them to plot again. Throughout, Sakura berated him for the stupid move - why in the world did he think throwing a teapot was a good idea - and in Naruto's defense, he had to do something. In retrospect, he grudgingly admitted that Sakura was right, if it had hit, having scalding hot water splashed all over his face was a recipe for disaster.

Sasuke didn't contribute much to the discussion other than the food.

Their next move was the hot springs at the inn. Convincing Sensei to go into the hot springs was easy, all he had to do was ask. Unfortunately, Sakura would have to be left out of the plan since there were no mixed baths. It didn't matter anyways, the entire plan was a bust.

Who the hell wore a mask in the hot springs?

Sasuke shrugged it off, almost like he predicted this would happen.

Most of their focus during the mission was their self-appointed mission rather than the actual mission at hand, which led them to be lectured by Sensei after they failed to notice the bandits. In the end, Sensei had to be the one to take care of them, after mistakenly tying up his own students since they decided it was a good idea to steal their disguise.

In Naruto's defense, he thought it was a good disguise at that time.

After Sensei's lecture, Naruto decided to take a leap of faith. He just had to know and he was completely out of ideas.

"Kakashi sensei! Can you show us what's under your mask?"

Sensei blinked in surprise, eyes crinkling in amusement. "Ah so that's what you were after these past few days?" Sakura and Naruto nodded in unison. "You could have just asked. Behind this mask…" Both of them leaned forward. If Naruto hadn't been focused on Sensei's mask, he would have noticed that Sasuke didn't seem to share the same excitement at the reveal.

"Is another mask!" Sensei yanked down his mask to reveal another mask. "Pretty cool huh?" Naruto and Sakura toppled over from the shock. Sasuke tsked at the scene, arms crossed over his chest.

Maybe Naruto was too out of it, but he could have sworn he heard Sasuke mutter something under his breath.

"These kids will never see my face."

Huh? Maybe it was Sensei who said that. Yeah, that made much more sense…


A/N: Hi again!

To my reviewers: Yes, time travel. :) I think this chapter made it quite obvious so no use in hiding it anyways haha.

I wrote the majority of this story in a few massive writing sprees, so forgive me for any errors. This is also my first time writing Team 7 as main characters, so getting their personalities down might be a work in progress. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this cracked up version of Sasuke lol. Do let me know which part you thought was the funniest; mine is the bookstore scene!

Thank you for reading and until next time!

-MM