Chapter 3
Ep. 01 : The Night of the Wedding.
Part. 02 : Feelings.
'Being late' was one of the most famous reputations about Hatake Kakashi, but not this time.
After Kakashi asked her to go to the wedding together, he went back to his place, took a quick cold shower to clear his mind, slowly got ready and still had too much time left. However, he couldn't sit around to dawdle away at home like he used to. He seemed to be restless and too nervous to stay still. That's why he arrived there 20 minutes early. Probably because he couldn't wait to see HER.
The Former Hokage; Hatake Kakashi who seemed to DRESS-UP a little more than usual was waiting patiently for One of his best friend's student in front of her house. He was in his black ninja tux, black leather coat and dark grey scarf. With his piercing look, his charmingly smart personality and well-known face as a Rokudaime Hokage was more than enough for him to capture any ladies' hearts of all ages, causing all women who passed by to stare at him into one eye. He just nodded his head politely to ladies and gave them smiles for response, causing all those ladies to be blushing embarrassingly.
Few minutes later, the lady who he was waiting for just came out from her house. He knew he had some kind of feelings for her, but still had no idea how should he handle himself. He became speechless, held his breath, widened his eyes sparklingly staring at how amazing she look when she was walking toward him in that dark red Mandarin gown that he chose for her earlier. She untied her usual buns into long straight hair instead. He unintentionally let a 'wow' escaped his lips slightly while thinking up..
-she's absolutely stunning!-.
Everything around him seemed to be played in slow motions at the moment. His heart beaten loudly with excitement as he saw her long gorgeous legs showed through that high side-slit skirt of her, made them look even sexier with those high heels on. She had an ivory-colored shawl over her shoulders and let it covering down to her back which seemed to go so well with her pearl earrings. He couldn't take his eyes away from that passion red lipstick on her curving lips when she smiled and stopped walking in front of him.
She blinked, nervously raised her sparkling brown eyes looking at him through her cute bangs with long straight hair that suited her pretty face so well, unintentionally made his hidden face under the mask turned red by her glamor.
"Sorry for wasting your time, Sensei. But it's really hard to walk faster with these high heels on... ?!" She blinked her big brown eyes looking at the man who already dressed up.. "Wow! You look great, Kakashi-sensei!"
Kakashi said nothing. His eyes were staring at her curving lips absentmindedly while thinking about how would it feel to touch her lips and many things more...
"...Sensei! Sensei?! Kakashi-sensei...!?..."
As soon as her voice caught his attention, he broke his eyes away from her lips but directly captured her eye contact instead. She froze as his eyes sharply gazed into hers and totally caught her of guard. Her face flushed brightly. She rapidly avoided his eye contact and turned away from him immediately. She just realized how Kakashi-sensei could be so handsome (this much) and how come she never noticed that before?!
"Tenten.. Sorry. What did you just say? I couldn't catch up. I was a little distracted."
"I..I..I said you look great…" Tenten blushingly replied.
Both of them were standing there, blushing speechlessly for awhile as they found each other's attractiveness.
"..So... Are we Ready to go?" Kakashi asked while giving her his unique smile and offered her his arm, trying to comfort her. "If you're scared of your own clumsiness like I do, please Take my arm."
She grinned warmly with a chuckle, really impressed on the way he said things to comfort her, made her take his arm without awkwardness. "Thank you, Kakashi-sensei."
On their way to the wedding ceremony.
Tenten glanced up on the man who walking by her side and flushed apparently. She felt unbelievably embarrassed somehow as if he's not Kakashi-sensei; the same person that she known and familiar with for more than half of her life.
-Jeez! Stop staring at Kakashi-sensei's face immediately!! He is Gai-sensei's best friend. No matter how handsome he would be, I must stop looking at him immediately.-
Kakashi noticed Tenten's eyesight on him. He glanced back to her and smiled.
"Is there anything on my face?" He playfully asked.
"N-Nothing!" She avoided his eyes immediately and continued. "I just want to say.. Thank you for keep me company, Kakashi-sensei."
"My pleasure. Besides, Our places are so close anyway."
"Really?" Tenten blinked her eyes adorably as she asked. "How close?"
"My place is just about 200 meters away from yours."
"Whoa! That's so close. I never known you live around the neighborhood Kakashi-sensei. When did you move here?"
"I moved here since I was 13. It was when I first joined ANBU under Minato-sensei.., I mean.. the 4th Hokage's command for a year. Right after the 4th passed away, I continued working as the 3rd Hokage's special force for 10 years more. And after that I became a teacher."
"Wow! You were 14 and I was just 1 year old when the 4th Hokage passed away. So it means you moved here since I was too young to remember! And you live so close all along.. I didn't have a clue."
"Ouch! You make me feel so old, but that's right. You shouldn't know because back then, it was an era of darkness. There were much more dangerous things for us kids than in your era. In the past, shinobi's safe house supposed to be secret. They should be unknown by others."
"So, you never brought anyone there before, huh?" She asked interestedly.
"Nope. Except for your Gai-sensei who found my place by his own stalking skill."
"You brought no one, Not even your girlfriend?"
Kakashi chuckled charmingly. "I would.. if I had one..."
"Huh,?!" Tenten's eyes widened by surprised. "Kakashi-sensei! Are you saying that you don't have a girlfriend?!"
"That's right! I don't." He awkwardly smiled, scratching the back of his head lightly. "Why? Is it so bad?"
Kakashi's face flushed apparently by embarrassment when Tenten stepped up in front of him, staring so close to his face without knowing that the man had some kind of special feelings for her.
"A guy exactly like you don't have a girlfriend?! I wouldn't buy that for sure!"
"Why not?" Kakashi asked wonderingly.
"In my opinion, you're a guy that women are willing to kill each others for. Don't you know how popular you are for us girls at all?".
Kakashi looked around and saw people were staring at them. More than half of those attentions were from men. Clearly, they were staring at Tenten who seemed to know nothing about how gorgeous she looked at all (Just like himself who didn't know how popular he was at all). However, those men's eyesights seemed to annoy Kakashi somehow. Kakashi unintentionally released his killer instinct against those men's eyesights and it really scared them away.
Kakashi eyed on the beautiful woman next to him and thinking quietly to himself...
-Tenten is absolutely stunning! Dammit! Why does it seem so hard for me to stop looking at her?-
While he was still glancing down to her pretty face from his same point of view admiringly, Tenten already noticed Kakashi's eyesight on her. She kinked her eyebrow glancing back at him...
"Kakashi-sensei.. Are you looking at my boobs again?"
"NO! Of course NOT!" He flushed brightly. "What kind of a man do you think I am?"
Tenten narrowed her eyes. "A kind of man that I just caught him staring at my boobs 2 hours ago." She playfully replied, tried to hold her laughing as she saw how embarrassed Kakashi became.
"I told you I was sorry. I didn't mean to. That dress just really drew too much attention, made yours looked so beautiful." He embarrassingly said. "If it will make you feel any better, I promise I won't do that again if I will get caught."
"How would it make me feel better?! And seriously, What kind of a promise is that?! Hahaha.. You really are much more pervert than I thought, sensei."
They walked, talked, laughed and teasing each other all the way while they were heading to the wedding together.
At the Wedding.
Soon later, they both finally arrived at the wedding. They stopped at the registration point which was in-charged by Team Udon's members: Iwabee-kun, Denki-kun and Metal Lee.
"Hey Team Udon.!" Kakashi friendly greeted. "How's going? Is everything okay around here?"
"Rokudaime-sama!?" Denki spoke up and bowed as he saw Kakashi, made the other two excitedly turned to bow at him as well.
"Everything is fine, sir!" All 3 of them answered in unison.
"Good jobs, you three! As I expected.." Kakashi smiled. "Metal, Denki, Iwabee.. You really are a good team!"
Three of them almost cried, didn't expect that an important man as Rokudaime Hokage would remember their names before. "Thank you for your kindness, Rokudaime-sama!" They all bowed and replied in unison again.
They saw a beautiful woman in Mandarin gown was walking right behind Rokudaime. He led her to the reception table and let the lady register first. The lady accidentally dropped the pen cap while she was registering into the guestbook. Iwabee saw that. He got down and picked it up for her immediately.
"Here's yours, Madam." Said Iwabee as he gave a pen cap in his hand to the lady.
"Thanks!" She replied, winked an eye to the boy with a grin, made Iwabee's face turned into bright red immediately.
Those 3 boys bowed to Rokudaime Hokage and the lady. She stopped at Metal Lee, gave him a hug and continued walking into the entrance with Rokudaime.
"Hey! Metal! Metal! Metal! Who is that beautiful lady? How do you know her?" Iwabee asked admiringly about the older girl. "I think I'm in love…".
"AGAIN, Huh?!" Both Denki and Metal asked in unison as they saw Iwabee's reaction.
"Why do you always have a crush on much older women?"
"Right! I almost forgot! Iwabee-kun used to have a crush on Yondaime Tsuchikage, Kurotsuchi-sama too!"
"This time also 'Dream on', Iwabee-kun!" Said Denki. "Isn't it obvious? She's with Rokudaime-sama. Probably could be his girlfriend.".
"What are you guys talking about? There's no way in the world for her to be Kakashi-sensei's girlfriend." Metal added. "Come on! Both of you met her so many times before. Don't you recognize her at all?"
As soon as they walked into the entrance, everyone's attention seemed to focus on the appearance of Hatake Kakashi; the Rokudaime Hokage. Even though he wasn't a type of guy who loved to promote himself, he seemed to take care of everything so well with proper manner.
After greeting to other guests nominally, Kakashi saw the right opportunity to get away. He grasped her together with him and ran away from there immediately. Both of them stopped at the beverages corner for their freshen-up drinks privately.
Kakashi was sipping some sparkling wine while thinking something up quietly to himself.
Tenten was also sipping her drink and noticed something wrong about him. She was worriedly looking at Kakashi who seemed to be absent-minded again. She softly pressed her hand against his forehead to see if he had a fever. Her action caught him off guard, made Kakashi jumped a little as he felt her cold hand on his skin.
"Kakashi-sensei, are you feeling okay?"
"I feel fine. You don't have to worry about me at all. Besides.."
Tenten startled when Kakashi rapidly snatched her wrist before she could pull it back.
"…We should be worried about you more." Said Kakashi while he brought her hand closer to him. "Your hand is too cold. It's not normal. You should take care of yourself too, Tenten."
Tenten watched him grabbing her hand and rubbing it to make it warmer between his two larger hands which were covered by his fingerless gloves. Her face flushed for what he did and the way his hands worked on hers.
"Feel any warmer?"
Kakashi asked and looked at her. He just noticed that her face flushed embarrassingly for what he was doing. Kakashi couldn't resist himself. He closed his eyes, pulled her hand so close over his mask and gently blew his warm breath against her fingertips, made Tenten closed her eyes with full of indescribable feelings.
"..kakashi-sensei…?"
"Tenten.. I... I.." Kakashi was trying to say something stutteringly.
…
Unfortunately...
"Rokudaime-sama!"
Both of their eyes widened immediately, rapidly turned to the one who was calling Kakashi while he still holding her hand.
As soon as they realized Kazekage was the one who just called Kakashi, their faces turned even redder and rapidly let go off each other right away.
"Hello, Kazekage-sama! Long time no see." Kakashi smilingly held his hand out for greeting "Nice to see you, Gaara!"
Gaara shook Kakashi's hand. "Nice to see you too, Kakashi-san.." Gaara felt some strange atmosphere around and turned to see a beautiful lady who's with Kakashi. "..Am I interrupting something?"
Gaara and Kankuro grinningly looked at them without saying a word, but their eyesights seemed to be saying that 'Rokudaime brought a date!'.
"Um- We?! Oh! No no no.. We aren't.."
Both Kakashi and the lady stutteringly tried to make an excuse to refuse.
"We are colleagues. Right! She's one of my colleague. You may say that!" Said Kakashi, as if he tried to convince himself.
"That's right! We are." Tenten added and friendly smiled.
"Oh! How come we haven't met?! Hello. I'm Gaara. Pleasure to meet you." Gaara smilingly held out his hand as he politely introduced himself.
"My pleasure as well.." Tenten shook his hand firmly and grinned "Actually, I'm not surprised if you already forgot about me.. It's been a long while since the last time we hanged out, Kazekage-san."
"..!..Kazekage-san?!" Gaara's eyes widened surprisingly as he repeated her words. He took a good look at the beautiful lady again, because there was only one girl who ever called him 'Kazekage-san'.
"Tenten-san!? Oh! Long time no see. Wow..! You look absolutely gorgeous."
Gaara led her hand toward him. He politely bowed his head to her as if he was asking for her permission. Then, Gaara gently pressed his soft lips to kiss her hand, caused Tenten's face flushed by shyness. She couldn't look up, blushingly avoided everyone's eye contact, didn't notice that Kakashi-sensei and Kankuro were observing them quietly.
"YES! YES! YES! Finally, Gaara made some move. That's good Gaara. Keep going!" Said Kankuro while he was cheering out on his younger brother slightly from distance.
Kakashi narrowed his eyes glancing at Kankuro who standing next to him. "You said 'Made some move', huh? What do you mean, Kankuro-kun? Please.. I would like some explanation if you don't mind." He asked as he heard Gaara's brother's words.
Kankuro grinned, smilingly whispered to Kakashi. "Gaara really has sharp eyes. He used to say that he thinks Tenten is cute all along. But a quiet guy like Gaara was too shy to ask a lady out anyway. Look like things are about to change now, huh?". Kankuro laughed pleasantly. "Hey! Who knows? Maybe we will have another big wedding between Suna and Konoha again after all. Hahaha.."
Kakashi cracked an awkward smile back at Kankuro but couldn't force himself to laugh along with him. It seemed to be little strange for Kakashi to witness whatever that just happened. He disliked this awkward feelings somehow.
Kakashi was watching while Gaara and Tenten were talking. They seemed to be having a good time talking about old times.
Rokudaime saw the way Kazekage was looking at Tenten and realized that himself wasn't the only one who seemed to have a crush on her. He could read from Kazekage's eyesight and expression that Gaara was falling for her too.
Although Kakashi was unpleasant to see Tenten and Gaara together, he couldn't deny that they both seemed to be so suitable for each other (much more than much older man like himself would be). He knew his own feelings for her well enough to realize that every minutes he spent with her more, even harder for him to handle his own feelings. However, Kakashi wouldn't dare to expect anything. Tenten is beautiful and still young. She deserves to be with someone who's way better than himself. Someone's on her age to build a good future together such as Gaara. Maybe it's a good opportunity for Tenten to forget about the love of her life eventually and start it over.
Kakashi decided to step aside. He's willing to do anything if it's for her happiness. He walked to Gaara while Tenten was talking to Kankuro.
"Having a good time, Gaara?"
"Yes. It have been so long since the last time I met Tenten-san. She's really awesome."
Gaara's sparkling eyes were still on her while he was saying, made Kakashi felt envy piercing in his chest.
"Listen. I have to go to take care of something. Would it be okay if I leave Tenten to be here in your responsible? She deserves to enjoy the party more than follow me and taking care of some boring things." Kakashi continued. "Gaara, would you please take a good care of her until the party is over? And please make sure she gets home safely."
"Sure. I promise I will take a very good care of her, Rokudaime."
"Thanks." Kakashi smiled, waving his hand to say 'goodbye' to Gaara and walked away with bitter feeling deep inside.
...
Soon after that, Tenten smilingly walked back to Gaara. She blinked her big brown eyes, looked around.
"Gaara-kun?! Where is Kakashi-sensei?! Isn't he here with you?!" She asked wonderingly.
"Rokudaime have to take care of something. He asked me to keep you company and make sure that you will get home safely."
Tenten stunned and felt disappointed somehow as she heard Gaara. Although she knows how reasonable Kakashi-sensei could be about everything, she had no idea why Kakashi did this. She needed some explanations from him and wouldn't stop until she gets one.
"Gaara-kun! I'm truly sorry, but I can't be here. I will go after Kakashi-sensei."
The young Kazekage saw her determined eyesight. He knew there was nothing more he can do to change her mind.
He tenderly smiled..
"I see.. Congratulations, Tenten-san! I hope to hear some good news from you soon." He led her hand to his lips and kissed it again as a goodbye. "Please take care, Tenten-san."
Though Tenten didn't understand most of Gaara's words, she didn't ask for his explanation any further. She bowed her head politely and smiled to say 'goodbye' to Gaara as well. Then, she hastily ran off to find Kakashi.
Gaara kept watching the backside of her until she went out of his eyesight completely.
"Gaara!? Where is Tenten?" Kankuro asked as he saw his younger brother standing there alone.
Gaara smiled. "She left. She has to take care of.. something.."
Kankuro grinned evilly. "So.. How's going? Did you ask her out?"
Gaara chuckled lightly. "No. Although, at first I was going to..."
"Then, why didn't you?!" Kankuro disappointedly asked his brother.
"I was too late. It's pretty obvious that she already had someone else in her mind.."
Tenten was running around, looking for Kakashi-sensei but couldn't find him anywhere. She paused, took a few deep breaths when she heard some familiar voice was calling her from behind.
"Tenten-san!? Wow! You look amazing!"
Tenten blinked her brown eyes sparklingly as she realized that was Hinata.
"Hinata! Thank god!" Tenten said, couldn't stop panting.
"Are you alright?!" Hinata asked as she held Tenten for supporting.
"I'm okay. I'm just a little tired. Hinata! Have you see Kakashi-sensei?"
"Yes. Kakashi-sensei just finished talking to Naruto-kun. He just walked away a few minutes ago."
"Which way did he go?"
"He went that way. Maybe to the hallway.. Let me check.." Hinata looked over that direction and uttered. "Byakugan!"
"Tenten-san, Kakashi-sensei is sitting out there, in the corner of the hallway."
"Okay. Thank you so much, Hinata. You're the best!" Tenten gave Hinata a big hug for 'Thank you' and hastily ran to the hallway.
"Watch your steps, Tenten-san!" Hinata couldn't stop smiling whenever she saw Team Gai's cheerfulness. Though she had no idea about what was happening, her instinct told her that something good was on the way.
In a very quiet hallway.
Kakashi was sitting there alone drowsily.
-Is the party too boring? Or it's just me who never noticed how boring it is without her? I don't feel like wanna go back in there at all.. Can I just go home with some kind of excuses?-
Kakashi rested his head over the wall behind and closed his eyes to refresh his mind. He let a long sigh out again and again while thinking about how stupid he was to throw a chance to be around her away. However, he was the one who made that decision by himself. Whatever the result would be, he had to live with it without conclusions.
Kakashi opened his eyes and got up from the seat…
"At least.. First, I should go to see the groom and congratulate him myself before I make some excuses to go home.."
As soon as Kakashi started his first step, he realized the fringe of his scarf was pulled from behind. He turned around, didn't expect to see Tenten who was panting heavily, grabbing on the fabric before he could walk away from her again.
"Huh..!?.. Tenten! Why are you here?! Where is Gaara!?" He asked surprisingly.
"Kakashi-sensei… Why did you leave me there?!" Tenten asked. She hardly breath, couldn't raise her face to him yet. "Why can't you just tell me frankly if you don't wanna be with me, sensei?! I wouldn't bother.."
"Oh! No-No-No! You're getting me wrong, Tenten. That's the other way opposite to how I feel. That's definitely not the reason why I left."
"Well! Explain it!" She said pantingly, grabbed his scarf even tighter, felt too tired to be more angry.
"Well.. I left because.. It's pretty obvious to me that Gaara have a crush on you. So..I thought you and Gaara might need sometime to be alone..(without me)." He said the last word in much lower voice.
"But that's not what I want at all!" Tenten's voice sounded sorrow as she continued. "I thought we had a great time together.. I thought you also enjoyed hanging out with me! Look like I was wrong…"
"No, you're not wrong at all!" Without even thinking, but just didn't want her to misunderstand himself even more. Kakashi grabbed her wrists, rapidly hauled her toward him, propping her up in his arms and spoke up loudly right into her face. "Tenten! I really enjoyed hanging out with you! Isn't it clear enough for you?! When will you realize that The reason I asked you to come to this wedding together in the first place is all because I WANT TO BE WITH YOU, TENTEN!"
Tenten flushed by his unexpected reactions, his words and the way he was staring so seriously into her eyes when he said it out loud, caused her heart to be shaken by his actions so badly.
-Seriously?! Someone as Kakashi-sensei WANTS to be WITH ME, huh?! He must be kidding! There's no way a guy like him would have any kind of feelings for the likes of me for sure. He just tried to be polite as usual. So.. Don't be shaken, Tenten! No matter how cute he is, DO NOT BE SHAKEN!-
Kakashi also flushed by what himself just said, flushed by what himself just did and flushed even more to see her blushing face so close in front of him. He didn't mean to confess his feelings for her or anything. It was just unintentionally slipped out from his mouth.
-Damn it! Kakashi! You just told her that You want to be with her. This is the exact moment. It couldn't be more right time to tell her how you feel... But what if she thinks I'm just Gai's pervert friend who couldn't stop staring at her breasts? Even though it's her lips that I can't stop staring at right now.-
Kakashi's eyes were on her lips while he was trying to decide to GO FOR IT or NOT. His face was getting serious again, caused her heart to beat so loud within her chest. Tenten never felt this way, this incredibly nervous before.
Obviously, they both felt chemistry between them so intensely.
Both of their bodies seemed to become paralyzed as their eyes met unexpectedly again. Both of them didn't know how to react in this situation at all.
After a long pulse of dead air staring moment, they awkwardly broke their eye contacts away from each other while he still had her wrist in his hand.
Kakashi slowly moved his hand from her wrist to grab on her cold hand instead, held it tenderly.. "Tenten..I'm sorry. I have no intention to hurt your feelings. Please tell me, what can I do to make you forgive me?"
Kakashi was surprised as he felt Tenten's hand holding his hand tighter in return. He turned to her who still avoiding to look at him.
"..Don't ever leave me again!" She said it up lightly while she was hiding her blushing face from him. Her reaction was so natural and so adorable, captured the older man's heart so much. A tender smile appeared on his face.
"I won't leave you again, Tenten. I promise.."
He held her hand even tighter as he spoke. They both still turned their faces away from each other, smiled warmly to their own selves while their hands still holding silently in that soundless hallway with too many feelings that made their hearts raced indescribably.
