Chapter 30: Crush

April let out a yawn as she shut her front door behind her. The sun was just beginning to peek over the top of the Hokage monument. April smiled as she stretched. Everything was always so quiet and peaceful at this time, it almost felt as if she had the whole village to herself. As she straightened up, April pulled her iPod out of her pocket and started one of her favorite exercise playlists. As she put in the earbuds, the slow intro for Can't Hold us by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis filled her ears. She closed her eyes and took a breath, bending her knees as she prepared to begin. The moment the rhythm of the song picked up and the beat kicked in, she took off like a shot, jumping up onto the railing and kicking off, using like a springboard to leap onto the roof of the neighboring building.

Return of the Mack, get up!
What it is, what it does, what it is, what it isn't.
Looking for a better way to get up out of bed
Instead of getting on the Internet and checking a new hit
Get up! Fresh out, pimp strut walking, little bit of humble, little bit of cautious
Somewhere between like Rocky and Cosby. Sweater gang, nope, nope y'all can't copy
Yup. Bad, moon walking, this here is our party, my posse's been on Broadway,
And we did it our way.

April grinned, enjoying the feeling of the wind rushing through her hair as she ran and jumped to the rhythm of Macklemore's rap, matching the movement of her feet to the speed of the lyrics.

Grown music, I shed my skin and put my bones into everything I record to it
And yet I'm on.
Let that stage light go and shine on down,
Got that Bob Barker suit game and plinko in my style.
Money, stay on my craft and stick around for those pounds,
But I do that to pass the torch and put on for my town
Trust me. On my I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T shit hustler,
Chasing dreams since I was fourteen with the four track bussing
Halfway cross that city with the backpack, fat cat, crushing

April waved to the some of the shopkeepers below, who were coming in to set up for the day as she passed, on her descent towards the ground.

Labels out here,
Now they can't tell me nothing
We give that to the people,
Spread it across the country
Labels out here,
Now they can't tell me nothing
We give it to the people,
Spread it across the country

Her feet hit the street as the refrain began, and she smiled as she unconsciously sang along, racing towards the rising sun.

Can we go back, this is the moment
Tonight is the night, we'll fight 'til it's over
So we put our hands up like the ceiling can't hold us
Like the ceiling can't hold us
Can we go back, this is the moment
Tonight is the night, we'll fight 'til it's over
So we put our hands up like the ceiling can't hold us
Like the ceiling can't hold us…

–∞–

Several songs later, April was cheerfully humming along to Abba's Take A Chance On Me, when she found herself approaching the cemetery. She immediately skidded to a halt when a familiar flash of silver caught her attention out the corner of her eye.

'Time to take a chance of my own…' She thought with a Cheshire cat grin as she headed in. "Morning, Kakashi-sensei!" April called out pleasantly as she removed her earbuds and made a beeline for the jōnin.

"Oh, April-chan… You're up early." Kakashi remarked as he turned to face her, a little surprised to see her running around the outskirts of the village at that time of the morning. She still had another week to go before she could get the cast on her wrist removed, but she obviously wasn't letting that slow her down at all.

"You, too, Sensei." April replied with a smile. She noticed there were fresh flowers in the vases for the grave he that he had been standing in front of. "I'm sorry, were you visiting someone?"

"Hm?" He said, following her gaze to back Rin's grave. "Oh, yes. I was just saying hi to an old friend…" He replied with a wan smile and a soft look in his eyes as he stared at the grave.

"… The friend whose name is on the memorial stone?" April asked carefully. She was curious, but she didn't want to intrude… It seemed like a sensitive subject for him.

"No, this one's different… Her name is Rin. My other friend's name was Obito… But the three of us were all on the same team, just like you, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura are now." Kakashi said after a moment, deciding it was probably all right to tell her. "Rin was a sweet and friendly girl who cared deeply for her comrades and the village. She was always looking after Obito and taking care of him the same way you do with Naruto…" Both girls were devoted to their comrades, perceptive under pressure, and had strong wills. "… The two of you are a lot alike." He told her with a small smile as he placed a hand on her head, though it was a bit lopsided, showing just how difficult it was for him to talk about his late teammates, even now. After all, it was his fault that Rin…

"… Sensei." April said, furrowing her brow slightly. Kakashi was a bit taken aback when he saw the troubled expression on her face. "I'm sure Rin-san was a wonderful girl, but… I'm not her. I'm my own person. Please look at me properly." She requested seriously. She didn't like the way he was looking at her, like she was the ghost of someone else…

"!" Kakashi's eye slightly widened slightly as he stared down at her. That's right… the one in front of him now wasn't Rin, but April. "… You're right… I'm sorry." He apologized, removing his hand. The atmosphere was uncomfortably heavy as the two of them stood there in silence.

"W-Well… I'd better get going, or I won't have time to take a shower before the team meeting! Later!!" April said awkwardly with a forced smile, excusing her with a little wave before darting off in a bit of a panic without waiting to hear his answer, not knowing what else to do.

'Ah, what a disaster…!!' April cried internally as she ran away. 'The first time he opens up to you about something, and you tell him off… You're the worst, April!!' She scolded herself. She was actually really happy that he had wanted to share something about himself with her, since he was normally so secretive, but she didn't want to be treated like someone else's replacement… Rin was obviously still very important to him. He had said they were teammates, but was that all? Whatever had happened between the two of them in the past had obviously affected her sensei very deeply…

"…" Kakashi scratched his head as he watched her go and let out a sigh. "Looks like I messed up..."

–∞–

April let out a heavy sigh as she waited for him to arrive later on with the others, still feeling a little down.

"Damn it!! Why is Kakashi-sensei always so late!?" Naruto exclaimed in annoyance. You knew it was bad, when even April started sighing!

"Hey, everyone!" Kakashi greeted them nonchalantly with a smile when he finally showed up. "A black cat crossed my path, so—"

"You've already used that excuse!!!" Naruto and Sakura snapped impatiently with veins throbbing on their foreheads. Sasuke noticed that April still seemed uncharacteristically quiet, even though she would usually perk up as soon Kakashi arrived.

Their first mission of the day was to help out on a farm.

"This is too easy!!" Naruto complained as he cleaned out the stables with the girls. "We've already done one A-rank level mission, so why do they keep giving us these stupid D-rank ones!?"

"Shut up, Naruto!! You're whining is getting annoying!" Sakura scolded him. Having to rake manure with him was bad enough already… She really wished Kakashi-sensei had taken her along with him and Sasuke to catch the fox that kept breaking into the henhouse. April let out another sigh while she fed the horses. "Are you all right, April-chan?" Sakura asked, noticing that she seemed unusually upset.

"Hm?" Naruto said, glancing over at her. He furrowed his brow slightly. Now that she mentioned it, April had been acting kind of strange today… "You coming down with something?"

"… I guess you could say that…" April mumbled under her breath. Love sickness could count as an illness, right? "Actually, I was just thinking about how little we actually know about Kakashi-sensei…"

"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, blinking.

"!" Sakura said, surprised. 'Wait a minute, that look in her eyes… Don't tell me she's…!!"

"Oh, are you the ninjas my father hired?" A cute boy, who looked like he was around sixteen-years-old, asked curiously as he led another horse into the stable, getting their attention.

"Yes, is there something we can help you with?" April asked with a polite smile.

"Heh, you're pretty cute~!" The farmer's son said with an appreciative smile as he eyed her up and down. "Do you have a boyfriend?"

"No…" She answered a bit warily.

"Would you like one?" He asked with a charming smirk, causing Naruto and Sakura to flinch in shock at his boldness, blushing a little on April's behalf. Was he serious!? He was almost as good-looking as Sasuke!

"I appreciate the offer, but I already have someone I like…" April refused with a wry smile, trying to be as polite as possible without hurting his feelings.

"That's okay, I'm sure I can make you like me better!" The farmer's son stated confidently with a winning smile.

"… And right now I just want to focus on my career, so please give up." She finished bluntly with a brilliant shit-eating grin, quickly realizing he was the annoying type who didn't know how to take 'no' for an answer until you shoved it in their face.

"Don't worry, that fox won't be a problem anymore. We'll take your leave as soon as the others have finished cleaning the stables." Kakashi was telling the farmer as they approached the stable to collect the rest of his students, when the farmer's son came out with his head hung low, looking rather dejected.

'Hm? I wonder what's the matter with Hitoshi…?' The Farmer wondered. "Ah, thank you, Sensei!" He said aloud, bowing to the ninja to show his gratitude before going after his son to see what was wrong.

"He was so cute, it seems like a waste…" Kakashi and Sasuke heard Sakura say as they entered the stable. "Though he can't compare to Sasuke-kun~!" She gushed with dreamy smile, causing April and Naruto to sweat-drop.

"Oh? Did something happen while we were gone?" Kakashi asked curiously with a smile, alerting them to their presence.

"!" April said as her cheeks flushed a little out of embarrassment, wondering how much he had heard.

"Hey, hey!! Listen to this!!" Naruto said excitedly with a smirk. "While you guys were gone, April got confessed to by the farmer's son!!"

"It was so surprising! But you could've gone on at least one date with him." Sakura told her. " Rejecting a boy because you want to focus on your career… at this rate, you'll never get a boyfriend." She chided the older girl.

'Ah, so that's why…' Sasuke and Kakashi thought, remembering how dejected the boy had looked as he left. She turned him down.

"Well, I didn't seem right to lead him on…" April answered wryly as she scratched her cheek, feeling a little chagrined that they were still talking about this in front of Kakashi-sensei. Wouldn't it be kind of cruel to make him think he might have a chance, when he really didn't? "And for your information, I have had a boyfriend before."

"Eehhh!?" Naruto and Sakura shouted in surprise, gaping at her.

"When?" Sasuke asked with an expression of blatant disbelief on his face. During the whole time since she'd started living in the village, they had never once seen her with any guy other than Naruto.

"While I was still living in my homeland." April deadpanned with a vein throbbing on her forehead. Did they think she was that incapable of attracting the opposite sex? She could be super hot when she wanted to be! Although, it was true that most guys back in her world tended to avoid her like the plague once they realized just how easily she could kick their asses without even breaking a sweat…

"…" Kakashi wasn't as surprised as the others, but… the idea of April being with another guy… for some reason, it bothered him much more than it should have.