Previously:

"Okay, fine! Do it!" Sakura whispered urgently, letting her curiosity get the better of her. April didn't need to be told twice. She gripped the kunai in her hand, ready to strike, when they heard the voices of other women, and the door to the washroom opened. April quickly tucked the kunai back inside her towel as she and Sakura jumped back into bath, trying to look as casual as possible as several older women came out to join them. The two girls exchanged a glance and sighed. They had just lost their chance…

Chapter 33: Kakashi-Sensei's Real Face!

The next day, April, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were utterly exhausted. After having failed to see his face while he was in the bath, they had tried pulling numerous other stunts to get Kakashi-sensei to reveal his face, but each one had ended in complete and utter failure. By comparison, Kakashi was practically beaming with radiance. Despite having his students constantly dogging him every step of the way, the jōnin was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and full of energy that morning.

"Come again! Please Come Again!" The inn's matron said with, bidding the group of ninjas farewell with a big smile. What a lively bunch! The Moyanin watched from a safe distance as they politely thanked the staffed, and Kakashi and his team departed, hiding in a giant pickling barrel. Despite the fact that they were hiding their presence, April couldn't shake the feeling that she and her team were being followed and spared a quick backward glance.

"!" Her eyes widened in surprise, and she immediately whipped her head back around to face forward again as she reached out and tugged on the back of Kakashi's flack jacket to get his attention.

"S-Sensei… Are we being stalked by a pickling barrel!?" She whispered seriously, weirded out by the culprits' choice of disguise, wondering if she was hallucinating from lack of sleep. What did they think they were doing out there in the middle of the woods? If she didn't know better, she might think they being punked.

"It would appear so." Kakashi replied calmly without even having to look back to check. He had been aware of the enemy for quite some time. "But don't worry, Sensei will take care of it soon. You can just ignore it."

"Huh? Well, if you say so…" April replied a bit hesitantly, sweat-dropping, as she resisted the urge to stare. For some reason, the rest of her teammates seemed blissfully oblivious to the weirdness that was stalking them.

"Damn it, I'll definitely take you down, Kakashi Hatake." Bro grumbled moodily as he and his subordinates stealthily tiptoed along behind them in the giant pickling barrel.

"But we're lucky that we brought a change of spare clothes." Ya remarked. It had been a shock when they tried to leave the bath last night only to find that their clothes had been stolen from the changing room.

"But I wonder who took our clothing?" Mo said, furrowing his brow.

"Okay, everyone go to your post and start working. Move out!" Kakashi said once they had reached the ranch and heard what needed to be done from the clients. It was just some basic maintenance work that needed doing while some of the regular workers were away.

"I can't go on much longer. I'm totally stressed out." Naruto said grimly as he gathered around in a huddle with Sakura and Sasuke while April and Kakashi-sensei headed off to fix a broken fence. They were all mentally and physically exhausted after suffering so many successive failures in a row.

"I'm almost at my limit, too." Sasuke admitted reluctantly.

"Sasuke-kun, to tell you the truth, I am too…" Sakura confessed tiredly.

"Then, we'll our last resort!" Naruto said determinedly, mustering his strength for one final shot at victory.

"Last resort?" Sasuke and Sakura asked skeptically. They had something like that?

"These are…?" Sasuke asked after they had finished changing into the clothes Naruto handed them.

"Can't you tell by looking at them?" Naruto retorted. "They're shinobi uniforms."

"Where did you get these?" Sakura asked curiously. She didn't recognize the symbol on the forehead protector… And for some reason, they were several sizes too large, like they had been borrowed from an adult.

"Uh, well, that doesn't matter!" Naruto said quickly. She didn't need to know about how he had conveniently 'found' the uniforms hanging up in the changing room of the men's bath back at the inn.

"What will we do in these?" Sasuke asked, furrowing his brow. The only thing these ridiculously baggy outfits had going for them was that they allowed them to cover their heads and faces.

"Hah!" Naruto jumped and struck a dramatic pose. "We'll rip his mask off by force!!" He declared boldly.

Meanwhile, Kakashi and April were busy doing some actual work, while the real owners of those uniforms continued to spy on them from a distance in the pickle barrel.

"Damn that Kakashi!" Bro muttered darkly. Look at him, fixing that fence like he was all that, and nailing those nails like he owned the damned place… That bastard thought he was so cool!

"Bro, take a look at that!!" Ya shouted abruptly as he whipped his hand out to point, unintentionally smacking the boss in the face.

"!" Fortunately for him, Bro was too surprised by what he was seeing to care.

"Hey, Kakashi Hatake!!" Naruto shouted challengingly as he, Sasuke, and Sakura all ran over to confront him.

"!" April said as she and their teacher turned to face them, almost dropping the board in her hand. 'What the…? Couldn't they have at least tried to change their voices?' She wondered, immediately recognized her teammates.

"Huh? What happened to you three?" Kakashi asked them without the slightest hint of hesitation. Those disguises weren't fooling anyone.

"!" Naruto flinched in shocked. "W-What ate you talking about!? We're just ordinary ninjas!!" He started rambling nervously. "It's not like we want to see what's under your mask or any—"

"Idiot!!" Sakura snapped, pushing him down to shut him up before he made things worse. "Don't say anything unnecessary!!"

'Those disguises are what's unnecessary…' April thought wryly, sweat-dropping.

"What's going on…?" Bro wondered aloud, sweat-dropping. Those three uniforms looked incredibly familiar…

"Bro, those people must have grudges against Kakashi, too!" Mo exclaimed.

"This is our chance!" Ya said excitedly.

"Alright, let's go!!" Bro ordered, quickly deciding not to waste the opportunity to gang up on Kakashi with the newcomers.

"Yes, sir!" Mo and Ya answered dutifully as the Moyanin Three sprang into action, abandoning their hiding place in the pickle barrel.

"Hold it right there!!" Bro shouted as the three of them jumped into position, striking their customary poses. "Hehehe… Kakashi, it's about time we settle things!" He declared, whipping out a new bottle of poison. "With this poison I created that will make you cry forever…" His voice suddenly died in his throat, and he dropped the bottle in shock when he realized the other three ninja had already been defeated.

"Phew, I was wondering how much longer you planned on sneaking around in the shadows… but you've finally come out." Kakashi said as he held his three defeated students bundled up together above his head with one hand. Since they had insisted on attacking him instead of focusing on the mission, he had decided to answer in kind. April sweat-dropped as she stared up at her teammates. KO'd in under three seconds… How humiliating.

"Eh? Uh… wait a minute…" The Moyanin said nervously, taking several steps back.

"But before that, Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto… Why are you wearing that?" Kakashi asked curiously, causing them to flinch guiltily. Even April was looking nervous now for some reason… Were they in this together? Maybe he should have punished her too while he was at it.

"Well, um, you see…" Naruto stammered, struggling to come up with a decent explanation as he, Sakura, and Sasuke broke out in a nervous sweat, while April kept trying to signal them to calm down and play it cool with her eyelashes behind Kakashi's back.

'This is bad… I need to think of an excuse!' Sakura thought urgently. "You fell for it!" She said aloud, pointing at the three enemy ninja that had just randomly appeared before them. She had no idea who they were, but they couldn't have had better timing. "We knew you were after Kakashi-sensei all along!"

'Smooth.' April thought appreciatively.

"What!?" Bro said as he and his comrades reared back in shock. Now that he looked more closely, he could see that it was just the other three kids Kakashi had with him in disguise. "Then you were aware of our plan from the beginning!?"

"Of course!" Sakura said confidently, relieved she had managed to fool them. "This was a trap to lure you guys out."

"So I walked right into the trap!?" Bro asked incredulously, furrowing his brow in frustration.

'We already knew where they were, though…' April thought wryly. That pickle barrel stood out like a sore thumb.

"Damn it! I underestimated you guys because you're kids!!" Bro cursed, wishing he had been more alert.

'Nobody told me that…' Naruto thought dubiously as he glanced at Sakura, sweat-dropping.

'Nice one, Sakura.' Sasuke thought.

"I don't quite get it, but…" Kakashi said, scratching his head. He was pretty sure Sakura had just made that up on the fly, since April was definitely the only one who had noticed they were being followed earlier. "Oh well." He said, deciding to let it go for now, as he stepped forward to take care of the Moyanin.

"!!" The three enemy ninja exclaimed nervously, whimpering as they backed away. "Please forgive us!" They cried as they fell to their knees in a low bow. "Please forgive us!"

"There's no use talking." Kakashi said sternly as he loomed over them with his hands on his hips. The fact still remained that they had tried to kill him three times now, and his students had nearly been caught in the crossfire. He wasn't about to go easy on them.

"P-Please!! S-Stop!!" The Moyanin cried, scared out of their wits.

WHAM! BAM! WHACK! BANG!

April winced sympathetically as she watched Kakashi wail on the three enemy ninjas. Even though they had asked for it, those three were so pathetic, it felt like she watching the strong bully the weak.

"This is the same as what happened three years ago!!" Bro exclaimed incredulously after Kakashi strung the three of them up and left them hanging from the barn once he had finished teaching them a lesson. "We're hanging on one rope, and we're swinging the same way we did before! We're sharing the same rope, and since I can't find the end of the rope, it's hard to get out…"

"Come to think of it… Who are you?" Kakashi asked, delivering the final blow.

"He doesn't even remembering us!!!" The Moyanin sobbed, crying a river. That one remark had inflicted some deep psychological damage.

"AHOU! AHOU!" A crow cried as it flew past the setting sun.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei…" Naruto said as they headed back to the village after completing their mission to help out on the ranch, leaving the three Moyanin hanging.

"Hm?" Kakashi said, glancing up from his book for a moment. He was rereading Make-Out Violence to get ready for the upcoming movie.

"What's under your mask?" Naruto asked bluntly, deciding they had nothing to lose now that every other method had failed.

"What? You wanted to see what's under this mask?" Kakashi asked, lowering his book.

"Yeah!" Naruto said while the others nodded.

"Then you should have just said so earlier." Kakashi told them calmly.

'Told you so.' April thought, shooting the others a look. The boys sweat-dropped as they avoided her gaze. So much grief could've been avoided…

"Huh? Then, will you show us?" Sakura asked their teacher, surprised.

"Sure." Kakashi replied easily.

"!!" All four kids gasped excitedly, immediately moving in closer to get a better look.

"What's the big deal?" Kakashi asked innocently as they all stared up at him with eyes full of anticipation. "All right, then…" He said, reaching for his mask.

'Is it blimp lips…?' Sakura wondered anxiously.

'Or buckteeth…?' Sasuke wondered.

'Or a tiny mouth…?' Naruto wondered as a bead of nervous sweat dripped down the side of his face.

'Normal face…! Normal face…!' April prayed silently, crossing her fingers, as she swallowed the nervous lump in her throat.

"Under this mask is…" Kakashi paused for dramatic effect.

'Under the mask is…' His students thought anxiously with their hearts beating loudly.

"Another mask!" Kakashi finished brightly as he pulled his mask down, revealing that he was wearing an identical one just beneath it.

"GAHAAAAHH!!!" The kids yelled as their jaws dropped, turning white.

"Ahaha!" Kakashi laughed as he rubbed the back of his neck, enjoying the priceless expressions on their faces.

"…" April stared at him, dumbfounded, while the others fell over in shock. She let out a heavy sigh of disappointment. No wonder he had agreed to let them see so easily… 'I knew it… He's been trolling us this whole time!!' She thought, chagrined. She had sort of suspected something like this might happen.

"Wha… What's up with that!!?" Naruto demanded, rolling on the ground with frustration.

"Well played, Sensei…" April said with another heavy sigh of disappointment. Well played. "You knew were after your face from the beginning, didn't you?"

"Oh? Did you want to see it that badly?" Kakashi asked with a brilliant shit-eating grin, which they couldn't see at all because of the mask. "Well, I guess I can let you see it, when you're a little older…" He said, patting her on the head.

"?" April said, raising an eyebrow as she glanced up at him questioningly, still pouting a little.

"Don't worry, Sensei's looking at you properly now." He added smoothly.

"!" April said as her cheeks flooded with color, blushing furiously, as she tried to suppress the goofy smile threatening to spread across her face. April joined her friends on the ground, completely steamed up. Kakashi smiled wryly.

'Looks like she's still a kid, after all…' He thought affectionately. April was cute, but he didn't want to be one of those teachers who laid a hand on their students. He could wait.