Chapter 2 is here. Thanks for all the reviews so far. They really help me. And now, after an entire fic, Megumi's character develops. Please give me feedback.

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Disclaimer: Don't own and never will own Naruto or anything else I mention. Only time this will be here.

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Ch.2: Us

Music blared and the boom of the bass line muffled the sounds of beers clinking against the wooden countertops and the raucous laughter of a certain female.

"So Naruto started moaning about ramen in his sleep?" Ino laughed. Sakura stirred her drink with her straw, an exasperated look on her face. She rolled her eyes. "Shouldn't you expect this by now?"

"It's still funny, forehead girl. This is something that will never get old," she retorted as she swayed to the music.

They were at the hit club Black Lotus a few blocks away from the college. It was a pretty relaxed place. With a DJ and a bar, it had everything a college student needed when not hitting the books. The atmosphere wasn't bad either. As Megumi put it, "it's just like the Bronze from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, sans Buffy, the gang, vampires, and the drop-dead gorgeous James Marsters a.k.a. Spike."

As the girls danced and talked around their drinks, the various males in the clubs licked their lips. Just where were their boyfriends exactly? Well, they were all at the Sharingan mansion having a guy's night, so at Ino's suggestion, they had a girls' night out. They could still remember her smile as she said, "The guys can't have all the fun, right?"

The lights overhead changed as the DJ placed a slow song on and Megumi lifted her glass to her lips when a boy walked over to her. "Can I buy you a drink?" he asked.

"Already got one," she replied shaking her beverage for good measure. The boy look defeated, but quickly recovered. "How about a—"

"No thanks."

"But I didn't even—"

"Trust me. I don't want to dance, talk, or have you introduce me to your friends or have you give me your number. All I want is to listen to the music and sip my drink," she said and watched the boy leave out of the corner of her eye.

"Jeez, wasn't that a bit harsh, Megumi?" asked Tenten. Megumi simply shrugged. "All he wanted was a night of easy company. My virginity means a lot more to me than that. Besides, he didn't seem that great," she said sipping her drink once more.

"Aw, come on. He seemed nice. You should give him a shot."

"That's what you said last time, Ino. Remember what happened?" she said, a brow arched.

"I remember! He walked you to your dorm and tried to shove his tongue down your throat after you kissed him goodnight," Sakura smirked.

"Luckily, Temari-chan was there to bail you out," Hinata smiled.

"Exactly, she said watching the guy advance on another girl by the bar. 'That's all he wanted. A cute face and a great ass. Man, why doesn't anyone want a meaningful relationship anymore?'

"But, come on. You really should get one," Ino prodded.

"Because you all have one?" she asked.

"Yeah. That way, we can all gossip about our boyfriends," Ino smiled. Apparently, she was in her 'on' portion of the relationship with Sai. Megumi shook her head.

"Unless hell freezes over, I probably will have to miss those conversations. Besides, being single isn't that bad. You aren't tied down by anyone and they have all these bar nights just for you," she smiled jokingly.

The girls giggled as Ino sighed, having lost the battle. Satisfied with her work, Megumi stood up from the couch and straightened out her clothing. (Rihanna's outfit from the opening sequence to Umbrella. The one where she has short hair and all those back-up dancers while it rains sparks.) Grabbing her coat, she shrugged it on and pulled it around her. Temari looked up. "Where are you going?"

"The dorm. I'm leaving."

"Why?" Tenten asked.

"Ino signed me up for this online dating service and I don't want to be too hung-over tomorrow," Megumi said. Her friends nodded and watched her leave as Ino smiled triumphantly. She might have lost the battle, but she might just be winning this war.

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Kakashi sat at the candlelit table, his fingers tugging nervously at his collar.

'Stupid tie. Stupid formal settings. Stupid Genma. Why the hell'd he sign me up for this crap? So what if I'm single? Who cares? I'm fine!' he thought angrily as he tugged on his tie. Really, this was ludicrous. Seriously, Genma had dragged him to his place and sat him in front of the computer as he revealed his grand plan to end Kakashi's single life: Online dating.

After much debate and mutual threats of blackmail, Genma simply tied him to the chair and began typing his profile for him, asking for information only when he needed him. It was surprising just how much his friend knew about him. Just three minutes later, he had gotten fifteen women interested in meeting him. Genma thought this was great. Kakashi thought it was asinine.

After three more blackmail threats and a threat to his Icha Icha collection, Kakashi agreed and decided to sate Genma in his quest to find him a girl and scanned them over. With Genma's (unwanted) assistance, they had narrowed the list to one girl. She didn't leave her name, but left a screen name, Winter Tears. Though Genma thought she might have been an emo chick, he kept telling him to go for it, saying her anonymity made her sexy and definitely worth the trouble of a meeting. Kakashi said he was crazy, so why was he at the restaurant waiting for his date?

He heard footsteps pad over towards his table and glanced up. Red heels, red dress, and red nail polish. The lady in red, just as she said in her email to him. He moved his gaze up, scanning over her body, her neck, resting on her full lips. He felt the corners of his mouth turn up. 'She doesn't look half-bad.'

"Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi looked up, startled and had to blink at the woman sitting across from him. "Megumi?!"

Brain function seemed to churn erratically as he tried to process this information. The woman he had just been ogling was his former student and neighbor. Someone must be having fun up there at his expense.

'What did I do to upset you, Kami? Was it the porn? It was the porn, wasn't it?'

"What are you doing here?" they asked simultaneously. "I'm meeting someone here," they replied together.

"You too?" Megumi asked.

"Wait, don't tell me," he smirked.

"Konoha Cupid Online Dating service?" they chorused, both breaking into laughter. Kakashi covered his mask with his hand. "Who signed you up?"

"Ino. You?"

"Genma," he replied as she began to giggle uncontrollably. She looked up and began to laugh more and he found himself having to stifle a snort. They couldn't even look at each other without laughing. They eventually stopped and a waiter came over with a bottle of red wine and took their orders. As he poured some into both their glasses, Megumi tried to get her breathing back to normal. She looked up and saw that Kakashi was staring at his lap. They had officially reached the awkward stage.

Megumi fidgeted in her chair, now regretting on going on this date, but something gnawed at her. She tried to ignore it, but every time she did, it would come back even worse than before. Finally she gave into her curiosity.

"So…you like eggplant?"

He looked up, surprised that she had asked him something. "Huh? Oh, yeah."

"Really? Not everyday you meet people that do," she said as she reached for her wineglass and took a sip.

"I know. Weird huh? Whenever I say I like eggplant, people look at me like I was walking around with a penguin strapped to my back," he said and she smirked. "Interesting analogy."

"You know what I mean," he sighed.

"Yeah. So, why did you choose that name? Wolf's bane?"

"I don't know. I always loved those kinds of stories when I was a kid. Why Winter Tears?"

"I love winter and the tears thing just came with it," she explained. "So, did you make this account by yourself? Because you don't seem like the type to do this."

"Genma dragged me into this. He threatened my Icha Icha collection," he replied. "You?"

"Same thing with Ino, though she didn't threaten my Icha Icha collection seeing how I didn't have one to begin with."

"What'd she threaten you with?"

"Replace my entire closet with pink frilly lace clothing. I wouldn't have minded the lace, but the other things, that's a whole different story," she said taking another sip of her wine. "How's house-sitting?"

"Not too bad. Kiku's needs her nails trimmed, though," he replied.

"What about life?"

"Teaching is still strange, Genma is annoying, and I got a new Icha Icha volume recently. You?"

"Last year of college. It explains itself." Kakashi nodded sagely and smirked when he remembered something. "Megumi. I'm curious. On your profile, it said you liked older men. Is that true or did Ino put you up to it?"

"No. It's true. See, I sought approval from my father, but I never got it and now, I like older men because I'm subconsciously trying to get the approval I sought after when I was a child in them."

Kakashi chuckled. "Very astute. I take it that you took psychology at some point."

"Yup. Besides that, statistically, women seek out their fathers or the fathers they never had in their spouses. Plus, older men are more experienced with life than I am. I don't know what to do or where to go in life, so I look to them for answers."

"Wow," he said simply and Megumi swirled the glass of wine in her hand. "But understanding the disease does not mean I can cure it," she said wistfully.

Kakashi chuckled. "What do you mean? You think liking older men is a disease?"

"No. Heavens no! It's just…I know my problem and I know I shouldn't be trying to seek my father in other men, but I do it anyway and that's why I hate it."

"Aa."

"But understanding the why doesn't really help in the cure. That's why, even with our vast knowledge and advanced technology, we can't find a cure for the common cold."

Kakashi chuckled and sipped his wine. "My, my, aren't we the misanthropist?" he teased.

"Only when the world has nothing to offer me," she said smirking in return.

"Cynical too. College sure has changed you," he said. Megumi shook her head. "I was always like this."

Kakashi blinked. "Really?" he asked, curious.

"Yup. I've always had two sides to myself. One was created to satisfy people and smile, being the one you saw in high school and are familiar with, and the other is the one you see now."

"Why are you only showing this side of yourself now?" he asked, a bit of concern in his voice, but Megumi just shrugged it off. After all, she was used to this. "Might be the wine I'm drinking, or maybe, it's because I trust you."

"So why only now? You've trusted me for years, so why?" he asked trailing off, his hands folded and resting on the tabletop.

Her eyes became distant, in the candlelight, they seemed haunted, but that was probably a trick of the light. "Because I couldn't before."

She looked up and saw the unspoken question in his eye, the other covered by an eyepatch. "Remember all that stuff that happened in high school?"

He nodded.

"Well, everything was falling apart. Sakura and Tenten felt betrayed by their boyfriends and Neji was contemplating suicide. Everyone was getting so stressed out and we were all just so confused and they needed help and there I was, the ever-level-headed girl.

"And so, I became the crutch; the support for them all with my smiles and my shoulders to cry on…but…it was all a sham. I wanted to cry too."

"But why didn't you say anything?"

"We all have our little secrets, Kakashi-san. I couldn't tell them because where else could they turn to? Our parents are all oceans away and they wouldn't be able to understand. Besides, how would I be able to turn them away when they needed someone most?"

"But what about you? Didn't you need someone? Couldn't you put your needs before theirs?"

"Of course I needed someone, but they needed someone too and I've lived a life of self-sacrifice for so long, that it's become second nature. I think I've forgotten how to say no to a person," she laughed, the sound coming out a bit strained. She traced the lip of the glass with her finger. "Besides, just because I wanted to cry doesn't mean I could."

"But you always seemed so happy, so carefree, so…"

"Normal?" Her lips curved into a smirk, too bitter for her features. "Looks can be deceiving, Kakashi. My whole life has been a sham. I only acted like I was fine. I learned from a young age to please other people. Throwing away my happiness for another's. Eventually, I learned to build barriers with feelings, only letting people see what I wanted to see and nothing more. That way, they wouldn't worry about me and I could go on pleasing people. It was the perfect plan."

Her lips drew into a frown and her brows knitted in irritation. "But I made a mistake. I made friends. At first, it was just another way for me to please other people, but then, they wanted to please me in return. When I found that out, I was…happy. For the first time in my life at that point, I felt truly happy and soon, I started to let more people in and my walls began to crack and that's probably when I stepped onto the path of self-destruction."

"…"

"You know, I've had thoughts of suicide since I was seven," she confessed. Her tone had now become hushed, pain mixing with her words like sugar in water. "That's…about 17 years now," she chuckled. "I never really meant it when I told my friends, but they would always become sad and tell me they'd miss me if I did and then I would smile and the subject would be dropped until the next time." Her eyes were distant once more as she spoke, as if she could see those memories being played out before her and he wondered just what they looked like.

"Everytime they said that, I was…happy. Someone would miss me when I was gone. Someone cared if I was gone or not. Someone…needed me. At the time, my family was so engrossed in my little brother, they could care less if I was there or not. Maybe that's where my need to please people came from. To show that I wasn't a burden and that I had some worth as a human. Selfish, I know, but those words meant a lot to me and I soon became dependent on those words and those people I called friends. They made me feel alive."

"…"

"…I should become an actor," she suddenly stated.

"Really? Why is that?" he asked and she smiled at him. "I'm great at acting."

He raised a brow skeptically and folded his arms over his chest. "Really?"

She turned to face him once more and looked at him sadly, her smile bittersweet. "I fooled you, didn't I?"

He had no response to that. Anything he would have said to that would have been a flat out lie and she would've seen through it as easily as he did. Instead, he asked a question. "So, why are you letting me know now?"

Megumi seemed pleased with his stoic tone. Had she expected him to judge her? The question his mind posed was quickly thrown aside in favor of her words as she traced the lip of the glass once more, her fingers trailing around the circular shape.

"Well, I don't have to be the crutch anymore. They all have others to help them and smile with them. I'm happy for them, but…it makes me sad at the same time. I don't have anyone like that. I don't have anyone to need or be needed by. It makes me wonder if my life is worth anything anymore."

"…I—"

Megumi shook her head and smiled warmly at him, but her eyes were wistful as she spoke. "Don't worry. I'm past wanting to kill myself now. The thoughts are there, but they're more out of curiosity now than anything else. I've started to change. I'm starting to find worth in life, joy in the small things—I think I'm starting to enjoy living. Who knows? That façade I wear everyday might not be just a façade anymore."

"I'm glad, but you're wrong."

Only Kakashi could say something like that with a smile on his face. "Nani? she asked.

"There are still people who need you," he said seriously and she rested her chin on the backs of her hands. "Really, who?"

Kakashi shrugged as he poured more wine into both their glasses. "I don't know. People. Your friends, your family, the people who need to see you smile more than anything," he said placing the bottle back on the table.

"Who would that be?" she asked, intrigued by his words.

Kakashi shrugged. "I don't know, but they're out there. Maybe even under your nose, even," he mused, chuckling at that idea. That would be very interesting. The person you spent all your life looking for just happened to be under your nose the whole time.

She seemed to contemplate his words, her eyes looking up in thought. "Hm. Have you found yours yet?" she asked.

"No. Not yet, but that's why I'm on this dating service thing," he said smiling. She laughed, clutching her sides as the tears dotted the corners of her eyes shimmered in the candlelight. He wondered what was so funny. What he said or the way he said it. Replaying the sentence in his mind, he chuckled. He really didn't seem like the person to openly admit that he was into online dating.

He saw her slowly calm down, wiping the tears from her eyes as a smile painted her face and he found himself smiling wider. They stayed like that for a while; just sitting in the glow of the candlelight as soft music played in the background. She smiled to herself about something and looked up. "How?" she whispered.

"'How' what?" he asked.

"How can you be so understanding? Most people would have sent me to the loony bin or something after hearing me say all that, so why—?"

"Because I was the same way. Granted, I got out of it earlier than you, but you had more people relying on you, but you're getting better now. You just need to find someone who makes you want to live. Someone who changes your life for the better and makes you want to do the same for yourself. I had Naruto to thank for that change, being his foster parent and all that. You just need to find someone like that for you."

He reached across the table and held her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "Until you find that person, I can be a substitute. Cry on my shoulder, make me be the one to lend you their ear—I'll help you as much as I can until you find that person. All I need to know is that you're alright."

She bit her lip and slowly slid her hand out of his grasp and he had to wonder what he might have said to upset her when she held out her pinky to him. "Promise?" she asked shyly. He chuckled. She was just as much as an enigma she was all those years ago as she was now. He lifted his hand and extended his pinky towards hers. With a chuckle and a small smile, he linked his finger with hers. "Promise."

Their fingers separated and he rested his hands on the table as she rested hers in her lap. "Thanks," she said shyly.

Kakashi shook his head. "No problem. You'd do the same for me."

The edges of her lips quirked up. It seemed like it was the cross between a smirk and a smile. "Yeah, I would," she said, more to herself than anyone else. Raising her glass, she proposed a toast. "To us. May we find that person soon and still be friends," she smiled.

Kakashi smiled and raised his glass to hers. "To us."