Skin Gets In The Way
Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto..?
Author's Notes: Thank you for your kind reviews and other such support! I hope you are happy with this chapter because I had fun writing it. Please continue to review and such because your thoughts, comments, and critiques are what keep me writing.
P.S. The characters are 'spreaking' in Japanese. Because I dislike their English voice actors…
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Chapter Three
A few days later
"Kakashi senseiii!" A girl's voice called from beyond the tree line in a familiar whining tone. No doubt it was Sakura in full distress. He could also hear Naruto's loud voice in the background, quarreling with someone in his trademark screeching voice, and Kakashi could only guess that the victim was his very own Sasuke, who was the usual object of Naruto's fury. It seemed to him that they'd gotten into another fight again, and as always it was, he would have to be the one to be referee. He was the adult, after all.
The jounin's gaze shifted as he put his book down on his lap with a sigh. He was sitting on the branch of a tree, enjoying the cool spring day in the forest just outside of the village; he'd been enjoying the breeze, admiring the scenery, and the abrupt interruption had been more than a little disappointing. He'd specifically sent them off to do simple training today, a review; and even then, conflict had managed to happen. He sometimes questioned how he ever got stuck with such a mismatched group of rookies.
But it was alright; their disputes were usually solved with a few nurturing words of wisdom and guidance to Naruto (mostly to make him feel better and to pacify his temper) and a slight reprimand to whomever had angered him. (No matter how true their statement may have been nor how Kakashi may or may not have agreed with said statement himself) And everyone always settled down afterwards, and friendliness would resume in a matter of days and even sometimes hours if he did a particularly good job of patching things up between his students.
A grin spread across his masked face the moment when he was able to hear Sasuke's softer voice coming from a slight distance from the forest. Sasuke's behaviour for the passed few days after his little embarrassing ordeal had been best been described as awkward. He could practically see the little wheels turning round and round inside Sasuke's head, beginning to move in different ways than was the norm; how confused he must be. Though they'd only trained once since then besides today, Kakashi could already see what was developing. He'd given Sasuke just enough to give his mind something to chew on, to bother him, to keep him awake a few extra hours every night. It hadn't been too drastic. Not life altering, at least not yet- no, it wasn't so noticeable to anyone but the person who had instigated it. And that was exactly the way Kakashi liked it.
For the last few days, the boy looked at him in a different way now. Before hand, their relationship had been nothing more than casual; still an amount of distrust and slight suspicion from Sasuke's side, being an adult and a new person in his life, Kakashi had always understood why. All along, Sasuke had been easing into the fact that he now had a disciplinary figure and two teammates with which he had to spend some of his time. Thus, he'd always had an arm's distance way about him, never getting his personal feelings involved with anything to do with any of his squad, especially not his teacher.
Sure, that attitude was still there with the other two; but the default distance between he and Sasuke was completely broken down by what had happened the other day. During their practice, Sasuke now, though consciously or not, always kept his gaze on his teacher. His big black eyes examined him all the time with suppressed need, with guilty curiosity, and Kakashi loved the whole of it. Whether it was straight on or secretly from the corner of his dark, young, inquisitive eyes, it didn't matter- Kakashi could always feel it.
Even when he wasn't looking at Sasuke, he knew Sasuke was looking at him. And when he managed to catch the boy gazing at him with those big black eyes, Sasuke would always react a number of ways, from trying to play it cool and looking any number of different directions, or blushing and looking down at his feet in the most cute of ways.
What could you be so enamoured by, Sasuke?
Kakashi directed his attention downward as an exasperated Naruto shoved his way through from the brush and into the clearing, with a worried-looking Sakura and a dejected looking Sasuke in tow.
"Kakashi sensei!" Naruto called, looking somewhat upset, his mouth running a mile a minute, "I can't do this! How am I supposed to get anything done when he's always picking on me!? I can't even concentrate!"
"Hmm..? What are you talking about, Naruto?" Kakashi said in a bored, sleepy tone, slightly over the situation already.
"Him!!" Naruto exclaimed, stomping his feet and pointing at Sasuke angrily, "He keeps putting me down! Saying I'll never be Hokage and that I'm just a no good drop out! I'm tired of it!"
Naruto looked like he was close to losing control. Kakashi turned and looked down at Sasuke, who was standing at the edge of the tree line with his arms crossed silently, looking dismissive about the whole ordeal.
"Oh, come on Naruto!" Sakura said in a rather condescending tone of voice, placing her hands on her hips, "All you and Sasuke ever do is fight. At this rate we'll never be ready for our next mission! Sasuke didn't even say anything that bad."
"You'd say that!" Naruto said, pointing accusingly at Sakura, "Sasuke could do anything and it wouldn't matter because you're obsessed with him!"
Sakura's face turned an unsightly red and she began to stutter with embarrassment. Her eyes darted over at Sasuke a few feet away, but his expression hadn't changed, still looking as bored as he ever had. Either he hadn't heard, or he obviously couldn't care less.
"Obsessed..!?" Sakura stammered with fury," N-n-naruto! You baka..!!" and paced over to Naruto with her fists clenched, ready to slap him or pummel him or what have you- but Naruto didn't look like he was backing down this time. Kakashi realized that the squabble could turn ugly if he didn't interfere soon.
Their teacher stood swiftly up from the branch he'd previously been relaxing on and immediately jumped down and landed between the two feuding teammates; putting a hand on either's shoulders and pushing them apart while they each tried their best to get passed him and sink their claws into the other.
"Now, now!" Kakashi said carefully, holding them apart and tilting his head to each fuming teenager in turn, "No need for us to fight. Let's try to settle this without anyone getting hurt, shall we?"
He tried to use his most casual and most persuading voice, but he wasn't sure what would work and what wouldn't anymore. He could see that Naruto was reaching the limit of his patience, of what he could take from Sasuke, and he knew that no amount of kindly words could help the situation all that well.
"But Kakashi sensei! It's always Sasuke against me! And all Sakura does is agree with him with everything he says. How am I supposed to get stronger when they're always making fun of me?"
"It's your own fault! You always say such stupid things!" Yelled Sakura, shaking her fist at Naruto, her face still residually flushed a pale red color. The two set about glaring at each other and trading insults and mean comments, with their sensei pushing them apart all the while. He was having some trouble thinking up a plausible solution that would make them all happy, and also having some trouble keeping the two kids far enough so that they couldn't grab each other's throats. The two kept flinging words and insults at each other at such a rate that Kakashi couldn't help to stop them.
Kakashi, in the midst of Naruto and Sakura's heated argument, cast a look over at Sasuke, who was still looking idle and calm about it all. Their eyes met.
And Kakashi got an idea.
"Ok! That's enough!" Said Kakashi loudly and sternly, just enough to snap Naruto and Sakura out of their glare-contest and give him their undivided attention.
"Training's over for today! You two go on home. Rest up, collect your thoughts, have a bowl of ramen, whatever you want. I want you guys to decide and think about how the other one feels, and then tomorrow I want you guys to explain to me why the other reacted the way they did, and I want you both to apologize."
"What!?" Naruto and Sakura both exclaimed in unison.
"That's your homework! You guys will never become able ninja if you can't even relate to one another." Kakashi said, separating the two of them one final time.
"Hey, wait a minute sensei, what about Sasuke!?" Naruto screeched, shooting Sasuke a dirty look. Kakashi laughed softly.
"I'll deal with Sasuke- so don't worry about it, ok?" Kakashi said, smiling beneath his mask in a cheerful, reassuring way. He glanced secretly to see his boy's reaction, and saw Sasuke's eyes suddenly grew slightly wider, but his expression as a whole stayed somewhat reserved. It was a fleeting moment of surprise in Sasuke's eyes that Kakashi was glad he'd been sneaky enough to catch.
"Oooi! Did you hear that!?" Yelled Naruto triumphantly, skipping circles around Kakashi in an overflow of joy, then running up to Sasuke and getting very invadingly close up to his face- smiling at him in a way that evoked both excitement and deviousness.
"Look, look! The high and mighty Uchiha is finally going to get in trouble by sensei. You're in for it now!"
Sasuke didn't say anything, ignoring him like he wasn't there. Despite Sasuke's cool demeanor Naruto continued to taunt him for a few more seconds before Sakura come over and beat him over the head and pushed him head-first into the bushes. Naruto emerged seconds later with leaves and twigs stuck all over his spiky blonde hair and the two of them argued and yelled all the way back to the village.
Kakashi waited, his hands in his pockets and his head lowered, listening, until he definitely heard their voices dissipate. He waited a few seconds before lifting his head and taking his mask off. Sasuke's eyes grew very wide at seeing the very handsome face again.
Sasuke suddenly felt very nervous. He had, ever since he heard that Kakashi sensei would be the one to "Deal with him." It didn't help that for the passed few days, Kakashi sensei had been all he'd thought about. About how kind he'd been, how nurturing. He'd played that morning at Kakashi sensei's over and over in his head, examining and remembering all of the things Kakashi sensei had done or said, and in the end, all it did was prove to make him more confused about it all.
Of course he was a little nervous. It didn't help that in the last few days, his teacher had seen him naked and had begun to act quite differently around him.
He had mixed feelings, and it was bothering him. On one hand, Kakashi sensei had been so caring to him; he'd paid attention to him in a way that no one else had before. Kakashi sensei, for a fleeting moment, had made him feel slightly... alive. Nobody ever questioned him like Kakashi sensei had. Nobody paid had him mind like he did, nor had anyone before made him a delicious breakfast that was all for him.
But then, with that, was also a level of invasiveness that Sasuke wasn't used to at all. As much as he hated to admit it to himself, Kakashi sensei's stares, his suggestive mannerisms, his questions, all got inside of Sasuke and.. mixed him up. He didn't know what to think or what to do when Kakashi sensei said that he was 'cute' or 'adorable'. He never would have dreamed that those sort of words would be applied to him by his own teacher, seeing as how the only times he'd ever been called that was by the chatter-brained school girls at his academy.
Kakashi sensei was interested in him. Somehow it was flattering to him, but…he wasn't sure just why yet.
"Sasuke, I'm going to punish you now for what you said to Naruto. Come over here." He said in a stern voice, gesturing for Sasuke to come forward.
Sasuke gave him a discerning look, wondering if he was actually serious about punishment. Part of him was worried- a guy like Kakashi sensei wouldn't take punishment lightly. If he was serious, Sasuke was in for it now. But part of him also wondered if the gentle, teasing Kakashi sensei of a few days ago would allow such a thing? He certainly hoped that Kakashi sensei didn't have some split personality disorder; despite how difficult a personality his teacher had, Sasuke doubted it.
But he was still nervous around Kakashi sensei. The object of his every thought for the passed days was finally confronting him, after a while of awkward, happen-stance meetings but no true interactions.
He took one small step forward. Kakashi sensei just stood with his hands in the pockets of his unzipped jounin vest.
Even though he hated himself for it, something about all of this felt wrong, but... in a really good way. He felt like he was doing something bad. He felt like Kakashi sensei was doing something even worse.
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Authors Notes- Please review and give me your opinions, comments, and critiques- this story is freshly being updated from now on as I've actually got time to write now, so those of you who have read this and are reading this again, I still want you to review! The more reviews I get the faster I'll update. :P