Disclaimer: i dont own naruto

Chapter 4- Playing Games

What you did to me I did to you…

Sasuke woke up the next morning with the feeling he had had a great dream, slipping his clothes on he tried desperately to remember the details, but they were trickling away faster the water with out a container. One thing he did remember was waking up in the night after having a nightmare, Kakashi had woken him. Another thing he remembered as if it had happened two seconds ago was a warm feeling on his forehead where Kakashi had kissed him gently.

He looked over at the other sleeping bag to see it empty and peered through the translucent walls of the tent to see him already up and drying yesterday's cloths over a fire. He remembered being lied to, they had needed fire wood, but Kakashi had told him they hadn't. He also remembered being alone, wet, cold and lost in the forest, Kakashi had wrapped him up in a blanket and taken him back to camp.

Sasuke pulled a black jacket on and zipped it up against the cold. He was dreading talking to Kakashi after yesterday, it had worked though; Sasuke had not felt at all scared through the remainder of the night. He touched his forehead lightly and felt a blush creeping up his cheeks; he let it die down before making his next move.

He wondered over to the log Kakashi was sitting on and casually sat down, not making eye contact and looking out into the forest. He felt Kakashi's eyes on him and stared pointedly ahead, trying to give Kakashi the hint that he was not in the mood for conversation. Apparently the older male didn't take that hint as soon after he started talking.

"We should make it to the edge today, hopefully Sakura, Naruto and Hinata will either already be there or arriving around the same time we do" he said politely as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened last night. Sasuke nodded and turned to face his teacher against all the thoughts he had just had about not making eye contact.

"That's nice" he said and he saw Kakashi smirk, the man was teasing him! Kakashi messed with his head and made him confused for the night and then in the morning he had the hellish nerve to tease him! He glared and stuffed his hands in his jacket pocket, but something right at the back of his mind pushed its way forward two can play at this game… he thought and he smirked slightly at his own idea, taking his hands out of his pockets again.

Kakashi was packing the clothes away now, into his green backpack and Sasuke watched him do so, analysing every single thing, making sure he wasn't going to miss any thing when he got his evil pay back. Kakashi's hair fell over his eyes and he pushed the last of the now dry clothes into his backpack, his mask was, as always, in place and his visible eye smiled at Sasuke as he straightened up.

"You're staring at me again" he said laughing as Sasuke looked away, but his laugh soon stopped as Sasuke turned back to face him.

"Yeah, I know" he said smiling gently and carrying on looking at Kakashi, straight in the eye. Kakashi was quick on his feet though, apparently he was a morning person, when Sasuke was not. It was funny considering Sasuke was always early and Kakashi was always late, that Kakashi should be the morning person out of the two.

"Why are you staring?" he asked almost as soon as Sasuke had replied. Sasuke thought about his answer for a second and decided if he was going to play then he was going to play and he was going to win.

"Because you're cute" he said, and he smirked at Kakashi's dazed and confused expression, he had a look on his face that seemed to say, 'what on Earth did I do to make him think he can call me cute?' and Sasuke laughed and stood up, walking past Kakashi and winking at him at the same time. He was flirting; he was messing with his teachers mind. He felt great.

Kakashi watched Sasuke pass him and picked up on the secretive wink that was sent his way, he smirked as he realised what his student was doing. He was playing the game, and he was playing it well.

They walked in silence, along a row of Ash trees, time went by with out much thought being given to it. Bags slung over their backs the two guys had no need for words, the silence was comfortable, yet tension setting at the same time. Each boy allowing the other time to analyse and asses what had happened last night and that morning. Every so often one would cough or hiccup, the things one would naturally do in the day and soon each found that the sky was becoming a dull colour again, signalling it was late afternoon and night was almost there.

Sasuke rested his hand against one of the Ashes and sighed deeply. Kakashi turned to him and smirked. Sasuke was getting tired, they had been walking since morning and night was almost upon them, personally Kakashi didn't blame the kid for being tired, but they had to keep moving if they wanted to meet with the rest of the team by night fall.

He patted Sasuke on the back and found the boy jerked away from his hand. "Okay the fine, but we have to keep moving" he said and turned back. Sasuke smirked at the way his sudden action had affected Kakashi's confidence and followed after the silver haired man. They walked on in silence again until Sasuke decided to speak.

"You know you really shouldn't surprise people like that, it can scare them" he said quietly, but loud enough for Kakashi to hear. The Jounin looked at him, studying him for a moment before he went a long.

"What? Are you scared because I gave you a light peck on the forehead?" He said shaking his head "you're even more of a pussy then I thought"

Sasuke waved a side the pussy comment and smiled, he had been wondering if Kakashi would ever bring that up and he had done so at just the right time. "Actually I was talking about randomly patting people on the back, but it's good to know you think about kissing me a lot" he said blinking rapidly and showing off how long his eyelashes actually were.

Kakashi grimaced; he had walked right into that one and hadn't seen it coming. They carried on walking for a bit, they had moved off from Ashes and were now following Pines. The sky was becoming steadily darker and soon the rain was pouring down on them. They hastened their step and carried on walking.

A static sound came from Kakashi's walkie-talkie and he held it out so both he and Sasuke could hear. He pressed the button and asked a one word question.

"Sakura?"

"Yeah, it's me Kakashi sensei, we wanted to know when you would arrive at the edge. We arrived last night but your walkie-talkie's been out." Said the walkie-talkie, some of the words were interrupted by that sweetie paper sound, but for the most part they could understand what Sakura was saying.

"We'll be there soon, is Hinata safe?"

"Yes she fine, she seemed to be worried about you two, and she thought there might be some complications with the storm. Are you alright?"

Kakashi glanced at Sasuke, Sasuke stared back, Kakashi shouldn't and didn't no about Sasuke's and Hinata's friendship and all the secrets and dreams Sasuke had sheared with the girl when they were young.

"Were fine, we're just coming to the edge now" he said, and sure enough Sasuke could see a lighted edge where there were no trees. He was glad they were coming out of the forest and glad they had had no other annoyances, other than the obvious.

They came to the edge and Sasuke felt the breath he had in him become free and someone jumped on his back. At first he thought he was being attacked but recognised the soft, pink hair that fell in front of his eyes. He lifted her off him carefully and placed her on the ground.

"Your back, oh my god, I was so scared when we got spilt up, I don't know what happened. And when your walkie-talkies went out I screamed. Hinata screamed too and Naruto was so kind trying to make us all okay" she squealed once and hugged him, Sasuke pushed her off him and gave her a glare, he wasn't in the mood for her typical fan girl ways. He looked over her shoulder at the white eyed, dark haired girl, now known as Hinata and mouthed a quick 'help me'.

Hinata skipped her way over and smiled at Sakura "Hey, isn't it great to have the guys back, I mean Naruto can be funny but everyone needs different people to talk to once in a while. There's an idea! Why don't we go talk to Kakashi sensei!" she said, Sakura seemed at a loss for words and Hinata hurried her away sending a shadow of a wink at Sasuke.

"Now Sasuke, don't you think it's a bit cruel to be leading them on like that?" said a familiar voice behind him, Sasuke turned around only to jump and gasp, Kakashi stood smirking at him, when Kakashi stood about ten metres away talking to Sakura and Hinata.

"What the-" Sasuke replied to his teachers question, looking back and forwards between the two Kakashi's and trying to figure out how he could be in two places at once, quite literally.

"Shadow clones" said Kakashi also looking at the other silver haired Jounin "I placed a shadow clone to talk to the girls while I talked to you, I thought you would be able to figure that one out yourself, I'm sure you've seen Naruto do it enough times" he explained in more detail, smirking at his last comment, Sasuke glared thinking back to Kakashi's first question.

"What do you mean 'leading them on like that'?" he asked biting his bottom lip, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and glared at Kakashi.

"Well, they will be absolutely crushed when they figure out that you like men-" replied his teacher, but he was cut off from saying anything else though as Sasuke threw a shuriken at him. Kakashi dodged it and it hit a near by tree, but Sasuke didn't mind, it had been affective in shutting the man up.

Sasuke looked around to make sure the girls were busy talking to the fake Kakashi and Naruto was busy doing whatever he was doing, which seemed to be getting Sakura's attention. He turned his gaze back to the real Kakashi and glared.

"I don't like men" he stated.

"Oh really?" said Kakashi giving Sasuke his best look of surprise "Because you seemed pretty interested in me" he added, his inching closer to Sasuke and smiling down at him through his mask.

Sasuke smirked up at his teacher; he had, once again, just gotten the upper hand in this game they were playing. "Who said you were a man?" he asked in a perfectly innocent voice. He realised there bodies were practically touching but stood his ground, looking up at the Jounin with amusement.

Kakashi didn't say a word but carried on smiling down at Sasuke through his mask, he suddenly glanced at the fake Kakashi talking to all of the other three ninja and pulled Sasuke behind a near by tree.

"Enjoying the game?" he asked in a polite but teasing voice pushing the smaller boy up against the trunk of the oak, he found it funny that the outer rim of the forest was lined with oaks but he also found them convenient as they were thick branches, which made it almost impossible for any one to see in and a lot funnier to see Sasuke pinned up against one.

Sasuke glared at him and struggled against being held against the tree, he didn't mind being held there, he didn't care that he was acting weak trying to break free and not succeeding. He was only annoyed at who had him pinned there.

Kakashi tugged at the thin mask that covered his face and untied the not at the back of his head with one hand, the other keeping Sasuke there. He didn't have to, Sasuke was now standing still believing his teacher was going to show him his face, he was awestruck. It was quite hilarious.

The mask fell to the ground and Kakashi faced Sasuke's expression of amazement with his own one of teasing amusement. Sasuke just stared at him, taking in what had never expected to be behind Kakashi's dark mask, why was he hiding his face?

He was perfect, clean shaven and almost soft looking, yet with a kind of 'bad boy' edge to him, his nose was not big, but not small, settling with a wonderful in between vision of perfection. He was absolutely gorgeous.

"Gorgeous…" Sasuke let the words escape his lips accidentally and he felt the heat in his pale cheeks rise, giving him a deep flush of red. He was blushing.

Kakashi smirked at him, Sasuke was no longer struggling but simply staring, Kakashi smiled down at him and Sasuke felt his blush deepen, Kakashi had a beautiful smile. "So, are you enjoying the game?" he said and Sasuke suddenly remembered it was all a game, an argument they were having set in the form of a highly embarrassing game, testing there will power and cunningness, testing how long they could go before they were caught, or one fell for the other.

Sasuke shook his head, not now he wasn't, not now he was reminded all it was, was a badly going game. Not now Kakashi was in first place, not now Sasuke was loosing, not now Sasuke was starting to think it wasn't a game at all, but much more like reality with a twist.

"Too bad" said Kakashi, he suddenly pulled away and Sasuke found himself wanting him to stay, stay and just make things right between them, stop all these silly games and just make things simple again, back to his daily ritual where stupid things that confuse him didn't happen. He grabbed hold of Kakashi's hand and his teacher swivelled round to face him. "What?"

"I… I don't know what's going on! What game are we playing? Why are we playing it? When will it end?" he blurted out before he could stop himself, he saw Kakashi smirk and turn away again.

"Those are all relevant questions, but I can't answer them. Just keep playing, you may just win" he said before fastening his mask back round his face and tying it tight, he walked out from behind the oak and began walking towards the rest of the team, just before he got there he made his shadow clone disappear and he took its place.

Sasuke lent back against the tree, he didn't know how to win, because he didn't really know what he was playing. It wasn't like the simple games of tag they all used to play in the playground or hide and seek in the park. This was a big boy game, something he didn't know much about, but it didn't stop him from playing, he was going to play, and he was going to win. He would not loose to that perverted, old, slacker of a teacher!

He thought over what the object of the game might be, he had thought about there teasing as a game from the very beginning, a mockery game, which one was the best at mocking the other. But this was more, this was so much more, Kakashi didn't think of this as a battle of the wills and a battle of the talent in insulting. He thought of it as a battle of tricks, the object of the game was to mess with the others mind and get them to believe they really did like you. How you won, he didn't know yet. Maybe whoever broke down first with a pleading cry of 'stop messing with me!' or maybe whoever was caught during the act by Sakura or Naruto, or any one else for that matter. Maybe those were the people who lost, and the other won.

Or maybe the person who lost was the person who actually fell for their opponent, the person who lost was the one whose mind was messed with so much that they couldn't deal with it and they actually found them selves falling in love with the other. The person who won was the person who didn't get messed with, or did get messed with but didn't get affected. The person who won was the person who successfully made their opponent fall for them.

Sasuke peeked out from behind the oak, he felt his forehead, and it was covered in sweat. Kakashi was now talking to Hinata, Sakura and Naruto and he wasn't a shadow clone, he was the real thing, he was really talking to the other three Ninja, there was no doubt about it, he wasn't being watched, he wasn't being laughed at, but he was definitely being messed with. His head hurt, and as he watched Kakashi laugh and joke he realised something.

Kakashi was messing with Sasuke's mind, and he was doing it in the sexiest way possible…