Caranril: Argh! The whole drinking scene was in danger of being destroyed because of a certain character's death (don't read this chappie if you haven't read Naruto chapter 328, MAJOR SPOILER!). But I managed to redo a little of the scene and have it get its point across, though the convo is a little awkward between Kakashi and his friend because the friend's dialogue used to be the deceased's dialogue. Confused? Me too.
Legolas: I'm tired of thank yous. I wanna go back to begging for reviews. I'm so good at looking cute and needy. And I don't even need a Kuwaii no Jutsu.
Caranril: I you think about it, because you ask for reviews, it's only natural that you thank those that take the time to do so.
Legolas:...
Thanks to: Commisar of the Books (Kami-sama does mean God, specifically the big guy, not just 'god'. As for your second question, I hadn't planned on it, but things seem to be turning out that way. Guess that's the path of an author, ne?) and WindDancer 18 (Yay! Another reviewer on the boat! The way we see it, those who read this are curious, but not interested. My logic may not make sense. I do admit that I tend to avoid OC fics, mostly because those I scan are badly written. But to get rid of these ideas ponging through my brain, I needed an OC. I could have done a male, but that would make this yaoi and there are plenty of good yaoi pairings without me adding another guy. Oh geez. There I go off on my tangets.)
Legolas: Baka. Hah, see? I'm learning Japanese.
Caranril: Geez, even I know that a few vocab words doesn't make me fluent.
Legolas: Can we move on? The readers are tired of you. By the way, be so kind as to review. She'll kick me out if you don't.
disCLAIMER: While I do not own Naruto nor any affiliated subjects therein, Kishimoto-sama does and therefore he owns my soul.
Chapter 8: The Green Monster
What in kami-sama's name was going on between Kakashi's teammates was beyond him. First, they hated each other, then liked each other, then loathed each other, now they were wrapped up together in the blankets like a pair of snuggle bunnies. At this point in the early hours of the morning, he didn't care. He hadn't gotten to party last night, instead being up all night beating up bad guys, turning them in, and helping out with the interrogations. Neji had caught up to him at some point and informed him of what had happened to Kaori. He had left her with Sasuke and assumed they'd be okay. Of course, Kakashi wasn't entirely sure Sasuke would be safe alone with Kaori, as she apparently hated him. Yet bundled together was the evidence that his suspicions just weren't so.
He'd managed to force the broken door closed without a sound, but when he tried to lie down quietly the well-used bed complained. Kaori's eyes flew open and she stared at Kakashi. Of course she wouldn't be sleeping well after her ordeal. She sat up slowly, careful not to disturb Sasuke, and climbed out of bed. Kakashi was afraid she'd want to talk when all he wanted to do was sleep, but instead Kaori went to the bathroom. Kakashi glanced at Sasuke, who was completely knocked out, and settled into his bed easily. The only clothing he had the energy to remove was his Jounin jacket. And his pack. That was a definite pain to sleep on.
He heard Kaori come out of the bathroom, scratching at her wounds through the bandages.
"Don't scratch," Kakashi whispered.
She looked at him, but he had his eye closed. She stood beside her bed, studying Sasuke's peaceful face. He looked so pleasant when he slept. Apparently that smirk he always wore wasn't his natural facial feature. Nor were the angry eyes. She reached out and touched one of his eyes, imagining the redness that remained hidden.
Konoha had once had a police force for non-ninja related incidents; the Uchiha clan ran the force. When Kaori came across an old picture of the chief and his subordinates just before the clan was wiped out, her heart had skipped a beat. She looked harder and realized the chief was much too old to be Itachi, but he could very well have been an older version. As her thought process churned through this, she realized that he must have been Sasuke's father. She didn't know for sure, but she felt that perhaps Sasuke looked like his mother. Besides being the last Uchiha, he was also the last with those special eyes. Except for Kakashi.
That remained a mystery to Kaori. She stood and began pacing the room slowly, too much energy flowing and too many things flooding her mind for her to go back to sleep. She'd seen pictures of the Uchiha clan in books in the library. They weren't quite as old as the Hyuugas, but they were rivals in power. Just like the Hyuuga's were tall, graceful, with white eyes and dark hair, the Uchiha's were well-built, tough, with black hair and pale skin. Practically none of them (in the coloured pictures anyway) had skin darker than Sasuke's. Most of the Uchihas would develop Sharingan, but those with the most successfully developed would be those in the large sects within the clan that were bred specifically for that purpose. Kaori suspected Sasuke had been a member of one of those families. They had uptight lifestyles and lived things by the book.
Yet here was Kakashi who was completely the opposite of everything Uchiha. He was laid-back, perpetually late, and perverted; he had lightly-toned skin (at least the parts that were exposed), silver hair, and a lazy eye; and he constantly read those erotic fiction novels. His one exception was his Sharingan, which she knew all too well worked just fine. Konohagakure didn't seem to be the type of ninja village to allow jutsu-thieves in its employ, so it was highly doubtful Kakashi stole something so valuable. She didn't think he'd tell her even if she asked; he kept personal things very private, except for those books. Even Sasuke was more open about his past than Kakashi.
Kaori stopped pacing, realizing that Kakashi had sat up in bed and was staring at her in annoyance. She gave him a look that said "sorry".
Too much energy, she mouthed.
Kakashi lifted his brow. Kaori obviously didn't recall that a simple injury would put her out for a good while longer than most people. Yet here she was a few hours later bouncing around like Naruto. Neji must have done something to her tea. She bowed in apology and went into the bathroom. Kakashi laid back down, tense in the silence. When the shower began running a few minutes later, he relaxed and joined Sasuke in his zonked-out state.
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There were two knocks and then a crash. Sasuke and Kakashi bolted out of bed. Standing in the doorway was a stunned Neji, staring at the door that had just fallen off its hinges. He looked up at Sasuke, who wavered tiredly, and Kakashi; then all three looked at Kaori as she burst out of the bathroom with her hair in a towel and just her shorts, fishnet jumpsuit, and her breast bindings on.
"What the hell?" she screeched as she emerged from a cloud of steam. She looked at each man staring at her. Neji blushed and looked away, Kakashi gaped, and Sasuke shook his head. Kaori touched her shoulder and realized how very unclothed she was. She chuckled nervously, then squeaked and slammed the bathroom door shut.
"Close your mouth, Sensei, you're drooling," Sasuke smirked. Kakashi shot him a dirty look and sat on his bed.
"I'd say she's feeling better," Kakashi said to Neji, who still stood in the doorway. He seemed reluctant to enter until Kakashi told him to throw the door back up. "Sasuke-kun will fix it later," he promised.
"Why me?"
"'Cause you broke it."
"I'm training Kaori today. You fix it, old man."
Kakashi's cheek twitched. "Listen here, whippersnapper, I'm the sensei which means I do the training and give the orders. Kaori-san carries out the training, and you carry out the orders. Besides, I'm too old to do heavy lifting."
"You're such a liar, Kakashi." Sasuke's expression turned devious. "Why don't we ask Kaori who she wants to train her?"
"Huh what?" she asked, walking out of the bathroom fully clothed and tying her wet hair up into her chopsticks.
"I should be the one training, you right?" Kakashi asked, standing up straight.
Kaori tilted her head. "I don't know, Kakashi-sensei. You might be getting too old to keep up with a whippersnapper like me." She winked at Sasuke.
Kakashi growled. "Fine. Just hurry up and leave so I can get back to bed."
"First, let me check your wounds," Neji instructed, turning on the light. Kakashi moaned a complaint from the bed and covered his head with the blankets. Kaori sat near the light and allowed Neji to tilt her chin up and run his fingers down her throat.
"I don't get it," he remarked.
"What?"
"Didn't you notice when you took your shower that there's nothing there?"
Kaori ran her own fingers over her throat.
"Not even scars. Byakuugan!" Neji activated his doujutsu. He stared at Kaori's neck, which she complained was getting tired from its position. The veins around his eyes disappeared and he pulled her head back down. He shook his head.
"It's strange. There are residual deposits of Chakra gathered around your throat. It's a results of your body using your Chakra to regenerate your cells, but unless you know how to use medical ninjutsu, I don't see how this is possible."
"I'm definitely not a medic nin."
Neji rubbed his nose. "Well, just when I thought I'd have nothing to report to Tsunade-sama and could be given real missions again, this comes up."
Kaori snorted. "Thanks."
"For? Oh!" Neji looked sheepish. "It just means I should watch you when you're injured. But from what Tsunade-sama said..." He shook his head again. "This is all very strange."
"So you've said, but if I've got a clean bill of health, can I go?" Kaori glanced at Sasuke, who had changed and was waiting to leave for training. Neji nodded, and Kaori hopped up and pranced very Naruto-like past Sasuke, who had propped the door open.
"Fix it on your way out?" Sasuke more or less ordered before ducking after Kaori.
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"To our Genin, may they fair better than last year," Kurenai said half-seriously.
"To your Genin, may they not get their asses handed to them like last year," Kakashi echoed, slipping his mask down and up again in a flash. Kurenai made a face and then downed her shot of sake. Kakashi poured more into both of their glasses.
"To Asuma." Kakashi lifted his glass.
"Three years to the day," Kurenai whispered. They sat in silence for a moment as they honoured their friend's memory. Then the glasses were refilled.
"Are you allowed to talk about what happened last night?" Kurenai asked.
"No. But what I can say is that those bodies that Neji left in the valley were gone this morning. Someone's arranged for a bit of a clean-up, and I have a feeling the dead men were just the beginning."
"So they were trying to kill her?"
"They said they were going to, but Kaori's story doesn't match up. She said her attackers only wanted to put her out of the running. So who was telling the truth?"
"Is it strange to be training a twenty-year old Genin?"
Kakashi shrugged. "She's twenty-two. It is a little odd. And she's so much like Naruto-kun it's not even funny. She and Sasuke-kun have the same love-hate sort of relationship he and Naruto had. Or still have, I don't know. Except Sasuke doesn't see her as a rival. He also refuses to see Kaori-san's progress, but she's come a long way since she first came here."
"From a place where ninjas don't exist," Kurenai mused, polishing off another shot. "I wonder what that would be like."
"I don't really know," Kakashi admitted. "But when Tsunade-sama sends us over there, I'm sure to find out. Doesn't seem like a very nice place."
"Not for ninja anyway. But I bet they have some quaint traditions over there. Like here," Kurenai chuckled, "where we force our children into life and death situations to become higher-ranked and forced into even worse situations." She shook his head. "That's all very normal to us, but what would people from Kaori-san's country think of us?"
"You've given this some thought."
"Yeah." Kurenai leaned back and folded her hands. "I've been all over this continent. Even if there are places without ninjas or even a police force, at least they don't consider us freaks. Well, most of them don't. But I never really thought about those places so far away past the sea. It's sort of...depressing."
"Could you imagine being a genius ninja in a place like that?" Kakashi wondered.
"I can't even imagine being a genius ninja in the first place." She smiled at her friend. Then she leaned in secretively. "Does being a genius at ninjutsu also make you a genius in bed?"
"Why, are you interested?"
"No, I'm just worried about you. You don't go out anymore."
"There's nothing wrong with my sex life, thank you very much." Kakashi returned to his sake bottle.
"Come on, Kakashi. Everyone knows you haven't been out lately. You probably don't realize it, but when you're not dating, you tend to read your books more often. Even at the bar." Kurenai noted Kakashi's reaction.
"It's difficult to get out and meet people when I'm training Genin," Kakashi said, avoiding his friend's gaze.
Kurenai snorted. "Okay, Kakashi. One Genin. And how much work could she be? You haven't trained Genin since Team 7. Not that I'm really keeping track, but since Hoshi you haven't been in a relationship."
"Not keeping track?" Kakashi mumbled.
"She was a nice girl, Kakashi. I liked her. I'm just wondering what happened."
"She..." Kakashi sighed. "She said she liked me, but I was just too old for her. I hadn't gotten really attached so it didn't bother me too much."
"But you haven't been with someone since."
"I've had a couple of one-nighters," Kakashi defended, feeling slightly drunk as he finished off the bottle.
"That doesn't count."
"You want to know the truth?" Kakashi's eye squinted at Kurenai. "Truth is, it's hard whenever I think of you and Asuma. You guys used to try to hide how you felt, but everyone knew you were in love with each other. You had a future. And now that that'll never happen, I feel like it's up to me to make up for him." Kakashi tipped over the empty bottle and impassively watched it rolled off the table.
"You were jealous of me and Asuma?" Kurenai asked, dumbfounded.
"Yeah. Yes. Yes, I was jealous of you!" Kakashi was getting heated. "But now it's this awful feeling! Everyone I've ever loved has been destroyed!"
"Kakashi, you've drunk too much..."
"I don't care," he muttered, standing quickly. "I have to check on Kaori's training. She's working with Sasuke today."
"Kaori..." An odd idea dawned on Kurenai. "This is about her, isn't it?"
"What?" Kakashi stared at her.
"This jealousy that you're suddenly telling me about. You...do you like...Kaori?"
"No. No. How could I? She's my student." Kakashi sat back down.
"Yeah, but that 'student' is a full-grown woman, Kakashi." Kurenai ordered another bottle of sake for herself as Kakashi had drunk the other one. "Personally, I don't think her appearance is what you normally go for, but I've seen a bit of that fiery spirit that you say makes her a lot like Naruto." She poured Kakashi another shot. "You always did like the fiery ones, old friend."
"Yeah," the other Jounin admitted, holding the shot but abstaining from drinking it. "But it's not right."
"If she wasn't your student..."
Kakashi shook his head. "I probably wouldn't look twice at her. And she's got a temper that rivals Godaime."
"I see."
"But when you see the way she fights like she lives for being a ninja, and the way she looks when she learns something new, and the way she hates you for not believing in her..." Kakashi stared at the liquid in the glass. "It makes you want to keep her around for a little bit longer."
"Will you...keep her around for a bit longer?"
"I don't know." Kakashi drank his sake and stood. "Thanks for the drinks, friend. I'll see you at the final exam?"
Kurenai nodded. "Definitely."
Kakashi was very graceful when sober, so even when slightly drunk he walked smoothly. There was only one place relatively close to the hotel where Kaori could train effectively: the Timeless Dunes. It was a strange place, for a volcano once spewed lava all over the area, eventually burying itself and shutting down, creating strange dune-like structures that were hardened. The Timeless Dunes had layers of sand over them, but on very windy days the smooth black igneous rock could be seen for a short time. Sunagakure was located near huge cliffs that protected the eastern side of the village. Those cliffs and the entirety of the land beneath had once been a mountain range. The only evidence left of that range was the Timeless Dunes. Traces of the mountains also remained on the border between the Land of Wind and the Land of Fire.
The slight climb was a little difficult in his condition, but Kakashi managed to reach the Dunes without falling flat on his ass. There was a visitor's info booth at the top of a nearby dune. Kakashi peered inside to see a sleeping Sasuke. The cement couldn't possibly be comfortable, but he was completely out. A short distance away were Kaori and Neji, sparring with taijutsu. From what his eye could see, Neji was teaching her some of the finer points of taijutsu and perhaps even some of Juuken.
Kakashi nudged Sasuke with his foot. "Hey."
Sasuke groaned and smacked the invading limb away.
"Sleeping on the job? And you say I'm too old to handle training."
"It's not my fault," Sasuke muttered, rubbing feeling back into his face. "I'm just so tired today."
"Was it the Sharingan?"
"Both of us know I didn't even really use it," Sasuke snorted. "All I did was speed up those guys' defeat."
"So you let Neji-kun train her?"
Sasuke stood, dusting the sand off that had collected while he slept. "Yeah. He offered to when he saw how tired I was."
The pair in training appeared to have seen Kakashi and Sasuke. Kaori waved excitedly and beat Neji to them.
"It's almost like dancing!" she said happily, sweeping a foot around and bringing her hands about in an arch. "It makes even me look graceful."
"She really likes Juuken," Neji said with a smile as he entered the shade of the booth. Both he and Kaori were sticky and sandy. Neji had one of Kaori's chopsticks holding his hair up.
"But you can't do Juuken without Byakuugan," Kakashi said.
"Of course not. That doesn't mean she can't learn the taijutsu or the areas of major Chakra points."
"It wouldn't work in battle," Kakashi continued stubbornly.
"You are correct, Kakashi-sempai," Neji conceded. "But Juuken can be used to hone skills and stretch muscles that other taijutsu develop."
"Basically, Neji rocks and you suck, Kakashi-sensei," Kaori smirked. Kakashi glowered back at her, then lost it when he belched unpleasantly.
"Ugh, Kakashi, are you drunk?" Sasuke complained, having been the closest to the pungent gas.
"I may have drank a little," he said casually.
"Since you're up, Uchiha, wanna go?" Kaori asked eagerly, despite her apparent exhaustion and sweatiness.
"Sure." He and Kaori walked back out to the Dunes to train some more. Kakashi watched, noting that they seemed sort of timid around each other. Did something really happen last night?
"Kakashi-sempai, I may have found serious connection between Kaori-san's apparent ability and inability to heal quickly," Neji said, standing beside Kakashi to watch the other pair train.
"Hrm?" Kakashi wasn't really paying attention to Neji. Sasuke was showing Kaori how to defend herself against certain holds larger people could use against her.
"I need to know, were Kaori-san and Sasuke-kun in contact for an extended period of time last night?"
Kakashi glanced at Neji. "Do I have to answer?"
"I noticed that Sasuke-kun was tired easily and was dragging himself around. I looked at his vitals with my Byakuugan and noticed his Chakra supply was severely drained. Almost as if he had used his Sharingan for too long. And when I compared it to Kaori-san's apparent overload of Chakra healing, I hypothesized..." Neji hesitated, making sure Kakashi was listening to him. "...that Kaori-san had somehow used Sasuke-kun's Chakra to heal herself."
Neji definitely had Kakashi's attention now.
"How could she do that?"
"I don't know. I drew several theories, one of which being that through skin contact for an extended period of time she seeped him of his Chakra supply."
"Last night they were together."
"Oh." Neji gazed out at the Dunes.
"Not like sex together, at least I don't think. That might be something you should ask Kaori. Or Sasuke, depending on who you think would hurt you the least. When I got there this morning, they were under the blankets together."
Neji nodded. "I'll ask one of them. But even this supports my theory. Of course I'll have to report to Tsunade-sama when we return, but until then perhaps it's better if Kaori-san sleeps on her own."
"I think...well I don't know, but it may have had something to do with what happened last night."
"I see. I shall continue to monitor her, but if she's injured again, I may conduct an experiment involving you, if that is all right."
Kakashi glanced at Neji. "An experiment."
"To see if the same thing happens to you that happened to Sasuke-kun."
Great. Just what Kakashi needed to hear. "You want me to sleep with her?"
"No, nothing like that. You would just need skin-to-skin contact for several hours. I think that would do."
Juuuuuust great.