The White Fang

"You came all the way in the rain to find me? I thought you hated rain."

Kakashi sighed and shrugged, trying once more, futilely, to keep his hair out of his eyes. He kept motioning to push the headband farther up onto his head before realizing it wasn't there anymore, and it was beginning to irritate him. He reached into his pocket to grab it and put it on, but he felt it and his fingers cringed. It was sopping wet, he couldn't put it on!

"I don't really hate it, but it does get in the way when I try to use something powerful like Raimei."

"Because it's lightning based and water conducts it?"

"Precisely," Kakashi said, trying one last time to push back his hair. Ketari seemed to giggle for a second, but she stifled it quickly and reached up to her hair and unwound the ribbon. He hadn't noticed that she'd stopped and was surprised when she reached up and tied her ribbon around his forehead. She smiled again. "There, now your hair won't get on your face." She walked around to the front of him and just seemed to notice the rain falling on them.

"It looked so nice this morning too... maybe we should go inside somewhere..."

Kakashi nodded. "But where? I know the ramen place is close, but could we not go there? I might get ambushed by some of my students."

"Then how about the bar right next to it? I don't think there will be any kids in there."

"Sounds good to me."

Kakashi felt his clothes start to dry off the second they entered the bar and Ketari tried the best she could to squeeze the water out of her hair. He picked a table close to the fire near the back of the bar and crossed his forearms on the tabletop. She sat down opposite of him and her gaze seemed to be focused on his left eye, his Sharingan eye.

"You knew Obito... didn't you, Kakashi?"

Kakashi squeezed water out of his leaf headband and put it on the table to dry, then fiddled with his left eye. "Yes, yes I did... you knew him as well, didn't you? The way you go to his grave almost every day, you must have."

"I was... engaged to him."

Kakashi froze in his fiddling and thoughts jumbled in his head. What? She was engaged to Obito? But... but he liked Rin! Does she still like Obito, even though he's dead, or, or...

"Our parents arranged our marriage, but... it didn't work out. You know that. Since... since he died..."

" 'It's been hard without Obito...' "

" 'I was... engaged to him.' "

She still likes Obito! Maybe...

"Yondaime-Sensei! Yondaime-Sensei!" Kakashi ran up to Yondaime, his jaw clenched, his eyes trying to hold back tears. Yondaime turned and looked down at him sympathetically, and he kneeled down and put his hands on Kakashi's small shoulders. "What is it, Kakashi?"

"Ketari likes Obito! She said so!" Yondaime cocked his head, his blue eyes puzzled.

"Shouldn't you be happy for Obito then, Kakashi? What's wrong?"

"B-but..." Kakashi hesitated, then burst out, "I like Ketari too! It's not fair!"

"Why isn't it fair?"

"Because! Obito likes Rin, and Rin likes Obito, and I like Ketari, but Ketari doesn't like me; she likes Obito!"

"Well..." Yondaime sighed. "You just have to give things like this time. You never know, maybe she'll like you someday."

"Someday, Yondaime-Sensei? How long is someday?"

"As long as it takes, Kakashi, as long as it takes. And maybe in that time you'll like someone else, and they'll turn out to be the person you truly love. Then maybe one day Kakashi Hatake will be a daddy, hmm?"

"I don't know... I think..." He scrubbed his eyes with his sleeve and looked up at Yondaime. "I think I'll like Ketari forever!"

Yondaime smiled and patted his head. "Who knows? That might just be."

"But... I don't think I'll ever be as old as you, Yondaime-Sensei, that seems to take an awfully long time!"

"Oh, it goes by much faster than it seems like, trust me."

"...You promise you won't tell Obito, Sensei?"

"If you don't want me to, I promise," Yondaime said, putting his hand over his heart. Kakashi nodded and grinned up at him.

"You're the best, Yondaime-Sensei!"

"Kakashi...?"

Kakashi shook his head and looked at her. "Oh, sorry... I just got lost in my head. Sorry."

"It's okay... what were you thinking about?"

"What was I thinking about...?I was thinking about... Yondaime-Sensei, that's all. And Obito."

"Oh. But you know... the best thing to do is move on." He looked up at her and her eyes locked with his.

"That may be... but you shouldn't ever-"

"Forget them, I know... Never forget... but sometimes... other things, other people, they become... more importa-"

Sakura, Naruto, and Konohamaru gasped. Sakura squealed and pointed to them through the window of the bar.

"D-d-d-do you see that? T-t-they're..."

"SMOOCHING! Eeeeyeeeew!" Naruto cried, scrambling away from the window. Konohamaru jumped up and down and glared at Naruto. "See, I told you Naruto, it was your Sensei!"

Sakura risked another pick and shot her face downwards again, blushing furiously. "They're still not done! I think they're-" She poked her head up again and pulled back down. "They're frenching! Gaaagh..." she blanched and Naruto fisted the air.

"Woohoo, go Sensei!" Naruto cried as he covered Konohamaru's eyes. "And you're too little to see stuff like this, Konohamaru!"

"Nu-uh! I am not!" Konohamaru shouted, swinging his arms around. "No fair!"

After they were finished, Kakashi could only daydream about her.

Which was pretty much all he did the week afterwards.

The weekend came and he trotted off to Ketari's house on the other side of town, requesting to borrow another shirt from Iruka until he could find some good ones from a store and filling him in on the latest happenings with Ketari. Kakashi didn't go into too much detail, just basic information, and Iruka coached him.

"Now don't forget! Don't come onto her too quickly or she might freak out and run, but don't go too slowly either or she'll get tired of waiting for you to kiss her. What you should do is just wait for her to come say, halfway, and then go from there, got it?"

"Yeah, I got it."

"Then go for it! Knock her out, man!" Kakashi left Iruka's house feeling energized; he was a good teacher after all! Weekends soon became the best part of his week, even more entertaining for him than watching Naruto screw up and see Sasuke taunt him, or seeing Sakura moon over Sasuke. He could understand and empathize with Sakura now! He just wished Sasuke wouldn't be so blind to not see her, he wished. His weekends were laid back and restful, usually spending hours with Ketari, from morning to late at night, though every night was laying on his back and staring up at the stars, listening to Ketari point out certain ones and tell him what they meant, how they somehow guided fate.

It was all very interesting, but Ketari didn't seem to actually believe in them. He questioned her about it once, and she shrugged. "I don't think they control fate. I don't think anything can. If praying and hoping could change fate then... I would have gotten my by now."

"You still don't have your wish?"

"Not yet."

"But what is it?"

She smiled at him and pulled his headband off his forehead and played with it, stretching it between her hands and looking at the reflection of her face in the metal. She looked back up at Kakashi and kissed his cheek, gently, nervously. "It's a secret. I can't tell you what it is until it happens." Kakashi looked disappointed and cocked his head.

"Why not?"

She shrugged and squirmed, a blush rising in her cheeks. "Just because. It's personal. I can't tell anyone until it happens... but... it's time for you to go." Kakashi's eyebrows raised and he looked at the sky again.

"Ah, yeah it is... how about that? Umm... tell you what. I'm going to take a few days off, and we'll go somewhere! Together."

"Really? Where?"

"I don't know, just anywhere you want to go!" he said, spreading his arms wide. He fell back onto the grass. "Isn't there just somewhere you've been dying to go, but you just have never been able to?" he asked, looking at her. She thought for a minute, her head tilted to the side.

"There is... somewhere," she said quietly, eyes slightly clouded. "But it's a sad place... and I don't... we shouldn't go somewhere sad." He raised himself onto his elbows and looked at her. "What kind of sad place?"

"Where... the Uchiha Clan... used to be." A tear rolled down her cheek and Kakashi sighed sympathetically, wiping the tear away with his thumb. "I understand... if you want to go, that's where we'll go. But why is it important to you?"

She sniffed and held his wrist in her hands. "It just is... I just... couldn't tell you how much it is... until my wish comes true," she smiled through her tears and Kakashi couldn't help but smile even through the lump rising in his throat. Again with that wish... maybe...

"Well, better pack your bags, because that where we'll go. Is tomorrow morning soon enough?"

"Yes. Are we going alone?"

"I think so. Unless you want to bring someone?"

"No no, I'm fine... tomorrow's fine. But just because our destination's unhappy... doesn't mean our trip there and back has to be! So... we'll try to have as much fun as we can before we get there, won't we?"

"Yes! I'd better get home and pack! Goodnight." She kissed his forehead and ran off down the hill with his leaf headband.