I couldn't help myself! I just had to keep writing this story! Read it, and then tell me what you think.
Chapter 2
The morning wasn't a pleasant one. First, Iruka hadn't shown up for his morning class, due to a prolonged mission, and the class consisted of eleven and ten year olds thinking that they were ready to graduate even though they kept stabbing themselves with their own kunai. It had actually happened and Touya had been very, very tempted to let the kid keep bleeding as a lesson to the others that only skilled shinobi should attempt to flip their knives in the air and then catch it in their mouths. Seeing it in a movie or a watching a Jounin (specifically Genma who sucked on a senbon which is completely unlike a kunai and the brat should have known the difference) didn't count as experience.
But, it was the Hokage's grandson and Touya would probably be out of a job if he let Konohamaru have a permanent smile on his face.
And that was early this morning, before eight o'clock, and after only two cups of tea. It was safe to say that Touya wasn't in a good mood. Did the junior wannabe ninjas catch their substitute teacher's foul mood? Nope. Completely oblivious. And they wanted to be ninjas…Kami save their souls.
Touya honestly didn't know how his colleague, Iruka Umino, put up with these kids. Touya worked with the younger children who were satisfied with a chakra light show and fancy flips with his shuriken and kunai. He also taught them rudimentary math, and taijutsu as well as the basics on chakra theory. Ninjutsu and Genjutsu were left to the older students because of their developed chakra system. Most children's chakra circulatory systems weren't fully developed until around ten years old for the average adolescent. All in all little kids were easy, and besides the occasional potty accident, there weren't any particular troublemakers.
But Iruka's class? The man was a saint. Never again would Touya make fun of the scarred Chunin. Instead he would bow down before his greatness along with a restraining order for the Hokage's grandson as well as his friends. Demons, Touya vehemently insisted. The whole lot of them were demons. Kyuubi, the nine-tailed fox, had nothing on the little brats from Hell.
And Touya remembered the Kyuubi.
Sudden laughter interrupted the long-haired man's musings. Almost scared enough to not peek up from his desk and ignore whatever set the kids off (probably a fart joke which to a ten year old was freaking hilarious), Touya made the mistake of being a responsible adult and check on the class.
Honestly, seeing a naked woman with brown pigtails shouldn't have surprised him, so instead of freaking out Touya merely banged his head on the desk and hoped for enough brain damage to excuse him from teaching this class from the ninth pit of Hell.
He checked the clock on the wall.
Eight thirty.
Konohamaru better pray that he would survive until nine.
Fortunately, Konohamaru lived through the rest of the morning. With a little help from Touya's good friends, Mr. Rope and Mr. Gag, there weren't any more outbursts, but Touya was worried that his left eye would keep the permanent twitch it had developed.
When Iruka walked through the door later in the afternoon with a thankful smile on his face for Touya covering his class, the blue eyed shinobi merely shoved the class's pop quiz papers into the startled teacher's hands along with a whispered threat that Iruka owed him big time before nearly sprinting out of the classroom.
"Konohamaru," he heard Iruka growl before Touya was far enough away. He could only guess what punishment the –usually- gentle teacher would give him. Everyone in the staff room knew that Iruka had a volatile temper and no one tried to get on the Chunin's bad side. The man was a prankster and he would gladly use his knowledge to make your life miserable. No one liked tea that turned your teeth purple.
Even though Touya was nearly asleep on his feet, he walked into his class after lunch (he skipped it to hurriedly head back home and grab the graded test papers he had forgotten in his rush to the Academy this morning) and greeted his students with a smile on his face. He had never been so glad to see them before, so he cancelled the quiz they were supposed to have that day and instead sent them all outside for an extended recess. He had a full twenty minutes to recover from the horrific morning he had before he began today's lesson, but it wasn't until Touya was on his way back to his apartment, with his arms full of reference scrolls on elemental justu for tomorrow's lecture, that he actually thought about what happened late last night (or early this morning).
However, those thoughts quickly flew out of his head when he realized that he hadn't gone to the market in order to pick up some food. His cabinets and his poor beaten-up fridge were empty as well as his stomach and his belly wouldn't stand for that. It let out a loud protest as he unlocked the door to his apartment.
He glanced down at his growling stomach with a raised eyebrow. "Alright, alright," Touya conceded. "I'll feed you. Just give me a minute."
Tonight looked like a ramen night. And Touya had the time thanks to cashing in on Iruka's favor and made the man take over his shift at the Mission Room where shinobi handed in their completed mission scrolls and reported whether it was a success or failure.
After dumping most of the scrolls equally on the weathered couch and scratched breakfast table, he plucked only the most essential along with a couple sheets of blank paper to jot down notes. He took a minute to reach into an old clay pot that used to hold a green houseplant which had been given to him a few years ago as a housewarming gift (it died within the first few weeks he had gotten it) and took out a small amount of money to pay for his dinner tonight.
Another growl, that sounded like some poor animal dying, and Touya was out the door towards the Ichiraku Ramen stand.
-----Earlier that morning-----
There were alarm bells going off in his head followed by a chorus of whining from his students (in a surprisingly charming soprano) along with a somewhat catchy showtune coming from his chest. Out of all of his symptoms, only the last one confused him. Daring to open his eye, Kakashi slowly peeked at the source of the noise. The humming stopped.
"You look like something the cat dragged in, ate, spit back up, ate again, and then vomited."
Kakashi wanted to tell Pakkun where he could stick his doggy observation, but that required energy and energy was something that he did not have. He closed his eye again and proceeded to try and go back to sleep by snuggling (although a Jounin did not snuggle so he would say "getting himself more comfortable") underneath the blanket that gave off a scent that the Copy nin could only describe as "homey". It was in the middle of summer, but the mornings still gave off a chill so Kakashi could say he was quite content with the light cover over him.
The incessant humming began again.
He cracked open a gray eye to glare at his nin-dog. Kakashi grunted his displeasure. His eye closed.
Pakkun got the message, but ignored it anyway. "You awake yet, Hatake?"
A grunt.
"Okay, I'll give you a minute to figure it out." That tune was going to be stuck in his head the whole day, Kakashi knew it.
And what did he have to figure out? He obviously made it to his apartment last night, but didn't quite make it all the way to his bed so he crashed on the couch. The mission hadn't been a difficult one, but he had gotten ambushed by enemy ninja while on route to Konoha. No serious injuries - that he could remember - but that earth jutsu had given him quite the beating so Kakashi knew that his chest and abdomen would be sore for the next couple of days.
He had all his limbs. His chakra had restored nicely while he had slept. He watered Mr. Ukki, his houseplant, before he left. The Jounin honestly didn't understand what Pakkun wanted him to figure ou-he didn't own a blanket.
His eye flew open and he sat up quickly much to the displeasure of his delicate ribs, but they didn't hurt as badly as he expected. It was merely an annoying twinge instead of feeling like a surprise hug from Obito. He dismissed any thoughts of his former teammate immediately.
Kakashi blinked slowly, first staring at the blanket then to the laughing Pakkun who didn't seem to want to help his master to figure out what had happened last night. Automatically, his hand rose to touch his mask. Even the motion caused a small twinge in his chest, but thankfully his face was still covered which meant he wasn't molested while he had been asleep (hopefully). His Jounin vest hung over the back of the couch with his summoning scrolls still secure along with his pouch of weapons that had been wrapped around his thigh. Tilting his head, Kakashi noticed a stray piece of gauze tucked into the lip of his kunai pouch that appeared to have writing on it.
Without speaking, Pakkun nodded his head and jumped to the top of the couch to take the note into his mouth. Gently, he hopped back onto Kakashi's blanketed legs and waited for the still sore shinobi to take it from him. Kakashi caught the gauze between his two forefingers and hoped for an explanation on what happened the night before.
Pakkun pretended to be more interested in his paw rather than watch his master's reaction to the note. After the Chunin had left Kakashi on the couch, Pakkun had summoned himself to make sure that the scarecrow was in one piece and to see if Kakashi was awake so that he could make fun of him. The Jounin had finally received the attention he secretly craved from the quiet Academy teacher and he wasn't even awake for it. It cracked the nin-dog up. Oh how unlucky his master was. Although, Pakkun didn't quite understand why Kakashi didn't just claim the younger man to discourage rivals like real dogs did instead of staying hidden in the shadows.
Feh. Humans. Always making things complicated.
Kakashi read the gentle sloping characters in the short message.
I saw you pass out. Undressed you (sorry) and treated your injuries. Keep your antics to a minimum for the day.
-Touya, from apartment 3B
The smile that spread across his face quickly turned into a frown. Touya, of course he knew his name, had undressed him and Kakashi had been unconscious for it…the fates were against him. He sighed.
Then he chuckled. Even in his writing Touya sounded like a teacher, or rather a mother hen Kakashi thought. But maybe that's why he…there wasn't a word for what he felt. Stuck on the tip of his tongue, ceded away in a dark corner in his mind, the word refused to be acknowledged because the last time Kakashi felt the same emotions he was feeling now…they all died. Everyone was dead.
Maybe…maybe the reason he didn't try to get closer to the Academy teacher was that he was afraid he might see the Chunin's name scrawled across the Memorial Stone. It was stupid. His fear unfounded, but it still held him back.
His ears picked up the slam of a door and the nearly silent pounding of a shinobi's feet as they began to run. Kakashi would bet money those hurried footsteps belonged to Touya who, based on the quickly rising sun, was late for his class.
"You've gotta meet your brats in an hour," Pakkun reminded him.
The wounded Jounin absently nodded, his drooping silver hair bobbing with the motion. His eye flickered to the window then back to Touya's message.
Gently, Kakashi cradled the note in his palm. Someday he wouldn't be held back by his paranoia, but today wasn't that day.
"They can wait."
Pakkun shook his pug head. "Not everyone will wait for you, Kakashi. Remember that," he said, then poofed out of existence.
The smell was absolutely divine. Touya's stomach agreed. Not even stopping to see if there was an open seat, Touya slipped right into Ichiraku's Ramen stand and took the first available stool which put him about two seats down from an energetic blond boy with an interesting color scheme of an outfit. For a moment, the kid looked familiar, but his musings were quickly interrupted when the ramen chef placed a bowl of liquid heaven in front of the blond Genin.
Touya raised his hand and pointed at the bowl of what appeared to be miso soup. "Gimme an order of that, please," he gestured towards the bowl.
"Comin' right up!"
He nodded his thanks. Whatever he had carried with him from his mad dash from his apartment, he sprawled all across the wooden counter after he had inched a bowl of eggs away from his created workspace. While waiting for his food order, the teacher could at least get some work done that he needed for tomorrow. Flicking his wrist, Touya unrolled the technique scroll and went straight to copying down notes for his lecture.
Based on which jutsu the ninja uses, the type and amount of chakra will be different as would the elements you would be to employ. The five main elemental styles are also the five names for the Five Great Shinobi Countries: Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth and Water. Each ninja has the potential to better utilize one of these styles and potentially more.
Touya paused in his writing sensing someone watching him. Turning to the side, he spotted the blond kid, with his mouth full of noodles, peeking at his notes without a hint of subtlety. He raised a brown eyebrow, but ignored him in favor of pure and utter perfection that is ramen that the chef placed in front of him, being careful of the teacher's mess of scrolls and loose paper.
Touya nearly clapped in excitement as he quickly tore apart his wooden chopsticks and twirled noodles around them. Both ninja at the Ichiraku stand hummed in contentment as they worked at their supper and let nobody interrupt them until every last soggy noodle disappeared.
The owner of the noodle stand shook his head in amusement at his two customers. It felt good to see two healthy young men enjoy a meal. It felt even better that the two of them would probably order another bowl which meant more money for him, but maybe this time he would let Naruto have a discount. That kid came here nearly every other day in hopes of a meal, especially when the kid was younger because the other villagers had kicked him out of their restaurants or had made the kid purchase only half-rotten fruit or vegetable and spoiled beef. He had seen the looks the adults had given him, hell he had given the Kyuubi brat the same glares until he had actually opened his eyes and saw only a poor, lonely boy who had no one in the world to look after him.
The man saw the same thing when he looked at the Chunin who paused in his eating in order to jot down a couple of sentences on his paper. Touya Hazukishen. He remembered that name, and he remembered that face, but back then it had carried a bright smile which was accompanied by its twin that adorned his younger's sister's face. Poor little Maya, her death had affected Touya more than he would acknowledge. Before her passing, Touya had lost his mother a few months before the Kyuubi attack which forced thirteen year old Touya to take care of his nine year old sister by himself.
No one in the entire country could have loved Maya more than Touya did. That boy did everything in his power to make sure that his sister had everything she could ever want, supporting her through her fast paced rise through the shinobi ranks. Making Genin at ten and quickly promoted to Chunin when the nine-tailed fox attacked, Maya had been a genius at ninjutsu which soon led to her promotion to Jounin at only fifteen. Touya put his own ninja career on hold in order to make sure his sister was provided for, with a clean house, money, and food on the table. However, her overconfidence on a mission led to her downfall not soon after she gained her Jounin vest. Nineteen year old Touya had not been the same since.
He may be just a ramen chef, but word spread faster in the village than a wildfire and he always kept an open ear.
"Another bowl, old man!"
The noodle stand owner shook his head to rid himself of past, painful memories and chuckled at Naruto's exuberance over his ramen.
"Sure, Naruto. One miso ramen coming right up!"
Naruto began singing under his breath about his love of ramen, the words not coherent because of the Genin's lack of knowledge as to what ramen rhymed with. The blond boy began tapping his chopsticks against the counter and his foot tapped out an accompaniment as he hungrily watched the noodles cooking in a pot.
Touya began humming as Naruto's rhythm caught on, but had to stop in order for him to cross out a few words and replace them with something other than ramen is delicious. The Chunin didn't think that that would flow into his lecture on elemental jutsus very well, but he guessed that all depended on if his students were even paying attention to catch the mistake. He doubted it.
Putting his limited artistic skills to work, Touya attempted to draw a diagram of the five elements with bullets to the side that explained each one.
The five elements themselves form a cyclical strong and weak relationship against each other.
The element of Fire is stronger than Wind, as the usage of Wind merely increases the strength of Fire.
Wind in turn is stronger than Lightning.
Lightning is stronger than Earth and Earth in stronger than Water.
Water finishes the cycle by naturally winning out over Fire.
He paused. Naruto? He knew that name. No wonder the kid looked familiar. Putting his pen down, Touya glanced at the fidgeting Genin who watched the boiling noodles as a predator did its prey. He grinned.
"So you finally made Genin. How does it feel to have your own headband, Naruto?"
The kid nearly fell out of his seat he was so surprised, but he quickly caught himself just in time before he completely lost his balance. Naruto whirled around so fast, Touya was surprised his head didn't fly off completely from his shoulders. Fox like eyes squinted at him in confusion and all Touya did was grin. If the kid didn't remember the teacher that had given him hell in his earlier years, then Touya would surely be disappointed that his sadistic, in his student's opinions, teaching methods hadn't worked.
It took nearly a full minute of staring before Naruto exclaimed, "Touya-sensei?! Ack! Whatever it was, I didn't do it! Believe it!"
Touya laughed when Naruto's first thought was that he was in trouble, which he usually was when the teacher spoke to him. "Don't worry, Naruto. I'm off the clock, so whatever mischief you've gotten yourself into you won't get into trouble. By me at least."
Naruto looked oddly relieved at that. But then immediately perked up at Touya's earlier words.
"Yup! You're lookin' at a fully fledged ninja! And soon I'm gonna be Hokage, just you wait!"
"I don't know about that, Naruto. If I remember correctly, I had to fight with you in order for you to pay attention to my lectures." Touya picked up his sheet of notes and showed it to his former student. "In fact, I bet you've forgotten all I've ever taught you about the elements. Hmmm, Naruto?"
"Hey! That's not fair! You're not my sensei anymore, so I don't have to answer any of your questions! So there!"
"You've got no clue."
Naruto yelled in defiance and stood on top of his stool to look down at Touya. "I know plenty of stuff, Touya-sensei! Especially jutsus! I even made my own! Here, watch this!"
"Hey! I don't want no-!" The ramen chef started, but was interrupted by the energetic blond.
"Oiroke no Jutsu!!"
If Touya had been eating any ramen, then he would have choked. Standing in front of him was a very naked young woman with long blond pigtails and Naruto's whisker scars on her cheeks. She? He? blew him a kiss and winked. Touya's cheeks flushed red.
"Naruto! You're the one who taught Konohamaru that technique!?" Touya yelled, his anger nearly blowing back a shocked Naruto who had poofed back to his normal form and was now trying to hide behind a stool in order to get away from the scary Chunin.
"It took me nearly thirty minutes to get the class back under control after his little stunt! Do you know how many boob jokes I had to put up with for the rest of the morning?! If you were still in my class, I would slap you with a detention so fast your head would spin!"
Touya slowly sat back down and let out a giant breath to exhale all his anger. He looked around at the rapidly blinking noodle stand owner and his daughter and then to the cowering Naruto who had put his arms over his head in order to protect it from the swats that Touya had given him when he was younger and had misbehaved during his class.
After Konohamaru had pulled that little stunt, and after he had made sure that the Hokage's grandson couldn't do it again, Touya had wondered how he had learned it and had laughed at the…creativeness of the technique. And Touya laughed now.
"But you're a Genin now and I'm not your teacher, so get back up here and eat your dinner."
Naruto didn't move.
Touya chuckled. "I won't hit you, I promise."
Only then did the orphan pick himself off the floor to return to his seat. But his former sensei's assurances didn't stop him from keeping a wary eye on the shinobi. Touya-sensei was quick. Quicker than even Kakashi-sensei! Who knew what the Chunin would do?
Naruto crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. But it only lasted for a minute before a bowl of homemade Ichiraku ramen appeared before him and Naruto immediately dug in as if it was his last meal.
Touya merely chuckled to himself. The boy had grown, but yet he hadn't changed a bit from when he was six years old when Touya had first seen the container of the fearsome Kyuubi. At first, Touya had been a little hesitant about having the blond in his class, but after the Chunin had seen that bright smile that covered up all the little boy's hurt and sadness then Touya had made sure to do everything in his power to see that Naruto passed.
However, learning was a two-way street. The pupil had to want to learn, and Naruto had never even turned in his homework or passed a single quiz or test. At first, Touya couldn't figure out what was wrong, so he punished Naruto and forced the kid to stay behind in class and so his homework. That's when Touya figured out that he couldn't read. The great and fearsome demon child that all the villagers said was dangerous couldn't read.
Touya saw nothing terrifying about that. All he saw was a lost, abandoned boy and after Naruto graduated from his class and moved into the older children's class where they would actually learn to utilize theory into practice, Touya made sure to place him in Iruka's class where he knew the gentle, scarred Chunin would look after him.
The Academy teacher swirled his chopsticks through the yellow broth of his ramen seeking any stray noodle that he might have missed. Seeing none, Touya decided against ordering another bowl and turned to Naruto who was still happily slurping up his own ramen.
"So, Naruto. When did you graduate?"
The Genin tried to answer.
Touya grimaced. "Swallow first, please."
Naruto obeyed then answered the question. "Only a couple of weeks ago, but we've already had four missions!"
"Sounds like you've been busy."
Enthusiastic nodding. "Yeah! But the missions are really lame. I mean, watering an old lady's garden? Painting a fence? Bo-ring! I wanna do something exciting! Something dangerous! Like saving a princess in distress or guarding a famous movie star! That would be so cool! But Kakashi-sensei won't give us any missions like that," Naruto pouted.
"That's too bad, but all Genin get missions like that. D-ranks are meant especially for you guys so that they prepare you for harder missions later."
"I don't see how pulling weeds are gonna help me save a princess."
Touya pointed his chopsticks at the Genin. "You've gotta start small. And besides, saving princesses is overrated. They're really annoying."
Naruto squinted his blue eyes at his former teacher. "You've never done that," he said.
"Afraid so."
"Liar! You're a teacher!"
Touya raised an eyebrow. "And that means that teachers don't go on missions? Sorry to burst your bubble, but even teachers are shinobi and get sent out...just not as often as regular shinobi. In fact, Iruka just got back from a mission this morning."
"Is that why he's not here? He was supposed to treat me to ramen, but he had to work late."
Oh. That was his fault. Before, Touya said anything more, he checked his wad of cash he had stuffed into his pocket.
"Well, for graduating the Academy, consider this my treat. Congratulations on becoming a Genin, Naruto. I mean it." Touya dropped his money on the counter and gathered his teaching materials. He waved goodbye to the wide-eyed blond. "See ya later, Naruto." And he left.
The walk back to his apartment was uneventful. Shops were beginning to close down, and the streets were slowly emptying of both ninja and civilians. Tomorrow would be a long day, and Touya would have to give that chakra demonstration that he had promised the class, after that he would have to find time to go to the market in order to pick up food. He sighed. Tomorrow already sounded exhausting and it hadn't even begun yet.
With his eyes drooping, Touya almost missed it, but at the last moment he stopped to see what was dropped on his doorstep. Folded nicely, was his blanket that he had let the wounded Jounin borrow the night before, or to be accurate early this morning. Tucked into one of the folds was a stray piece of gauze that had writing on it.
A smile quirked the edges of his lips as he bent down to pick it up.
Thank you.
-Kakashi
Kakashi. So that was the name of his mysterious neighbor. Funny, it sounded familiar as if he had just heard it not too long ago.
Too tired to devote more than five seconds of thinking time to the puzzling situation, Touya shrugged and took out his key to unlock his door and prepare for bed. Tomorrow was gonna be hell. He could feel it.
