Author's Note:
Hello my lovelies, here is the slightly longer-than-usual and far more light-hearted chapter 6! I won't say any more because I don't want to spoil it for you. What I will say though is that I had a lot of fun writing it, so I really hope you like it! I would love to hear your thoughts on the story so far, even if it's just a short and sweet "update soon" or something of the like, each review/follow/favourite puts a smile on my face.
As ever, check for updates on my profile and don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions or queries. I especially want to know if the canons are all in character, as they are far more challenging than OC's.
Enjoy!
Thanks To:
Minimousestar, Superboy99, bloodangel95, Dinoluvr, Blackraven777, Syryn17, TheWheelofFate, Kaitana08, CupcakesAndAlice, Celestial-Mage231, littlejedigirl, Buzooka Zooka
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any characters, story, ideas that are associated with it. What I do own is my OC Toshiko Akatora and any other OC's that may turn up.
=^.^=
6
The two Jounins sat side by side atop a couple of stools at Ichiraku's, they had silently agreed to drop the previous topic of conversation during lunch, as ramen needed to be accompanied by a far happier subject matter. They talked and laughed about many things, before settling on an old favourite, those green leotards. Kakashi smirked behind his mask, "You know, I could ask Gai to get you one for your trip, it could come in handy. I hear they're great for training."
She choked down a mouthful of noodles, "Do that and die Hatake."
He let out a short laugh "What are you going to do? Trip and fall on me? I think I'll take my chances."
His words rang inside her head leading her to be temporarily lost in thought, oh how she'd fall accidentally onto him, the force pushing them to the ground, his strong arms carefully wrapping around her. Their clothes strewn across the… *hold on a second… our clothes will most definitely not be "strewn" anywhere! No one would be naked because… because that would be weird, right…? Yes, weird… although… with all that training and working out he must have an amazing body…*
*STOP THINKING ABOUT KAKASHI'S NAKED BODY!* with rose tinged cheeks she jabbed him in the ribs with an elbow, "Err hey! That's enough out of you mister."
"I do believe you're blushing, Tora." A dash of playful amusement lined his voice as he spoke.
In a bid to replace her strange new desires for a far safer older one, she deemed a change of subject was in order; it would also get her out of explaining the reason for her blush. What, oh what, could be hidden behind the ever-present mask. In an attempt to subtly encourage its removal she hastily said "Oh just eat your ramen before it gets cold."
She watched him closely out of the corner of her eye; he just had to take that mask off to eat, would she finally get to see Kakashi's face? He, on the other hand, seemed completely oblivious to her hidden agenda and rubbed the back of his head, laughing, "Ok, ok I'll stop teasing... for now."
She waited with bated breath as her friend's hand lifted slowly towards his mysterious face. Oh lord, the anticipation was just too much; she had to stop herself from ripping that bloody thing off herself. A finger lazily tugged the edge of the thin dark fabric; Toshiko hardly noticed that she had practically stopped breathing by this point. Just a little longer...
CRASH! THUD! "WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING YOU LITTLE TWERP!"
The series of events that followed all happened in quick succession. Toshiko had been so completely and utterly focused on Kakashi that she hadn't been ready for the hurricane of destruction that fell into her. Out of nowhere someone had accidentally crashed into the kunoichi, whose chopsticks and lunch went flying. She spun around on her stool to see Naruto rubbing his head, which had just been punched by a young girl with long pink hair, who looked furious.
"Sakuraaaa, it wasn't my fault, I just tripped."
"You're such a loser Naruto."
Tosh turned to see who belonged to the third voice; a boy with hair that could give Kakashi's a run for its money in the gravity defying department. She needed no introduction to tell her that this must be Team 7.
Naruto jumped up, waving a fist towards Sasuke "WHAT DID YOU SAY SASUKE?!"
They continued to bicker between themselves, as she hastily turned back to the object of her interest. Her Jaw dropped, and those chocolaty brown eyes of hers opened wide in pure shock... the bowl was empty and the mask had just been put back in place. *Those. Damn. Kids.*
Kakashi, feeling a pair of eyes boring into him, glanced at her "Hmm? What did I miss?"
Her frustration made it hard to string a coherent sentence together, "I... you... and then Naruto… ramen... ARGH! Bloody kids!"
"Riiight, speaking of kids, I see you've just met Team 7. I told them to meet us here as we need to make arrangements for our next mission. Sasuke, Sakura, this is Toshiko Akatora; she's a Jounin like me. Of course, Naruto already knows you."
A dark raincloud, complete with miniature thunder storm, seemed to be hovering over Toshiko's head, all she could manage was a slightly downtrodden "Hey." Naruto beamed at her, "Hey, hey Toshi Sensei why do you look mad?"
The Jounin's frustration abated slightly, "I'll tell you later. Be warned though, you're lucky I'd almost finished that bowl of ramen."
Naruto laughed nervously, "Sorry Sensei, promise I won't do it again. So, err... are you and Kakashi Sensei on... a date?"
Sakura snapped at him, even though internally she had been dying to know herself, "Naruto! You're so rude!"
At this, Toshiko blushed profusely and hurriedly corrected him, "What? No of course not, why would you think that? I mean, you know, we just wanted lunch… everyone needs food, right? Kakashi and I, err, together? That would just be crazy..."
A nervous, awkward laugh spewed forth from her lips as her voice trailed off. Kakashi's face had a look of mild surprise written all over it, or at least the visible part did, as he studied her expression. He found his friends' reaction to Naruto's question rather interesting.
"So Tosh, what you're saying is a woman would have to be mad to date me?"
"No! That's not… I didn't mean it like that…"
He continued his rant, waiting for her to cotton on to the fact that he was merely teasing. "You know, I'm rather hurt that you haven't mentioned this sooner, we've been friends for quite some time now and to think you harboured such opinions about my character all along, and I had absolutely no idea. It seems I have forgotten my own teachings: a ninja must see through deception."
Toshiko opened her mouth about to defend herself once more, when realisation struck. She burst out laughing, "You are such a jerk sometimes 'Kashi. You nearly had me for a minute!"
A hand rested on her head, "Silly Tiger, you make it so easy."
"Um… Kakashi Sensei?"
A voice interrupted the two Jounin, Sakura and Naruto were looking at them with interest whilst Sasuke merely raised an eyebrow. Sliding his hand off Toshiko's head, Kakashi turned to his students, "Err right, about our mission, we'll need to go to the Hokage's office first thing in the morning to find out the details. Meet at 6am."
Naruto's eyes lit up "What rank, Sensei?"
"It'll be D-rank."
He scrunched up his face, disgruntled with his Sensei's answer. "Oooh it's not fair! When's the old man gonna give us a real mission?"
Kakashi sighed; they had the same conversation each and every time. "Naruto, just be patient. The Hokage will assign you a higher rank when he thinks you're ready… and don't be so disrespectful."
"Yeah, yeah whatever, I'm gonna ask for a better one tomorrow, if I'm gonna be Hokage one day I shouldn't be wasting my time chasing cats and picking grass, I mean – OUCH!"
Yet again the young pink haired kunoichi's fist made contact with Naurto's head, "Quit whining Naruto! You're so annoying."
Sasuke on the other hand ignored his squabbling team mates and turned to the silver-haired ninja, "Is that all Sensei?"
Kakashi nodded, "Yes that's it. Take the rest of the day off."
"I'll see you tomorrow then. I want to get a bit more training done before the mission." The young Uchiha turned towards the street, closely followed by his female teammate.
"Saaaasuke, would you like me to help you train?" Sakura cooed, sounding more than a little desperate.
"No."
Toshiko chuckled, *oh yes* she thought, *they will do very nicely, I'm sure they drive him crazy on missions. I like them already.* the object of her amusement was currently paying the bill for them both. "Ready to go, Tosh?"
"Yeah, I'll catch you up; I just want to talk to Naruto about something first."
He nodded, starting to walk away, "I'll be in the bookstore."
As soon as she was sure Kakashi was out of earshot, she rounded on Naruto who was just about to tuck into his first helping of ramen. "Naruto, you fool, I was this close to seeing under his mask, THIS CLOSE!" She gestured angrily under his nose in an attempt to demonstrate.
"Whoa, sorry Toshi Sensei!" His eyes were wide; he understood better than anyone what a serious matter this was. "You mean, even you haven't seen?"
She slumped onto the stool next to him with a rather dramatic sigh, "Not even close. I've known that man for years and I still have absolutely no idea what he looks like, it drives me mad! I mean, seriously, why's it such a secret?"
"Yeah I know, and he even sleeps with that mask on! I noticed during missions. Hey I know, I'll keep a look out, and tell you if I see it! Now that you have a top ninja like me helping you, you'll find out in no time!"
She let out a short laugh, "Thanks kid, clearly I should have enlisted your aid a long time ago. Enjoy your lunch; and good luck for tomorrow."
A goodbye came between mouthfuls of ramen as she walked off in the direction of the bookstore.
=^.^=
The next day Toshiko awoke early, too early. Clearly nerves were partly to blame; whatever this next mission would entail it was imperative that nothing went wrong. With plenty of time to kill before she had to be at the tower she went about her normal routine; enjoying what would be her last hot shower in a few days before changing into a short fitted black skirt and leggings, a thin strapped black cropped top and a mesh top with three quarter length sleeves over it. She tied her long and lustrous brunette locks up into a high bun, sliding a couple of senbon in for decoration not to mention you never know when they might come in useful, and left her sweeping fringe to its own devices. With her forehead protector and kunai pouches resting on her hips she grabbed her ninja gloves and vest, heading downstairs towards the front door.
As she walked up the steep stone steps that led to the front door of the Hokage's Tower, a slight frown flitted across her features as she fixated on her left hand. Once again she was experiencing that peculiar tingling sensation around the oddly shaped birthmark on her palm. It wasn't a painful feeling, just rather annoying and disconcerting. But she pushed all thoughts of it out of her head however as she walked down the corridor towards three familiar figures waiting outside the office.
"Have you not learnt by now that when Kakashi says 'crack of dawn' he actually means sometime around lunch…?" She grinned at his students as they turned to see who had spoken.
"Toshi Sensei!"
"Oh Good morning Toshiko Sensei, we thought that because we had a mission he might actually turn up on time for once… but he's half an hour late already!" Sakura huffed, clearly not impressed by her Sensei's time keeping, or lack thereof.
Even Sasuke voiced his opinion on the matter, "His tardiness is almost as annoying as Naruto."
"OH YEAH? Why don't you say that to may face, Sasuke?"
He turned to his golden haired teammate, looking him in the eye as he spoke "It's almost as annoying as you."
Toshiko, who had been enjoying their little dispute, sensed Naruto was about to lunge at Sasuke and teleported in between the two, putting a hand on his forehead stopping him in his tracks. "Naruto, look, clearly the two of you harbour a lot of pent up sexual frustration towards each other but it is 6:30am… tone it down, Ok?"
At that the two boys looked physically sick at her words and turned away from each other, muttering and gagging under their breath. She laughed, and just at that moment two ninjas came walking along the corridor towards them.
"Hey Toshiko, you're here." A voice called out to her.
Beaming, she turned to greet her two teammates who were walking towards them. "Ryousuke, Yasahiro! How's it going?"
With a hint of concern in his voice Ryousuke Matsuo replied, "A lot better than you by the sounds of it. What happened after the mission? We heard you were in the hospital for days!"
"Aah yeah, long story but I'm fine now, so it's nothing to worry about honestly." She smiled somewhat sheepishly.
"Akatora," Said the stern voice of Yasahiro Himura. "You must pay more attention to your surroundings."
The two guys were polar opposites; Ryousuke was easy going and caring, with a sense of humour whereas Yasahiro, well, wasn't. He was strict and professional, and tended to be a man of few words. But the bond between the three was strong.
"Sorry Hiro. I'm trying, I swear." She felt like a kid whose parents had just caught her with a hand in the jam jar. "And how long's it going to take for you to call me by my first name? We've been working together for years." She added, a half grin creeping across her mouth.
"You both choose to be overly familiar with people; I on the other hand stay distanced emotionally so as not to endanger missions with personal feelings."
Toshiko didn't get a chance to respond, at that moment the new temporary addition to their team arrived. A medic kunoichi named Manami Asano. "Yo, sorry I'm late; I had to stop off at the hospital on the way. I'm glad I get to work with you guys again, I see Yasahiro is as cuddly as ever, ready to go in?"
"I most definitely am not, as you say, "cuddly" Asano." Was the abrupt response that Manami received.
Toshiko turned to Team 7 as the group headed towards the door, "Sorry guys, it looks like we're stealing your spot. You can thank that useless Sensei of yours. See you later."
=^.^=
They entered the Hokage's office to receive their mission brief. They were to track and apprehend a gang of rogue ninja who had stolen important documents from a neighbouring village. It should take them no longer than 4 days to complete, and Intel suggested that the ninja would be below their level. All in all this should be a simple mission with little to no complications.
As they left the office Toshiko laughed at the sight that met her eyes. Sure enough Team 7 was still there, Kakashi-less; Naruto was laying on the floor sighing rather over-dramatically, Sakura was sitting with her back against the wall, eyes closed with frown lines creasing her brow, and Sasuke, as ever, was leaning against a wall with his arms crossed and a look of thorough disinterest plastered across his features. They were bored and frustrated. "Still waiting, huh?"
All she got in return was two grunts and a nod.