Uh, hi. Anybody remember me? ___;;; -slinks off quietly-
Also, what the hell is up with the new layout, I am SO confused.
Congrats and a billion+ points of win to the red sands Uchiha (wait, you changed your name) The Cheshire Cat for guessing the title correctly! Also, Miss War-chan gets much love for drawing fanart even though I can't see it.
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Sasuke slammed the door shut and violently kicked his shoes off down the hall, one hitting the wall with a dispirited 'thud'. He paused to glare at the mirror hanging crookedly above the side table. Damnit, the moron was right. His hair did look funny, mooshed down as it had been by the helmet. Sasuke ran his fingers through his hair, trying to fix it before Kakashi could find some sort of snarky comment to make.
Stupid Kakashi.
Speaking of Kakashi.....where the hell was the pervert anyway? He stalked down the hall with all the offended dignity of an insulted tomcat whose meal had failed to show up on time. The still air in the kitchen almost seemed to cower away from the force of the glare the dark haired gir...err, boy, was sending around the room. A blindingly yellow scrap of paper on the fridge caught his attention (how could it not?).
Saeko-chan (Was it really necessary to put a damn heart after 'her' name?!)
I have a meeting with an old colleague this afternoon, and I'll be back late, so there's leftover take-out in the fridge, or money for something else....somewhere. I know I left it out... Oh well. Be a good girl and make sure to get your homework done!
—Kakashi
Oh god no. Sasuke crumbled the note in his fist in a moment of rage, then sighed and tossed it. At least the idiot had bothered to leave a note this time, even if it was just to unnecessarily annoy his charge. More often then not he just came and went as he pleased, like a stray cat. Annoying old fart. Too bad "meeting" really meant "gossip about all of Sasuke's problems and snigger behind his back then poke fun at him with annoyingly vague hints that I know something about this whole mess that he doesn't" in Kakashi-speak.
Sasuke was not paranoid.
Deciding to forgo a snack in favor of sulking, he stomped upstairs and flung his bag into a corner of the pitifully bare room. Most of his things were still in boxes stacked in the corner. He had yet to actually get his hands on some decent shelving or furniture. Kakashi kept promising that they'd go shopping this weekend, but Sasuke figured he'd probably just end up stealing Kakashi's wallet and going by himself.
Sneering elegantly at the level of responsibility displayed by his so-called "guardian", Sasuke jerked his shirt off and tore off the torture device the less-then-geniuses in charge of his case had forced him into, chucking it behind a box. Flopping face down on his bed, he groaned as the headache he'd been repressing all day slammed into him full force.
Things were just so weird here. Nothing like Oto or Suna or Nami. People were all so open and friendly, the crime rate was almost non-existent, and strangers were welcomed with practically open arms. It was something Sasuke was having trouble getting his mind around. The big cities he'd lived in before had all been hard and cold, a cloud of suspicious wariness and bone-deep exhaustion hanging over them like smog.
Not that he minded that. Hell, he was a gleeful contributor. It was just... hard to make the huge mental shift required to cope with the freaks around here.
He rolled over and stared at the ceiling, thighs still tingling faintly from the vibrations of the motorcycle. And some were bigger freaks then most. How the hell could you act like nothing was wrong after something weird like that damn kiss happened? Putting it firmly out of his mind as silly and irrelevant, Sasuke rolled out of bed to hit the floor with a satisfyingly solid 'THUD' before stalking off to retrieve his bag. Might as well get a head start on that physics homework.
---With Kakashi---
Kakashi hummed Stray Cat Strut cheerfully under his breath as he entered the Denny's, scanning the interior. "I'm meeting somebody." He told the waitress who came to seat him, spotting his teacher tucked back in a little corner booth. He waltzed over to the older man and slid into the bench opposite, slapping a thick manilla file on the plastic tabletop with a lazy flip. "Aloha, Sensei."
Minato snickered into his coffee. Kakashi's rather... varied experience often lead to the man picking up bits and pieces of different languages, and he seemed to find amusement in combining them in rather, er, interesting ways.
And he was half an hour late, as usual.
"Let me guess, you got lost on the road of life?" The blond raised an eyebrow, blue eyes narrowing intimidatingly. Oh, for the days when Kakashi was still a rookie and it actually worked.
As it was, Kakashi just smiled blithely. "Actually, I found a stranded dolphin and I simply had to help him swim home."
Minato snorted, looking back down at the menu. "That's better then your usual excuses."
"I've been practicing." Kakashi nudged the folder across to his former teacher, reading the upside down menu. "Hmm, the Lumberjack Slam looks good... I've been craving sausage."
Minato looked over the file and winced. "Akatsuka? Is she trying to get caught?"
Kakashi shrugged helplessly, giving his order to the waitress. "I can never tell with her. By the time I noticed, it was already official." His one visible eye sparkled gleefully. "She's sneaky."
Minato groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "If you say so, Kakashi but I don't envy you the headache this case is sure to give you."
Kakashi just smiled mysteriously. They gave their orders to the waitress and Kakashi leaned back in his seat. "So, how're the boys doing?"
Minato's eyes lit up fondly, and he launched into an eager narrative about his twins. Kakashi listened with half an ear. His sensei hadn't changed much. That made him glad. He hadn't seen the man and worried it what little spare time he'd
".....And apparently they've met Saeko too. And, in true Uzumaki fashion, managed to completely traumatize the poor girl within three hours of meeting her."
What was this? Kakashi perked right up. "O~oh, really?'
His teacher snorted, moving back to let the waitress set the loaded plates on the table. "Apparently Kyuubi and Naruto had one of their usual arguments, Naruto fell victim to Kyuubi's Uzumaki Elbow Drop of Justice or whatever he calls it, and the whole thing resulted in something a little less platonic then a handshake." Minato rolled his eyes.
Kakashi chortled as he dug into his sausage. Now he couldn't wait to get home.
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Short as hell, yes. Filler, definitely. But hey, it's an update.
Itachi is drunk in my head singing Perfect Isn't Easy. Make him stop. And did you know "Duck-butt" is an actual hairstyle? Well, according to wikipedia it is...
Anonymous Review Responses:
SuffocateSound: I was fairly certain he was. I wrote that without having actually read any chapters with him in it (Brilliant planning on my part, yes?).