Paradise
Genre: General
Rating: T (Yup, upped the rating for this chapter. Go me?).
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Please R&R…Thanks!
Requested by Essyllus. Hope this meets your expectations!
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Asuma sits down at the small table by the window, joining his comrade in the café on the edge of town. It's still early morning; the suns still hasn't risen fully. The streets are quiet for few people are up this early.
But Kakashi is one of the few who are up this early. And Asuma would bet his life on the fact that Kakashi's students would shit their pants if they saw him this early in the morning. For someone who is always late for every day of training not many people would think that he actually gets up this early in the morning.
To tell the truth, Asuma would probably say that Kakashi doesn't even go to sleep most nights. And the few nights he does sleep he most likely doesn't sleep for long.
Asuma orders a cup of coffee when the waitress asks him what he wants. As he waits for his drink to arrive he examines Kakashi. His almost-friend looks a little more exhausted than normal, a little more drained.
"Good chapter?" Asuma asks quietly as he turns his head and rests it on his right hand.
He stares out the window at the few people walking down the street. He watches as the wind blows a few leaves and some discarded trash around in a tiny tornado. He waits for Kakashi to reply.
"I've read the same page probably twenty times and I still can't remember what it says," Kakashi whispers in response.
Asuma turns his head to look at Kakashi, his almost-friend, and sees that he's still staring at his book. But his one visible eye isn't moving back and forth like it should be if he was actually reading what he was staring at.
An ignored cup of coffee is steaming by Kakashi's hand.
"Why did you order coffee if you knew you weren't going to drink it?" Asuma asks. Fully knowing that Kakashi was never going to respond to a direct question about is health.
"Why not take what you can get?" His almost-friend responds; still staring at, but not actually reading, his book.
"It's not like I'll be paying anyways," Kakashi continues.
Asuma quietly chuckles, knowing full well that Kakashi's correct. He always ends up paying for these little café visits that his almost-friend enjoys so much.
"Sir?" the waitress asks when she approaches the table, "Here's your coffee."
Asuma thanks the waitress and takes the offered cup of coffee and the small packages of cream. For a few silent minutes he just mixes his three packages of stale café sugar and one package of cream into his far too weak coffee. By the time he takes his first sip the coffee doesn't even taste much like coffee, just like cream and sugar.
Kakashi's still staring at that perverted book, still not reading.
And Asuma just waits in silence. Wondering what in the world Kakashi finds interesting about that book. Asuma read a couple pages of it once; it was far too graphic, far too disturbing, and far too perverted for even his tastes.
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a cigarette and a lighter. He puts the smoke in his mouth and goes to light it.
"There's no smoking in here," Kakashi informs him.
Asuma glares at him but relents. There isn't actually a no smoking rule in this café, and Asuma knows that. But Asuma also knows that his almost-friend gets irritated by smoke, more irritated then most. He returns his cigarette to its package in his pocket, along with his lighter, and takes another sip of his coffee.
"What's so interesting about that book anyways?"
The silver-haired Jounin doesn't reply, instead he just shifts his gaze from the pages of the book to stare into his almost-friend's eyes.
"Really Kakashi. You've been reading that book before you were even allowed to buy it. How you ever got your hands on it, I'll never know. But those books are perverted, even sadistic some times. What do you even like about them?"
"Why do you care?" Kakashi finally asks after a moment of silence. He returns his one-eyed gaze to the book.
Asuma shrugs, "Don't know. Guess I just wanted to know why. Sometimes people just like to know why Kakashi."
They fall into silence and Asuma returns his gaze to the street outside. It was getting busier, it was getting later. He was going to have to leave soon if he wanted to meet his team in time. Ten minutes go by, than ten more minutes. Asuma gets three refills on his coffee.
Kakashi still hasn't touched his.
"Trust me, you don't want to know why," Kakashi whispers, barely audible.
Asuma turns his head and returns his focus on his almost-friend.
"Oh, but I think I do. Now I'm even more interested," Asuma replies with a small smile, "Come on. It's not like there's a sick, twisted, perverted reason behind it, is there?"
"Perhaps."
Asuma just smiles and takes another sip of his coffee, "Don't tell me you're going to make me look underneath the underneath."
"I had an uncle," Kakashi suddenly says.
Asuma blinks, confusion teasing the features on his face, "So? I had an uncle too."
Silence.
"Nevermind," Kakashi mutters after a few silent minutes.
"Kakashi?" Asuma questions, letting a slight hint of worry enter his normally placid voice.
"I…it's…um…just…he…it…it doesn't matter," Kakashi stammers with a slight shake of his head.
"You stammered," Asuma points out calmly.
"So?"
"Hatake Kakashi never stammers."
"Well, there's a first for everything," Kakashi informs his almost-friend.
Silence, it stretches out for almost ten more minutes. The two sort-of-friends just staring at each other: trying to figure out what the other's plan is, trying to look underneath the underneath.
"You didn't bring up this random uncle you've never talked about before for no reason," Asuma says, breaking the not-so-comfortable silence.
"I told you already," Kakashi replies in frustration, "It doesn't matter."
Asuma sighs, "Okay, so I asked you about that perverted book and you mentioned this random uncle. So I'm going to go out on a limb and say your uncle was a pervert."
Kakashi keeps silent.
Asuma nods to himself, "So your uncle was a pervert. But what does that have to do with you?"
Kakashi closes his book and places it in the table. He rests his head on his propped up hand and stares out the window. Distractedly he spins around a spoon in his left hand. The silence stretches on.
"They say victims often become perpetrators," Kakashi murmurs.
"Victims?" Asuma question, more to himself then to anyone else, "Victims of what?"
"Pervitude."
"Is that even a word?" Asuma asks his sort-of-friend.
"Look underneath the underneath."
Asuma sighs in frustration, not the first time he's done that when speaking with Kakashi, "So your uncle was a pervert. You were a victim. A victim of his pervitude? Which, by the way, is definitely not a word."
Kakashi let's out a small sigh that almost sounds like a "Yes."
"Victims often become perpetrators, eh?" Asuma states.
"That's what they say."
"So, does that mean you're a perpetrator now? Seeing as you were a victim."
"Often Asuma, often. Not always. Definitely not always," Kakashi replies in a forceful whisper.
"So the book prevents you from become a perpetrator?" Asuma questions. Finally beginning to understand what his sort-of friend was trying to tell him, without actually telling him.
"You could say that."
"Well," Asuma begins, leaning back in his booth and crossing his arms, "I've never heard of perverted books be a method of therapy."
"What can I say?" Kakashi responds with a sad chuckle, "I'm different."
Asuma nods with a smile, "Different indeed."
He gets up, leaves a few bucks on the table, and walks out of the cozy café; leaving his silver-haired friend to his thoughts.
"Different indeed," Asuma chuckles to himself, "Kakashi, you are most certainly different."
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Author's Notes: So this was not only longer then I intended but also much more darker then I intended. /Oops/ I hope everyone managed to figure out what the hell Kakashi was trying to say in regards to his uncle. If you can't then just say so in a review and I'll either make it clearer or just tell you in another Author's Note (most likely the second one).
Review please! And request!…I like requests. They're really fun to do.