Chapter 5

I stood in front of the mirror, looking at my band aid covered eyebrow. It was time for it to be removed and I was wondering how to tackle it. Should I just rip it off quickly or should I do it slowly? If the stitches clung to the sticky side of the band aid it would probably hurt a great deal. I sighed and shook my head, I could not do much else than just try and take it off. I grabbed one end of the band aid and began to slowly peal it off my eyebrow.

"Ouch," I whispered through gritted teeth and tugged at the band aid again. The thread did not stick to the band aid, luckily, and I ripped the rest of it off in a split second. I put my hand over the spot I had just tortured to try and ease the pain. It made no difference, but it was worth the try.

"Only one hour left," I muttered, referring to my return to work. It was Thursday and I had no holidays left. If you asked me, I had been ready almost right after the incident to start working again, but my boss would not hear any of it. So he had a heart after all. I smiled at the thought of it and chuckled. He always tried to appear so tough when actually he was a very kind soul, he just did not want anybody to see it. Tenzou, he was indeed a funny guy.

I strolled into my bedroom to find my working clothes. It was a bit dusty in there and messy too. A few days of vacation and I had not even found the time to clean my apartment, what had I been doing all this time? Maybe I should not have spent so much time at the laundromat after all. Yes, I had gone there every single day after meeting Kakashi, but he never showed up again. It was kind of disappointing, but it was probably better that way. For some reason I had gotten the crazy idea that maybe we could become more than just customer and shop assistant. Was there a chance that we could become – dare I say it – friends? It was just my overactive imagination that was trying to play tricks on me. We could never be friends. He was so much better than me.

I pulled on my clothes and found the keys to my apartment. Quickly locking it and finally making my way down to the supermarket for the first time in what felt like forever. Getting back to work was going to be a relief. I would no longer have to stray around and wonder about things that was never going to happen.

I pulled out a pack of gum from my right-hand coat pocket. It was Stimorol gum with wild cherry flavor – my all time favorite. It tasted so sweet but in a way also sour. It was hard to explain, but it was good and it did not lose the flavor after just a couple of seconds like most other gums tended to do. I stuck the pack back into my pocket after throwing a piece into my mouth. "Mmm," it tasted like a little piece of heaven. I could not help but wonder what it would be like to kiss someone who had been chewing on this godly tasting gum. Well, I could only imagine since I did not have much luck with girls. The last girl I remembered asking out was an old colleague of mine. Her name was Yuhi Kurenai and she was a black haired young beauty around my age. But she did not want to have anything to do with me, because she was in love with our boss, Tenzou. Back then, I did not understand what she saw in him, but then I realized anyone would be a better catch than me and since he was the one closest by – and the owner of the supermarket – she chose him. But she never got him, since he did not want to date any of his employees, so she quit and I never saw her again after that. That was a couple of years ago and I had not pursued anyone in that way afterward. It was kind of pathetic and I was afraid that I might had forgotten how to do certain things, since I had not gotten to practice for years.

Well, that was a thing of the past and I should try to concentrate on here and now instead since it did not look like things had changed from back then anyway.

I entered the supermarket when there was around 10 min. till my shift started and I decided to go and announce my arrival. I found my boss in the back, which was where he spent most of his time doing paperwork and things like that. He looked up at me when I entered the room.

"Hey Iruka, good to see you again. How is your head?" He was in a particularly good mood today?

"It's fine. I'm happy that you gave me some time to recover, but I must admit it feels good to be back," he nodded towards a chair that stood opposite him and I took a seat. It looked like he wanted to tell me something. Was he going to tell me the reason why he was so happy today?

"That's good to hear," he paused and sent me a quick smile before continuing, "I have a special job for you starting today. Since you are the one who has been here the longest besides me, I want you to train somebody new," so that was why he was so happy. A new member of "the club" meant less work for him.

"Okay, who is it?" I asked, but I was not really interested in the conversation. I hated training people and it was always me that had to do it. It was such a pain.

"I don't remember his name, but he should be here any minute now."

"Okay, so should I begin my shift no..." I was cut off by someone who was knocking the door.

"Enter," Tenzou said, watching along with me as the door cracked open and a pale man stepped inside the room.

The man put on an uncomfortable smile and scratched the back of his neck, "I'm sorry that I'm late, but I had some trouble getting over here."

"That's okay, just don't make it a habit. Iruka here will tell you everything you need to know, right?" I was almost too stunned to answer. What was Kakashi doing here? Was he really the one I needed to train to become a shop assistant? Was this some kind of joke?

"Sure, I-I will," Tenzou excused himself and went out of the room. He was probably going to ask some of the others at work to go and open another checkout since I would not have time to sit there myself now that I had someone to train. But how could it be Kakashi? I still remembered the first time he came to the supermarket, clearly. He wore his mask as he usually did, but according to Tenzou he was not allowed to cover his face when he was inside the supermarket. If you were allowed to do something like that, it would be easier for robbers to disguise their faces before robbing the shop. He denied to take it off for some odd reason and when they tried to kick him out he said that he would not leave until he had gotten what he came for. That was when Tenzou lost all of his patience and called the cops. One officer showed up and he, Tenzou and Kakashi all went into a private room where they stayed for nearly half an hour. When they finally came out again, Kakashi walked right into the shop and bought what he needed. After that, his routine with coming every Monday and Thursday started. I never found out what happened that day, but I really wanted to know what had suddenly made Tenzou change his mind. First he was not allowed inside the shop when wearing a mask, then suddenly he was and now he was going to work here. I did not understand a thing.

Kakashi looked down at me and smiled with his eyes, "So, it's you who's going to be training me. Kinda funny when you think about it, huh?" yeah, it actually was kind of funny. The last time we had met here, he had saved me from being killed by some psychopath and now I was training him. It was almost like the roles had been reversed. You could almost call me his... superior?

"Well... Yeah?" I did not know what else to say and when I thought of the time I would have to spend with him from now on it kind of scared me, "Should we get started then?" the casual talk was just not my thing. This had come as such a surprised that I would rather just get started with working.

"Sure, what should I do first?" he asked and tried to look serious, but I could still see the smile on his face. It was kind of cute – if you could say that about another man?

"Why don't I start with showing you around the shop? You should know where everything is, okay?"

"Sounds logical."

We went out of the private area and into the shop where I began to show him around. He could remember where most of the things were pretty quickly and listened to everything I said, except for one time when an attractive woman crossed our way, but I did not say anything. I did not dare.

"When you have an empty crate, you'll have to put it over there," I pointed at a spot where there was already a lot of crates and he nodded understandingly.

"Uhm, excuse me?" Kakashi and I turned to see who it was that was trying to get our attention. It turned out to be a pretty, petite, young woman. The woman that Kakashi had already lost his concentration to once, "I need some cat food, but I can't reach it. Would one of you two help me, please?" I could see that Kakashi wanted to help her, but he was hesitating, probably because he did not know if it was okay with me. He looked down at me with a questioning look on his face.

"Sure, we can help you," I nodded approvingly to Kakashi and we walked with her to the department where all the pet stuff were. When we got there, I realized the cat food she wanted stood higher than I had expected it to, but it should not be a problem. I walked as close to the shelf as I could and stretched out my hand to grab a one of the bags, but I could not reach it. I looked over at Kakashi and the girl from the corner of my eye and they were staring at me and it looked like the woman was desperately trying to hold a laughter back. How embarrassing. Quickly, I got on my toes and tried to do it so that they would not notice, but I still could not reach.

"Let me," Kakashi said and went over right beside me, snatching the bag down from the shelf like it was no big deal. I saw the look on the woman's face. It was almost like she was looking at him like he was some kind of hero. When Kakashi gave her the bag of food, I was busy blushing. I had made a complete fool out of myself in front of Kakashi – and the girl, obviously, but I did not care what she thought of me, she was just a customer after all.

"Thank you," she said, looking at Kakashi and fluttering her eyelashes. He sent her a smile, but it was not the polite smile he usually gave people. People like me. It was the kind of smile you gave girls, whom you were interested in. I could not believe my own eyes. Was he flirting with her?

"Don't mention it," was his reply to her. Then something happened I had not seen coming. The girl pulled out a card and handed it to Kakashi.

"If you want to, you can always call me on that number," he looked down at it and then up at her again, the smile never leaving his face.

"Sure," this was kind of awkward and I felt like a third wheel. I tried not to give her a dissatisfied look, but how could I not when she was holding up the guy I was trying to train. How could she ask him out at a time like this? And why did she, he had not done anything to get her attention, had he? Maybe she knew about his heroic act and well, he was kinda attractive for a man whose face was half covered. But was that the only reason why she wanted to date him? What a shallow girl, I would never do anything like that. Kakashi deserved better!