Chapter 12

*Special chapter: Kakashi's point of view*

That morning, after the party, I was aroused by the sound of my hungry stomach. The strong head ache I felt when sitting up in my bed told me that I was going to have a huge hangover for the rest of the day. But when you look at the bright side, it was nothing that a few painkillers would not be able to ease.

I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples while wincing because of the pain. This definitely had to be the biggest downside to drinking. Partying was a big part of my life and I loved it, but sometimes I wondered how I managed to drag my useless body anywhere the day after a night that had been more than just rich on alcohol. If I remembered correctly, I swore to myself never to drink again every time I felt like this, but I could not keep it and ended up going on a booze bender the next weekend anyway.

The smell of vomit finally reached my nostrils. My brain did not catch the sickening smell at first, but then it slowly began to function the least bit normal again. I opened my eyes and looked at the part of the bed that was ahead of me. It did not look like I had puked in the bed, which I was thankful for since it had happened quite a few times before. When I could not see any puke, I figured the smell had to come from inside the living room.

Then I noticed something out of the ordinary. A pair of feet turned upside down was lying next to me. My sight glided from the feet and up the body of the quiet person and I did not recognize him until I reached his head.

Iruka was lying shirtless on his stomach with his head turned away from me and with one arm hanging from the edge of the bed. I could not keep myself from smiling, but held my laughter back, when I saw that he was drooling all over the sheets. It did not really bother me, I was going to change those sheets anyway.

I stretched my arms over my head and kept stretching them until my spine cracked from my neck and all the way down to where it ended. This was followed by a low growl and a wide yawn. In a way, I felt kind of good that morning if you looked past the enormous pressure behind my forehead and temples. Rested; that was probably the best word to describe how I felt. My eyes did not burn the way they usually did when waking up from a night out and it was a relief to find out that I was able to keep my eyes open without having to feel like someone had been poking my naked eyeballs all night.

When I let my arms drop back into my lap, one of my fingers grazed my upper body and I noticed that I was not wearing a shirt, which meant I was not wearing a mask either. How weird, I usually did not take off my mask when there was anybody around. It was nothing to freak out about, though. For now, I could just cover it with my hand and I figured that the guys would have decency enough not to comment on it if any of them were awake yet. They knew I did not like showing my face, not even to myself.

In one quick motion, I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and got up on my feet. As I took a step forward, I figured a few painkillers and some junk food would make this morning perfect, but when my foot landed on the ground again, I stepped in something wet and slippery and went down with a wallop in a split second.

"What the...?" I muttered to myself and looked down to see what it was that I had slipped in. Judging by the intensified smell of the remains of yesterday, I should have guessed that I had discovered the vomits hiding place – but I did not – and when I saw what kind of slimy pool I was sitting in, I sighed loudly and felt a shiver run down my spine. This was so gross. Now I had to take a bath before even thinking of touching anything, which meant no food and no painkillers for me yet.

I craned my neck to look over the edge of the bed. Luckily for me, it looked like Iruka was still sleeping. With a sigh and a bit difficulty, I got up again and stepped over the yellow substance on the floor. How could I not remember that I had puked? You would think that I had put two and two together when I woke up with a bad taste in my mouth and a dry and rough feeling when running my tongue over the surface of my teeth, but no, I never thought of checking the room for any vomit attacks. Kami, I even noticed the smell and I still did not bother to watch the ground before trudging fearlessly across the floor. I must have looked pretty stupid in that situation.

My mind was set on getting that stinky goo off my body before doing anything else so I headed straight for the bathroom. Though, I could not help but notice on my way out there that Itachi was sleeping on the floor. Hidan, Zabuza and Asuma was asleep too. The first mentioned lay on the couch, the second was sitting on the floor up against a wall and and the third sat almost straight on a chair. That last one really knew how to sleep in the weirdest positions.

When I got under the shower head, I turned on the water immediately, without even removing my pants first and started scrubbing the vomit off my body. The cold water was refreshing and it gave me goosebumps. I laid my head back, letting the water hit my exposed neck and pale chest. My eyes widened and I started panting lightly. The water felt even colder against my chest than any other body part.

Quickly, I turned up the heat, my whole body shuddering when the water went from cold to warm in only a few seconds. I always began my showers with cold water, it made me feel more awake.

I ran a hand over my face before grabbing the facecloth, which always hung inside the shower, and tied it around the lower part of my face. That was just something that I always did.

After making sure that the majority of the vomit had come off my pants, I unbuttoned them and was just about to take them off when, suddenly, I heard someone gasping not far from me. I turned my head and saw Iruka standing in the doorway with wide eyes and a dropped jaw that could almost touch the ground. His eyebrows turned upwards and I interpreted it as an apology.

"What's up?" I asked and smiled at him, but he did not smile back, only backed out of the room.

"I'm so sorry!" he apologized and closed the door quickly behind him. I must have looked kind of puzzled after that because I did not understand his reaction at all. I was not modest, but I guess he was? I shrugged to myself and figured it was about time that I got that shower curtain, which Hidan had torn down one weekend in drunkenness, back up again. Oh, and I should probably get used to locking the door whenever someone else besides me was in my apartment. Me and my bad habits.

When I was done showering, I put on some clean clothes that lay inside the bathroom already. I walked by the mirror and stopped to take a quick look at my reflection. It was scary, I could hardly recognize myself without the mask on. I was actually pretty damn tired of always having to wear that thing. It got hot behind the sound-absorbing piece of cloth pretty easily and the way it stuck to my face when I was sweating gave a nasty feeling. I hated it, but showing people my true face was just not an option. I was lucky that I had put on the facecloth before Iruka had walked in. I could not even begin to imagine how he would have looked like if that was not the case.

I sighed loudly. There was a touch of despair in my voice. Should I not have been used to this by now after all those years? Apparently not. Carefully, I ran three fingers over my right cheek, suddenly feeling like grabbing onto my skin and just rip it off. These melancholic emotions sometimes scared me so I pulled up my mask, as I had done it many times before in an attempt to forget about everything regarding my lower face, and walked out of the bathroom, pretending not to care about my flaws. I did not want to think about it any further.

Everyone besides Itachi had woken up. Asuma and Zabuza sat in front of the TV, watching some series. It did not look like they actually cared about it, they were probably just watching it in order to relax.

Iruka sat on the couch next to Hidan and it appeared like they were talking. It made me happy to see that at least one of them had accepted Iruka already. They both looked over their shoulder and over at me and I beamed them a smile. Hidan smiled back, but Iruka chose to look away from me, for some reason? That guy was a real puzzle to me, but my guess was he was still embarrassed after walking in on me while I was showering.

"How are you feeling today?" I asked, the smile never leaving my eyes.

"Great, as always," Hidan smiled with his teeth showing in a triumphing way. That man had never had a hangover in his entire life and I could not figure out how he prevented it from happening. I had heard about some people that did not get hangovers ever no matter what they drank, mixed or how much they drank. But those kind of people were rare and I had a hard time believing that Hidan was one of them. He could just be acting like he was okay, but on the other hand, no one could be that good of an actor.

"I wasn't talking you, I was asking Iruka-san," actually, I was speaking to everyone in general, but since no one else besides Hidan chose to answer, I figured I might as well grab the opportunity to wipe that smirk off his face. Don't get me wrong, though. Hidan was one of my best friends. I just liked to bully him.

Iruka looked up at me and I made sure to keep smiling. It did not seem like he was going to answer, so I asked him again. This time he answered, "I'm fine, I guess," Iruka always sounded so unsure of himself. Sometimes I wondered if he usually just answered what was expected of him or what he thought people wanted to hear instead of just answering what he really wanted. Like with the smoking thing. I was almost certain that he had never smoked before, but he went along anyway whenever I asked him.

That first time he came along, he coughed so much that it was hard to believe he had ever even been close to someone who had been smoking before. He had told me that he smoked too much and that was why he was coughing, but that had to be a lie. Or else it would not make any sense that he did not cough constantly when not smoking too. He only coughed like that when we were smoking together. He was not even done with his cigarettes when throwing them away, which indicated that he did not take very long or many drags, which most real smokers would do. But maybe it was just me who was over thinking it, I mean, why would he go out with me every single time I asked him if he did not smoke?

There was something unique about Iruka. I had never met anyone like him before and that said a lot because I knew a lot of weird people. Just take a look at my circle of friends. None of them acted like the other. There was something special about every single one of them. Some had traits more obvious than others, but they all had them. Hidden or not hidden.

But Iruka, he could not hide his insecurity. He stuttered sometimes and he was always considering what to answer before answering – unlike many other people. Something happened this previous day, though. He had showed another side of himself. He did not really stutter, he had said things he usually would not speak out loud – you could easily tell he was thinking it, though – and he had even taken a body shot off some stranger. I must say, he really surprised me there.

The rest of the night was not really that clear to me. After the fight, the numerous shots we had been taken, while Iruka and Hidan were doing body shots, had taken affect so everything afterward was a big blur to me.

But anyway, Iruka was just such an interesting person, which was why I had invited him to the party in the first place. I wanted to get to know him better. I wanted to know what was going on inside his head. Why did he act like he did? What was his background story? I wanted to know everything... I'm making myself sound like some freak who is collecting people with special personality traits, do I not? Well, maybe I was a freak. So be it.

"Are you hungry?" I asked and kept Iruka's eyes locked to mine. Sometimes, you could read him like and open book, but the really interesting stuff was always kept hidden behind those jerking eyes.

Hidan answered before Iruka could even get the chance to open his mouth, "Don't bother, Itachi got the munchies last night. There's nothing left, I checked already," Kami, this happened every freaking time we ended the party at my house.

I pretended to find it funny and chuckled, "I suppose that there's no need for asking then," I was just about to ask Iruka how his eye was doing, but then someone knocked on the door. I did not know who it was and I was kind of curious to find out so my question had to wait for later.

Everyone's attention turned to the door as I walked over and opened it.

"Hey baby," a purple haired woman said when she saw me and kissed me on my mask-covered mouth. She smiled teasingly when grabbing my arms and stepping back, pulling me towards her so that the others could not see us behind the door. "Did you miss me?" she whispered and I nodded. I covered her eyes with one hand and pulled down my mask with the other. She giggled loudly and waited patiently for me to kiss her. As always, she tasted of strawberry chap-stick. It did not take long for her to throw her arms around my neck and kiss me back. Her taste was so delicious, I could never get enough of it.

There was something about this woman that just made me turn head over heels for her the first time I met her. She was so understanding and open minded. Not once had she asked me to take off my mask or questioned me about its purpose. She just went along and saw it as a fun game instead of a challenge that she had to overcome.

After our make out greeting, she stepped away from me and walked inside the apartment, leaving me with a crave for more. I pulled my mask back up before closing the door behind us.

"Hey guys!" she shouted and waved at everyone who waved back at her with a smile on their faces. As she was walking towards the black armchair next to the couch, she almost stepped on Itachi. After carefully stepping over him instead, she looked up at me and said sarcastically, "How nice of you to wake him. I'm sure he'll appreciate that," I raised one brow and crossed my arms over my chest while leaning against the closed door.

"He ate all my food so he deserves to lie there. I'll wake him once he has served his sentence," what I said made her giggle and roll her eyes at me. She then looked over at the two people that were sitting on the couch. That was when I noticed that Iruka had a strange look in his eyes. I could not figure out what he was thinking, but he looked kind of sad. Maybe even disappointed. But why would he look like that? What was bothering him?

"Wait, I haven't seen you before? Who are you? I'm Anko," she sounded so enthusiastically when introducing herself to Iruka and at that moment, I was proud to be her boyfriend. Anko was not always as polite as she should be, but she tried and that was what counted, at least with me. She tended to get a little too carried away with her excitement over things. And she found most things exciting, so that hyperactivity was a big part of her. That was one of the things I really liked about her since I found it kind of cute.

Another thing I was fond of about her was that she knew how to party and she did not mind hanging out with my friends and me at the same time. And they liked her too, which was pretty important to me. Only Zabuza would sometimes have a hard time with controlling his anger towards her, but that was only because she was Hidan's female form. Imagine those two together, yeah, not a pretty sight, but I could not help myself from laughing at the two of them when they were together. I could tell that Hidan really enjoyed having Anko around.

Iruka looked a tad uncomfortable all of a sudden and he rose from his seat and answered, "My name is Iruka, but I-I was just about to go," he grabbed his jacket that lay on the armrest of the couch and put it on, "Tha-thank you for letting me st-stay here," he stammered, looking at me as he headed for the door, which I moved away from.

"Hey, Iruka-san, I'll see you next time, right?" Hidan yelled without moving out of the spot. Iruka said, sure, and nothing else before practically storming out of the door. What was going on? "What was that all about?"

I looked at Hidan and shrugged my shoulders. I had absolutely no idea of what had gotten into Iruka. If I had to take a wild guess, he probably felt like he was imposing on us. Man, now I felt bad for letting him feel like that. No one seemed to have anything against him so it was just a pleasure hanging out with him.

Damn, Iruka sure was a big mystery to me, but he would not be for long because I intended to uncover that mystery! I wanted him to feel comfortable around us. It really hurt seeing him walk all by himself, which he did most of the time. I knew about loneliness and whenever I saw someone, like Iruka, who did not appear to have many people in their lives, I just felt like I had to try and make them feel like somebody was caring about them. That sad face those people had, I could not take it. Sometimes I felt like it was my duty to make them smile or to cheer them up somehow. I knew it sounded like I was trying to save them or something and in a way, well, I guess that was actually what I was trying to do.

I sighed and everyone looked at me with questioning looks. I was mad, was I not? I guess Iruka just kind of reminded me of myself when I was younger. That insecurity and those lonely looking eyes. All I wanted was to help him.

My mind was now set. My task was to officially make Iruka a part of the group. I knew that they had just met him and I did not know him all that well myself, but I could not just stay on the sideline and do nothing. I wanted to do something. I needed to do something. I had to do something.

oOooOooOo

I noticed that this story has reached over 25 reviews, which I'm very grateful for and therefor thought of something – some other authors have been doing this and I actually think it's a great idea and a good way to thank your reviewers. Wanna know what it is :)? Okay, here it comes: I'll write a one shot for the person that is one of every 50th reviewer. I don't think I'm ever going to get over 50 reviews – actually, I don't even expect to round 50 so there probably won't even be one one shot, lol. But well, I just think it's a great way of thanking your reviewers for taking the time to review so now you know what is at stake ^^!

By the way, this chapter is dedicated to Cloud Traveler since it was her that suggested I should make a chapter from Kakashi's point of view. I thought it was a pretty good idea and in my opinion, it was just the right time for a special chapter like that. So if you liked it, you better thank her for it because the idea hadn't crossed my mind xD

Oh, and I'm aware of the fact that changing point of view might seem as a bad excuse for revealing something that you didn't know how to reveal from the original characters point of view – I don't like when stories change point of view either – that's why I made sure (or at least tried?) not to reveal anything that haven't been revealed yet, unless it was something that Iruka would have caught onto as well without us having to see it from Kakashi's point of view – like the fact that he has a girlfriend. That should be pretty obvious to Iruka at this point, right? And the fact that Kakashi doesn't like showing his face – that should be obvious to obvious to Iruka by now as well. Those were just examples. So as you can see, I tried not to write anything that Iruka wouldn't have found out himself. This chapter is not an excuse for anything, I only made it because the reviewers requested it and I like pleasing people. Nonetheless, it was fun writing this chapter so I'm happy that I did it^^
(I'm sorry, now I'm being all defense again! But as said before, I'm just the kind of person who has to explain everything and won't admit defeat unless the other person has a strong argument... I'm trying my best to to listen to everyone's critique, though *-*.. )

Thank you everyone! Hope to see you around for the next update :D (which probably won't be tomorrow 'cause I haven't finished it yet. But I promise it will be posted as soon as possible!)