Confluence

By Violet Garnets

Chapter Two: Dinner

o-x-o-x-o

"Naruto-kun! Welcome back!" Ayame smiled warmly at him, and it wasn't the one she used with other customers. "Otou-san will be so glad to know you're back."

Naruto tilted his head to the right in a questioning manner. "You mean the old man's still alive?"

Kakashi and his former student ducked just in time to miss freshly-sharpened cooking knives thrown in their general direction. The knives hit the wall with ringing twangs.

"Even now you can't respect your elders, you little turd?"

"Otou-san!" Ayame scolded harshly. "That's no way to welcome our favorite customer."

Kakashi didn't miss the slight blush that graced the boy's face when he heard Ayame's comment. Behind his mask, he smiled, but just barely.

Teuchi emerged from the back room, his face knit together tightly. "He won't be the favorite if he keeps dashing off to unknown places without telling. And this boy looks nothing like the crazy kid we had running around here a few years ago. His hair's even different."

"Sorry, can't help it," Naruto grinned. "I had to dye it. Official shinobi business, you know. Maa, maa," the Jinchuuriki looked around. He finally released his hold on Kakashi's shoulder. "Where is everyone?" He had a point. No one but Kakashi, Naruto, and the store owners were present.

Ayame answered. "Everyone's preparing for the festival, Naruto-kun. I thought you would know that."

"What festival?" Naruto's eyes scrunched up in confusion.

Kakashi felt a need to chime in. For the time being, he needed to ignore that uncomfortable feeling in the back of his head. "It's the daimyo's birthday in a few days, Naruto." He relished the feel of the name on his tongue, now that he had time to think about it. It had been quite a while.

"Oh. Oh well. Can I have some ramen now? I'm starved!"

The three older ones shook their heads. Even if he was nearing adulthood, Naruto was still Naruto. Ayame and Teuchi went to make the ramen. When it was done, they placed the bowls in front of their only customers and then went to make more. When their favorite customer said he was starving, he meant it.

Naruto laughed devilishly. "Itadakimasu!" he shouted with a flourish of his chopsticks. But the noodles stopped midway when he looked over to his former sensei. "Kakashi-sensei? Why aren't you eating?"

"Hmm?" asked the silver-haired man sleepily. "I don't know."

"Is it because of your mask? I mean, no one's here. And I need to see your face eventually! Come on sensei, let me see! I've known you for all these years. That's not fair."

A smile appeared underneath the spoken-of mask. It was comforting how easily Naruto slipped back into normalcy. Whatever that was for Konoha. "There are others I've known longer and haven't seen my face," he noted dryly.

"Kakashi-sensei…" the boy drawled. "Please?"

"Your ramen's getting cold."

Naruto pouted, but ate his noodles.

In reality, Kakashi had been examining his former student. Kakashi had to agree with Teuchi. This was certainly not the boy from two years ago. And it wasn't just the hair color. The hair was a little longer, and jutted out of a thick black headband with Naruto's shining hitai-ate on it. The arm that wrapped around Kakashi's shoulder just a few minutes ago was well defined, like any shinobi's arm should be. Any remaining childishness from the (normally) blonde's face was essentially gone. His cheekbones were sharply defined so that his whiskers had to stretch over them; his whole face was more angular. The teen was quite handsome, Kakashi had to admit. Not the kind where girls would swoon over him like Sasuke (damn, wrong person to think of) but good-looking enough.

Naruto had even ditched the flashy orange…mostly. At present, he wore black pants and a matching long-sleeved shirt. But intricate and large orange swirls trailed down the boy's left arm, and he wore simple orange sandals. The boy (Kakashi didn't really want to call him a man yet) had a deeper voice, strikingly similar to his father's, but a little higher in pitch and less fluid. This was almost a new person. The only things that kept Kakashi acknowledging this person as Uzumaki Naruto were the mischievous sapphire eyes singular to the boy he once taught. The one-time sensei never felt his age as strongly as he did now— Naruto had grown up, so Kakashi must be growing old.

He couldn't help himself. Pulling up his hand, Kakashi leaned over to ruffle Naruto's hair, just like old times. It was a bit of compensation for the overload of change in front of him. When Naruto stuck his tongue out and looked at Kakashi grumpily; it was reassuring. No matter how different this person looked, he was still the little boy Kakashi found had changed his life in the subtlest of ways. It was ironic that Konoha's loudmouth could actually do something subtly, he thought. Kakashi's uncovered fingers pulled lightly on a few strands, simply relishing the smoothness. His eye took in the tawny light brown color, smiling at the blonde ends. How cute.

"It was black a few hours ago," Naruto said randomly. "My hair, I mean. I had to wash it five times in baa-chan's special shampoo or whatever just to get it to this shade." He huffed and mumbled some more under his breath, most likely complaining about it some more.

"Black, was it…" the Copy-nin repeated softly. He tried to picture it in his head: bright blue eyes coupled with dark black hair. But somehow he couldn't. A searing pain shot through his head, images flashing over overlapping one another. Naruto, Minato-sensei, Obito, Minato wearing goggles, Naruto with Sharingan eyes, Obito with whisker marks, and underlying all of them was an intensity of something. It was a split second, but he thought he saw a young man with bright, passionate eyes. A jolt flew through him and he realized he was falling. Luckily for him, Naruto had caught his arm before his head hit the ground and pulled him back up.

Blue eyes darkened. "Are you all right, Kakashi-sensei? What happened?"

"I don't know," he coughed. The jounin rubbed his temples with his hands as he leaned over the counter. "Naruto, start talking about something, anything." The visions were still impressed into his head, switching back and forth, although with less force than before. He hoped that the blonde talking would take his mind away from those images.

Surprisingly, Naruto didn't ask any more questions and did what he asked. "Um, well, Tenz— I mean, Yamato-taichou said he'd be here. But I think he ditched me, probably to go take care of his greenhouse or whatever. D'you know he wouldn't stop talking about them while we were away? He just goes on and on—"

Tenzou crying over his plants at his home was not something new to Kakashi. 'Yamato' had even given Kakashi numerous houseplants, but the copy-nin never could keep them alive. It wasn't until Ukki-san, the plant Naruto gave him, that Kakashi had any success with plants. Even back in their ANBU years during missions, Tenzou would muse to himself over the state of his bonsai or something similar. It would have been more annoying if not for the Mokuton user's extraordinary ability to successfully complete missions without a hitch. It was a good memory, something real, something that pushed those surreal things out of his mind.

"That's good. Keep going, Naruto." Kakashi could begin to make out the whorls on the counter.

"All right. Um… I forgot what I was just talking about."

Kakashi could now trace the outline of the ramen noodles in front of him. He smiled lightly. Of course he should have known better than to interrupt. "Doesn't matter. Go on to something else then."

"Oh. Okay. Let's see…I learned something really cool while I was away! Do you think I could show it to you before I appear before those ass— I mean, the "venerable elders"? I think you'd like to see it. Plus I made something for you as well. Are you okay now, Kakashi-sensei?"

Memories of past training and Naruto's "cool surprises" popped up. Good. They were solid, stable images. Not like what he just experienced. Now he could clearly see everything. He took a deep breath and looked up at his former student.

"I think I'm fine. Thank you Naruto."

Blue eyes brightened. "Anytime sensei!" he chirped. "But have you been getting enough sleep?"

Kakashi cocked his head to the side and his visible eye twinkled. "Yes. I don't know what happened. It's not a big deal Naruto, don't worry about it."

"If you're sure…"

"Naruto, it's my job as sensei to take care of you, not the other way around."

The blue-eyed one pursed his lips. "But technically, you're not my sensei anymore."

"Then why do you still call me Kakashi-sensei?"

He shrugged. "It's like a nickname, unless you want me to call you something like Kashi, or Kaka, or maybe Kakkun?" He tapped his chin with his finger, looking pensive. "They're all good choices…"

The elder one winced. Touché, Naruto. "Kakashi-sensei is fine. Kakashi-sama is preferable."

"When hell freezes over, Kakashi."

"Now that's too familiar," the grey-haired man said faux-sternly.

"Do you want me to constantly remind you that you're old?"

Wow, Kakashi thought, Naruto was actually managing to hold a witty argument. But after his sporadic episode, this was giving him a little headache. "On second thought, Kakashi or Kakashi-sensei is fine," he conceded.

Naruto smirked smugly. His expression was soon replaced by one of revelation. "Oh!" he exclaimed. "We should probably get home; I think baa-chan wants me to meet her early in the morning tomorrow."

"Really? I need to as well. Shall we go?" Kakashi began to pull out his wallet from his back pocket, but found that his arm was suddenly gripped by a strong hand.

"I can pay tonight."

Kakashi's eye widened. "You actually have money for once?" He was genuinely surprised, but he sounded quite sarcastic.

"Shut up, old man," he grumbled as he opened his wallet (a new one as well, but it still had a tiny frog sticker on it) and took out the proper amount of money.

"Somehow 'old man' is more preferable than Kakkun."

Naruto laughed, and Kakashi could see the relief in the boy's posture. Good. He didn't need to be worried about, really. The two walked out together, Naruto with a lightness to his step.

"TADAIMA, KONOHA!" he yelled.

"Naruto…" Kakashi scolded. "People are trying to rest now. Even for eighteen, you're still so obnoxious."

Naruto stuck his tongue out at him in response.

"But I guess it's sort of cute."

Kakashi counted the seconds it took for Naruto to process what he just said: six.

"Wait, what?" Blue eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "Is this like when you told me you thought you were falling in love with me?" Naruto squinted up at the older man, attempting to look like an intimidating interrogator.

Kakashi smirked again. It was weird how a few hours with Naruto made up for all the smiles he never smiled in the three years without the boy. "Yes," was the simple reply.

"You're weird, sensei."

"I know."

Naruto looked away.

The two walked side by side to Kakashi's apartment in silence. The jounin assumed Naruto would want to take in the sights of Konoha like that, and his assumption proved true. Neither of them felt uncomfortable, each happy just to have the other in their presence. But as they neared the apartment, Naruto couldn't contain himself.

"I really missed everything about Konoha."

Kakashi, unsure how to respond, replied with a vague grunt.

"Sakura-chan, Baa-chan, Iruka-sensei…"

The older man pressed the back of his hand to his forehead and sighed pitifully. "What? Didn't miss me? I'm hurt, Naruto."

"To be honest," Naruto said as he slowed to a stop, "I think I might have— Oh look! We're here." The teen chuckled sheepishly. It was dark, but Kakashi thought he saw a faint red on the boy's face under the street light. "I guess I should go home now. See you later, sensei." The dusky blonde walked away briskly, leaving his former teacher staring at his back, his eyebrows furrowed in mild confusion. Nevertheless, he didn't take his gaze away until the blonde disappeared behind the corner.

Then his stomach grumbled, and Kakashi realized he still hadn't eaten. He sighed and rolled his eyes before hopping up the stairs to his humble abode to raid his kitchen, hoping fervently that he still had some food left.

After a meager meal of cheap store-packaged onigiri, Kakashi went to bed and dreamt lightly.

Kakashi was swimming. The sun was bright, cheerful. The lake was vast and seemingly endless. Little ribbons of seaweed tickled his feet.

"I'll race you!" A voice called from the shore.

"Only if you can get over here," he shouted back.

He heard a splash, waited exactly four seconds before using his broad arms to swim towards the island in the middle. A gurgled yell came from behind, but he swam onwards.

Once reaching his destination, Kakashi splayed himself across the sand and sighed. The sun prickled at his wet back.

"You cheated—" the male behind him choked.

He only laughed. "There's no rule about not taking advantage of my beautifully long body."

"Shut up," the other grumbled before sprawling out beside him.

"Where's Kusano?" he asked nonchalantly.

"Said he didn't like water."

Kakashi made a noncommittal noise, and then fell silent, listened to the sloshing of the water at their feet. The other rolled over on top of him, head resting on his neck.

"Get off, fat ass." Kakashi mumbled.

So the male removed his lower half off, leaving his head and arms there. "My ass is off now."

He gave up, sighing. The weather was too nice to bicker with this pain in the ass of a boy.

Kakashi woke up remembering nothing of the dream, save for the name 'Kusano' and a very soft breath of warmth on his neck. He sighed. One more thing to add to the list of dreams. They were so vivid, so real. He couldn't remember all of the dreams, but he did remember what they felt like. But that was something to worry about for another time.

He got out of bed, preparing to meet the Godaime.

o-x-o-x-o

And there's chapter two! Hope you enjoyed. Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites, and story alerts! You don't know how appreciated that is. I think you all are absolutely fantastic. And because I forgot last time:

DISCLAIMER: The Naruto universe and characters belong to the talented Masashi Kishimoto. I, in no way, am making any profit on this story whatsoever and do this purely for entertainment.

So, that's my one and only disclaimer. I won't say it again, because it'll be implicitly stated with every chapter.

Life is really much better after you've watched Junjou Romantica and listened to Miyagi You's seiyu muttering sexual—I mean, silly things. Really. If you didn't know, he happens to be Kakashi's voice actor. (lecherous grin) Anyway, please tell me what you thought!

Ja ne,

Vi