Hurrah for a new chapter! Sorry for the wait, as always. I think I would apologize for the wait even if I updated once a day. Damn, that would kill me. Well, I'm sure you're all excited to see the cliff-hanger broken. What will Kakashi-sensei do? Read, and ye shall receive.

Dedicated to the charming and lovely Sora-chan, in all her maidenly glory. Happy late anniversary to her and her beautiful fiancé Tsumi-chan. May their love grow like the branches of a tree, spreading towards the heavens and sheltering the lives that lay twined with their roots.

Disclaimer: Not mine, never, ever and always.

Habitual Infatuation .::. Chapter Nine

Now this was interesting.

For a ninja whose very livelihood depended on the art of subtlety, Kakashi had an uncanny flair for the dramatic. He remembered the very first challenge he'd ever presented his students with: a quest to take three shining bells from him. It had been a simple enough concept, yet bursting with buried intrigue. That was the sort of thing he loved: contrasts, hidden twists, and complexity masked by simplicity.

And it seemed he had stumbled upon a perfect blend of all three.

For the past few weeks, Sakura and Kakashi had been enjoying a mild vacation of sorts: moseying through quiet villages, eating good food, training when they felt like it and not when they didn't. The twosome had almost completely forgotten about the teammates they'd left behind, they were so enjoying their time away from them. It was amazing how quiet life became when you removed the two loudest components in it. Eventually, Kakashi and Sakura had awoken from their peaceful stupor as if from a dream and had decided they'd stranded the bickering shinobi long enough to make them realize the error of their ways.

"Perhaps this will teach them to pay more attention to the world around them than to their own petty squabbling," Kakashi had imparted to Sakura earlier that morning, stretching languidly after a deep night's sleep. The pink-haired girl, still curled up next to the remnants of their campfire, had merely nodded dreamily and rolled over in her bed of ferns, preparing to grab a last few hours of peaceful rest while she still could. Kakashi had chuckled to her sleeping back and vanished, opting to let the girl rest while he picked the boys up on his own. He figured the poor girl deserved a few extra hours of beauty sleep before the typhoons known as Naruto and Sasuke returned to keep her always on her toes.

Little had Kakashi known how grateful he would be that he'd left Sakura behind. He could imagine the look of sheer Apocalyptic horror that would have come over her face had she even glimpsed what Kakashi was now staring at leisurely. Hell, even he was beginning to think it might be a good idea to check the sky for the Four Horsemen and a gaping, chaotic void.

The sight before him was one he could only wrap his mind around because he happened to be a particularly perverted individual. The two young boys before him were staring intently into each other's eyes with a look that only new lovers could possibly share. And if that look wasn't enough, their close proximity, lack of clothes, and tousled appearance said it all. Naruto and Sasuke had recently shared an intimate physical bond.

I turn my back for one second and look what happens. Kakashi shook his head in disbelief. Of all the things he'd expected to come back to, this was certainly not it. Boys certainly did grow up fast these days. It was almost too wild to believe.

But the real shock came just a moment later.

The boys were so fixated on each other that they hadn't yet picked up on Kakashi's presence. Sasuke's face held a look of pain and fear that Kakashi couldn't understand. The next words out of the dark-haired boy's mouth, however, clarified everything.

"I love you."

Kakashi's eyes widened nearly as much as Naruto's. There's no fucking way, was the first thought that entered his mind. Naruto and Sasuke were mortal enemies. It was impossible enough that they had somehow formed a physical attraction to each other, despite the fact that they were both young, healthy, and of above-average attractiveness… but love? How the fuck did that happen?

Kakashi had to take a moment to appreciate the sheer insanity of what was going on. The last time he'd seen these boys, they'd been openly engaged in a war of pride, each one determined to out-do the other out of simple hatred. Now, the stereotypical, hyper-active ninja-on-crack was blushing like a blonde schoolgirl while the stoic, silent, bad-boy type was spouting love confessions.

What. The. Fuck.

The writers of shoujo manga everywhere would die if they saw this.

"Well, well, what have we here?" The words tumbled from Kakashi's lips of their own accord. Honestly, he could think of nothing better to say. He had to break this scene somehow before it got any weirder.

He watched with a mild sense of amusement as both boys snapped straight up like cracked whips. Their eyes shot over to him and widened in perfect unison, mouths falling open in disbelief. The heat of the moment must have given them a touch of amnesia. Kakashi smiled beneath the mask covering the majority of his face. They've forgotten completely why they are in these woods in the first place.

Sasuke was the first to recover, and he fixed his teacher with a lethal look normally reserved for the most treacherous of enemies. "Kakashi-sensei, I fucking hate you."

The older ninja had never heard such pure venom before in his life, especially from a young male standing completely naked with another young male. Sasuke did not seem to care about his lack of clothing from the predatory, possessive stance he took in front of Naruto: his long arms crossed in front of his chest, eyebrows drawn together, and his body obviously forming a shield to keep Kakashi from looking at Naruto. The look in his black eyes almost made Kakashi feel as if he had done something wrong.

Well, I did interrupt what seemed to be a very special moment between these two, the sensei thought, half-serious and half-sarcastic. Maybe I should have left them alone for another minute or two…

Kakashi stopped that train of thought right there. This was serious business! Sex and love on the battlefield were treated with about the same amount of delicacy as treason. Naruto and Sasuke's actions had given him enough reason to…

Kakashi stopped short.

He could really do it.

Protocol demanded that he did.

In this situation… his orders were to take his two ninja and trade them to other sensei for two new team members.

Kakashi looked back and forth from Naruto to Sasuke, noting what a striking contrast the bewildered look on one ninja's face presented to the positively murderous one on the other.

And then Kakashi was struck with a thought. A thought that fit his personality perfectly.

Why in the name of all things hentai would he separate these two when things just got interesting? Their fighting before was certainly amusing, but this new aspect to their relationship presented their sensei with an untold number of ways to torment them.

If they wanted to be in love, that was their problem. If they thought it was going to be easy, that was Kakashi's problem.

If either Sasuke or Naruto had been able to see the evil grin hidden under Kakashi's mask, they might have run for cover. Their sensei was already formulating a plan to drag out this turn of events to its fullest extent.

"Well, I see you two have been busy since I left," Kakashi drawled lazily, his eyes roving over his two pupils.

Naruto's face immediately turned a flaming shade of coral pink. Sasuke merely growled and positioned himself to cover even more of his lover's naked form.

With a blurred flash of gray movement, Kakashi appeared on the other side of the clearing, earning himself a perfect look at Naruto's unshielded, heart-shaped ass. He heard a snarl from Sasuke, and in the blink of an eye the dark-haired ninja switched positions to recover the blonde. Naruto himself had not moved, obviously still too stunned by the situation to do much more than blush adorably.

Kakashi chuckled, ignoring the look of animalistic rage that Sasuke was shooting at him. If he antagonized the poor boy anymore, they might just have a brawl on their hands. "I'll give you two a moment to collect yourselves. I have to go back for Sakura anyways. I was intending to bring you to her, but you're not in quite the right…condition for travel. I'm sure you're sore and exhausted." Kakashi laughed again as the faces of both boys darkened with embarrassment.

"I'll return for you at dusk, and I'll have Sakura with me. Do try to be presentable by then. I don't want the poor girl scarred for life."

Kakashi began to walk away, but before he did so, one last evil idea popped into his head. He glanced over his shoulder, turning part of the way to shout back, "Oh, and when I return, we'll also discuss what is to be done with the both of you in the future. This new relationship of yours changes everything… in ways you can't even imagine."

With that, he walked silently off into the thick trees.

Sasuke was nearly paralyzed with fear as he watched his retreating teacher's back until it disappeared into the growth. What did Kakashi mean by that last comment? How did his relationship with Naruto change anything other than his feelings for him? That made absolutely no sense….

Sasuke's features tightened into a look of unbearable pain. He remembered reading something about this before. He'd studied ninja protocol to the letter for so long… but there was one area he'd never paid particular interest to.

Ninja-to-ninja romantic relationships.

What need could he have possibly had for reading those protocols? Sasuke did not fall in love; therefore, he would never have to deal with any problems that transpired from such a thing. He had skimmed that section and moved on.

Now the words came flooding back to him.

The punishment for becoming involved with a shinobi from another village… the punishment for having an affair with your sensei or student… the punishment for engaging in sexual relations during a mission with the provider of the mission.

The entire section was nothing but a list of punishments.

Sasuke couldn't remember what happened if you became involved with a teammate. Naruto had been his enemy, and Sakura meant nothing to him. Why would he have ever needed to know that?

Sasuke's mouth went completely dry with fear.

What was going to happen to them?

"Sasuke." A calm voice broke through the dark-haired ninja's racing thoughts. Sasuke glanced behind him and saw Naruto, looking as beautiful as ever though quite a bit more serious.

"We should get cleaned up," Naruto stated reasonably, showing not a hint of the fear that Sasuke felt deep in his heart. Sasuke was torn between worrying for their future, wishing this had never happened, and wanting above all else to take Naruto in his arms and hear the blonde ninja tell him he loved him. Why was Naruto being so calm?

"Naruto, you realize how much trouble we're in, correct?" Sasuke's eyes became hard as onyx as he scanned his lover's face.

No flash of emotion came to those ocean-blue eyes. Naruto nodded slowly. "Believe it or not, I know the rules about as well as you do. What we did is not acceptable in any society, not even that of the shinobi."

Sasuke opened his mouth to speak, but could not find his words. It hurt him so much to see such impassivity from Naruto. He wanted the carefree boy to return and challenge him to a pointless battle of pride. There were so many questions he wanted to ask, but in the end he was just too afraid of what the answer might be. He settled for a simple one: "Naruto… do you think what we did was acceptable?"

Sasuke waited with bated breath for the answer.

Naruto stared him full in the face. The silence between them stretched tight like a thread of silk. After a pause that seemed immeasurable to Sasuke, Naruto's face softened like clay under the hands of a potter. "When have I ever cared about what is acceptable?"

Naruto turned away and walked in the direction of their bathing pool, leaving Sasuke standing alone to ponder the meaning of his words.

To be continued….

The next chapter is the last! Let me know what you think now, since you don't have many more chances. Love you all .