A/N: I own nothing except my own creations; everything else belongs to the extremely talented Masashi Kishimoto. Jerrie, I will definitely be getting those two together officially eventually but at the moment they're both too blind to see it…but stay tuned cuz the romance (as much as I can) will come soon for those two.
RIVALRIES AND WELL LAID PLANS
The next morning, Reyna and Kakashi were just emerging from the Coffee Hut when they ran into Gai. Kakashi nodded to his old rival friend and headed down the street with Reyna. Gai fell in step on the other side of Kakashi.
"So my youthful rival, you have started drinking the wonderful potion that is known as coffee!" Gai flashed a bright smile at Kakashi who didn't even look up from his book.
"Yeah," was his reply.
"Well, perhaps that should be our next match! Who can drink the most coffee!" Gai exclaimed drawing a look from Reyna.
"Sorry, Gai, but you'd both lose that one. Neither of you can even come close to matching my caffeine intake," Reyna smirked.
"Ah yes! You have the power of youth on your side! Well perhaps we should see who can find a girl the fastest!" Gai turned his attention back to challenging Kakashi.
"I win," Kakashi muttered, draping his arm around Reyna's shoulders and maneuvering so that he could still read his book and drink his coffee.
"Ah! So you have won this round! Very clever, my eternal rival but I shall best you in our next competition!" Gai shouted before he was running down the street ahead of them.
Kakashi removed his arm from around Reyna as they continued on their way down the street. They didn't really have a destination in mind since Kakashi had decided they could have a day off of training as well as missions. They had a training time scheduled for the following day, however. Reyna sipped at her coffee as Kakashi continued to read his book and they eventually found themselves at the top of the Hokage monument. Reyna dropped down and stared idly at the village below them.
She jerked her head up when she heard someone approaching from behind them and sniffed the air. She relaxed again when she recognized the scent carried on the wind as belonging to Jiraiya. She settled back into watching the village as he approached the pair.
"I see you're still enjoying that one, Kakashi!" Jiraiya called in way of greeting and Kakashi looked up from his book.
"I have to say, this may be the best one of the series so far, Jiraiya," Kakashi smiled at his old friend.
"Although why you would be reading a book when you have such beautiful company is beyond me," Jiraiya smiled as he looked over at Reyna.
"How have you been, Jiraiya-Sensei?" Reyna looked up at the Toad Sage and her former teacher with a small smile.
"Well, I would be doing better if I knew that one of my best students wasn't running around the Sand village naked and drunk and hugging random ninja!" Jiraiya snapped.
"Oh no, you have Ninja book?" Reyna asked, a little horrified at that idea.
"Of course I do! How do you think I keep in touch with all my fans…and it's a great way to do some research!"
Kakashi sighed and shook his head, "I warned them about the difference in the alcohol levels."
"Oh and I seem to recall a few pictures of you two as well. And of course one of my other top students would just have to have been dancing with this masked Baka! Now how is it that two of the Leaf's best ninja end up drunk with their students and the Kazekage?"
"It was Gaara's birthday," Reyna started but Jiraiya cut her off.
"And that means you condone drinking? Honestly, I thought you were better than that!"
Reyna shrugged, "It seemed like a good idea at the time. Besides, I seem to recall a few times when you were far from sober! Don't ever forget that I have an excellent memory and I didn't like you the entire time I spent training with you."
Kakashi shook his head, "That and after everything else that had happened while we were there, I think we all needed a chance to just relax and blow off some steam. Besides which, I also seem to recall a few incidents with you and sake. You're forgetting that Minato was my teacher and he had more stories than you probably care to think that he had about you. But enough about whether or not ninja should partake in a few drinks; I take it you received my note about Kayha?" Kakashi asked, effectively changing the subject.
Jiraiya nodded, sobering in an instant, "Yeah, I did and if what you told me in that letter is correct, I'm not even sure I'll be able to properly reseal it. In fact, I kind of doubt even Minato would have been able to."
Reyna quirked a brow but remained silent as the two continued to discuss the likelihood of successfully resealing the curse mark. She finished her coffee and stared out over the village, not realizing that the two had finished talking and were watching her. Jiraiya finally laid a hand on her shoulder and she jumped before glancing up at him.
"Sorry, guess I just kind of zoned out there for a minute," Reyna said sheepishly.
"More like ten minutes," Kakashi muttered, drawing a glare from her and a grin from Jiraiya.
"Well, I was just telling Kakashi that we should head in and grab something to eat, but he wouldn't leave without you. Is there a reason for that?" he asked glancing between the two of them with a grin. "I heard a rumor that you two were never more than six inches away from one another and that you, Reyna, had been spending every night at Kakashi's apartment. Now what would all that be about, hmmm?"
"It's not what you think it is," Kakashi stepped in quickly.
"Really? And why else would a lovely young woman like Reyna here spend every night at the apartment of a man?"
Reyna shifted out from under Jiraiya's hand on her shoulder and pushed herself to her feet as Kakashi answered, "Because she did something so incredibly stupid and dangerous and damn near got herself killed that said man, who is also her team leader, decided that she needed an escort!"
Jiraiya glanced at Reyna who shrugged, "What? I admit, it was a stupid thing to do but I don't know who he thinks I'm going to take off after now. And don't give me that look Jiraiya-Sensei, you knew damn well that you'd never change me completely. I'm just not nearly as reckless as I used to be, all the time."
Jiraiya quirked a brow at Kakashi with a knowing smirk and Kakashi threw his hands in the air, "Fine. Reyna I drop my order of escort, just don't do anything stupid!"
Reyna shot Jiraiya a grin and headed down the mountainside, "Great, that means I get my own bed again!"
Jiraiya's mouth fell open at that comment and he turned to Kakashi, "You had better start explaining!"
Kakashi rolled his eye as the two of them followed Reyna's path down the mountain, "It's not like that. I didn't trust her not to take off in the middle of the night, so we shared a room. Then after the whole Kayha thing, she was barely holding it together so I figured it would be a good idea to stay close to her especially at night. It's not like I'm some drooling lecher. Stop looking at me like that, Jiraiya!"
Jiraiya just continued to grin as they headed into Ichiraku, "Right, because you weren't hoping that there might be the possibility of something else happening."
"No, I wasn't! I was just trying to make sure she was okay after everything that happened," Kakashi was getting frustrated now as Jiraiya ordered and Kakashi just shook his head.
"Kakashi, there's a difference between making sure someone is alright or keeping them from doing something stupid and just wanting to be close to them."
"I'm telling you, that's all there was to it. It had nothing to do with anything other than keeping my team safe."
Jiraiya sighed and shook his head, "If you say so, Kakashi. Now what else do you know about this Kayha and what happened when the curse mark was broken."
As they continued to talk about Kayha and how they were going to reseal the mark, Reyna was collecting her things from Kakashi's apartment and moving them back to her own. She left a note for him telling him that she had taken a copy of Make-Out Tactics so that she could finish it and would return it when she was done. Once she was finished, she climbed to the roof of her apartment building to watch the sun slowly sink into the horizon.
Her thoughts turned to Minato and how proud he would have been of everything that Naruto had accomplished. It was because of Naruto that Gaara had become the Kazekage and put in an effort to get close to people. She sighed, wishing there was some way she could tell Naruto who his father had been and how much he would have meant to the Fourth. An idea started to form in her mind and she leapt to the street below her building. What she was going to need was some help and a few things that had belonged to the Fourth Hokage. She headed down the street, nose in the wind in an attempt to catch Jiraiya's scent.
It didn't take her nearly as long to find the Toad Sage as she thought that it would and she stepped into the lounge where he was sitting in a corner booth watching the girls. She shook her head and dropped into a seat on the other side of the table from him. Jiraiya glanced up, still sober which she took to mean that he hadn't been there that long.
"I need some help with something," Reyna started and he quirked a brow at her.
"Alright and do I get to know what it is that you're planning?" he asked, thinking it had something to do with Kakashi.
"Well, I was thinking about Minato," Jiraiya's mouth fell open for a second but he recovered quickly, " and Naruto. It's really not fair that he doesn't have a freaking clue that his father was the Fourth. He's sixteen years old, I'm pretty sure he can accept what it was that Minato had to do. I'm not saying I just want to walk up to him and say, 'So, by the way your dad was the Fourth.' He's got to work for it, I agree, but eventually he's going to figure it out anyway."
Jiraiya sat speechless for a few seconds before he found his voice again, "And what exactly did you have in mind then? You do realize it's forbidden to tell him."
Reyna nodded, "Yeah, I know. But you can't sit there and tell me that after everything that kid's worked to get in his life, you haven't wanted to just tell him everything."
Jiraiya sighed, "I've wanted to tell him ever since I started training him at the Chuunin exams. You also realize he's going to hate Kakashi for not telling him, especially when he realizes that Minato was his teacher, along with me and you and everyone else that knew the Fourth."
Again Reyna nodded, "I was planning on writing an explanation for him about why he was never told. He'll understand that it was forbidden and he won't hate any of us for following orders. We are shinobi after all and we have to follow them."
Jiraiya thought it over for a few minutes, aware of Reyna's pleading and expectant expression, "So what do you need from me? You're right, the kid's old enough and strong enough to know the truth but at the same time he's just too damn dense to figure it out for himself."
"I need something that belonged to Minato. I was hoping you could get his Hokage cloak and the key for his estates. Rightfully it is Naruto's. I have this kind of puzzle box thing that I can put everything into and the only way to get into it is to remove the correct piece of the puzzle. He could even use his Rasengan on it and it won't break."
Jiraiya nodded, "I have his cloak and the key to the estate. He'll have to be warned that there are genjutsu traps on the place though and he needs to use the key to get in safely. I can get them to you tomorrow morning."
"Alright, thanks Jiraiya. We have a training session scheduled for ten tomorrow morning, so Kakashi will get there around noon. But I can't be late or they'll suspect something. Do you think you could just drop it all off at my apartment and then keep Naruto busy for the afternoon after we're done training?"
Jiraiya nodded, "I wouldn't mind talking to the knucklehead anyway. I haven't seen him in a while."
Reyna grinned and stood, "Awesome! I'll see ya tomorrow then!"
Jiraiya watched her walk out of the lounge and shook his head. He knew that eventually someone would think of some way to tell Naruto about Minato, but he had always kind of thought it would be Iruka or maybe even Kakashi. It had never occurred to him that it would be the wolf of all people. Then again, he guessed it made sense. If anyone had close family ties it would be a wolf, and especially one that had gone through what she had gone through. He sighed and shook his head, feeling sorry for his two former students. He ordered another round which he drank slowly before he stood and headed for his own apartment where he dug out Minato's Hokage cloak and the key to the estate. He wrote his own note to Naruto, telling him that if he needed to talk to someone about the whole thing that all he had to do was send a letter and Jiraiya would be in the village as soon as he possibly could.
Reyna returned to her own apartment, beaming after talking to Jiraiya. She knew that Minato and Jiraiya had been close and that it must have been even harder for him to keep everything from Naruto. Sighing she changed into more comfortable clothes, which now included fuzzy pants. She had to admit that Kayha was right about them, they had to be the most comfortable clothes in the world to sleep in. She flipped off the light in her bedroom and curled up in her bed expecting to fall asleep quickly. Despite the fact that she was tired, she found herself tossing and turning, unable to find a comfortable position to sleep in.
Sighing she slipped out of her bed and grabbed her keys on her way to the door, "Well, somebody might as well suffer because of my insomnia."
With that muttered, she locked the door of her apartment behind her and headed out into the street. It didn't take her long to walk across the village to Kakashi's apartment building. She found herself standing in front of his door and shook her head, wondering why in the world she had thought that this would be a good idea. Chances were she was going to wake him up and she knew just how bitchy he was when that happened. Still, she raised her hand and knocked on his door before stepping back to lean against the wall opposite it.
She was surprised when he opened the door a couple of seconds' later, book in hand, "Hey."
"Hey, did I wake you?" she asked, though by the presence of the book she doubted she had.
"No, I was just reading. You do realize it's almost one in the morning right?" he asked before stepping back and motioning for her to enter.
"Yeah, I couldn't sleep. I came up with a plan tonight and I guess I'm just too wired over it."
Kakashi shot her a look, "Now what are you planning on doing?"
Reyna shook her head, "Relax, I'm not running off to fight anyone this time. I just finally figured out a way to tell Naruto about Minato without actually telling him."
Kakashi looked confused, "You what?"
"It'll take Naruto a while to get into that puzzle box, but Jiraiya-Sensei's helping me out by letting me give Naruto Minato's cloak and the key to the estate. I'm going to include a couple of scrolls about how we were forbidden to tell him and blah, blah, blah. It's just not fair that he doesn't know. I think he's more than earned that right."
Kakashi nodded, surprising Reyna that he was agreeing, "Just make sure you mention that if he wants to know more about Minato he can come and talk to me if he wants. After all, he was my teacher."
Reyna nodded, "Sure thing. I just couldn't sleep and figured that since I couldn't sleep someone might as well have to suffer for my insomnia."
Kakashi smiled under his mask and dropped onto the couch. Reyna followed suit and dropped down to sit beside him. He handed her another copy of the first book of the series and she settled in to read as well. It didn't take long before the words started to blur together and she found herself fighting to keep her eyes open. A quick glance at Kakashi revealed that he seemed to have the same problem. She wasn't going to say anything to him but instead shifted so that her head was against his shoulder and she continued to read.
Kakashi snuck a glance over at her as she laid her head on his shoulder and shifted his arm so that she could be a bit more comfortable in that position. He returned his attention to his book and that was the last thing he remembered until morning. Reyna growled under her breath as she shifted her position and found that she was falling to the floor. She landed with a thud and snapped her head up, suddenly realizing that she had fallen asleep on Kakashi's couch; with Kakashi. She shook her head and glanced at the clock on the wall realizing that if she was going to meet Naruto and Sakura on time she would have to leave in the next ten minutes.
"Shit!" she growled, drawing a sleep filled look from Kakashi.
"What?" he asked groggily.
"I have ten minutes to meet Naruto and Sakura and I'm still in fuzzy pants!" she snarled.
"So be late. It's not like I'm going to be on time anyway."
"And if I'm late and Naruto goes home to find a puzzle box and a note explaining that it contains items that belonged to his father, he's going to know it was me who put it there! I've got to go!"
She didn't give Kakashi a chance to answer before she launched to her feet and out the window. She took to the rooftops, running as hard as she could back to her own apartment. She changed in record time while she brushed her teeth. She didn't bother with brushing her hair, instead she grabbed hair elastics on the way back out the door and as she ran to the training grounds she tied it back in a messy ponytail.
"Nice look, Reyna!" Iruka called out as she passed him on her mad run to meet her team, taking in her messy hair and less than tight wraps.
"Yeah, I kind of slept in!" she hollered back, not even bothering to slow down.
She reached her destination just as Naruto was walking up and she skidded to a halt in front of him, panting. Naruto took one look at her and burst into laughter. She glared at him and glanced down at herself finally noting the fact that the wrap around her left ankle was already starting to come undone. Growling under her breath, she knelt down and started rewrapping her ankles and her right thigh.
"Great we have one Jounin who's never on time and one who shows up only half dressed…Why me?" Naruto finally managed to sputter as Reyna stood upright.
She had left the vest in preference of speed in getting out of her apartment and was sincerely hoping she had enough kunai and shuriken in her hip pouch to get her through their morning training. She sighed and as Sakura walked up was going through a quick inventory of what she had available for weapons.
Kakashi appeared, only an hour late and they got to work training. Reyna settled back and let the others do most of the training, only getting involved when she thought that Kakashi was going to say something about it. They were still working when Jiraiya appeared and Kakashi finally called an end to the training session. Jiraiya gave Reyna a nod and she grinned in response before making an excuse and beating a hasty retreat from the group.
Once back in her apartment, Reyna carefully opened the large wooden box and placed Minato's folded cloak in the bottom followed by the letter she wrote before and attaching the key to an old frog keychain she had. Sealing the box, she quickly wrote another note, explaining the box and how it could not be broken, only opened in a particular manner that the receiver had to find out on their own. A single hand sign had her concealed in shadows and she headed the few blocks down to Naruto's apartment.
She slipped inside, not worried about traps since it was Naruto and placed the box in the middle of his bed before she slipped back outside. Once on the rooftop she dropped her concealment and headed for Ichiraku, betting that's where Naruto had taken Jiraiya. She had guessed right and gave a slight nod to Jiraiya before she was interrupted by Iruka.
"Reyna, Lady Tsunade wants to speak with you as soon as possible," he said lightly.
Reyna nodded, "See you guys later!" she called out to Jiraiya and Naruto before she headed to the Hokage's office.
A/N: I had to have some fun at Reyna's expense! So as always my muse lives on reviews so please review and let me know what you thought! Next up…The New Pack! More fun and games for Reyna and the start of something more…tangible between Reyna and Kakashi! Stay tuned!