Teachers and their Pets

Chapter 20

The next day

Asuma let out a sigh as he tramped along one of the many village paths. So, so far, outside of himself and Ino, only Kurenai, Inoichi, and Noriko knew the truth. The man was still quite shaken from the interaction the day before. Of course he'd been aware that he and Ino were going to have to tell everyone about their relationship eventually. But having it sprung on him like that? That had not been a fun experience.

The Sarutobi retrieved his packet of cigarettes from his pocket and tapped one of the sticks out. Next up he and Ino were going to have to tell the rest of their team; Choji and Shikamaru.

Asuma was dreading those interactions. How exactly did you go about telling your former students that you were in a relationship with another former student? And their best friend no less. The bearded man couldn't stand the idea of losing his closeness with Shikamaru and Choji.

"Hey Sensei!"

At the sound of a familiar voice, Asuma turned, only to see Choji himself smiling widely at him, hands on his hips.

"Choji!" Asuma grinned as he began lighting his cigarette. "Feeling better then, I guess?"

"Yup!" Choji nodded his head importantly. "All I needed was some good food and a lot of rest!"

Asuma brought his ciggie away from his lips and raised an eyebrow, his lips quirking slightly. "You weren't just using your illness to skip training were ya Choji?"

Choji paled. "No! No Sensei!" He defended while Asuma chuckled. "I'd have come if I could, you know that."

Asuma reached out his free hand to ruffle the boy's hair. "I know," he confirmed. "And don't worry about it; you've not exactly been missing much."

Choji smiled and then nodded, looking up at his Sensei from underneath his hand. "Yeah, Shikamaru told me. Ino's ill too, huh?"

Asuma stiffened, suddenly whipping his hand out of Choji's hair. "Uh…" He hastily brought his cigarette up to his lips. "Yeah, she's ill."

"That sucks," Choji muttered, apparently not put off by his Sensei's sudden change in attitude. "I feel kinda bad; it's my fault she got sick you know."

Asuma shook his head. "No it's not Choji. You need to stop putting yourself down."

Choji ducked his head slightly, apparently pleased by these words. "Thanks Sensei, I'll try. Anyway, Shikamaru and I were going to go visit Ino. Do you want to come?"

Asuma nearly choked on the smoke he was inhaling. Just imagine the reaction if I came back the next day with two clueless former students in tow. An image of Inoichi's furious face flashed into the Sarutobi's mind, and then the man shook his head.

"I think I'll leave you guys to it," he returned. "If you're well enough, we can do some training tomorrow."

Choji grinned and punched his fists in the air enthusiastically at these words. "Yeah!" He crowed. "Sounds good Asuma Sensei! I've missed training."

Once again Asuma ruffled the boy's hair and then he grinned as he watched the chubby boy begin galloping off. The grin stalled on the tanned man's face however when he envisioned how the Akimichi would react to the news about he and Ino.

Please Ino, for the love of all things good, please do not tell them about our relationship without me there.

Asuma half considered running after Choji, but quickly reconsidered. There was no point. Ino wasn't dumb. She'd know to keep it quiet, at least for now.

The Sarutobi began moving his feet again, walking aimlessly without direction. He wasn't quite sure where the other Jōnin were, but he had the distinct feeling he should probably talk to Kurenai soon. Whether he liked it or not, Kurenai knew about his relationship with Ino. He just hoped to God she didn't think anything untoward about it. Asuma had faith that Kurenai would not spread her knowledge; she was a good woman, and kind. But still…he felt uneasy knowing that she knew. He was going to have to speak to her, to straightened everything out…and perhaps apologise.

"Yo."

Asuma glanced to the side only to see Kakashi leaning against a wall, his eye trained on the book in his hand. The Sarutobi stopped.

"Hey Hatake," he greeted. "How's it going?"

"As good as it could be," Kakashi replied and Asuma suddenly got the feeling there was a thousand unsaid things behind that relatively mundane statement. "You? You look kinda stressed."

Asuma frowned slightly, taking his ciggie from his lips and throwing it to the ground before crushing it underfoot. Brow scrunched, he shrugged.

"Do I?" He was crap at the whole lying thing when it came to his personal life. Give Asuma a million enemy ninja all demanding intel and he could hold out for months upon months. Give Asuma one friend asking an ordinary question and the man would be accidentally spilling his guts in no time. Especially when that friend was Kakashi Hatake. The silver haired man was way too perceptive for his own good. Even now the Copy Ninja seemed to be scanning Asuma, his free eye flicking up and down the Sarutobi's body. "Well, I, uh, I'm not feeling stressed."

Kakashi closed his eyes and his mask stretched slightly, indicating he was smiling. "Glad to hear it," he winced suddenly and brought his hand up to touch his clothed face. "A lot of your students are out of commission, I was just wondering whether that was bothering you."

Instead of replying to this statement, Asuma, instead, peered curiously at his friend. "Have you hurt yourself or something Hatake?"

There was a brief flash of worry that crossed over Kakashi's face, but he quickly recovered, raising an eyebrow in intrigue at the other man's question.

"Huh? Oh," he waved his free hand in the air. "Nothing really, I simply hit my face against the door in the middle of the night."

It was the worst excuse Asuma had ever heard. Something was up.

"Really?"

Kakashi watched worriedly as the cogs in Asuma's brain began whirling. That had been an awful excuse, but he couldn't exactly say Naruto had punched him now, could he!? And he couldn't say he'd been on a mission, because then Asuma would only start to ask more questions, if he even believed him in the first place.

"That's pretty clumsy of you Kakashi," Asuma tucked his hands into his pockets, leaning forwards slightly. "Why haven't you had it healed? Surely Sakura could handle that for you?"

If only Kakashi grumbled inwardly. After Naruto had punched him, the blond had apparently been resolute in staying in the house, forcing Kakashi to eventually sidle out. The Hatake was pretty certain that if he'd demanded healing, Naruto would have punched him again. Kakashi was still pretty sore about the fact that the Uzumaki had even managed a punch on him. The boy was strong, but he still wasn't quite Jōnin level.

There was no time to dwell over this again however, as Kakashi realised Asuma was awaiting an answer. He stumbled over his words as he replied.

"Yeah, um, Sakura's been busy with training-" Crap, he was making it sound like he'd been spending a lot of time with Sakura. He needed to reel this in. "-and I'm sure she wouldn't, uh, want to waste time with her boring old Sensei. I'll go to the hospital eventually, I'm just procrastinating."

Asuma chuckled. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind Kakashi; less bother for the hospital that way too."

Kakashi went to scratch his face and then winced as he realised he was itching his bruise. "Uh. You're probably right. Yeah…" He needed the attention off of him. Now. "How's Ino?"

Asuma jolted. "What?" He choked out.

Kakashi could barely conceal his smirk behind his mask. "She's been ill," he reminded his friend. "Is she doing ok?"

Asuma recovered quickly, casting a quick suspicious look at the man as he did so. "Yeah, she's, uh, fine…I presume. I guess she's probably alright. I don't know. I just saw Choji though, he's good. How's Naruto?"

Kakashi was better at lying than Asuma was. "Good. He's good."

The two Jōnin stared at each other for a few seconds, both trying to suss each other out. Kakashi knew about Asuma's relationship with Ino, he was just wondering when the Sarutobi was planning on telling him about it. Asuma didn't quite know what was up with his friend, but he could tell it was something to do with his former students.

The man's chocolate brown orbs widened slightly. It couldn't be?

"How'd you really get that injury Kakashi?"

"How's Ino really, Asuma?"

Oh crap. He knew. Asuma stiffened.

Oh crap. He was working it out. Kakashi's grip on his book tightened.

So I'm sorry that it's taken so long for this to be updated and that there's no smut in this chapter again! D: I hope you're enjoying it enough though!

Thank you so so so much to all the lovely people who have favourited and followed this, it means sooooo much to me.

Also, thank you to: deathrosekitty, ctm07, EnviousLostAngel, Guest, Brina, Laurie, marimbagirl1993, bookluv22, Bella (Thank you so much! Your reviews always put a smile on my face), StarKiss666, Trunksmybaby, harvestangel99, electrickpanda (I agree completely) for all your reviews! They mean so much to me! I still can't believe this fic is doing so well! Ahhh!