The Hidden Countries;
Chapter Ten,
Hypocrite
Rose Potter was bored. When Rose Potter was bored, things started to happen, usually bad things. But unfortunately for Rose, there was nothing for her to do here and therefore in accordance to the rule, something had to happen.
Rose, really was just waiting for something to happen. She knew that she really wouldn't have to wait a very long time.
"We have finished our youthful laps my youthful student!" A yell sounded from behind Rose, and before she could even turn around, she got knocked over.
"I'm so sorry, Gai-Sensei! I knocked down a youthful lady!" Another more boyish voice yelled.
Rose turned around to see two people she assumed had to be father and son. They both had black hair, styled in a bowl haircut. They both had dark eyes and these horrifying green jumpsuits. Rose connected the outfits with people who cleaned sewers.
Except that they were ninja.
"Lee!" The older man yelled, hitting the boy on the back of the head – sending the boy flying, much to Rose's bewilderment. "Apologise!"
"I'm so sorry!" Lee cried getting to his feet and throwing himself at Rose. Rose dodged and the boy kept flying.
"I'm sorry for my wayward student, Lady!" Gai yelled dramatically. Rose kind of felt cornered... She really should have just stayed at home...
"It's okay," Rose said slowly, standing up.
"Lee! As your punishment you have to do another 500 laps around Konoha!"
"Yes, Gai-Sensei!" Lee yelled before he ran away in a cloud of smoke.
Rose looked at the kid with surprise. "...Isn't that a little bit too much...?"
"Never, my Lady! My eternal rival and I do thousands of laps at a time!" Gai said giving her a wide smile, which most likely turned her blind.
"Er – right... Wait, eternal rival?" Rose said confused.
"My eternal rival, Hatake Kakashi! We battle to see who is the coolest; our tally is now at 50-51 in his favour!" Gai said with an air of almightily despair.
"Er- Right," Rose said. Kakashi was friends with this... uh, nutcase?
"I am Might Gai! What is your name young flower?" He asked, with Rose would assume would be charm.
"Um, Potter Rose? It's nice to meet you?" Rose asked sounding confused.
"Rose-Chan, you are the most beautiful flower that I've seen today!" Gai continued to yell gaining the attention of people around them.
"...Sure?" Rose didn't even know what he was saying...
"Alright, Gai, time to leave the young lady alone," A voice the belonged to another ninja said. This one had short black hair, and was slightly chubby; he also had a smoke dangling from his lips.
"But!"
"I hear Kakashi wanted to challenge you before," the man bribed.
Gai's eyes lit up. "I will see you, young flower. For now, I must go challenge my eternal rival!" With that, Gai ran down the street picking up a dust cloud.
Rose stared after him in amazement, before she turned to the other ninja. "Ah, thank you?"
The man smiled. "No problem. If he ever gives you a problem, just tell him Kakashi's looking for him... It's all we do."
Rose just nodded her head. "I see."
"And don't worry about Kakashi either... He can take care of himself."
Rose nodded her head dutifully, feeling very confused. "Er – but, alright. Thank you."
The man waved her off much to Rose's bemusement. "It's alright. You ever need help with him though, just ask me... When he gets stuck on someone..."
Rose looked at him with wide eyes. "When he gets stuck on someone?"
The black-haired man grinned. "Well, ten years ago Kakashi didn't pay attention to him... And he still won't leave him alone... I could introduce you to him if you want?" He said this with a wink.
Rose blinked. "Uh... I know him already?"
Black-haired guy laughed and stuck out his hand. "The name's Asuma."
Rose smiled even though she was majorly confused. "Potter Rose."
%^&*()_)(*&^
"There's no use in this!" Rose huffed angrily.
Ron huffed annoyed. "There is always a point in strategy, Rose!"
"How is chess strategy?" Rose yelled back throwing her king at a wall.
"Hey! These are expensive!" Ron said, as he got up to pick another piece up.
"I'll buy you a new set," Rose almost yelled.
"Oh, because you're so rich!" Ron said snappily.
"Face it, I am bloody rich!" Rose almost screamed before she walked out of Haku's apartment with a huff.
It wasn't her fault really. She was just very stressed about the wizarding war and the fact that she was doing nothing.
Rose huffed as she walked down the street, where was she going? She had no idea. She just wanted to calm herself down – she just wanted to kill Voldemort and go back to her perfect little life.
Why could nothing ever be easy?
"Pretty flower!"
Fuck.
Rose started to walk a smidge bit faster, the conversation she had been having with Asuma still stuck in her head. She would not become someone else's obsession. She was still trying to get rid of the first one that was hell bent on killing her.
Then suddenly, in front of her was Gai standing slightly bowed with a rose in his hand. "A rose for a Rose!"
Rose sighed; she couldn't keep track of how many people thought this was a good pick up line back at Hogwarts. Just saying, it really wasn't.
"Er-"
"Rose-San!" Asuma said clearly amused walking up towards the scene with a black haired woman next to him. "I wondered where he ran off too."
"Er-"
The black haired woman smiled in sympathy. "Oh, so your Gai's new obsession?"
"I'm not obsessed! I am in love!" Gai shouted to the sky.
Rose gaped; this place was full of crazy people.
"Ah, you've known her for a day, Gai," Kakashi's voice sounded from nowhere.
Rose felt Kakashi's face near hers, and then she realised that he was leaning over her shoulder. His hands stuck in his pockets.
"My eternal rival! Do you know my lovely flower!?" Gai cried pointing dramatically at the two of them. Rose was just glad that the street was practically deserted.
"Why yes I do." Rose could hear the smile in his voice. Rose's head hung.
"Why me?" she asked herself.
Gai seemed slightly annoyed. "Then I challenge you to a wrestling match for the love of my flower!"
The next ten seconds were a blur but the two ninja just started to wrestle in the middle of the street. Rose looked over at Asuma and the mystery female, who made their way over to Rose.
"What just happened?" Rose asked the two awkwardly.
"It happens allot," Mystery female said.
Asuma nodded his head in agreement. "The last girl they 'fought' over ran away in hysterics though."
The red-eyed woman smiled at Rose. "Every few weeks, Gai will find his new 'youthful flower' and end up challenging Kakashi for her love."
Rose blinked. "That's crazy."
She nodded her head. "My name is Kurenai, if you ever need any help with Gai, just let me know."
Rose nodded her head, her mouth agape. It was strange that so many people were offering their help for dealing with Gai. Rose had had her fair share of fanboys but this was... "Thanks, I'm Rose."
"You're taking this very well," Asuma commented, as Kakashi put Gai in a headlock, only to have Gai throw him backwards.
Rose watched the two fighting men with some sort of fascination. How often did they do things like this? "I've had my share of... fans."
"Hm, that might help you a bit," Kurenai muttered sounding highly amused. "Asuma, is it just me or is this fight going on for longer than it usually does?"
Rose scratched the back of her head.
"Now that you mention it..." Asuma said, gaining an interested look in his eye. The two non-feuding ninja looked at Rose curiously, causing Rose to feel unnecessarily nervous.
Rose uncomfortably watched as the two fully grown men rolled around the floor, trying to see who was stronger. The more time that she spent here the more that she realised that the people here were bat-shit insane.
"This is crazy," Rose muttered under her breath, closing her eyes.
"Well, this is taking too long. Asuma do you want to go, and get them to meet us there? You can come to Rose-San."
Rose opened her eyes, and looked at the two strangely. Asuma nodded his head. "You want to come Rose? You look like you could use a drink."
Rose thought about it for a second, glancing at the fighting men. "Eh – sure."
With that the three black-haired people walked away from the fight and made their way to a place that Rose didn't know.
"What's the legal age to drink here anyway?" Rose asked. It was after all different in every country, or with any race.
"Sixteen," Kurenai responded promptly.
Rose's eyes widened. "It's only sixteen? Jeeze..." But then again, in the wizarding world it was seventeen wasn't it? It wasn't that far off.
Asuma threw Rose a wink. "It's okay; they won't question you if you're with us."
Rose's eye twitched. "How old do you think I am?"
"About fifteen, I'd say."
Rose was about to inform him of her real age when a thought struck her. "Is it normal for a thirty year old to 'love' a fifteen year old?"
The other two ninja paused for a minute but their steps didn't falter. "It's different for us ninja. Age or gender is a word after all," Kurenai responded, sounding like she had never thought of it that way.
By this time they had reached the little cafe place that they were aiming for and Asuma opened the door for them, and they seated themselves in the booth in the far corner of the room.
"That's a bit strange... Although, I'm slightly older than fifteen," Rose responded sounding a bit annoyed that she still wasn't able to pass off as her age.
"You are sixteen then?" Asuma asked.
Rose's eye twitched again. "I'm older than sixteen."
Kurenai blinked as she stared at Rose's face, creeping Rose out slightly. "You don't look a day over fifteen."
Rose's eye twitched again. That was when Rose noticed Kakashi – by himself entering the cafe, walking over to sit with the rest of them.
"Hey Kakashi, you two finished?" Asuma greeted him.
Kakashi nodded his head cheerfully, as he sat next to Rose. Asuma and Kurenai already sitting next to each other.
"Where's Gai?" Kurenai asked, without a hint of worry really.
Kakashi hummed. "Mourning over his loss, he'll be here soon enough."
"Hey Kakashi, how old is Rose?" Asuma asked, pausing briefly to talk to the waitress that had just appeared.
Kakashi looked at Rose for a second. "She's twelve."
Rose's eye twitched and she couldn't help but slap the back of his head. "You know that I'm not twelve!"
Kakashi smiled, and had a mock innocent aura about him. "Ten then? I was only trying to talk you up."
"I'm not ten you old man!" Rose fired back.
"I'm not old," Kakashi said stubbornly.
"Your hair tells a different story," Rose retorted.
"I told you my hair was born like that," Kakashi said stubbornly.
"I told you I was seventeen," Rose replied, just as stubbornly.
"...And ten months," Kakashi added on the end. Rose looked at him strangely.
"How did you know that?"
"I guessed. Was I right?" Kakashi asked, seemingly surprised.
"This has had to be the oddest conversation I've heard all day," Asuma said, most likely to Kurenai.
"How'd you two meet?" Kurenai asked, projecting her voice louder, so she could be heard over the other people around the table.
The waitress brought back three bottles that was marked with a few X's. "Here you go." The waitress bowed and left. Asuma took it upon himself to pour the strange looking alcohol out.
"I saved her life," Kakashi said smiling. Asmua snorted.
"I could have handled it," Rose huffed stubbornly.
Asuma assessed Rose with his eyes slightly larger than normal as he handed her a saucer-like cup of 'Sake'. Rose took a sip, and found that it burned her mouth, but not to the degree that fire whisky did.
"Wait, he actually saved your life? He's not making that up?"
Kakashi huffed and muttered. "No faith in me, really."
"Well, I technically helped save his life after that," Rose muttered, finding that she liked the taste of this new drink.
"Interesting way to meet."
Rose nodded her head, and asked for more sake.
"You might want to be careful with that stuff, it's quite strong," Kakashi warned, sounding slightly worried as he slouched back into his seat, not touching any of the Sake – and Asuma didn't offer him any.
They must do this often and Kakashi just must not drink.
Rose snorted. "This has nothing on fire-whisky, nothing."
"What's fire-whisky?" Asuma asked sounding interested.
Rose smiled, momentarily wondering about what she should say before she settled on the truth. "It's alcohol from where I'm from; it's really quite common, not so much so here."
"Where are you from, Rose-San?" Kurenai asked, pouring her more sake.
That was when Gai appeared. "Hello my friends! I have come back from the brink of despair! My eternal rival may have won the match but I will win my flowers heart!" he declared before sitting down on the other side of Asuma.
Rose gaped.
"There there, here have some Sake," Asuma said seemingly bored with the declaration. How often did he declare these things?
"So you were saying Rose?" Asuma said, ignoring Gai who was basically jumping out of his seat.
"Um, it's a place called England."
"I've never heard of it before," Kurenai admitted, sounding intrigued.
"It's pretty far away from here and it's always cold too."
"It's okay my flower, I can warm you up!" This was said with a coy smile and a sly wink.
"Be quiet Gai," Kurenai said.
Rose felt very nervous; she never had a fan boy who was so... up front. Fred had been, but then again, Fred had also been her boyfriend.
As the night wore on, all of the black haired occupants at the table got progressively more and more drunk, talking about stranger and stranger topics.
One of the things that stood out to Rose was when Gai – who seemed to get more lewd the more he drank – which she was assured that he wasn't normally like that. That Kakashi put his arm around Rose's side and refused to move it, it was strangely nice for Rose.
All in all – it was a strangely nice night.
! #R%*I(*&*
Rose opened her eyes to a killer headache, and a ceiling that she didn't recognise.
"Oh shit, Hermione is going to kill me," Rose told the couch that she had been sleeping on.
"I doubt that."
Rose flung herself off the off-beige couch and looked at it in horror, had it just answered her!?
"I'm over here Rose."
Rose looked over her shoulder to see Kakashi lounging around on a separate couch, looking at her amused.
"Huh? What? Where am I? ...and why does my head hurt?" Rose muttered, wincing at the pains in her head.
"My house, and I'm assuming your hangover," Kakashi replied, amused as he passed Rose a small white pill that Rose took without any hesitation. "You didn't want water with that?"
Rose shook her head, only to stop because of how much it was hurting. Rose looked around the practically bare apartment.
"Why am I here? And not at Haku's?" Rose asked confused.
Kakashi hummed as he sat back down. "No one was there, so I took you here."
"Ah, thanks, I guess."
"No problem, although I did warn you," Kakashi said with a smile. Rose winced at his bright voice.
"Shut up."
Kakashi laughed lightly. "I must say though, you can really hold your drinks."
"Of course I can," Rose said trying to sound superior. "I'm Potter Rose!"
"Are you Potter Rose?" Kakashi asked, seemingly innocent.
"Why yes, yes I am – wait, technically it's Rosemary."
"Well then Rosemary," Rose winced. "I have to ask you a few questions."
Rose blinked, and massaged a point on her head. "If you call me Rose, then I'll answer anything."
Kakashi smirked. "Alright, Rose, I was wondering... Who you got your eyes from? I swear I've seen that exact shade of green before."
Rose resisted the urge to roll her eyes – no one that could be related to her that was for sure. "My mother."
"What did she look like?" Kakashi pressed, curiously.
Rose raised an eyebrow. "Apparently a lot like I do, but with red hair."
Kakashi's eyes widened.
)#)(# )#(
Rose tried to sneak into Haku's house later that day when she was sure that nobody would be there – she didn't want to be questioned about her lack of being there.
"You know when I said to relax, I didn't mean disappear and not tell anyone where you're going."
Rose winced and turned around with a sheepish smile to see Hermione sitting on Haku's couch, not looking at all impressed.
"Where were you?" Hermione asked, with her eyes narrowed.
"Uh, hanging out with Kakashi?" Rose said not meaning for it to come out as a question.
"You two spend a lot of time together," Hermione noticed.
"Yeah well, so do you and Iruka – yes, I noticed." She added on the end when she saw Hermione's surprised look.
"That's well different," Hermione defended.
"How so?"
"You seem, more attached. You do realise that we have to leave eventually?" Hermione asked.
Rose snorted, not being in a very open mood because of the hangover that she was still trying to get over. "I'm less likely to get attached than you."
Hermione rolled her eyes, and flicked the page of the book that Rose just realised that she had. "Don't you see Rosie? You are already attached."
"And you're a hypocrite."
$(&$(&$ ($
"Kakashi-Kun, what have you managed to learn about their families?" The Hokage asked one of his most loyal ninja.
Kakashi hesitated, and looked at the floor with a troubled expression before responding. "Ron has a large family of red-haired people; they are very nice but very poor. I got no indication of any of them being remotely Uzumaki."
The Hokage nodded his head sagely. "What about Potter-San?"
Kakashi farrowed his eye brows, and felt like he was betraying the woman slightly. "Rose's family is different. Her mother fits the perfect mould of an Uzumaki. She had red hair and green eyes; she has seen to excel with studies. Rose herself has the usual Uzumaki obsession with Ramen – more importantly Salt ramen... And she has admitted that her family had been... killed."
The Hokage sighed deeply. "I see Kakashi, good work. How do Rose and Naruto interact?"
Kakashi's shoulders dropped slightly. "Naruto refers to Rose as 'Nee-Chan' and they seem to be gaining a relationship that would suggest the same."
"And yours, Kakashi-Kun?"
Kakashi suddenly looked up at the Hokage, not sounding slightly troubled as he spoke the next sentence. "My what? Hokage-Sama."
"Relationship with Potter-San, what is the nature of it?" The Hokage asked, he was making various plans for his problems and his selection was based solely on Kakashi's answer. Normally he didn't interfere with his Ninja's personal lives... But, this was about Naruto.
"Um," Kakashi said, the tips of his ears going slightly red. "How is this relevant Hokage-Sama?"
The Hokage opened one of his draws and pulled out a tobacco pipe. As he was lighting it he said, "It is actually very relevant, answer the question, Kakashi."
"We are friends, Hokage-Sama."
The Hokage nodded, had he been reading too much into Kakashi reactions to giving away so much information on Potter? "I see."
"Hokage-Sama?"
"Tomorrow, the chunin exams begin. At exactly twelve I want you to bring Potter-San to T&I."
"Hokage-Sama," Kakashi protested. "Is that really necessary?"
The Hokage paused; perhaps he hadn't been too far off the mark. "I assure you Kakashi, that she will not be harmed. You can even watch. We just need to know if Naruto's safety is secure."
"But Hokage-Sama..."
"Are you questioning an order Kakashi?"
"No sir," Kakashi responded instantly.
The Hokage sat back in his seat. "I'm sure you're aware of the group that is after people like Naruto? We just have to be sure Kakashi. Dismissed."