Flash of Red and Black

Chapter III

"Wh-wha…What are you doing!?" I sputtered. My mental capacity wasn't the highest on a good day, but it went full-stop. Of course, having my head shut down helped me to not notice that I'd leaned into Kakashi's caresses for a moment, but it did nothing to keep me from knowing what was going on.

Kakashi pulled back just enough to make eye contact, but he left his hands where they were: one on the side of my face that hadn't been caressed by his unmasked lips, and the other on my shoulder, gently but firmly keeping me where I was.

"Naruto, only you could go through everything that you have and still become so great. Not just as the hero of Konoha and the shinobi world, but as a teammate, a friend, a person. And though it's not nearly enough to make up for everything you've gone through, you are loved by so many people. By Sakura as a most precious friend. By Iruka as a younger brother. By Tsunade as a grandson. By every shinobi as a comrade. By the world as a hero. By me.

"You are a very precious person, Naruto. I'm sure that I'm not the only one that knows that, but none of us did enough to protect you. You fought so hard to protect all the people who are precious to you, and you did marvelously. I am so proud of you, Naruto, and I'm sure that Minato-sensei and Jiraiya-sama feel the same. But none of us could do our job as well as you did yours. We couldn't protect you like you did us. I can't say how much I regret that. And not just because of Sasuke, but long before the war too…"

Kakashi paused and took a breath as he closed his eyes. My heart was pounding, and though I still didn't quite understand everything he was saying, I still wanted to both thank him and scold him, but before I could make up my mind, he continued as his grey eye bore down on me again.

"I want to fix that from now on. From here, no matter what you need, I'll be sure you have it. I'll do whatever you ask of me. I won't leave you to suffer alone. Not again… Never again."

His eyes grew distant for a moment and I could see the pain in his face, but I was still confused. Again though, I didn't have time to process it before he spoke again, his eyes back in the present, looking at me seriously.

"Naruto, I love you. From now on, I am totally dedicated to you. You don't have to return my feelings. You don't have to acknowledge my feelings. No matter what, I am going to do everything I can to help you have the life you want, with whomever you want," he said, giving me a small smile before kissing my forehead and moving back while releasing his hold on me. He left his mask down and kept his eye trained on me, waiting for my reaction, but there wasn't any worry or nervousness in his eyes, only determination.

Something about that look bothered me after what he said.

"You don't love me."

Kakashi looked at me, surprised. Obviously, I still held up my title of being the Number One Most Unpredictable Ninja.

"Of course I—"

"No! You don't! There's no way! And there's no way that you could say that and really love me! You won't care if I spend the rest of my life with someone else? Bullshit! If you loved me there's no way you could say that!" I yelled at him. It's shocking really, that I could be considered a hero of ninjas when I couldn't even keep my emotions under wraps like all good shinobi are supposed to do.

Kakashi looked startled for a moment, but then he smiled at me, that same eye-smile but it seemed a little odd since the mask wasn't hiding most of his face.

"I never said I wouldn't care, but your happiness means more to me than mine."

I paused, shaken to my core. I believed him totally.

"Then make me happy," I said finally.

"I'll do my best," he replied, smiling again. This eye-smile, though was far too much like the one on Sai's face when we first met. It pissed me off just as much right then as it did the first time I saw it.

I grabbed his flak jacket angrily and yanked him towards me, again earning myself a surprised look from him.

"I meant do it yourself, deba!" I growled before quickly giving him a rough kiss.

When I pulled back and released him, he looked even more shocked, and he just sat there silently. Apparently he wasn't expecting that at all. Number One Unpredictable Ninja, indeed.

The longer he sat there silently surprised, the more worried and red-faced I became.

"Say something, Kakashi, damn it!" I said, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him some.

Somehow, that seemed to snap him back to reality and he looked at me, but I couldn't hold the eye contact for long since it only made my face heat up more. Still, he didn't say anything though, but even without looking at him I knew his eyes were trained on me. After a few more excruciating moments of silence I glanced up at him, trying to look indignant, but it probably turned out to look more like a pout.

"What?" I asked, fighting to keep from looking away.

Kakashi smiled, this time genuinely, before placing one hand on my cheek, pulling me closer again. He kissed me again, softly and slowly, but he still pulled away soon (too soon, if I was more honest with myself).

Then he smiled at me again.

"I won't let you down."

The look in his eyes was far too serious for the happiness that I could feelradiating off of him. Really, if I still had any doubts about his feelings, that look would have squelched them all, and I couldn't help getting wrapped up in it.

"I know," I breathed before leaning in and kissing him again, but this time I wasn't going to let him off with just a quick kiss.

I grabbed his jacket with both hands, though not angrily this time, and held him there, making sure he wouldn't back off again. After a few short moments, he started to pull away, but I just tugged him toward me again, which apparently got the message across.

He leaned into me more and slid one hand to rest up against my neck, the pad of his thumb gliding back and forth against the sensitive skin there, while he wrapped his other arm around me pulling me closer, and I gladly let him. After a few more moments, his lips left mine, but moved on to kiss across my jaw and the whisker-like marks on my cheeks. Then he kissed his way around my earlobe, giving me chills in the process, and down my neck, gently biting and licking occasionally along the way.

Eventually I had enough of the torture and moved my hands to pull his face back to mine as I kissed him again. I slid my tongue across his bottom lip for a second, and Kakashi seized the chance to plunge his own into my mouth, exploring as he pulled me closer, making it difficult to breathe, but at that moment I wanted him more than air, and I could tell that he felt the same.

In the minute amount of space left between us, I slid my hands back down from his neck to unzip his flak jacket, letting my hands slide inside the warmth and trace his muscles inside the same black, long-sleeved shirt that he would always wear. His breath hitched a bit as my hands roamed, and he switched back to kissing along my jaw and neck.

From there it was a messy, heated blur of clothes, skin and kisses, but somehow I ended up sitting on the edge of the couch with Kakashi kneeling in front of me.

"Wha-what are you—" I tried to ask, but the shiver that wracked my body kept me from saying much more.

"Tsunade doesn't want you doing anything strenuous for a while, right? So, relax and enjoy," he said, looking up at me and giving me the most infuriating but attractive smile that the world had ever seen. (Not even the Uchiha fan clubs would have been able to argue that, but since I was the only one to see it, it wasn't something that I could prove, and I definitely wanted to be the only one to ever see that smile.)

My only response was some sort of grunt, but I had enough time to think 'Relax when you're doingthat? Like hell is that possible, deba!' before my mind was too busy trying to make me breathe halfway normally while simultaneously interpreting all the messages my nerve endings were sending it.

And after some totally ambiguous amount of time, I glanced at Kakashi, and then I was done for.

Once I finally caught my breath I looked at him again, my face red for so many reasons as he wiped the effects of his actions off his face and then licked it from his thumb. Then he looked back up at me and gave that same smile that made me want to shove a pillow in his face and ask do it again all at the same time.

"Ero-senin's books were good for something, after all, I guess."

"Glad to have your approval," he said, giving an eye-smile.

I blushed more and glared at him a little to try to cover for the embarrassment, to no avail, before opening my mouth to speak again.

"So, um—" I started to ask, but I was not at all upset that Kakashi cut me off with a chaste kiss.

"Don't worry about me. Tsunade's orders, after all."

"But—" I started before getting cut off again.

"Your expression was more than enough to do me in. Your cheeks were all red and you even knotted your hands in my hair, just like you were the character from Jir—"

"I got it! I got it, deba! Just please, please don't say anymore," I panicked, my face redder than my mom's hair.

Kakashi gave another annoying smile before standing and extending a hand to help me do the same. I took it, not trusting my legs after… that.

"Come on. You were half asleep when I showed up earlier, so I'm sure you'll be dead tired again pretty soon."

I nodded and stood before trying to right the remainder of the clothes that I still had on so that I could be at least somewhat decent. Then I walked next to Kakashi into my bedroom and crawled beneath the sheets, soon realizing that I was the only one getting into the bed. Before I even thought about it, my hand shot out from the covers and grabbed the leg of his pants and tugged slightly. Once I realized what I was doing, my face regained what color it had just managed to lose, and I let go, quickly turning away from him. I could almost hear the surprise-turned-eye-smile on his face before I felt the blanket move next to me and the light flick off, his back next to mine.

"Thanks, dattebayo," I mumbled into the blanket. Really, I was saying thanks for a lot of things, but I don't think that even Shikamaru could have come up with the right words to thank Kakashi for everything that I wanted to.

Instead of a response, though I felt Kakashi shift around next to me and then I felt his breath on my neck and his hand in my hair.

I smiled and leaned against him a little, feeling more content than I had in who knows how long—maybe ever.

Sorry that this chapter took so long to get up! Crazy summer. Anyway, there will be at least one more chapter of this story, and it should be coming in the next few weeks.