Chapter 13

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

The vein on his forehead throbbed as the leaves beneath his feet kept making loud rustling sounds. Yuuki squatted on the ground and looked down at it with stiff smile on his face, "Can't, you, just, be, quiet, for, a second, hm?" With every clipped word he slightly smacked the soil and the leaves with his palm.

Yuuki sighed and tiredly looked up at the sky. The grey clouds took on a shape of laughing faces, which contemptuously gloated at him from above. Just what on earth was he doing right now?

'Cat Steps' was a technique, which allowed user to tread silently on any flat surface. While not a lot of chakrawas required to sustain it, its continuous flow was still taxing for a child that young. But with a prolonged systemic training from the initial ten minutes, he was able to reach the mark of thirty, before the exhaustion hit him.

To step silently was one of the basics, one of the essentials shinobi needed to learn. What would be the point of running away from someone, if you were as loud as an elephant in a tea shop while doing so?

Every day Yuuki would try to incorporate 'Cat Steps' into his daily walks to and from Academy. At first heconstantly thought about what he was doing, but with enough time it became an unconscious habit.

You know that feeling when you walk in the dark and feel somewhat unsettled —your breathing automatically becomes lighter, your steps quieter but more hurried. You don't actively think 'This might be a dangerous place. I need to diminish my presence as much as possible'— you just do it, before even realising you were doing anything in the first place.

And just like that, Yuuki scared couple of servants in Okiya. Apparently, when someone appears silently behind your back—it was a rather scary experience.

Sometimes, it was a conscious effort on his part to make noise, which surprisingly wasn't easy when you were feeling on guard.

The technique itself wasn't difficult, just one step higher than leaf sticking exercise. It didn't require hand seals— only decent chakra control, passable chakra reserves and good concentration ability. Through the tenketsu point on the balls of one's feet (the biggest tenketsu point of that place, which allowed easier channeling) you coated the soils of your shoes down the heel. It created a thin layer between the ground and the person. Essentially you didn't step on the ground— your chakra made a contact with the ground.

Usually when shinobi needed to travel silently on a high speed through the trees and minimise their chakra usage to the best of their abilities, they wouldn't coat their whole insteps but only the balls of their feet—the point of kick off. The picture of shinobi jumping from one branch to another on their toes resembled the cat's graceful gate and silent landing— hence the name. Though they would add the additional property of stickiness to their chakra as to not fall down from so high up.

Their dear sensei told them, they would learn how to do that later. Those who thought they would be able to climb the trees and travel through them like grownups just after 'mastering' the leaf exercise— ended up on their asses and with multiple injuries after the first try.

Currently, it could be said that Yuuki was fairly proficient in 'Cat Steps'. So, why couldn't he walk silently today?

While Yuuki could do it with standard shinobi sandals. The problem was… today he wore Geta—the uncomfortable wooden footgear that balanced on two wooden blocks rather than flat soles like the majority of normal shoes.

Today Yuuki finished Academy, returned back to Okiya, changed his clothes and finally remembered that he forgot his bag in the classroom. His dizi was there, whereas he didn't believe anyone would steal it, he still didn't feel comfortable just leaving it there.

Somehow, his brain wasn't braining, when he tried to do 'Cat Steps' while wearing Geta. It was just a habit to do it to Academy. The boy almost fell down the stairs because he couldn't comprehend how he is supposed to channel chakra for them.

Yuuki didn't have enough control to expel chakra from one tenketsu in multiple directions. For him, right now, chakra was more like a small stream of river, he could only decide one way he wanted it to go—right or left, up or down. He couldn't command it to do something complex yet, like to branch out— to go down and to the front of his foot at the same time, that he needed to do right now.

There were two tenketsu in everyone's feet (one near tiptoes and the other in the heel), but the Geta touched the ground in three points—two wooden stumps and the tip of the shoe that clunked during the inclination of the sole.

Till the rest of his way the boy wasn't able to walk silently in them. He knew that it was just a matter of experience and practice, but he couldn't help but sulk. Remembering Rin's impressive control, he could only sigh at his own natural aptitude. With his bigger reserves it was more difficult to guide it as precisely as his friend could.

Yuuki was approaching one of the classrooms in Academy when he, already double peeved, heard a truly excruciating sound. It felt like someone was trying to invent a new torture tool.

Once he opened the door, he saw a crying girl, who was trying to tune the zither. For a moment he contemplated just leaving, but as soon as their eyes met— the girl sniffed and asked hesitantly, "Yu-Yuuki-c-chan?" Yuuki didn't remember the girl and definitely didn't remember giving her a permission to address him with so much familiarity.

The boy awkwardly walked into the room. Good manners first. After finding his bag he offered the girl a handkerchief with a gentle smile on his face. He racked his brain trying to remember the girl's name— nothing came out beyond the fact that they attended the same kunoichi classes.

"Were you trying to—" Yuuki was honestly perplexed by what she was doing, "-tune your instrument?"

It seemed to be the wrong thing to say as the girl started crying harder. Yuuki played dizi— a flute. He didn't specialize in musical instruments with strings, but he still had his ears and no matter what he did— it would still be better than whatever she was trying to achieve.

"Do you like playing zither?" As the boy sat down on the floor joining the girl, he started meaningless chatter—so she would calm down a little. With a hiccup she answered, "N-no, hmpf, I thought it was cool at first, but now my fingertips constantly hurt so much from those stupid strings. I don't wanna ever play this dumb instrument ever again. My hands now are a mess because of it."

She shoved her hand in his face for him to look. Why she felt the need to do that was a mystery to the young boy. Though in his brain the short word 'civilian' did surface out.

He answered neutrally with gentle patient voice, "I am also not the biggest fan of it myself," Still he held a great deal of a respect for this musical instrument. At his core Yuuki was a musician, an artist. He would never disparage any form of art just because he couldn't do it himself. Internally his opinion of the girl fell down by a couple of notches.

Currently Yuuki could only do the bare basics with zither—thanks to Iroha who taught him, because he wanted to appreciate the beauty of the instrument together. Suddenly he felt a little wistful, it was nice talking about music with his peer.

In kunoichi classes it wasn't the same, there was always that underlying meaning of purpose within it— to send a coded message, to cast a genjutsu, to confuse, to hurt. The sensei in kunoichi classes even suggested for him to try insert poisonous needles into his dizi. He didn't know a polite way of saying 'fuck off' to her that wouldn't get him in a trouble, so he just smiled and played song called 'World of fools' that day. Yuuki knew it was good advice to expand his arsenal, but… there were lines for people that should never be crossed. His dizi was special. It wasn't just a chunk of wood that produced notes. The music was special.

"Maybe you can try something else. You might find yourself enjoying playing another instrument so much better." Please never touch zither ever again— was what he truly wanted to say. The instrument wasn't even her own… but the one belonging to an Academy. Why would she mess with it?

Twenty minutes later he was finally finished, and the girl by his side was sound asleep. Yuuki was too concentrated on tuning the instrument, that after finishing he actually got startled when he saw unmoving body beside him. Carefully he stored the zither in its rightful place, only after that he finally paid attention to the girl.

Gently he touched her arm couple of times trying to wake her up— she snorted and flipping on the other side continued to sleep like a pig. Yuuki stood up and, with cold expression on his face, nudged her couple of times with the wooden tip of his Geta. The boy watched in disgust as the drool flowed from the corner of her mouth down her chin.

It was getting dark outside. He already wasted enough time to fix the problem that wasn't even his. What if she woke up and asked him to walk her home, or started crying again?

Yuuki took off one layer of his kimono, covered her with it and left the place. It wasn't exactly that warm in the classroom. She won't freeze to death. Probably.

The cold chilly wind hit Yuuki's face as he opened the door. Should he take his clothes back from her? In the distance he could see the trees almost bending to the ground from the harsh wind.

The light breeze gently swayed the leaves of the trees in the distance. It was hot summer day in Konoha.

"My name is Kakashi Hatake, my likes and dislikes…" The caricature of a tall man with spikes of silver hair was leaning against the railing of the rooftop continuing his tirade with lazy drawl, "-I don't feel like telling you. My dreams for the future… hmmm… And my hobbies. I do have one hobby-" He made it seem like he was going to answer the question and thought deeply about it, which made three children in front of him perk up. "-though you're too young for me to tell you about it." The grown-up version of Kakashi absentmindedly patted the pocket of his flack jacket.

The only visible parts of his skin were one eye and fingers sticking out of fingerless gloves, which Yuuki found incredibly weird. Kakashi wore mask, but he didn't shy away from showing skin or anything like that. "Now that we all know each other, I get to tell you about what we're going to be doing tomorrow—"

The next moment the man was standing in the middle of the field holding an orange book in his hands and perversely giggling with light blush sprinkled right above the outline of his mask. Yuuki would recognise this book even if he died and came back to life. Again. That hideous cover that haunts him even in his dreams was unmistakable. Icha Icha Paradise.

A porn book in Kakashi's hands…

The aura of laziness and carelessness was exuding out of the man's body. Sloppy. The man appeared extremely sloppy. "Cassandra… oh, Cassandra. hihihi…. You naughty gi-"

Suddenly something jolted the sleeping boy out of his dream. In front of him was the young boy, a child, with similarly looking silver hair—though in real life they didn't look spiky at all, just extremely fluffy sticking around in all directions. "Stop sleeping like a pig. Sensei is coming soon." Composed. Rude. Blunt. Genius boy.

Two visages overlapped with each other in front of Yuuki's eyes. Lately more and more visions would come from before in his dreams. They were still short and fragmented flashbacks and more often than not they didn't make any sense whatsoever. But the older he gets the more he sees, the longer he sees.

Will he truly become like that? Yuuki intently stared at Kakashi. He couldn't imagine someone like him ever becoming… like that man. Or was he really losing his marbles? And all of this was just just something his tired mind cooked?

Kakashi sent him a questioning look.

Sigh.

"Nothing… you know, just suddenly felt like your life is going to be very difficult in the future."

Almost silently Yuuki mumbled 'pitiful bastard', the next moment he was seeing the ceiling of their classroom and his back and behind hurt from the impact. Lying on the cold hard floor he took his previous words back. Petty bastard.

At that moment the cracks on the ceiling looked like the faces that were laughing at him, noted Yuuki feeling like even the world was laughing at him.

Yuuki was counting the cracks on the ceiling when the girl called him out in very eye-catching fashion— right in front of all of his classmates, with stutter, red face, loud shout and everything. While the situation was pretty embarrassing, Yuuki didn't think she needed to go that far just to return his clothes back.

It has already been two weeks since he gave her his outerwear. He would have pressed her to return it sooner, if she didn't peek at him with red face like a creeper every day. He didn't think it required that much courage to talk to him, but everyone was different. Maybe for her it was so challenging.

During their lunch break he went behind the building just as he promised her. Did she want to confront about why he left her alone there? Yuuki started feeling somewhat uneasy now. Especially when she came with group of girls trailing behind her.

"Here! Thank you so much for your help!" The girl with blushing face handed him a box of presumably chocolates and the paper bag that contained his kimono. Hopefully washed.

Yuuki smiled gently and took his things from her hands. "Small matter." His stomach growled when he looked at the box of chocolates, still he refused it. "You really didn't have to... I haven't done anything that deserves this." The boy felt a bit guilty now, she looked at him with so much sincerity— holding out that chocolate to him like a tribute to God.

The girl, whose name he still didn't remember, kept opening and closing her mouth with red face and eyes on the verge of tears. It didn't seem like she wanted to beat him up, but for the life of him he didn't understand what prompted her to look so… constipated in his presence.

"You can do it, Riri-chan." Her friends behind her back cheered her on. Yuuki waited silently for her, then waited a bit more, then waited again, but all this time she just stood there quietly with her mouth gaping like a fish- constantly closing and opening it. Yuuki was really hungry and felt painful pangs in his stomach. It was lunch break. He is supposed to eat during this time.

Okay, whatever the hell it was, it was making him uncomfortable, and he was leaving. "Then I will be going. See you later, Riri-chan." Just as he was about to pass her by, she loudly shouted in his ear, "W-wait!" Her friends also gathered into line blocking his path to escape.

Cringing inwardly from the pain in his eardrums, he maintained gentle expression on his face and turned back. "Ah…Of course," Of course it couldn't be that easy. "-you can take as much time as you need." Maybe by the time she was done, they would graduate already.

Yuuki was feeling hungry, and previously he made a promise with Genma that the boy would show him a newway to throw shuriken used in one of the small hidden villages, that he found in Central library. He didn't think it would take that much time talking to her, which was an apparent misjudgement on his part.

Yuuki leaned his back against the wall and warmly chuckled, "It is not like I will bite you. You can tell me anything you want. I will hear you out." So, hurry the fuck up. His voice was measured and calm like he would really wait for eternity just for her, nothing in his mannerism gave away the impression that he might feeldispleased or impatient.

His words seemed to help the girl to calm down as she finally said, "I like y-you, Yuuki-kun. You are really cool,and p-pretty. And you are always r-really kind like… when you helped me with zither and y-you d-didn't have todo it. And smart. A-and and…" Yuuki froze in place. His brain froze. His body froze.

Hmmm?

"…"

?

"…"

"…"

"- that's it…" The girl stared at him with red face, she looked like she was on the verge of tears. Yuuki could hear the distant muffled cheers of her friends somewhere behind his back like an echo in his ears.

For the first time the black haired boy actually bothered to properly look at the girl, who was talking to him. She had short blond hair with reddish tint, rare green eyes, freckles all over her face, pale skin and carefully trimmed nails. She was a pretty girl. She was also the first person to confess to him.

The others in the distance held their breath. His brain shut down and he reacted immediately based on what he learned from Okiya. Yuuki approached her with measured footsteps and stopped right in front of her. Her gaze was lowered—focused on her toes rather than on him. It seemed like she was too shy to look even at the corner of his clothes, not to say anything about looking directly at his face.

"Are these chocolates for me?" The boy whispered quietly in her ears, so only the two of them could hear each other. Yuuki positioned his body in a way that would hide them away from prying eyes of her friends. He could feel their gazes boring into his back. "…Y-yes."

"May I…" he motioned with his hand towards the box. "Of-of course, this is for you, after all." Yuuki took it from her hands, then slowly tilted his body to the right, entering her field of vision, and stopped only when their eyes met. He smiled as gently as possible, his big innocent eyes were bend in a small arch. Yuuki tried his best to exude the air of harmlessness. She looked at him like a startled rabbit.

"Here. I am not that scary, am I?" Yuuki chuckled warmly and continued talking to her in that quiet gentle whisper. She shook her head from side to side and finally raised her head. At last, she calmed down and wasn't nervous wreck any longer.

The boy smiled brightly at her and bumped their shoulders together. "See… It is so much easier to talk this way, isn't it?"

Maintaining eye contact he said, "First of all, I appreciate your honesty and the courage it took to share your feelings with me." Yuuki took a deep breath. "I sincerely thank you for your kind words and your gift. I would definitely try them out."

"I-I made them m-myself." Yuuki was surprised. He held the box closer to his chest. "Thank you. Then I will eat everything till the last crumb." Yuuki gave a sincere smile from the bottom of his heart this time and not the trained gentle one that would appear on his face regardless of his own feelings.

It wasn't rare for him to receive gifts from others. Yagura would send him little something every other day. But shemade them herself, somehow it felt different, more personal.

The girl waved her hands in the air, her gaze shifting nervously to the box in his hands. "Just because I-I… You really don't have to."

"You went through so much trouble just for me. To enjoy your gift to the fullest… is the least I should do." The blonde girl shuffled awkwardly on her feet, bit her lip and fisted her fingers on the hem of the shirt. Her eyes kept darting around— shifting from the box to literally anywhere else, there was unknown glint in them that Yuuki failed to notice.

Once again, she refused to look at him, eyes fixed on her toes. The boy chuckled nervously. The light blush coloured the bridge of his nose. Yuuki slowly raised her chin with the tip of his finger till they looked at each other once more.

Actually, he was feeling very flustered right now himself. The only thing he remembered at that moment was the importance of direct eye contact, when you were conveying your feelings— he didn't want to half ass this whole thing. It felt weird in a way. He didn't understand why she would like him when they have talked only like once. Maybe he was thinking about it way too seriously. But making others like him was a job, a trade, a profession in his head.

The big ocean blue eyes, that felt like they contained only her in this entire world, gazed right at her. The poor girl was trembling, because she had never received just intense undivided attention from anyone. "Actually, it is my first time being in such a situation, so I am feeling quite shy myself right now, haha." He was so pretty when he smiled— was the only thought in her head.

Yuuki took a deep breath, took her hand and rested the back of it against his hot cheek. The wave of shame hit him because he just used the move described in Icha Icha Paradise. He couldn't believe in times of crisis his body and mind took inspiration from that vulgar book. "You are the first person to say something like that to me." His long lashes trembled like feathers. "I am glad, it was you." His cheeks burned scarlet from embarrassment. "I am happy to hear… that I am liked by such a wonderful person like you."

Yuuki looked up at her from under his lashes. "R-r… Thank you for liking me." The girl stared at him transfixed, her own cheeks were on fire.

Yuuki forgot her name. Fuck. He didn't know it was possible to feel even more embarrassed at that moment.

Slowly he let go of her hand and slightly bowed. He was definitely running away. "See you around." Yuuki smiled brightly, waved his hand in goodbye and calmly went towards his classroom.

Her friends were huddled together and looked at him wide-eyed, with shocked expressions and blushes on their faces.

Yuuki stopped near the wall behind the Academy and rested his forehead against it for a moment. He was overcome with embarrassment.

Damn. He definitely screwed up. Publicly at that. The hell was that? He would never listen to Yagura ever again. Screw Yagura. Screw the books. None of them were helpful in real life.

("Listen here, Yuuki. The most important thing is to never promise anything to people."

Thick lavender hair cascaded down his slender shoulders. "There are so many people who like me. How could there not be? " The light blush adorned his beautiful visage.

The young man tilted his head back slightly and casually gathered his hair together with his long, slender fingers in front of the mirror. "But should I bother with every single one of them just because they like me?" He looked right at Yuuki's eyes through reflection in the mirror. "- Of course not!" His speech was like usual, though the hot new his guardian was drunk out of his wits.

The four big empty bottles of liquor clunked as Yagura tripped them while walking closer to Yuuki.

"Though you should thank them for having a good taste." Yuuki stared speechlessly at Yagura.

Yagura rested his hands by on his hips and asked the young child with bright smile on his face, "You know what is even better than not promising them anything ? The older man looked triumphant. " -To leave them hanging!"

After his breakup with Shikaku, Yagura was going through his villain ark.)

Unbeknownst to the clueless Yuuki, the girl who confessed to him was holding her hot cheeks in her hands and squealing from… overload.

"Riri-chan! What did he tell you?"

She looked back at her friends with dazed expression. "He was so dreamy…"

Genma rested his head on the palm of his hand. "So, what was so important that you ditched me?"

Obito shouted excitedly from another end of the classroom, "Hey! Didn't you hear he ditched you for a girl…" His voice was so loud, that every single person in the classroom was now looking at Yuuki. Did he have to remind them of that?

"Obito…" Rin chided him from the side, but she also briefly looked at Yuuki. Everyone was a gossiper.

For the first time, Yuuki finally understood why some people (Asuma, Kakashi and, surprisingly, Kurenai) were crowdfunding money for Obito's grave.

The blue-eyed boy shook the paper bag in his hands and apologised sheepishly to Genma. "I am sorry. I was just getting back couple of things I lent to her."

Genma hummed thoughtfully, "If you say so."

"Gather up, midgets! It is time for some physical exercises," loudly shouted sensei as soon as he opened the door. "Now! Outside!"

There was a manic glint in his eyes. Yuuki knew — whatever their sensei had in his mind, they would have to crawl back to their homes after this.

The unique scent of autumn wafted towards his nose as he watched Kakashi complete the track course by breaking the highest records throughout the history of an Academy. Ran faster than Minato Namikaze, who broke it not that long ago himself, hit the targets more precisely than Orochimaru and finished more pull ups, push ups and sit ups than Jiraiya.

It would be a lie to say Yuuki didn't feel jealous or competitive towards the boy.

Crazy bastard.