p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Kakashi was unable to shake Kurenai's words from his mind after his colleagues had taken their leave. /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"Naruto is going to need a man when she's ready, not a boy./span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;" He was a man. Could be /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"her /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"man, could be endlessly patient for her, could hold her through every step of her journey to making peace with her body, her gender, her sexuality. He cared more about her well-being than his dick, he knew that, knew he could be what she needed. Knew it wouldn't be a chore, that he'd find purpose and meaning and fulfillment in it./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"An image he'd been studiously avoiding letting himself imagine sprang into his mind fully-formed and fucking /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"delicious/span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;": Naruto nude on her stomach, blindfolded with her hands tied behind her back. The thought made him so hard so quickly it nearly made him dizzy, and on the heels of his erection was the thought, /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"You're going to fuck her up worse if you don't work through your own shit./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Though truthfully, it felt much more doable to have normal sex with his girl than with anyone else. She'd already seen his face, seen him be soft and vulnerable, and he trusted her not to attack him. That was the part of sex he usually couldn't abide by, being seen, being exposed, giving his partner the opportunity to stab him in the back—literally. The last time he'd had sex with someone who wasn't tied up or down, the guy had stabbed Kakashi just below his ribs, next to his spine. That was eight years ago, when he'd been a teenager, and he'd never risked it again. That's why he sought out prostitutes, paid them nicely for making themselves so profoundly vulnerable to him (an objectively dangerous man with a kill count in the triple digits), and always made sure they got off a couple of times before he did. It was the gentlemanly thing to do, and none of them ever seemed too put out by the process. The rare times he had sex without paying for it tended to be with civilian women who were looking for the danger, which—well, he wouldn't lie, he preferred that, but didn't often put himself in the position to be solicited for it./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"He hadn't sought sex out at all since he took on his team. Hadn't been interested./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"emspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"It's also ugly and messy and gross and humiliating and it hurts and everyone /span/emstrongemspan style="font-family: Avenir-HeavyOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-HeavyOblique;"has/span/em/strongemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;" to do it. /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"That's what Naruto said, and he couldn't figure out which part broke his heart the most—that she thought it always hurt, by design? That she thought people /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"have /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"to do it? That it was gross and ugly, that it was humiliating by its very nature? Kakashi longed to show her, guide her to see how beautiful it could be, how good her body could feel, how /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"safe /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"he would keep her, how much she could trust her body to him. They were awful, selfish impulses, but wouldn't that be better than Sasuke trying to finger her with all of his bullheaded determination to do things the way he thought they should be done, regardless of what anyone else said? Better than Kiba rutting at her like a mutt, or Shikamaru pretending he didn't care about her as soon as they were finished?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Wouldn't Naruto be better off in the hands of a man that loved her and would put her first, always?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"All Kakashi had to do was keep getting closer. Keep showing her that he would provide for her, be everything she needed him to be. That she could trust him with anything. And it was so, so /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"easy/span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;", so /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"heartbreakingly/span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;" easy to manipulate her into walking through the doors he left open for her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"He got Naruto to ask him about shaving on his first attempt; all it took was waiting for her to walk by with the bathroom door open, shaving cream on his face, and a razor in his hand. When he heard her approach, he leaned forward and started on the left as he always did, and when she passed him, she froze in the doorway to observe. He pretended not to notice her, and after a moment, she said hesitantly, "Sensei, you shave?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Bless her, she asked so many stupid questions. Kakashi sort of loved that about her, though, and wasn't able to stop a fond smile from forming on his face as he drawled, "Obviously." Then, letting her off the hook as she shrank back a little, he added with more kindness and patience, "The stubble catches on my mask, so I shave every day."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Naruto hummed, as though considering this tidbit of information. "Would you… Uh, would you mind explaining it to me?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Gods, but she was so easy. Sixty seconds before he was holding her in his palms like clay. He felt awful, really, but also happy he could provide her with something he knew she wanted. He kept his voice disinterested and distracted as he asked, "Are you asking how a man shaves his face? Or how to shave generally?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;""Generally." Naruto leaned against the doorway with the end of her braid in her hand, fussing with it as she blushed a fetching shade of pink. And the fact that she was clearly embarrassed yet showed no signs of being afraid to share her thoughts with him was just—just perfect. "All the other girls my age having been shaving their legs for a couple of years, and they've started asking why I don't do it, but I didn't have a— … Didn't have anyone to teach me how."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"With Kushina's long-gone laughter echoing in his ears, Kakashi started to explain without inflection, careful as he shaved around his lips. "Generally, you need your skin to be wet, soap or shaving cream, and a sharp razor. You're supposed to replace the head of your razor pretty often, or you'll get a less clean shave and more ingrown hairs." He flicked his eyes over to her, pleased to find he had her rapt attention. "You let the razor do the work, putting little to no pressure on it. Make smooth vertical motions; if you move the razor horizontally, you'll leave cuts. Men shave their faces 'with the grain,' meaning in the same direction the hair grows, but women shave their legs 'against the grain,' starting each stroke from their ankle or knee and moving upward. Now, I've never shaved my legs." He paused, having finished his task, and leaned down to splash water onto his face to wash the remaining shaving cream away. "But I'm under the impression that you need to be most careful around your ankles and under your knees, and that women have better results if they scrub their skin first. Oh, and you need to put on lotion afterward. Make sense?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Naruto's little nose wrinkled up and it was terribly, terribly cute. "I guess," she said, sounding a bit put-out. "Just seems so unnecessary."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;""It is unnecessary." Kakashi turned to face her fully, crossing his arms over his chest. "You don't have to do it. It's an exercise in aesthetics, not hygiene." Personally, he didn't care what she did. He'd love her legs either way, and had no real vested interest in what she settled on. His goal was simply to give her information that he knew she wanted./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Naruto was still fiddling with her braid, looking somewhere near his chin. "And what all… what all do women usually shave?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Hm, that was an interesting question, wasn't it? "Most common would be legs and underarms," he clarified. "But some women shave their arms or their faces, if they feel that they should to meet expectations for beauty. And it's popular for civilian women to shave their pubic hair, but not so much for kunoichi." He could see the /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"why /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"forming in her eyes and continued smoothly, "Pubic hair tends to create rashes and ingrown hairs when shaved, especially if one wears tight clothes, sweats, or moves around a lot, so it's not particularly practical for a shinobi."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Kakashi watched Naruto chew on that, puffing out her cheeks as her gaze fell to the floor. "Am I… should I shave my arms?" she wondered./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Thoughtlessly, he reached for her wrist, and pushed up her sleeve to examine the fine golden hair on her forearm. She let him, apparently trusting that he had her best interests at heart. "I don't think anyone would expect you to," he answered carefully. "But I'll reiterate that shaving should be about /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"your /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"comfort and feelings about your body, not anyone else's."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Naruto grinned at that, though the expression was rather pained. "Oh, trust me, sensei, I'll be more comfortable if I can prevent Ino from deciding I need a hands-on demonstration and throwing me in her shower… So I have to go get a razor, and some lotion, right?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Kakashi blinked his eye down at her, confused, then shifted his gaze to the bottle of lotion sitting on the shelf next to the extras towels. /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"He /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"certainly hadn't bought it, having no particular interest in smelling like tangerines, and it had appeared at the same time as the rest of the things Sakura had given the little blonde… He indicated the bottle, and ventured, "Is that not… lotion?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Looking at the container like she'd never seen it before, Naruto pouted. "I don't know, is it? I got kind of overwhelmed after Sakura-chan explained the shampoo and conditioner and body soap, and I just put the rest up there."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;""It's lotion," he confirmed, examining the label more closely. "It's good for your skin to put it on everywhere every day. I hear women say it'll make you age better." Then he took down the other, smaller bottles, reading their labels. "This is detangling spray, I'm under the impression you use it to comb your wet hair with to prevent damage while you get out the knots. And this is… heat spray, I think you're supposed to put it on your hair before you use a hair dryer or a straightener. And this is face lotion." He could already see her gearing up to ask. "It's thinner, and designed not to make you break out. And this is face wash."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;""Why do you have to have separate soap for your face and the rest of you? That's stupid."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Kakashi shrugged. "The skin on your face is different from the skin on your legs, isn't it?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Naruto shrugged, tapping her fingers to her cheek as though to test this hypothesis. "I guess," she conceded. "But why is all this necessary for girls, and not for boys?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Wordlessly, Kakashi opened his medicine cabinet and extracted his own unscented body and face lotions, as well as his face wash. "I will concede both that women tend to have more involved skin and hair care routines, and that some men do less than the minimum because they believe it makes them less masculine, but washing and moisturizing your face separately from your body, and applying lotion to your skin… Well, in my own opinion, I view it as a reasonable minimum effort."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Rolling her eyes at him /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"hard/span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;", she mocked softly, "/spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"Maa, I'm Kaka-sensei, and I put on lotion, so why don't you, Naruto?/span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;""/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Kakashi bit the inside of his cheek to prevent himself from smiling. "I'm not judging you," he told her gently. "I agree that it's unreasonable to think you would have divined this knowledge without help. It's not instinctive or intuitive, it's culturally transmitted. In Suna, for example, men and women both apply layers of oil to their bodies to keep the sand off and prevent the sun from drying out their skin."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;""Culturally transmitted," Naruto repeated vaguely, clearly lost in thought. "Sensei is so smart." She sighed, looking a little distressed. "So I just need a razor, then, and I can use my body wash as the soap?" He inclined his head in affirmation, even as he pulled a spare razor from the medicine cabinet and handed it to her. She eyed it dubiously, but accepted the object, and murmured to herself, "Guess I just have to try it out."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;""Do you want me to show you?" Blue eyes flashed up to grey, alarmed, as Kakashi blinked rapidly down at her, his words having been said utterly without any input from his brain. "On my own leg," he clarified quickly, relieved as some of the panic faded from his charge's beautiful eyes./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"She searched his face, openly curious. "You'd do that for me?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Deflecting, Kakashi averted his gaze and turned half away, shrugging disinterestedly. "They pay me to teach you things, don't they?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Her fingers curled in his sleeve and his stomach flipped. "Yeah, I want—could you show me?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;""Sure." He didn't let himself think too much about it, simply propping his socked foot up on the edge of the bathtub and rolling up his pant leg. Kakashi had never been an overly hairy guy, and what he did have was a little more subtle, being silver, but it was more than enough to demonstrate the skill Naruto wanted to learn, of course. He wetted a section with water from the sink, applied the shaving cream, and said, "Remember, don't press down, let the razor do the work," as he dragged said implement up his shin, leaving behind remarkably smooth pale skin. He examined the razor, finding it predictably somewhat clogged, and added, "Oh, this won't be an issue after the first time you do it, but I've seen medical-nin prepping for surgery use a trick to keep the razor from becoming too full of hair to work. Just run the razor backwards on a different part of your leg after each stroke, like this." He demonstrated, then showed her how the razor came away clean./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"He studiously avoided looking at Naruto as he ended his demonstration, setting the razor down in favor of a wash cloth to wipe away the soap and hair, vaguely thankful that there was virtually zero chance anyone else would be seeing the bald patch on his shin. Something like anxious nausea twisted within him as Naruto suddenly giggled, but all she said was, "Sensei really is a man of many talents."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Kakashi pulled his pant leg back down and looked at her, at the way her eyes said /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"uncomfortable /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"and /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"determined /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"both, and the way they sparkled at him, pleased that he'd helped her with this, and did something stupid. "You really don't have to go to the lecture on Saturday," he heard himself say, refusing to think too hard about the fact he'd been told that she was the reason they were having the lecture at all. "I can write down what you need to know, and I can answer your questions privately—or Kurenai can." Even if he would strongly prefer to do it./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"He watched the sparkle in her eyes sputter and die, shoving her hands into her pockets in the /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"cutest /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"unintentional mirror of his own behavior when he was trying not to show how he felt or pretending to be unaffected by something. "Sensei, it's—it's really okay. It'll be weirder and more obvious if I don't go." A tiny bit of her smile returned. "And I really do want to see you put a condom on a dildo, and I really do want to see the teme's face when you make him do it, too."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Kakashi groaned, letting her change the subject. "Don't remind me," he said as he reached for the hoodie he'd thrown over the curtain rod, pulling it on over his head before tugging his mask up and the hood on. He slumped his posture, ducked his head, and stuffed his hands into the pocket of his hoodie. "What do you think, will people recognize me?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"She hummed, amused. "Well, you're so tall. People my height will have a perfect view of your face—the uncovered parts, anyway. I guess other tall people won't, though. Are you really that embarrassed? Why?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"That… was a good question. Kakashi wanted to impart that sex wasn't shameful, didn't he? He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "I suppose it's less than I'm embarrassed and more that I'm private," he mused eventually. "I don't want people who see me to make assumptions about me."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Naruto's blue gaze gleamed. "So you /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"do /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"understand why I prefer the jumpsuit."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"He wanted to argue—really, he did—but she was sort of right, and would perceive him as a hypocrite if he argued. That would be… counter to his goals. Slowly, he pulled his hood down, and withdrew his hitai-ate from his back pocket to tug on instead. "Fine, I take your point," he said, clipped and unfriendly, but she just smiled big at him like he didn't intimidate her in the slightest./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;""Want me to go with you?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Kakashi was shaking his head before she'd even finished the question. "No, gods, no. I don't want to think about what the rumor mill would come up with if someone saw me buying a sex toy with my genin. Besides, I have to go to the bank, too, it'll be boring." He nearly asked her about her plans, but made the executive decision to be less nosy for the rest of the day, still feeling quite guilty that he'd manipulated her into asking him about how to shave./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"But Naruto told him anyway, told him so much, and wasn't it awful that he still needed more, even after he had read her journal? "I guess I'll take a stab at the dumb shaving thing. At least I'll heal fast if I cut myself, huh?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Kakashi paused in the middle of pushing past her in the doorway, looking down into her big blue eyes. "Try not to anyway," he suggested, concerned. "And remember that you /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"really /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"don't have to do it."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Naruto tilted her head up to him, asking dryly, "Don't I, though?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"An image he'd been studiously avoiding letting himself imagine sprang into his mind fully-formed and fucking /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"delicious/span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;": Naruto nude on her stomach, blindfolded with her hands tied behind her back. The thought made him so hard so quickly it nearly made him dizzy, and on the heels of his erection was the thought, /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"You're going to fuck her up worse if you don't work through your own shit./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Though truthfully, it felt much more doable to have normal sex with his girl than with anyone else. She'd already seen his face, seen him be soft and vulnerable, and he trusted her not to attack him. That was the part of sex he usually couldn't abide by, being seen, being exposed, giving his partner the opportunity to stab him in the back—literally. The last time he'd had sex with someone who wasn't tied up or down, the guy had stabbed Kakashi just below his ribs, next to his spine. That was eight years ago, when he'd been a teenager, and he'd never risked it again. That's why he sought out prostitutes, paid them nicely for making themselves so profoundly vulnerable to him (an objectively dangerous man with a kill count in the triple digits), and always made sure they got off a couple of times before he did. It was the gentlemanly thing to do, and none of them ever seemed too put out by the process. The rare times he had sex without paying for it tended to be with civilian women who were looking for the danger, which—well, he wouldn't lie, he preferred that, but didn't often put himself in the position to be solicited for it./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"He hadn't sought sex out at all since he took on his team. Hadn't been interested./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"emspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"It's also ugly and messy and gross and humiliating and it hurts and everyone /span/emstrongemspan style="font-family: Avenir-HeavyOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-HeavyOblique;"has/span/em/strongemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;" to do it. /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"That's what Naruto said, and he couldn't figure out which part broke his heart the most—that she thought it always hurt, by design? That she thought people /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"have /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"to do it? That it was gross and ugly, that it was humiliating by its very nature? Kakashi longed to show her, guide her to see how beautiful it could be, how good her body could feel, how /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"safe /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"he would keep her, how much she could trust her body to him. They were awful, selfish impulses, but wouldn't that be better than Sasuke trying to finger her with all of his bullheaded determination to do things the way he thought they should be done, regardless of what anyone else said? Better than Kiba rutting at her like a mutt, or Shikamaru pretending he didn't care about her as soon as they were finished?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Wouldn't Naruto be better off in the hands of a man that loved her and would put her first, always?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"All Kakashi had to do was keep getting closer. Keep showing her that he would provide for her, be everything she needed him to be. That she could trust him with anything. And it was so, so /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"easy/span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;", so /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"heartbreakingly/span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;" easy to manipulate her into walking through the doors he left open for her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"He got Naruto to ask him about shaving on his first attempt; all it took was waiting for her to walk by with the bathroom door open, shaving cream on his face, and a razor in his hand. When he heard her approach, he leaned forward and started on the left as he always did, and when she passed him, she froze in the doorway to observe. He pretended not to notice her, and after a moment, she said hesitantly, "Sensei, you shave?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Bless her, she asked so many stupid questions. Kakashi sort of loved that about her, though, and wasn't able to stop a fond smile from forming on his face as he drawled, "Obviously." Then, letting her off the hook as she shrank back a little, he added with more kindness and patience, "The stubble catches on my mask, so I shave every day."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Naruto hummed, as though considering this tidbit of information. "Would you… Uh, would you mind explaining it to me?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Gods, but she was so easy. Sixty seconds before he was holding her in his palms like clay. He felt awful, really, but also happy he could provide her with something he knew she wanted. He kept his voice disinterested and distracted as he asked, "Are you asking how a man shaves his face? Or how to shave generally?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;""Generally." Naruto leaned against the doorway with the end of her braid in her hand, fussing with it as she blushed a fetching shade of pink. And the fact that she was clearly embarrassed yet showed no signs of being afraid to share her thoughts with him was just—just perfect. "All the other girls my age having been shaving their legs for a couple of years, and they've started asking why I don't do it, but I didn't have a— … Didn't have anyone to teach me how."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"With Kushina's long-gone laughter echoing in his ears, Kakashi started to explain without inflection, careful as he shaved around his lips. "Generally, you need your skin to be wet, soap or shaving cream, and a sharp razor. You're supposed to replace the head of your razor pretty often, or you'll get a less clean shave and more ingrown hairs." He flicked his eyes over to her, pleased to find he had her rapt attention. "You let the razor do the work, putting little to no pressure on it. Make smooth vertical motions; if you move the razor horizontally, you'll leave cuts. Men shave their faces 'with the grain,' meaning in the same direction the hair grows, but women shave their legs 'against the grain,' starting each stroke from their ankle or knee and moving upward. Now, I've never shaved my legs." He paused, having finished his task, and leaned down to splash water onto his face to wash the remaining shaving cream away. "But I'm under the impression that you need to be most careful around your ankles and under your knees, and that women have better results if they scrub their skin first. Oh, and you need to put on lotion afterward. Make sense?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Naruto's little nose wrinkled up and it was terribly, terribly cute. "I guess," she said, sounding a bit put-out. "Just seems so unnecessary."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;""It is unnecessary." Kakashi turned to face her fully, crossing his arms over his chest. "You don't have to do it. It's an exercise in aesthetics, not hygiene." Personally, he didn't care what she did. He'd love her legs either way, and had no real vested interest in what she settled on. His goal was simply to give her information that he knew she wanted./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Naruto was still fiddling with her braid, looking somewhere near his chin. "And what all… what all do women usually shave?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Hm, that was an interesting question, wasn't it? "Most common would be legs and underarms," he clarified. "But some women shave their arms or their faces, if they feel that they should to meet expectations for beauty. And it's popular for civilian women to shave their pubic hair, but not so much for kunoichi." He could see the /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"why /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"forming in her eyes and continued smoothly, "Pubic hair tends to create rashes and ingrown hairs when shaved, especially if one wears tight clothes, sweats, or moves around a lot, so it's not particularly practical for a shinobi."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Kakashi watched Naruto chew on that, puffing out her cheeks as her gaze fell to the floor. "Am I… should I shave my arms?" she wondered./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Thoughtlessly, he reached for her wrist, and pushed up her sleeve to examine the fine golden hair on her forearm. She let him, apparently trusting that he had her best interests at heart. "I don't think anyone would expect you to," he answered carefully. "But I'll reiterate that shaving should be about /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"your /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"comfort and feelings about your body, not anyone else's."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Naruto grinned at that, though the expression was rather pained. "Oh, trust me, sensei, I'll be more comfortable if I can prevent Ino from deciding I need a hands-on demonstration and throwing me in her shower… So I have to go get a razor, and some lotion, right?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Kakashi blinked his eye down at her, confused, then shifted his gaze to the bottle of lotion sitting on the shelf next to the extras towels. /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"He /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"certainly hadn't bought it, having no particular interest in smelling like tangerines, and it had appeared at the same time as the rest of the things Sakura had given the little blonde… He indicated the bottle, and ventured, "Is that not… lotion?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Looking at the container like she'd never seen it before, Naruto pouted. "I don't know, is it? I got kind of overwhelmed after Sakura-chan explained the shampoo and conditioner and body soap, and I just put the rest up there."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;""It's lotion," he confirmed, examining the label more closely. "It's good for your skin to put it on everywhere every day. I hear women say it'll make you age better." Then he took down the other, smaller bottles, reading their labels. "This is detangling spray, I'm under the impression you use it to comb your wet hair with to prevent damage while you get out the knots. And this is… heat spray, I think you're supposed to put it on your hair before you use a hair dryer or a straightener. And this is face lotion." He could already see her gearing up to ask. "It's thinner, and designed not to make you break out. And this is face wash."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;""Why do you have to have separate soap for your face and the rest of you? That's stupid."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Kakashi shrugged. "The skin on your face is different from the skin on your legs, isn't it?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Naruto shrugged, tapping her fingers to her cheek as though to test this hypothesis. "I guess," she conceded. "But why is all this necessary for girls, and not for boys?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Wordlessly, Kakashi opened his medicine cabinet and extracted his own unscented body and face lotions, as well as his face wash. "I will concede both that women tend to have more involved skin and hair care routines, and that some men do less than the minimum because they believe it makes them less masculine, but washing and moisturizing your face separately from your body, and applying lotion to your skin… Well, in my own opinion, I view it as a reasonable minimum effort."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Rolling her eyes at him /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"hard/span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;", she mocked softly, "/spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"Maa, I'm Kaka-sensei, and I put on lotion, so why don't you, Naruto?/span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;""/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Kakashi bit the inside of his cheek to prevent himself from smiling. "I'm not judging you," he told her gently. "I agree that it's unreasonable to think you would have divined this knowledge without help. It's not instinctive or intuitive, it's culturally transmitted. In Suna, for example, men and women both apply layers of oil to their bodies to keep the sand off and prevent the sun from drying out their skin."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;""Culturally transmitted," Naruto repeated vaguely, clearly lost in thought. "Sensei is so smart." She sighed, looking a little distressed. "So I just need a razor, then, and I can use my body wash as the soap?" He inclined his head in affirmation, even as he pulled a spare razor from the medicine cabinet and handed it to her. She eyed it dubiously, but accepted the object, and murmured to herself, "Guess I just have to try it out."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;""Do you want me to show you?" Blue eyes flashed up to grey, alarmed, as Kakashi blinked rapidly down at her, his words having been said utterly without any input from his brain. "On my own leg," he clarified quickly, relieved as some of the panic faded from his charge's beautiful eyes./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"She searched his face, openly curious. "You'd do that for me?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Deflecting, Kakashi averted his gaze and turned half away, shrugging disinterestedly. "They pay me to teach you things, don't they?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Her fingers curled in his sleeve and his stomach flipped. "Yeah, I want—could you show me?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;""Sure." He didn't let himself think too much about it, simply propping his socked foot up on the edge of the bathtub and rolling up his pant leg. Kakashi had never been an overly hairy guy, and what he did have was a little more subtle, being silver, but it was more than enough to demonstrate the skill Naruto wanted to learn, of course. He wetted a section with water from the sink, applied the shaving cream, and said, "Remember, don't press down, let the razor do the work," as he dragged said implement up his shin, leaving behind remarkably smooth pale skin. He examined the razor, finding it predictably somewhat clogged, and added, "Oh, this won't be an issue after the first time you do it, but I've seen medical-nin prepping for surgery use a trick to keep the razor from becoming too full of hair to work. Just run the razor backwards on a different part of your leg after each stroke, like this." He demonstrated, then showed her how the razor came away clean./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"He studiously avoided looking at Naruto as he ended his demonstration, setting the razor down in favor of a wash cloth to wipe away the soap and hair, vaguely thankful that there was virtually zero chance anyone else would be seeing the bald patch on his shin. Something like anxious nausea twisted within him as Naruto suddenly giggled, but all she said was, "Sensei really is a man of many talents."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Kakashi pulled his pant leg back down and looked at her, at the way her eyes said /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"uncomfortable /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"and /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"determined /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"both, and the way they sparkled at him, pleased that he'd helped her with this, and did something stupid. "You really don't have to go to the lecture on Saturday," he heard himself say, refusing to think too hard about the fact he'd been told that she was the reason they were having the lecture at all. "I can write down what you need to know, and I can answer your questions privately—or Kurenai can." Even if he would strongly prefer to do it./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"He watched the sparkle in her eyes sputter and die, shoving her hands into her pockets in the /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"cutest /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"unintentional mirror of his own behavior when he was trying not to show how he felt or pretending to be unaffected by something. "Sensei, it's—it's really okay. It'll be weirder and more obvious if I don't go." A tiny bit of her smile returned. "And I really do want to see you put a condom on a dildo, and I really do want to see the teme's face when you make him do it, too."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Kakashi groaned, letting her change the subject. "Don't remind me," he said as he reached for the hoodie he'd thrown over the curtain rod, pulling it on over his head before tugging his mask up and the hood on. He slumped his posture, ducked his head, and stuffed his hands into the pocket of his hoodie. "What do you think, will people recognize me?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"She hummed, amused. "Well, you're so tall. People my height will have a perfect view of your face—the uncovered parts, anyway. I guess other tall people won't, though. Are you really that embarrassed? Why?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"That… was a good question. Kakashi wanted to impart that sex wasn't shameful, didn't he? He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "I suppose it's less than I'm embarrassed and more that I'm private," he mused eventually. "I don't want people who see me to make assumptions about me."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Naruto's blue gaze gleamed. "So you /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"do /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"understand why I prefer the jumpsuit."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"He wanted to argue—really, he did—but she was sort of right, and would perceive him as a hypocrite if he argued. That would be… counter to his goals. Slowly, he pulled his hood down, and withdrew his hitai-ate from his back pocket to tug on instead. "Fine, I take your point," he said, clipped and unfriendly, but she just smiled big at him like he didn't intimidate her in the slightest./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;""Want me to go with you?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Kakashi was shaking his head before she'd even finished the question. "No, gods, no. I don't want to think about what the rumor mill would come up with if someone saw me buying a sex toy with my genin. Besides, I have to go to the bank, too, it'll be boring." He nearly asked her about her plans, but made the executive decision to be less nosy for the rest of the day, still feeling quite guilty that he'd manipulated her into asking him about how to shave./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"But Naruto told him anyway, told him so much, and wasn't it awful that he still needed more, even after he had read her journal? "I guess I'll take a stab at the dumb shaving thing. At least I'll heal fast if I cut myself, huh?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Kakashi paused in the middle of pushing past her in the doorway, looking down into her big blue eyes. "Try not to anyway," he suggested, concerned. "And remember that you /spanemspan style="font-family: Avenir-BookOblique; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-BookOblique;"really /span/emspan style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"don't have to do it."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 120%; margin: 12.0pt 0in 9.0pt 0in;"span style="font-family: Avenir-Book; mso-bidi-font-family: Avenir-Book;"Naruto tilted her head up to him, asking dryly, "Don't I, though?"/span/p