The day of the festival dawned inauspiciously. Kakashi roused from his dreams to find himself achingly hard with his face buried in Naruto's hair and his arm tight around her waist, immensely grateful that he hadn't pulled her into his erection in his sleep—he could only imagine the fallout from a mistake like that. Still, though, he was thrumming with her proximity, the citrusy smell of her in his nose and the feel of the backs of her thighs against the tops of his own. He wanted her. He always wanted her.
In his mind's eye, he was replaying the scene from the night before, when he'd taught her how to put on the eyeliner and mascara. He'd had her make a shadow clone for him to demonstrate on while she watched. It was weird, to lift the clone onto the bathroom sink with a firm grip on her hips, to take her face gently in his palm; the clones both were and were not people, after all, and the line between himself and his own shadow clones had always been confusing. It wasn't really Naruto is what he'd told himself, anchoring his reality to the warmth of the original, pressed against his shoulder to observe.
But the clone had still blushed. Was Naruto, in a real and immediate way. He'd tilted her head back with a thumb under her jaw, then shifted his hand up, fingers curling around her ear as he used his thumb to gently pull the skin next to her eye, exactly the way Ume had done to Kiki. She'd flushed so prettily, sucking her lower lip between her teeth, her big, beautiful blue eyes very round and intent on his face. It had made him want so badly to kiss her that he'd had to pause and gather himself to avoid doing so.
Somehow, he didn't think Naruto would forgive him if their first kiss was mediated through a shadow clone.
It didn't help that the eyeliner and mascara rimming them in black made her eyes look even bigger and brighter, more liquid, like Kakashi could drown in them if he wasn't careful. He'd knocked down an intrusive thought about licking them as soon as it reared its head, and instead said something stupid as he straightened back up and ended his explanation, realizing belatedly that he'd been standing between the clone's knees. "See? Beautiful."
Visibly overwhelmed by such a sincere compliment in such close proximity, the clone had performed the release to end her existence without being prompted, and he'd turned just in time to see the real thing shut her eyes against the memory and turn scarlet. It was somehow the most erotic thing he'd seen in years, and as Naruto's eyes cracked open to give him a shy look undercut with heat, he wondered again if she knew. If she wanted him back. If it scared her that he wanted her. What she'd do if he took her in his arms, tilted her head back, and kissed her.
The moment had been gone as fast as it had come, Naruto wondering out loud if the best way for her to practice would be on shadow clones, since she wouldn't have to worry about wiping it off over and over. Then I can just have a shadow clone do it to me, she'd concluded, and really, it was rather clever, and he'd told her so before leaving her to it.
But the brevity of the interaction couldn't stop him from dwelling on it as he gently extricated himself from around Naruto, ignoring her little displeased noise at the loss of warmth as he rolled over onto his back and adjusted himself in his sleep pants, tucking his erection up under his waistband to avoid its detection when the lights came on. "Come back," she whined, half asleep, and Kakashi found himself suppressing a laugh.
"We have to get up," he reminded her gently. "Classes today, then the festival."
"No drinking before the festival, gotta do your lecture sober this time," she reminded him in a groan, rolling over to face him in the dark of his bedroom. "Five more minutes," she added, and it probably should have been annoying, how hard it was to get her up, but he could only find it charming.
"Fine, no drinking," he agreed, and started to say something else, but she was moving onto him, trying to pin him with her scant weight to keep him from making her wake up just yet. She'd pulled the same move once or twice before, sprawling over his chest between his legs, and he'd loved it, loved the intimacy of it, but that had been when he wasn't sporting an insistent eight inch erection. An erection she'd just rolled onto, that was now pressed against her lean stomach, twitching with interest.
They both went utterly, preternaturally still. Kakashi held his breath, and after her initial shocked gasp, Naruto did, too. She seemed frozen, and he had no idea what to do, how to make it better. Every muscle in her body was tensed in fight or flight as far as he could tell in the dark, and she chose flight before he could open his sharingan eye to investigate her facial expression, flying back away from him as her breath returned to her, coming in rapid, panicked inhales.
"I'm so sorry," he began, sitting up and pushing away from her until his back hit the headboard, groping for the little cord on his bedside lamp. It flickered on, revealing Naruto half crouched and half sat on the far edge of the bed, eyes wild and face very red. "I'm sorry, Naruto, I didn't mean—"
"S'not your fault," she wheezed, blinking rapidly as she began to control her breathing the way he'd taught her in training. Three in, three held, three out, three held, and so on, a rhythm so familiar to Kakashi that he found himself copying her, breathing with her. "I know—I know it's not your fault, you told us—it just happens sometimes. Especially in the morning."
That had come up in his lecture, and guilt clenched like a fist in his guts at her willingness to give him the benefit of the doubt, at the fact that she had no idea he'd been playing out a fantasy in his mind that involved pulling her clone's abused lower lip from between her teeth and sliding his thumb into its place, pinning her tongue down and holding her in place so he could— He shook his head, dismissing his filthy thoughts, and said quietly, "Still, I didn't mean to scare you."
"That was my fault," she insisted, calming down as embarrassment gradually took panic's place and she sank into a cross-legged position, looking awfully cute in the pajamas he'd gotten for her (a conservative plaid set, with very soft, breathable fabric). "I shouldn't have pressed up on you like that."
"I don't want you to not feel safe to touch me," Kakashi answered instantly, thoughtlessly, but with complete and utter honesty.
Coming up on properly recovered, she smiled at him, beginning to undo her twin braids with anxious fingers, and his eyes caught as they always did on the adorable waves being revealed to him. "I know it's safe," she told him, something in her tone oddly affectionate. "I'm always safe with you."
Cautious, Kakashi didn't answer her at first. He just watched her, wishing he could read her mind, wishing he could crack her skull open and see her thoughts for himself. He wondered vaguely what she'd write in her journal about this encounter. Finally, all he said was a little, "You are, I promise."
…
Kurenai had given Kakashi a disgustingly affectionate and knowing look when he'd asked her in the break room if she'd mind coming over to help Naruto with her kimono and her hair, even as he'd doubled and tripled down on his aloof persona, disinterestedly looking away and only responding to her agreement with a grunt of acknowledgment. She'd immediately trapped him, though, clever bitch she was. All she'd had to say was What color is the kimono? I have some accessories I could bring her and like an idiot, he'd answered, Same blue as her eyes, with pink and white flowers.
'Same blue as her eyes' had immediately caused Kurenai to try poorly to hide her smile, while Asuma snorted and muttered something under his breath about Kakashi becoming too 'sensitive' in a tone that had made him remove himself from the situation before he got into a pissing contest about his masculinity. He was too damn old for that.
Regardless, though, he'd gotten the desired outcome: Kurenai at his front door, with a bag full of hair supplies and a gentle smile for Naruto. The older Kunoichi always seemed to intimidate his girl a little, and it was no different now, as she peered out from behind him, barefoot in shorts and a tank top, hair a wet mass hanging down her back. "Thanks for coming," Kakashi greeted her, moving aside to let her in and guiding Naruto by the arm when she failed to follow suit, a little wide-eyed as she watched Kurenai enter their home.
Kakashi guessed it was probably because of how lovely the woman looked, with her hair done up in two elaborate winding braids studded with pearls and her lipstick the same blood red as her beautiful kimono. She was a striking woman at the worst of times, and truly stunning when she was made up nicely. Naruto seemed not to know how to handle it, her cheeks flushing bright red as Kurenai greeted her warmly, and not for the first time, Kakashi wondered if Naruto liked girls as well as boys.
"Th-thanks for coming," she stuttered, holding her left elbow with her right hand behind her back. "You really, um. You didn't have to, K-Kurenai-sensei." The woman's name came out as a squeak, and yeah, maybe he'd have to tease Naruto for her crush when he got the chance.
"Nonsense," Kurenai chided her gently, setting her bag down on the dining table and pulling out one of the chairs. "Any time. Sit down, sweetie. Have you ever blow dried your hair?"
"No," Naruto admitted shyly as she sank into the proffered seat, shoulders tense and fists clenched on her thighs as though she were going into battle rather than having her hair done. It was awfully charming, and Kakashi was grateful for the mask that hid the bulk of his inordinately fond smile. "Um, Haruno-san—Sakura's mom—she, um, she did it, once."
Kakashi could see his friend melting for the girl in the chair, and, satisfied that Naruto was in good hands, settled in to watch. Kurenai only gave him a quick, amused eyebrow quirk when she saw him push his hitai-ate up onto his forehead. He was lucky she'd begun trusting him more with Naruto; she'd been by far the closest to figuring out his true intentions with her. He only half listened to the conversation going on between them over the whir of the hair drier—about the festival and the things Naruto was excited to do and try—instead fixated on the way Naruto's hair slowly changed in color and texture, taking on that immensely shiny quality that had so thoroughly distracted him the last time he'd seen it.
He'd seen Ume straighten hair just a few days prior, but Kakashi wasn't prepared for how thoroughly satisfying it was to watch it on Naruto's long blonde tresses. It was positively glossy, so much so that he couldn't stop himself from reaching out to touch it when Kurenai had her back turned. It felt like silk under his fingertips, and Naruto shot him a nervous smile over her shoulder.
"Do you like it?" she asked.
She sounded as though his opinion mattered very much to her, so he didn't let himself posture too much for the sake of their audience. "It's beautiful," he answered evenly, and Kurenai elbowed him out of the way with an infuriatingly amused smile on her red lips. But Naruto preened under the praise, some of her earlier blush blooming across her cheeks once more, so it was worth it.
Kakashi was grateful for his sharingan eye as he watched the actual hairstyle come together, certain he would need Kurenai to move at a tenth of her pace to understand what he was seeing without it. It was complicated, beginning as a strange, twisting braid on one side and developing into a complex off-center bun that looked remarkably like a large rose, more petals added with each pass of Naruto's long hair around its center. The architecture of the structure was supported by almost two dozen hairpins, and he wasn't completely positive he could replicate it even with his eye, though he was certainly happy to try.
With a cloud of hairspray to hold everything together, Kurenai seemed satisfied, returning to her bag to withdraw a handful of beautiful little artificial white flowers on pins, made of paper he thought, which were carefully added into Naruto's hair, creating a delicate and youthful impression that countered the mature elegance of the bun quite fetchingly.
His girl poured thank-you's like a broken tap when Kurenai showed her the finished product, leading her into the bathroom with a hand mirror. "No problem," his friend assured Naruto, with a friendly squeeze to her thin shoulder. "You look beautiful. Come on, let's get you dressed. Where are her clothes?"
"Laid out on her bed," Kakashi let her know, already turning to leave. "I'll be getting ready, knock if you need me."
…
Naruto felt out of place in the kimono, just as she knew she would, but she also felt girlish and pretty and cute, all of which was as alien to her as the silk that brushed against her skin. She'd been a little disturbed by the news that she was meant to wear the floral blue silk without any undergarments, but the white underskirt and shirt combined with the tight obi made her feel secure enough. Who knew she'd feel so naked without a bra, so soon after getting used to them?
Kurenai—simply gorgeous in her own red kimono, which matched her eyes and lips in away that made Naruto's stomach twist—looked quite pleased, examining Naruto's reflection over her shoulder in the mirror. And yeah, Naruto was pleased, too. She looked delicate, like a doll, classically pretty in a way that was utterly foreign to her. She'd summoned a shadow clone to apply her eyeliner and mascara, done the sparkly strawberry-flavored lip gloss on her own, and allowed Kurenai to apply something called 'rouge' to her cheeks, making them look quite rosy.
The kimono Kakashi had selected for her was endlessly fascinating, the silk smooth under her fingers and the pattern of white and pink sakura blossoms intricate. The wide obi was blush pink, and the obijime was blue and white, tied into a pretty flower shape at the front. Naruto turned to examine the big, elegant bow that tied her obi together, quite certain she'd never looked so nice in her entire life. Overall, her reflection was unfamiliar, herself but not herself, as though she were peering into another universe, one in which she'd been a normal girl.
"Thank you," Naruto heard herself say for the thousandth time. "Thank you, Kurenai-sensei. I feel so pretty."
"You are pretty," Kurenai told her, sounding like she meant it, and her cheeks grew a little hot as the woman began to guide her out of her room by the shoulders. "Watch, your poor sensei is going to be speechless, he has no idea how to handle it when the women in his life get dressed up. The first time he saw me in traditional dress, he was completely silent for a full a minute, just staring at me like I'd done a magic trick."
Pitching her voice low and secretive, Naruto told her quickly just before the door opened, "He does that when he wants to touch something. He probably wanted to feel the fabric of your clothes or your hair."
"Is that what it is?" she wondered, amused and not bothering to keep her voice down. "He's the most emotionally constipated man I've ever met in my life."
"Stop gossiping about me to my genin, Kurenai," Kakashi called from down the hall, though without any bite, more just resignation.
It was a good thing that Kurenai still had Naruto by the shoulders—and come to think of it, maybe it was because the jōnin knew she'd get cold feet—because the realization that Kakashi was going to see her in this new and unfamiliar way washed over her with considerable anxiety, and she stumbled a little in the unfamiliar geta on her feet.
Things with Kakashi had been weird. Not bad, just… weird. The way he looked at her (his eye heavy and intense, like he was trying to see through her) and touched her (like she belonged to him just as much as his keys or his hitai-ate did) wasn't the way he was supposed to. He was supposed to look at her and touch her the way Iruka did, but he didn't, it was different, and the more she thought about it, the more it seemed like he liked her. Which made no sense. She was too young for him, for starters, and quite plain, and damaged, and unclean. A man like Hatake Kakashi could have anyone, could have someone beautiful and whole like Kurenai-sensei. So Naruto had concluded that Kakashi simply did not know how to express his (presumably innocent and appropriate) affection for her, which made it come out weird.
But it didn't make it any easier for her to deal with her own raging crush on the man. Didn't make it easier for her to keep a straight face when he touched her lower back to guide her, or when he kissed her head and touched her hair. And it didn't make it easier for her to not flush absolutely crimson at the look on his covered face when he saw her all dressed up like a hinamatsuri doll, like he'd never seen anything so captivating. True to Kurenai's prediction, he was briefly speechless, eyes roving her up and down, and giving her the opportunity to take him in, too. His lightweight yukata was far more plain than her getup, but it looked lovely on him, made him seem casual and accessible where he was lounged in his armchair, book forgotten in his hand. His usual hitai-ate was replaced with a headband made of the same dark grey and dull purple fabric as his yukata, but his mask was the same that it always was.
"You look handsome, sensei," she complimented him politely when the silence began to edge on too long, trying to protect him from Kurenai-sensei's judgment if she thought he was staring too much.
He took the warning for what it was, blinking rapidly and averting his gaze as he responded just as politely, "Maa, you look very nice as well. Are you ready to go meet Sasuke and Sakura?" At her nod, he stood, setting his book face down on the arm of the chair—one of those Icha Icha books, he'd finally started reading all his smut around the apartment after she'd insisted she didn't mind—and addressed their guest with a grateful little bow. "Thank you so much for your time, Kurenai, I hope we haven't made you late for your date. You can leave your bag here if you'd like, I'll run it by your place tomorrow."
To Naruto's surprise, the woman next to her sputtered a little at this statement. "Date? What date?" she asked in an unconvincingly high voice. "Asuma and I are taking our teams together, it's not a date."
"Hm," was all Kakashi answered, and Naruto forced herself not to laugh by focusing with all her willpower on how grateful she was to Kurenai for being so patient and kind while getting her ready. "Well, I hope you haven't kept them waiting," he amended after letting the pause stretch on long enough for Kurenai's panic to turn into irritation. "Naruto and I are about ten minutes late to meet the rest of our party."
"We are?" Surprised, Naruto turned towards the clock—which was four minutes fast, something that irritated her endlessly—and found he was correct. "Oh! We better get going. Thank you so, so much, Kurenai-sensei!"
"Any time," she said again, sounding like she meant it. "Go have fun!"