A/N – Scheming continues.

'This is unfair honestly'

Kakashi was laying in his bed in the Hokage's Residence, uncharacteristically serious (in the shallows of despair), pondering his love life (or lack thereof). His spectacular plan (if he said so himself) three days ago had yielded no fruit. It should have. It was meticulously thought out.

Step 1: Distract his assistants (and Naruto, who had the bad habit of showing up whenever, but Kakashi's good at improvising). Itachi was difficult. The man was focused to a degree detrimental to others and himself, but by a stroke of luck he came across a scroll concerning a major water leak under the Konoha Bank. The idea of having to deal with the bank manager gave him a headache. Best leave that to Itachi so he wouldn't notice Kakashi sneaking out. Naruto was already distracted from food poisoning (why he felt the need to see Kakashi about this is still a mystery). Shikamaru was easiest, simply because he saw the chaos and immediately checked out (He was Kakashi's favourite out of the three just for that).

Step 2: Have Pakkun in place to intercept Hinata when she arrived. It required some bribery (Pakkun was a firm believer in outrageous ideas, such as 'just tell her you like her, Kakashi' and 'this is not a soap opera, Kakashi' and of course, the dreaded, 'you're 35 years old, Kakashi'), but in the end Pakkun agreed to help, with mild to moderate complaining, which was acceptable.

Step 3: Be in place himself. Somewhere far enough away from the office that he would get time to improvise if things didn't work as expected (also so he wouldn't get caught prematurely).

Step 4: Wait for Hinata to show up to help him.

Step 4.5 (Very Important!): Lounge in an inviting position while waiting.

Step 5: Profit.

Except there was no profit. There was barely even a breakeven. He had thought things were going well. Pakkun had tripped her (as planned) and he had caught her (as planned). She had blushed and stammered prettily (not planned, but hoped), and they seemed to be getting somewhere. Unfortunately, by the time they returned, she was back to normal with no indication that anything was different between them. For all that he had contingencies upon contingencies, the situation was incredibly frustrating.

He had been trying to get Hinata's attention as a possible lover for a few months now and somehow, nothing had happened so far. He didn't think he was being too subtle (Itachi and Shikamaru certainly didn't think so). But she was inexperienced when it came to matters of the heart. She had had only one crush that he knew of, and that had been put aside because of the Hyuuga Main Branch insisting on harassing her when she wanted nothing to do with them. So maybe he needed to step it up. Change the mission rank, as it were.

'What to do next?'

His first thought was to reveal his face. Not to be too vain, but he is well aware that his looks are something most women would enjoy (if they could see them. Thankfully they can't).

But there was a major wrinkle in this plan, because he is pretty sure Hinata has already seen his face and was strangely unaffected (which was a huge blow to the ego that he still hasn't recovered from).

It had happened a few years ago, when Kakashi was the commander for Team 8 during Kurenai's pregnancy. Sakura was apprenticing under Tsunade, Naruto was training with Jiraiya and Sasuke was undercover in Otogakure, possibly apprenticing under Orochimaru. Though Kakashi would never admit it, he was feeling a little like an empty-nester, and so had taken the job of substituting for Kurenai with moderate griping (just to keep up appearances. Couldn't have people dump their kids on him).

They were camping in the woods on a mission. Kakashi had the first watch, since he slept late anyway, absorbed as he got in Icha Icha everytime.

He was idly reading his latest edition of Icha Icha Paradise (Collector's Extended Editon), when he felt a chakra spike coming from Hinata's tent. Low level, for less than a minute. Chakra flow was higher up on the body, near the head. Dojutsu. Byakugan. The spike didn't last long enough to be worrisome and she was not suppressing her chakra to hide the fact that she had used her Byakugan, which she would have done if she was doing a scan for potential threats.

Kakashi froze where he was sitting for a moment. He heard a yawn from her tent, followed by light rustling and deep breaths as she fell asleep.

'Now this might be a problem'

The Byakugan being as it was, Kakashi was certain that she must have seen his face, which was incredibly concerning. Generally his masks were sealed against the Byakugan (something he had to do after a truly frightening experience with a fellow ANBU member while on a mission. Thankfully she seemed to get over it with no hard feelings), but unfortunately, due to Naruto, a pissed off duck, a carton of powdered egg substitute and 20 litres of vinegar, his last sealed mask was rendered unsalvageable. In a fit of laziness, he had held off on making new ones. It's not like anyone other than his students tried to unmask him nowadays, and they were always easy enough to thwart. He prepared himself to pay the price of that procrastination now.

Hinata, shy as she was, probably wouldn't bring it up during the mission, if ever. Also, last he checked, she had a crush on Naruto, so that was a saving grace. Surely they are too different for the crush to transfer somehow, right? He wasn't sure how that worked but it would be just his luck if that happened. He would have to keep an eye out, so her new feelings wouldn't compromise the mission.

He was pulled out of his musings as Shino left his tent for the next watch, and Kakashi went to rest. He was going to have his work cut out for him tomorrow.

However, surprisingly, the next morning, Hinata was completely normal. Minimal stuttering, no coy glances or trying to strike irrelevant conversations. The mission went off without a hitch and they were soon back in Konoha.

Kakashi had been relieved at the time. Dealing with teenage crushes was always the worst. He would reject them the first time politely just for courtesy's sake, but teenage girls had the kind of confidence that had them thinking things would go differently for them, never mind the supposed trail of other broken hearts left behind him. And then the rejections continued until they eventually ran away crying and he was the one who was the asshole.

'How the tables turn'

What had been a relief five years ago was now the bane of his life. He had spent an embarrassing amount of time looking at himself in the mirror and trying to figure out if he was becoming ugly with age. The very idea was unacceptable. And also wrong. He looked the same as always, ergo, he was as handsome as always. He had even stooped to eating his lunch slowly when they were alone, hoping Hinata would get curious, to no avail. It was an embarrassment he was valiantly enduring.

There was only one thing to do then.

'There will have to be an encore. And this time I'll make sure she gets a good look'

_

The next day, Kakashi had a fully formed plan. He waited until lunch to put it in motion. Shikamaru would be out and Itachi would go home to have lunch with Izumi (Naruto would hopefully be somewhere not there).

Kakashi put his chopsticks down and tried to look casual, as opposed to extremely desperate.

"Hinata-chan, are you busy this evening?"

Hinata looked up from her bento curiously.

"Not really, Kakashi-sama. Do you need me for something?"

'You don't even know'. "I was hoping I could trouble you for a spar." Kakashi gave her his most winning smile (which she couldn't properly appreciate through the mask, but he was working on fixing that situation expeditiously) and joked. "I'm worried I might get out of shape sitting in a chair for so long."

Hinata looked at him with an amused smile. Unfortunately, she was not checking him out.

'Nevermind. Slow and steady'

"I'm sure that is not the case Kakashi-sama." Hinata said, finishing her cinnamon roll that she had brought as dessert. "But if it pleases you, I can spar with you today."

"Thank you, Hinata-chan." Kakashi said, grinning slowly, resting his arms on his desk. "It would please me very much."

A/N – Kakashi – What is an attractive way to lounge on a tree?

Kakashi - ...

Kakashi – Belly down like a carcass dragged up by a leopard. Right.

The reason Sasuke was in Otogakure is because he was spying on Orochimaru. Orochimaru had been the partner-in-crime of Danzo and took up Root ANBU after him. When Minato cracked down on it, Orochimaru left and joined the Akatsuki, left that and created Otogakure.

The reason Sasuke was sent is because

Orochimaru would not be able to resist reforming the Sannin.

It would be believable that Sasuke was competitive enough that he left Konoha to train to get stronger than Itachi.

There was a possibility that Orochimaru would join up with the Akatsuki again. Itachi is too good at his job and if he was working against Konoha it would be very hard to use it to their advantage.

Mikoto was understandably pissed.

Next up, the spar.