A/N – I enjoyed writing this chapter very much! It's just so fun to me to have a POV of a character who cannot be bothered, but chooses to get involved anyway.

Shoutout to Lou Wilson on Make Some Noise for the 'One Star Review for the Sun' bit. I will think about it as the light goes out of my eyes.

Team 7 had gathered at Training Ground 12, and Sasuke, for one, was regretting it immensely.

Naruto had parked himself outside his house early in the morning and refused to leave without him.

"Come on, Teme! We haven't hung out together for ages! Sakura-chan is free today so we're going out and spending the day together, 'ttebyo!"

Sasuke threw a Chidori at him, dodged a Rasengan thrown by him, got yelled at by his mother who came to see what the fuss was about, suffered Izumi's laughter at the situation he had found himself in (and the cheek-pinching she insisted on subjecting him to. He hated actually liking people sometimes) and was forced to leave with the Dobe.

They went to Sakura's house to pick her up, and so began Sasuke's hellish day of being dragged around Konoha, as if he had nothing else to do with his day (he didn't, but that's irrelevant).

It was near lunchtime, and Sasuke was sitting on the ground, watching Naruto and Sakura argue about…

"Naruto-baka! What the hell do you mean 'the Sun is bullshit'?"

That.

"It's just a big ball of stuff, hanging in the air, blinding me, personally, every day, for no reason!"

Truly a punishment for some grievous sin committed in a former life. Maybe he was a nuke-nin or something. Kicking kittens would explain why he earned this sentence.

'If I sew my ears shut…'

"Lively today, isn't it?"

Sasuke looked sideways, and did a double take.

Kakashi was standing there, one hand in his pocket, face buried in his book as always, but something was different about him.

'What?'

"What's wrong with you?"

There was silence for a beat (as much as there could be with Naruto and Sakura in the vicinity). Kakashi looked at him curiously. "Nothing that I know of, why?"

Sasuke blocked out the sound of continued nonsensical arguing and took a good look again. Then he saw what was different.

Kakashi was not wearing his vest. As long as Sasuke had known him, Kakashi had only worn his uniform when in public. After becoming the Hokage, he had the vest and armband proclaiming him the Godaime Hokage of Konoha under his robes. He's pretty sure even Hatake Sakumo didn't remember what his son looked like out of uniform. But today he was out of said uniform.

He was wearing a black, long-sleeved shirt, with trousers and loafers. His gloves were missing, as was his forehead protector. His Sharingan was covered by a bandanna instead that also kept the hair out of his face.

It was like looking at the moon and seeing that it was made entirely of rice.

'What the fuck?'

He was tempted to ask what the hell was wrong with him again, but held himself back and chose another question instead.

"Not at the Office today?"

"I took the day off. Itachi is looking after things." Kakashi said cheerfully, giving one of his sketchy eye-smiles. "Practice, you know."

"Hn."

Kakashi looked at Naruto and Sakura, arguing, 'Still, Kami, how are they both like this at this point in their lives'.

"Anyway, I have a meeting I can't be late for, so I'm going to leave before they notice me here. Ja ne." Saying that, Kakashi walked away.

'A meeting he can't be late for, huh?'

Intriguing words from a man who was late for a Kage Summit, even with Itachi, Hinata and Shikamaru's best efforts.

Sasuke waited for him to get far enough away and then decided that this merited investigation.

"Dobe. Sakura."

Both looked at him.

"Yes, Sasuke-kun?"

"What?"

"We have a mission."

_

"Where the fuck is he going? We've been all over Konoha following him!"

Sasuke grimaced. Naruto was terrible at stealth and he affected Sakura's stealth as well because she couldn't resist scolding him. They could prepare themselves when they knew about the mission beforehand, but not when it came to spontaneous missions. He can only claim that the once-in-a-lifetime event of Kakashi clearly wanting to be on time for something made him forget this fact. If he'd had any sense he would have just slipped away and left them to their arguing.

"Dobe, do you want him to hear us?" Sasuke hissed, trying to keep an eye on Kakashi, who was going through the market, looking at… cabbages? "Shut the fuck up."

"I'm being quiet, okay." Naruto whined, not quietly. "I just don't get how he's going to be early to wherever he's going if he's just roaming around Konoha."

"Maybe he was just lying?" Sakura said, hesitantly. "He does that often enough."

They considered it. He does lie to them a lot. He claimed it forced them to collect and analyse information instead of blindly believing yada yada yada a shinobi must look underneath the underneath. Sasuke maintains that it was just one of many small ways in which he tortured people to get his kicks. Still, was he lying about this specific thing?

"Nah."

"He wouldn't dress up just to lie to us." Sasuke dismissed the idea. "The airhead's too lazy to put on that kind of production."

Naruto dodged a couple of kids nearly running into him and was going to say something else when he stopped.

"Oh, look, it's Neji and Lee."

Sasuke looked in the direction Naruto was pointing in, and indeed, saw Neji, looking pissed (more than usual, surprisingly) and Lee, who was hanging onto Neji's arm and trying to stop him, as evidenced by the tracks his feet were leaving in the dirt from being dragged.

'What crawled up his ass and died?'

"Oi, Neji! Lee! Over here!" Naruto yelled, waving wildly and completely forgetting that they were supposed to be stealthy. Moron.

Sakura hit him over the head and hissed. "Naruto! We were supposed to be following Sensei!"

"Ah, sorry Sakura-chan!" Naruto rubbed the goose egg on his head. Lee and Neji reached them before he could make an excuse for his stupidity or take his greeting back.

"Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun, lovely Cherry Blossom of Konoha, hello!" Lee greeted them, bowing while still keeping a hold on Neji. "What brings you here this beautiful afternoon?"

"We were just – "

Sasuke elbowed Naruto. "Just hanging out. We had a free day. What about you?"

"None of your business, Uchiha." Neji spat, looking around with his Byakugan active. 'Interesting'

Lee, on the other hand, was more than happy to provide information. "It has come to our attention that Hinata-sama is on a date, which Neji was not made aware of, and now he is trying to find her and said date."

So Hinata was on a date. 'Fascinating'. Some things were coming together for Sasuke.

"She has no idea what men are like!" Neji ranted, moving forward a few steps and dragging Lee with him. "Filthy perverts with ill intentions, the whole lot of them! She should have told me so I could vet this cretin beforehand – "

"Neji, she's a grown woman." Sakura interrupted. "She's allowed to go on dates without you following her everywhere."

Neji glared at her viciously and did not respond.

"That is what I said, Sakura-chan!" Lee smiled, unbothered as ever. "The wisdom of the Will of Fire flows through you!"

Sakura smiled awkwardly, but did not reject the praise.

When Naruto entered the conversation, Sasuke analysed what he knew.

Hinata was on a date. She didn't tell Neji (or him, but that is not a problem, nope. It's not like he's been her best friend since they were children, what does he care) who it is with, or where it is, since he's running around Konoha, Byakugan blazing. Neji's flustered enough to forget he could use his Byakugan to look into her future and find out who said date is with (it was quite funny, given how proud Neji was of his ability). Kakashi said he has a meeting he can't be late for (bullshit, honestly), and is dressed in civilian clothes, in public, for maybe, the first time in his life since he was born.

Would she have told him that she had a date? Probably, if he knew to ask about it. But how would he know that? Maybe it was someone from the Office. She certainly spends a lot of time there, given her job. Unlikely. Itachi was happily married, Shikamaru was seeing Temari. Izumo or Kotetsu? They were a package deal, she wasn't into that. Genma, Iwashi or Raidō? Inconclusive.

Would Kakashi decide that stalking her and her date was important enough to ditch the Hokage's Office? Indubitably. He would ditch the Hokage's Office to look at a bug stuck in a crack on the pavement.

'Hn'

He needed more information.

"Well, we're going to be on our way." Sasuke said, interrupting their idle chatter and gesturing for Sakura and Naruto to come with him.

"It was lovely to meet you three!" Lee said, waving as he was already being dragged away by Neji, who was back on his dogged mission. "See you later!"

When they were gone, Sasuke took both of them into an alleyway. He spoke before they could.

"Alright, change of plans." Sasuke said, peeking out. Kakashi was getting some skewers from a stall. 'Suspicious'. "You two follow Kakashi. I have something I need to check. I'll find you when I'm done."

He shunshined away before they could ask any questions, and landed outside the Academy building. He went in and requested a meeting with Itachi, who, thankfully, was available at the moment.

Itachi looked up from a, quite honestly, huge, scroll as he walked in.

"Otōto, how can I help?"

Sasuke decided to dive straight in without preamble. "Does Kakashi have a day off?"

One eyebrow raised itself to Itachi's forehead. "Yes, he does."

Sasuke stared at him silently. Itachi stared silently back. Sasuke sighed.

"Can you tell me why?"

Itachi made a show of thinking for a moment, taking off his glasses. Sasuke glared at him. Itachi smirked and conceded.

"He said he wanted a day off, and since he seldom takes days off, we didn't see a reason not to give it."

"He's hours late, all the time."

"Only when Hinata-san is not in the office. On her second day working here, he showed up at 7:30 sharp." Itachi said, resting his face on his joined hands. "Gave Genma quite the fright. He insisted that Senpai had been body-snatched."

Sasuke hummed thoughtfully, disregarding Genma's paranoia.

"Hinata's on a date."

"Oh, is she?"

"You think Kakashi took the day off to stalk her on her date?"

Itachi frowned thoughtfully. "Unfortunately, I wouldn't be surprised if he did."

"I don't know where he's getting his ideas from." Sasuke griped, annoyed. "Even Icha Icha wouldn't advise this."

"Yes, it would."

Sasuke looked at Itachi. Itachi looked at Sasuke.

"Shisui."

"Hn."

Sasuke took his leave. He had figured out what he needed to know.

Now to find his idiot teammates, who have most definitely lost Kakashi.

_

"It was a Kage Bunshin."

"It was a Kage Bunshin."

"Hn."

They were sitting in a cafe getting something to eat since the mission, as expected, was a bust.

Apparently, Naruto and Sakura had managed to follow Kakashi for a couple more minutes before the Kage Bunshin dissipated, leaving them with nothing and no one to follow. So Kakashi knew they were following him and sent them on a wild goose chase. Typical. Insufferable man.

"Sooo," Naruto drawled, noisily drinking his milkshake. "What now?"

"We could try to look for him?" Sakura suggested, sounding unsure as she took apart a roll. No one wanted to run around Konoha again, especially since they had no idea where he would be. They would probably find him if they could find Hinata, but they don't know where she is either.

"Leave it. We'll find out some other way."

A/N – Hinata and Sasuke's friendship is:

Sasuke: She is my greatest nemesis. Only when I have soundly defeated her, once and for all, will I attain everlasting glory.

Hinata: He is the spectre that haunts my every waking step, denying me eternal peace.

5 minutes later

Hinata Sasuke: OMG! Hi bestie!!! Hiiii!!!