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Someone had been following them.
For a few minutes, Kakashi could feel the stares that hit the back of his head every so often as he walked. At first he put it off as curiosity, after all, he did get people’s attention often with his grey hair and mask. Being a shinobi of konoha with a team of three little genin also would draw attention on a village like this, further away into the borders of the fire country.
So he let people stare, his face almost shoved entirely into his trusty copy of Icha-icha. But someone was letting their curiosity go a little too far and decided to follow them.
A quick glance, disguised as a little check on his students, showed that their stalker was a woman, probably in her late twenties, civilian looking (but Kakashi knew better than to rely only on such things) and chakra pools either small or contained. Her eyes quickly darted away at his turning, and she pretended to be distracted by something.
Kakashi decided to let her keep doing whatever she was doing as long as she kept that distance she had from them.
His team strolled the streets of the village in a leisurely pace. Their client would be in a meeting for a few more hours, and after that, more business would have to be dealt with. They would probably have a full day before they were to set back to konoha with their merchandise, so the shinobi decided to look for somewhere to eat lunch and rest for a moment. They had bumped into a little bar that apparently sold ramen and Naruto decided to start his speech on why they had to eat there. Sasuke and Sakura had sneakily stepped away, leaving Kakashi to take the burden of trying to let Naruto down and denying his wish.
It was at that moment that the mysterious woman decided to make a move.
Kakashi kept his posture relaxed and book close to his face. His other hand went inside his pants pocket, curling around the shuriken within. Naruto’s enthusiastic words washed over him but Kakashi’s eyes carefully watched the woman approach Sakura.
The woman gently tapped Sakura’s shoulder, getting the genin’s attention with an apologetic smile. At where he stood, Kakashi could see mostly their backs (and only part of their faces when they moved) so lip reading was out of question. Naruto made sure to talk loud enough for Kakashi to have a hard time hearing his own thoughts, so all he was left to work with was careful eyes and attention to posture.
The woman must have asked something, for Sakura suddenly turned her head towards him, seeming a bit mortified before turning back to the stranger, shaking her head vehemently. The woman nodded.
“-it just works! Hey, sensei, are you listening?” Naruto frowned at him.
Kakashi barely had time to breathe in and Naruto interrupted.
“Like I said, we really should try because the ingredients are getting different air-“
Kakashi tuned out the talk again (as much as he wished, or didn’t, to understand the context) and focused on Sakura and the stranger.
Funny enough, his student looked at him again, but this time she had a pensive expression on. The woman seemed to fluster a bit when Sakura spoke again. And wasn’t that something to wonder?
Thankfully the woman left not much later, bowing her head to Sakura as she left. Her eyes trailed away, meeting with Kakashi’s for a second. She quickly turned, as if caught doing something bad, and hurriedly left.
“You three. Let’s get moving.” Kakashi ordered, putting a hand to Naruto’s back to force him to move.
Sakura approached while still seeming lost in thought. Sasuke, for some reason, also carried a funny expression in his face that he was clearly unaware of. The only one who remained the same was Naruto, who had a full pout on his lips.
They moved on to continue their search, but at some point their cute little devil students started whispering behind his back. And he was sure it was about him because now Kakashi felt three pairs of eyes stuck to the back of his neck and he could only sigh as his genin plotted something against him.
They had a heated but low in volume debate for a few minutes. Kakashi picked only bits and pieces of it, one of them curiously something along the lines of “if he had one, he would stop being so…” followed by three hard stares onto the back of his head.
Yikes.
Sakura was the first one to talk to him.
“Kakashi-sensei. Why don’t you have a girlfriend.”
Ah.
“My personal life is not any of you three’s business.”
“That, huh?” She made a face at him like she had just confirmed something, which wasn’t fair because he was very socially stunted and didn’t get it at all. And also because he really didn't feel like explaining why relationships and specially with women were things Kakashi couldn’t even think about.
Sakura just walked ahead, deciding to take the lead in their search and Naruto and Sasuke followed.
They finally found a little bar that seemed cozy enough, his students almost dragging him in before he could question, despite him not really having any complaints about the place.
Perhaps one minor complaint only.
Kakashi was shoved into a stool (not a table) by his students that suddenly excused themselves (or were excused by Sakura and Naruto) to go to the bathroom.
Kakashi stared at their backs as they quickly retreated to somewhere that definitely wasn’t the bathroom and sighed again. He knew it was only a matter of seconds now.
Lo and behold, the mysterious woman of before made her appearance.
“Excuse me.” She said, with a polite smile as she sat beside him.
Kakashi checked her over carefully. His eyes drifted to the bar and he wondered how things like this would develop in another time, as another person. As it was he held back a third sigh.
He offered a short wave of his hand back as a greeting.
They stood in silence for a bit. Kakashi thought about ordering his lunch and just leaving without his students, but the woman had decided to speak again.
“Sorry, but… you are a shinobi of konoha, right?” She asked with a polite smile.
“Yes.” He answered a second later.
“Ah, that’s pretty amazing… it sounds like such a dangerous job…” she tried for small talk.
He was very much aware of that. Death was an easy thing for a shinobi, and Kakashi understood it in more ways than this woman thought he did.
“I’m still here, aren’t I?”
She smiled.
“I guess that makes you pretty good, then.”
“I guess.”
He let the silence fall over them.
“Those three kids were your students?” She asked, sounding more like a desire for confirmation than a question itself.
“Yup.”
“They seem lovely.”
“You like kids?”
He watched her smile shift softly, her fingers playing idly around her ring finger.
“Yes. I’ve always wanted to have some…”
“What about you?” She asked when he remained silent.
He hummed.
“I haven’t really thought about it.”
“I see…” she then covered her mouth with her hand, embarrassed. “Ah! Look at me, prying into someone’s life like this. I’m so sorry… uh…”
She waited.
“Kakashi. He supplied.
“I’m Yuko.” Her smile widened.
Yuko had all the tells and curiosities of your average citizen, intrigued by Kakashi and his strangeness. And he could see it all in the determination of her shoulders. Conviction.
He had taken a look at the menu and her eyes drank on the sight of his face, his jaw and his throat.
“Please let me buy you something to drink! I know the best ones in here.” She had pleaded and he allowed.
She eagerly called the bartender, movements slowing as she willed her nervousness down. She giggled at him, smiling with familiar eyes and putting a wild strand of hair behind her ear.
She continued chatting him up, her eyes always darting back to him, her hands always occupying themselves as if her desire to reach up to him might just be greater than her patience.
Still, she was patient and she waited and smiled at him.
“I heard shinobi can do amazing things, Kakashi-san. Like raising walls of stone in seconds!”
“Things like that.”
“Ah! That’s our order!” She got up from her seat, taking the glasses from the bartender’s hands and pointing at a bottle at the shelf. The bartender twisted around and Kakashi followed with him with his eyes.
Yuko didn’t know just how much this would never work.
His eyes snapped back to her as she placed his glass in front of him.
“I was hoping we could take the bottle with us. It is a pretty good brand but maybe not to drink in a bar.”
Kakashi nodded, gently taking his own glass.
He saw at the corner of his vision Yuko’s eyes, blown wide as he rose his glass up. He could almost hear the wild thumping of her heart as she watched him. Could almost smell the emotion she felt.
He took a deep breath, the burning, metallic scent of the drink filling his lungs.
“I don’t blame you for not knowing this, Yuko-san, seeing not all entries of me have this fact written, but I have a very good sense of smell.” He said, as he swayed his drink.
“I can tell when it will rain before anyone else can. I can tell apart the scent of my cute students, hiding outside while trying to peek into this date they set up to get rid of me.”
He smiled at her. The same one she had been giving him so far.
“And I can tell the smell of poison in my drink.”
In her defence, she barely faltered, the only tell being the fingers of her hand, wrapping around where a ring should be. The ring she removed the moment she saw Kakashi had noticed her following him.
She could’ve been a civilian, really. But being around shinobi, specially paranoid ones, always left its marks, its tells.
“Do you remember him? My dear Hiroto?”
He did not. He’d remember the twisted faces, not the names.
“You should forget. Move on.”
“How can I, while you still breathe and get to forsake the things he could never have?” The smile stayed on her face.
“You don’t have a choice.”
“I’m nothing. But I’ll make sure that one of us won’t breathe past this night. For him.”
“You are making a mistake.” Was his last warning.
She brushed another strand of hair behind her ear.
“Mistakes are only followed by regret. That, I will have none.”
Kakashi flipped his glass, spilling the contents of his drink over the bar and got up, dusting his pants lightly.
He nodded to the woman, leaving the money in the bar and exiting, hands in his pocket, slouch in his stride and guilt on his shoulders.
He made sure to move silently, landing behind his cute students as they desperately scanned the inside of the bar for their sensei. Once he was crouched behind them he watched with pleasure as they all went stiff.
“Who are you looking for exactly?”
They slowly turned to him, caught in the act.
“N-no one, sensei!” Sakura squealed.
“Maa, I thought you were hungry.”
“We are!” It was Naruto’s turn to squeal now.
“Then why are we all standing here?”
They all moved, scurrying off to keep looking for a place to eat.
They managed to settle down in a small restaurant.
“Who was that beautiful woman, Kakashi-sensei?” Sakura was the first to ask, almost innocently.
“Hmm? I don’t know. I thought you knew her since you two were talking.”
“Gh!” Her act faltered for a second.
“Are you gonna be busy all day with someone else?” Sasuke asked not so innocently.
“No. I’m gonna go read, then I’m speaking with our client.”
“But-! What about the beautiful lady?” Naruto jumped in.
“Naruto, I think you are a bit too young for her.”
“I’m not-! I wasn’t-!” Kakashi left him spluttering, sipping at his water.
It was a bit cute, if not bothersome, how his students decided to unite to set up a date for him, no matter their intentions. It was only a shame they didn’t know him.
Didn’t know Kakashi could never fall for the graces of a woman. That love was a thing so out of reach for him only because he was tired of the pain that followed. That Kakashi was so surrounded by darkness kindness was not something given.
He’d let them believe though, if only for a little longer. He’d keep this illusion up for as long as he could.