Naruto 1. Chapter 1 A new start

_Summary: Chiharu moves to Konoha with her aunt and starts in a new school. Many things happens when you start at a new school and Chiharu who hates math finds herself for the first time being on good terms with her math- and contact-teacher, Kakashi, after actually hating him. But developing feelings when being so much in contact with your young teacher, when teacher/student relationships are forbidden, is not easy to deal with. (Follows Chiharu's point of view mostly)_

I hope you will enjoy this story. I'll update as much as i can!

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><p><em><strong>Konoha high: Quiet dog bite hard<strong>_

Summer was over, and school started again. Oh, how Kakashi, the math teacher was looking forward to see how they all (should have) had grown mentally during the summer. Currently he was on his way across the schoolyard which was filled with screaming, energetic and happy students who was greeting each other, happy to see their friends again. He held a torn and used leather bag by his side and felt how the student's mood made him excited about the day. He wore the same clothes as he had always done ever since he became a teacher at Konoha Secondary school – black pants, a white shirt and harnesses and of course the mask that filtrated all the bad air. Well it wasn't really his idea to begin with; it was simply just a habit now.

He was honored to teach at Konoha high. It was located in Japan (which was his birth country even though he didn't look Japanese), it was a highly prestigious school and it was multicultural… Kakashi was ripped out of his thoughts as a Japanese girl he remembered as Nagisa Mura came up to him.

"Hello Kakashi-sensei, how was your vacation" she asked, hands folded behind her back as she looked up at him with puppy eyes. He remembered her well enough to not forget that she was very, deeply interested in him which occasionally happened with some of the female students at school.

"Well hello Mura, it was very fine. How about yours?" he asked politely and kept walking towards the entrance while his girly student followed him enthusiastically.

"It was awesome! I really wished it would've lasted a bit longer" at first she looked sad, but then added happily " But I missed your classes" she said and send him a big smile. Kakashi looked away and was glad that she couldn't see his skeptical smile. It was entertaining for him to see how she kept trying to flirt with him even though she never got a reaction out of him. She was the type of girl who was used to getting attention from the boy students at the school, and was probably what you would call (sorry for language) a school slut. He (and she) knew very well that relationships between teacher and student were forbidden… And he really preferred older girls, than 16 year old girls who obviously were in some kind of 'get more guys'-phase.

"Well I'm glad to hear that" he said while he opened the door and politely gestured for her to go first. She squeaked victoriously and walked confidently first before Kakashi went inside. The hallway was just as busy as it usually was. Paper flying from one end to another, people talking loudly, girls putting on lipgloss, boys pulling pranks… How he had forgotten the hectic life of a teacher. He received a few 'hellos' and a few 'what's up Kakashi?' from the more brave ones.

"Are you calling that a prank? I could pull one right in front of Kakashi, and he wouldn't even guess that it was me!" Naruto's voice cut loudly through everyone else's voices which made Kakashi stop. _First day at school and Naruto is already up to something_ he thought whilst he changed direction to Naruto. Naruto was the least forgettable person; you could say that he was imprinted in Kakashi's mind just because he was such an outstanding kid.

"I thought I heard my name come out of someone's mouth?" he discretely swooped himself into the circle of boys which included Uzumaki Naruto, Rock Lee, Sai and Inuzuka Kiba. His favorite students.  
>Naruto tensed up and he tightened his mouth into a straight line looking dumb-founded (as usual). The boys laughed insecurely while looking at their plain-expressioned teacher who awaited an answer.<p>

"So good to see you Kakashi-sensei! How've you been doing?" Naruto said with a wide smile in his face. Kakashi cocked an eyebrow indifferently, deciding to let it go for this time. "Very well Naruto… Now don't be late for class" Kakashi said remembering that the principal wanted to see him, so he better had to hurry so he wouldn't be late for class on his first day. Receiving a "we won't" from the boys he began to walk to the principal's office as he watched how the hallway emptied. He brushed a hand through his spiky silver hair while trotting up the stairs, turning a corner and then entering the office. Shizune, principal Tsunade's secretary, was sitting by the front desk, eyes focused deeply on a computer while her fingers ran over the keyboard. He cleared his throat and noticed a girl sitting on a chair by the wall. She looked quite mature despite her approximate age, had long blonde hair, and normal green eyes staring off into space as she listened to music on her iPhone. He hadn't seen her before, so she wasn't here because of trouble. She was attractive looking, but there was nothing particularly interesting about her. Probably pretty popular amongst the boys of her own age, and she probably took advantages of that as well. He weren't really the type to judge, but he was usually right when analyzing people.

"Welcome back Kakashi, you're late. You were supposed to be here 15 minutes before time" The secretary said with a smile on her lips – and the only reason why she smiled was because she knew that Tsunade weren't happy.

"Unfortunately, Tsunade is quite busy, so she won't be able to introduce you to your new student" Shizune was interrupted by a voice coming from her side "Great, so this is my new – late – teacher… I'm already bursting with expectations to his teaching" the girl he had analyzed just seconds before said.

Kakashi moved his eyes to hers, unaffected by her attitude while he scratched his neck.  
>"Let me see. My new student thinks it's cool to pretend to listen to music, just by having the earplugs in… Your intelligence must be a higher level than of a monkey's. Congratulations" he cocked an eyebrow at her waiting for her comeback.<p>

"I- eh" she stuttered proudly while taking out her earplugs, but Shizune cleared her throat loud enough for catching Kakashi's attention again.

"Her name's Toshiko Chiharu" Shizune handed Kakashi some of her files as she returned to her computer, leaving Kakashi with his new student.

"Fine" Chiharu collected her stuff with a sigh all while Kakashi just stood there, trying to figure out her personality. Her name meant 'A thousand springs wise child'. Quite the name to have and he wasn't sure if the name could live up to her actual intellect; what person would present themselves like she'd done to her new teacher? It was all the same with those teenage blonde girls. He sighed; he wasn't quite the one to talk. He WAS late, not the best first impression you could give a new student.

"Well, nice to meet you Chiharu" he said and smiled to her with his eyes, to ease the mood. She pulled up in her black school bag, and looked at him with surrender.

"You sure don't look like you mean that. But… Nice to meet you too I guess" she said and reached out her hand to shake his. He noticed the glimpse in her green eyes and reached a conclusion; _Nope, she's not the dumb kind _he cleared his throat again and turned around to escort her to her new class. But she surely had an annoying teenage attitude.  
>"Come with me please" he said as he began to look at her files. Their footsteps echoed in the empty hallway but Kakashi didn't even notice the awkwardness that screamed out of Chiharu.<p>

"So… You're not entirely Japanese" Kakashi had taken notice of that in particular. That also explained why her name only made sense when name and surname was in reverse. It was given to her in western style and…  
>"Explains why you don't look Japanese either" he said and took a finger to his chin.<br>"What do you mean by 'either'?" she asked dryly. _Excellent Kakashi, you forgot to say the other thing out loud_. He looked over his shoulder dumb-founded and noticed that she had to walk fast to keep up with his steps.  
>"What do YOU mean? I didn't say 'either'…" he said in a bored way like he usually did. <p>

Convenient

Chiharu looked at her new teacher as if he was kidding, 'cause he had to be. But he looked dead serious when he denied saying 'either'. No teacher she had ever met was as relaxed and none-caring as he seemed. And she had only known him for a few moments. But still, he weren't the one to talk about looks. His hair was a silver-grey, and he was at the same time rather young (or so she thought), and he didn't look Japanese; now that was unusual looks! It ticked her off, and at the same time fascinated her that her new teacher was so… different from other teachers. Okay, she may already have checked him out but what could she do? When you see someone who looks fine, even if they're your teacher , you can't help yourself but to check them out. And if anyone denies that, they're just sad beings. Still, that sure didn't meant that she was going to be kind. 'Different' teachers was often more troublesome, so it wasn't necessarily a good thing.

Her mom and dad were both Europeans but her dad had grown up in Japan, which explained her name and her looks. Unfortunately her parents died when she was only 6 years old, in a car accident. Imaging a small girl, standing by the school waiting to get picked up until the girl would think that her parents had abandoned her, and then begin to cry. Yep that was Chiharu. Now she lived with her horrible (okay maybe not THAT much) aunt, who spend her life with work, work, work, work, work… and more work, which also was why Chiharu had gotten access to this school and had such good grades in the first place. This had also given her the attitude, no one could claim anything else and if they did; they would get their sorry asses kicked!  
>(Now on with the story)<p>

"Eh, yeah you did" she said to Kakashi, suddenly feeling irritated.

"No I didn't" he kept talking as if he didn't have one care in the world. Chihura, felt that burst irritation that sometimes made her mouth go independent from her brain. She strode to his side with frown and opened her mouth but didn't get to say one word -

"I see your grades are very good. But math is pulling your grades down quite that much" he suddenly said, eyes focused on her files. This took her by surprise, 'cause she cared very much about her grades, and felt embarrassed as soon as his eyes shot to hers. She dropped the attitude and scratched her neck and turned her eyes to the files.

"I'm not that good at math… It has always been a problem for me" she said dryly and shrugged on her shoulders.

"Well, don't worry. I'll make up for that" he said, eyes smiling to her. She cocked her head a bit to the side and looked straight ahead. _That was weird. No math teacher has that kind of approach to teaching._ Yes, that was Chihura's judgment upon all math teachers.

"By the way, my name is Hatake Kakashi, if I haven't mentioned it already" he said and stopped in front of a door. She was sure that it was the kindergarten he had stopped in front of, judging from the shouts and moving chairs from in there.

"This will be your new class, and don't be frightened, some of the boys can be very loud from time to time" he said and gave her an ensuring smile (with his eyes!). He was a quite tall man and she could tell that he didn't waste his time at home cause there was no fat plopping out anywhere under his shirt.

"Ok, sounds like a fun class to me" she answered with a shrug as Kakashi opened the door, and the shouting became twice as loud as before. She walked closely behind him and dodged when a crumbled up paper flew over her head and hit the trashcan by the teacher's desk.

She looked around the class with amusement. In the far corner a blond haired guy was yelling out of the window, some was chatting and some was laughing loudly, no one taking any notice of Kakashi or her.

"Now look at this" Kakashi mumbled and looked at her with a glimpse in his eyes. She looked down at his blue office-chair which he held out.

"What? What is it?" she asked now curious.

"Notice the rip in the fabric" he said moving his eyes to a rip in the side of the chair.

Chiharu smiled widely knowing exactly what he meant. But she'd never stumbled upon a teacher who'd figured the prank out before it was too late. Despite his none-caring attitude, he seemed quite alert. "Naruto" he mumbled and pressed the fabric down as small needles of thumbtacks popped out of the fabric. Chiharu laughed shortly and smiled to Kakashi "Now that is old school" she said happily.

"It's slightly insulting." he said.  
>… Please, no teacher was underestimated if the prankster was good, and in this case it had been a seriously retarded newbie.<p>

"Sit down and be quiet everyone" he simply said without raising his voice.

Chiharu noticed how his expression didn't change one bit, he didn't even look intimidating and still people obeyed without any protest. She checked out his side profile and noticed his grayish eye. He seriously had some unique genes. Her focus on Kakashi was slowly disrupted… This was the moment when people began to quiet down and everyone's gazes began to settle on the new student, Chiharu. _Wow, really awkward… really really awkward_. Now silence was filling the classroom and Chiharu was at the edge of blushing madly because of all the gazes set on her.

"Who's the blonde girl?" The guy Chiharu had noticed before, standing by the window, with blonde hair, stood up behind his desk and pointed rudely at her. She cocked an eyebrow at the loud blonde.

"Sit down Naruto…" Kakashi said – "this is Toshiko Chiharu, your new classmate, so take good care of her" Kakashi said. He put a hand on her back, which to her was quite irritating.

"You can sit over there by Naruto" he said, pointing to the blonde haired guy who'd pointed at her just seconds before.

Kakashi gave a small nudge on her back to make her go and she simply just began to walk down the rows of desks while trying to avoid all the stares. It was of her notion that some of the guys were rather good looking including the one called Naruto. _Why the fuck does everyone has to be so silent?_ She caught the eyes of Naruto, the guy she had to sit next to, and suddenly didn't feel that insecure anymore. He smiled widely and his blue eyes sparkled with energy. She couldn't help but to feel a sudden warm welcome just by looking at his bright face. He would make an excellent friend, she could tell that.

Her chair made awkwardly lots of noise as she pulled it out while Naruto grinned at her. _Okay, he gotta stop that grinning thing soon;_ she sat down and glanced over at him with a cocked eyebrow. He kept grinning at her as if he was expecting something, until she began to feel uncomfortable about it.

"….." She cleared her throat and avoided his eyes_. Someone must've shut down his brain.  
><em>  
>"What?" she said after a moment, now he was a bit creepy.<p>

"Nice to meet you Chiharu, my name is Uzumaki Naruto and I'm going to be the next—" Naruto was cut off by Kakashi "Naruto, you can introduce yourself after class. If you haven't done it properly already" the tone in his voice had a hint of sarcasm and Chiharu dodged her head slightly to get rid of all the stares.

She decided to herself that Naruto seemed quite like a trouble-maker, which could turn out to be a handy card to have on your hand. Yes, she was quick at judging people sometimes, so what?

First day at school, and her teacher started out with teaching the class about a whole new subject in math. Chiharu could already feel how the boredom began to take over her brain. When listening to math, her brain automatically blocked out the voice of the teacher, 'cause she couldn't understand what he was talking about anyhow. Instead she looked around the class and took notice of her new classmates. There were about five guys who looked partly Japanese; One slender boy with flat hair as if his mom had put a pot over his head and cut his hair after the edge of the pot. He had bushy eyebrows and rather large, round eyes for a Japanese. Behind him sat a handsome guy with his chin resting on folded hands. He had a regular haircut and was quite pale looking. He didn't look like a full-blood Japanese. Perhaps there was some European in him judging from how his side-profile which wasn't flat the way a full-blooded Japanese's face could be. She put her head in her hand while looking at him for a few moments, before her eyes fell to Naruto beside her who looked rather confused, while he wrote down what Kakashi was trying to teach… Or he was more just doodling. Naruto was definitely not Japanese, especially not with that hair color! She looked at his paper, filled with a few numbers and random drawings - and gave a big sigh. She was sitting beside the window, right in the sun which probably explained why she felt so hot. Chiharu smiled to herself; _I'm so hot today _she thought and looked out of the window while biting her lip. Not because she had bad humor, or because it was funny. She just thought that the sentence was so ridiculously lame, that it was funny. Okay… Erase that, just go with lame humor.

"Chiharu!" she was elbowed in the ribs by Naruto beside her, who looked at her questioning. She snapped out of her day-dreaming, and noticed that everyone was staring at her, snickering erupting around the classroom to her irritation.

"Seems like we have a day dreamer here or is it simply a matter of not understanding the question?" Kakashi was leaning against the teachers-desk as if he had waited a long time for her to answer.

_Do something. Say something smart. Come on Chiharu you clown! _She was usually so good to give a good comeback, but when in a new class and with a new teacher her mind just seemed blank. She opened her mouth to say something clever but no words came out. A few giggles became a snorted low laughter and the only thing she could do was to blush madly and look stupid. Freaks, why couldn't they just shut their traps, it was so rude to laugh!

"I eh…" okay_, I'm getting my speech back! Watch out everyone!_ "No and no" _credits to you Chiharu, that was a great comeback. IN KINDERGARTEN_, she slapped her hand to her forehead. All she wanted now was run out of the classroom_. Why'd Emi have to move to this stupid city! _She thought.

" Well… Good if you understand what I'm talking about" Kakashi said as he continued. Chiharu cocked an eyebrow. _Impossible to get a teacher off your back that easily _she thought. What a lazy ass teacher, he didn't WANT to bother, she could tell that! (remember her quick judging?)

After some wasted time, Kakashi paused with a sigh.  
>"Okay that was about, what I could manage today" he said and looked at the class while resting at the desk again.<p>

"So recess is up?" Chiharu asked now paying attention to what was happening (and quickly got embarrassed) around her and watched a guy in front of her (she was sitting in the back so basically everyone was in front of her) with brown, messy hair, and narrow, fierce eyes. He reminded her somehow of a dog but she couldn't really put a finger on what it was.

Kakashi turned around to look at the clock hanging over the blackboard. He scratched his hair a bit… silence… "We have ten minutes left" he turned around eyes resting solidly on Chiharu.

"Toshiko, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself for 10 minutes" he asked and went around the desk to sit down. Chiharu looked around the class, not really feeling like going up to talk about herself.

"Well?" Kakashi asked patiently and pulled out a book from… somewhere, she didn't quite catch where from. Perhaps he was a magician… Well that WOULD explain his hair color. Cause magicians have grey hair… Whatever.

"I guess" she replied and got up from her chair, and felt the burning gazes once again.

Awkwardness. She noticed the book in his hand, as an excuse for having something to look at instead of the people. Her eyes widened slightly recognizing the book all too well. Emi, her aunt read it from time to time. _Note to myself: don't hang around him alone. _Who would read that book in public? Obviously he didn't even care what people thought about him. _Respect for that though_. As she stood in the front, she glanced back at him to see if he was paying attention, but he was just reading his book. _Oh well, what to do?_

"Hi everyone" she cleared her throat "As you all know, my name's Toshiko Chiharu, I'm 17 years old and I just moved here because of my aunt whom I live with…" she stared at the many faces, some smiling, some just looking plain or bored. If you're not familiar with the Japanese school system then you should know that it's common to be 17-18 years when you're in your last year in high school / secondary school in Japan. She then glanced back at Kakashi who was reading his book.

"And that's about it" she said while she already began to hurry back to her seat.

"That wasn't 10 minutes" Chiharu stopped with tensed shoulders, now when she just had hoped that he wouldn't mind. She scowled over her shoulder, awaiting her next 'orders'.

"Oh well. I guess that'll be it for today. Your homework for tomorrow is page 15 to 16 in your work book. Class dismissed" he said with a shrug and took his book up in front of his face to read again.

Chiharu jumped when the class suddenly burst out in noisy talk and despite being in a room with so many people she felt kind of awkward and lonely, standing there in the middle of the classroom like some statue that had been there since the beginning of time…. After a few moments of awkwardness she decided to go to her table and sit down beside Naruto whose eyes were fixed on some of the girls sitting in the other end of the classroom.

"…. Sooo" she said to get his attention… Nothing. She cleared her throat and leaned over the table take a look at the, oh' so exciting girls.

"Watcha' looking at… uhm, Naruto was it?" She asked as she cocked an eyebrow at one of the girls with pink hair. Seriously, Japanese girls could be so over the edge sometimes. There was no answer from Naruto. _How annoying_. Chiharu began to pout.

"Hello Sunny day!" she punched his shoulder lightly which seemed to wake him up.

"W-oh… Chiharu did you say something?" Naruto tore his eyes away from the girls with a pout in his face.

"Well… Not really, I just thought that you could, tell me something about the class or … whatever" she answered. Naruto's eyes brightened up and a wide smile appeared in his face. Chiharu couldn't help but smile at his simplicity.

"Sure I will! Because my name is Uzumaki Naruto and I'm going to be the next major in Konoha!" Naruto now stood with one leg on his chair while pointing at himself while his eyes proudly lay upon the… school window. Chiharu had already backed away a bit, because he was just a little bit frightening. But not many minutes (yes he waited for an reaction for that long) someone took a grip of his shirt and pulled him roughly backwards and down the chair

"NARUTO! You idiot! What're you doing, scaring the new girl off like that? That's so typical you!" _okay, wait, I take my words back. SHE is scary._ The pink haired girl Naruto had watched only minutes ago had a good grip in the neck of Naruto's white shirt. Only then Chiharu noticed the other girls that was gathering around the table.  
>"He didn't do anythin—" she was cut off by more yelling "Go over to the boys, where you belong Naruto!" the pink haired (and bad tempered) girl shouted, and Chiharu swore that she could see steam blow out from the pinky's nostril's. Naruto was as humble as a pitiful dog and basically took a very large path around the Pinky.<p>

"Hi, my name's Yamanaka Ino" a blonde (almost white hair) girl with blue eyes reached her hand out to shake Chiharu's. She was a very pretty girl; that kind of girl who every boy would want on a poster at home – her wearing a bikini on a sunny beach. She looked like a popular girl  
>"Welcome to our school" she said and shook Chiharu's hand with enthusiasm. <em>Quite outgoing and DEFFINETELY European... Or American<em>

"Nice to meet you" Chiharu said, before another hand reached her.

"H-hello I'm Hyuuga Hinata" a girl with long, light black hair (how else to explain the color?) and bangs that covered her forehead was whom the hand belonged to. She looked quite timid and only smiled politely to Chiharu. Then, of course there was the pinky-head who smiled sincerely while waving with her fingers to Chiharu.

"Nice to meet you Chiharu, my name's Hurano Sakura" her green (almost emerald) eyes sparkled.

"You too. But… That was quite scary you know" Chiharu snickered and pointed to Naruto. Chiharu telling her this only lead to an apologizing snickering from Sakura.  
>"Sorry about that" she said.<p>

The three girls gathered around Chiharu's table and began to chit chat with her. They seemed really nice, hot tempered, but nice. Chiharu liked the temper in them, but wasn't quite like that herself. She noticed though, that the other girls in the class didn't take any time to say hi to her. That was quite a drag that only three girls were kind enough to say hello. Her impression about the school (which Kakashi was the course of) began to change slowly as the girls talked eagerly.

Soon Chiharu found herself in the hallways of the school, the girls blabbing about everyone, and everything (well mostly Ino) at the school. Chiharu had a hard time with keeping up with everything, and preferred to make her own opinions instead of taking others opinion. Sometimes too much girl talk could get a little bit on her nerves.

"Chiharu, you have such a pretty hair color, where're you from?" Hinata asked with her squeaky voice. This question took Chiharu a bit by surprise but she answered calmly.

"My mom and dad was European. Soooo… What about you?" she asked evasively to get the questions off of her. Hinata looked a bit surprised as well.

"Uhm, both my mom and dad are Japanese." She said but almost stumbled over the words. Ino barged in to the conversation "You can call Hinata's family a clan, cause they all live in, like a huge mansion. They're very fine people who goes waaaay back, right Hina?" Ino said and put an arm around Hinata's shoulder.

"So" Ino continued before Hinata had a fair chance of answering.

"Do you have any boys in sight yet?" she asked seriously. Chiharu was a bit shocked by this early question since she hadn't really taken that good of a look at the guys in the class or at the school yet.

"Well uhm…" Chiharu looked around the hallway to catch any guy that would look good. Her eyes caught a boy who was currently putting something into his locker. He was quite tall, had long hair and the same lavender colored eyes as Hinata. _He looks pretty good I guess _she thought but she wasn't really into long hair, and his face was too young to look at, if she had to be picky.

"Well… That guy over there looks pretty fine" she nodded her head in his direction. Sakura smirked, Ino's eyes widened a bit, and Hinata's hands flew to her mouth as a blush crept across her cheeks. _What?_

"That's my cousin" she squeaked. Chiharu suddenly got a bit embarrassed about that and was about to apologize

"That's no surprise! Most girls in school thinks Neji's a cool guy" Sakura said happily. Chiharu raised an eyebrow while looking at him, forgetting that it was Hinata's cousin.

"Oh really?" his lavender eyes glanced to hers as if he had heard them. She cocked an eyebrow and kept her gaze at him. He looked quite unaffected and arrogant, the way he still held the door of his locker.

"Okay, so anyone else?" Ino's head popped in front Chiharu's sight to Neji; she had no sense of situation (obviously).

"Uhm" Chiharu had to think a bit. Most of the guys in the class looked good, but for some (sometimes annoying) reason she wasn't that easy impressed. She'd always been annoyingly picky about boys, which probably also was the reason why she hadn't had any boyfriend yet.

"There is Naruto… And that black haired dude, and that brown haired dude" she said and put a finger to her chin.

"Ino, she doesn't even know any of the guys yet, relax a bit with the questions… I'm sure Chiharu won't take 'the one'" Sakura put up two fingers as quotation marks "you like" Sakura rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. Ino's eyebrow quivered momentarily in annoyance and Chiharu suddenly fell as if she stood in the battlezone and moved a bit out of the way.

"I was just asking out of curiosity, forehead! And you don't dare to say anything about him!" Ino moved closer to Sakura in a very daring way.

"What did you say Ino-pig?" Sakura fired up and moved forward. Chiharu was quite confused, they seemed to be very good friends… Perhaps they just liked to argue with each other.

"Excuse me, but could you move a bit?" Chiharu looked to her side, and was met by the chest of a guy. She looked up to see one of the guys from her new class. He stood rather close to her with one arm at the locker behind her. She moved to the side so he could get to his locker as she muttered "Yeah sorry".

"No need to apologize." he said with a small smile on his lips. He was quite tall, had a pale skin color and a somewhat narrow mouth. He was the one she had been looking at in class. His eyes were black, calm and warm in some odd way. But the perfect blank features of his face was distorted when he elbowed his locker harshly and turned the lock with a sigh – the locker popped open and his face went back to normal. Seemingly the lockers here weren't that functional. A bunch of papers with drawings and a few pencils fell out of his locker and he grabbed it all in the last moment. Not realizing that she had been staring at him he spoke to her

"You're the new student in our class…" he stated, either to her or himself… She didn't know – while he propped in his ink drawings in again.

"I don't think we've been properly introduced." he said as he got his papers in place. Chiharu looked into his locker for a moment in amusement before moving her eyes to his.

"I'm Sai." he reached out a hand to her and smiled politely.

"Nice to meet you Sai. I think you're the first guy, besides Naruto, to introduce yourself." she said and smiled back to him.

"They're just shy. You're probably going to be very liked, especially with your looks" Sai smiled indifferently and totally unaffected by what he'd just said. Chiharu cocked an eyebrow, that was seriously the weirdest thing to say to someone you've just met.

"So you're saying that the guys here are shallow?" she asked and crossed her arms over her chest. Sai dropped his smiled and seemed to think about how it could be twisted in that direction. He opened his mouth to say something but he was basically attacked by the doggy-guy who put an arm around Sai's shoulder while laughing nervously.

"Don't listen to him, Chiharu, Sai doesn't always know what he's saying" he smiled reassuringly. He seemed quite cute in some way.

"My name's Inuzuka Kiba, nice to meet ya" he shook her hand enthusiastically and smiled big. He reminded her a little bit of her side comrade Naruto.

"What are you guys waiting fo—" another guy, who was in Chiharu's class as well appeared. He had a pineapple-ish ponytail and looked really none-caring or bored. His hands were buried in his pockets and his eyes only widened slightly when he saw who his friends were talking to.

"Oh… the new girl. What a drag" he muttered the last thing and looked into the ceiling with a sigh. He then tilted his head a bit to the side and looked at her out of the corner of his eyes as if he was taking a big decision about whether to be polite or not. He reached out a hand though.

"I hope you'll blend in well in our class. My name's Nara Shikamaru" he said and shook her hand once. Chiharu who still was taking in all the new impressions and new faces smirked at him.

"Why you seem excited" she said, and thought his attitude quite entertaining.

"I see you guys finally gathered some courage to say hi to our new classmate" Ino came over and stood beside Chiharu, looking mostly at Shikamaru. Chiharu had completely forgotten about Sakura and Ino's 'fight' and she couldn't see either Sakura or Hinata around.

"Women" Shikamaru muttered and crossed his arms

"Shikamaru, haven't the vacation made you just a bit more energetic?" Ino asked. Chiharu realized that she'd have to be put more into things in the class. She didn't know their humor or internal jokes.

"On the contrary…" he said and moved his lazy eyes to hers, starring intensely, without blinking – at Ino until she let out a slight cough and turned her attention sullenly to Chiharu who was following their 'conversation' with interest.

"Let's go to the classroom again, Chiharu" she swooped an arm around Chiharu's and dragged her along.

"W-what was that about?" she asked and let herself be dragged by the outgoing and social blonde.

"That's just Shikamaru, he considers most women bossy and troublesome, especially me, and I don't even get why! I think he's scared of women who say what they want to. " she muttered darkly.

"He doesn't sound very nice" Chiharu dared to say. Ino was silent for a moment.

"Well, he is really nice and generally courteous to girls doing us favors. But I think he just does it to avoid fights." she said now seeming to be a bit more at ease. Despite having known her for a few minutes Chiharu felt as if this girl was really easy to read. Her actions was quite questionable and Chiharu came up with following possibilities:  
>1 - Ino was easily pissed off<br>2 – She was easily pissed off, but she was not as mad as she showed. She was just being very dramatic  
>3 – Shikamaru could be that guy Sakura had talked about and that caused Ino's temper to fire up.<p>

Chiharu excused herself from Ino when they passed by the girls restroom. She had to take a break from all the chaos of the high school life she was suddenly thrown into. She had to get herself a bit together; if Ino was the type to drag her friends around, Chiharu would have to draw the line at some point, cause she did NOT like to be dragged around! The girls' restroom was very nice, indeed. It looked quite new, but used in some way, and at it didn't have the nicest smell to it. She walked over to one of the sinks and began to wash her hands instinctively while she looked at her reflection in the mirror.

Her forest-green eyes looked back at her with a sudden boredom and her long sandy-blonde hair hang loosely and straight around her shoulders and back. She didn't have a heart-shaped face which always was the perfect description of a person in the books she'd read. She didn't even know what a heart-shaped face looked like, only that hers wasn't. _Heart shape must look ridiculous, like, you must have a really weird forehead! _She smiled a bit, looking at her somewhat square face with a strong and marked jaw line and broad (not high!) forehead. This made her look very fierce and sometimes intimidating to other people since her eyes was narrow but watchful and her eyebrows thick in the center and narrower in the end. They were placed perfectly (to her) high over her eyes. Her nose was straight, not as small as Hinata's but not large either. Her smile was broad and her upper teeth were in were in a straight line. She didn't like her lower teeth that much though; one was a bit misplaced in the straight line, and she felt as if she had reversed wolf teeth. She shrugged a bit in front of the mirror. No one was perfect… She then remembered the time and snapped out of her thoughts_. Shit!_ Now she was probably late for her next class. In a sudden hurry she rushed out of the restroom and into the empty hallway, pausing to remember the way to her next classroom.

"Stupid machine!" she looked to her right and saw a guy she thought was in her class, trying to get a soda out of the soda-machine. He was quite chubby, and he really reminded her of an American over fead Jap.

"What're you doing?" she asked him and he seemed to jump a bit because of her silent sneaking up on him. He pulled out his arm in a rush, and when he got a better look at her, he seemed to recognize her.

"new girl!" he stated before continuing " I've spend my last money on a soda, and now its stuck in the machine!" he looked sadly at her, with a slight pout . Chiharu debated with herself for a moment about whether or not she should help the poor guy. Her better half won over and smiled to the guy.

"I've done this before… Just without paying, I bet I can get it for you" she walked over to the machine as the guy moved away, amused by her helpfulness.

"I just have to force this door-thing a bit… more… open" Chiharu stuck in her arm and pressed strongly again the machine, trying to get her arm as far up as possible. She lowered herself some more, trying to prop in some of her shoulder as well, all while trying to see how far she'd come through the glass. She got a bit aggressive and cursed while she watched her fingers stretch as far as they could, only to barely touch the stuck soda. She forgot the pain that began to form in her upper arm and tried to make the soda move just the slightest. The guy from her class had begun to cheer at her and had the same expression as if it was him who had his hand in the stupid machine – following every single progress she made.

"Stealing from the soda machine, are we? And on your first day…" Chiharu ignored the voice of the teacher, which she suspected to be their math teacher – Kakashi.

"Chouji, I didn't expect that from you" the teacher said again. Chouji (obviously his name) had stopped cheering and now faced the teacher instead.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Chouji sounded quite shocked and suddenly nervous, but Chiharu kept fishing for that stupid can, she wasn't going to stop now when she'd gotten so far! Kakashi cleared his throat and stepped closer

"I suggest you stop… That's the normal reaction at least" he mumbled the last thing but sounded a bit confused about her behavior. Finally! She pocked the can hard enough for it to fall down while Chouji began to explain what they were doing.

"Got it!" she said happily and pulled out her arm from the machine taking the soda with her and held it out to Chouji. She looked up at Kakashi and the situation slowly sank into her mind. Kakashi looked down at her as if he couldn't manage to deal with anyone who would make his day less great.

"Listen, it's not what it looks like… "she said and brushed her arm where she'd pressed it against the machine. It'd left a small red mark but it was nothing. Kakashi's eyes landed briefly on her arm though. He cocked and eyebrow and looked back and forth at them both.

"Just ask one of the teachers next time…" he said and put up his book to his face again and began to slender casually down the hallway again. Chiharu looked after him for a moment, beginning to think less of her math teacher. To her it seemed like he was slacking a lot in discipline, and when being a teacher at such a prestigious school!

"We should hurry Chiharu, the classes has already started" Chouji said nodding for her to come. She nodded in agreement and stood up from the floor, suiting her school uniform a bit.

"That teacher is so weird" she said as they began to walk, looking indifferently ahead. Chouji shrugged and took a sip of his soda. He walked funny, like he was just too big for his frame, just over five fod but he weight above 80 kilo, judging from what she saw.

"Not really. He's a really good teacher. Or so, most of us think. There are exceptions though" he glanced over at her, unsure about what to say to a complete stranger, she could tell that by his body language. Chiharu decided to shrug her prejudices off, it was her first day after all.

"I'm sorry for causing you trouble" he looked into the floor, almost looking as if his stomach was hurting. She could sense that he was a really kind and smiled to him.

"Don't worry about that, I'm used to dealing with it" she smiled big and snickered confidently. This seemed to lighten his mood and he smiled back to her, cheeks the slightest red.

Chouji showed the way to their next class which was English. When they entered their teacher was already there and looked at the both with a cocked eyebrow.

"Sorry, Kurenai-sensei" Chouji apologized and hurried to an empty seat. Chiharu stood back, a little dumb-founded

"I was lost" she lied and rubbed her arm while smiling. Their English teacher was a beautiful, buxom and mature looking woman with long, black and messy hair and bright brown eyes that almost looked red.

"Oh, you're new here. Well welcome to our school. I would guess that you've already met the class then?" Kurenai said and shifted a bit.

"Yeah I have" Chiharu said, and felt the stares of people at her, and shifted uncomfortably while looking back and forth at the class and her teacher

"Well okay, you can just take a seat then" Kurenai looked somewhat suspicious and followed Chiharu with her eyes as she moved to take the only empty seat left, which was beside the Kiba-guy she'd met earlier. He smiled sincerely to her and brushed the hair in his neck up and down.

The class started out slowly, with Kurenai talking, and Chiharu followed eagerly, beginning to like her English teacher more and more. She was relieved that she had at least one good teacher that was passionate about her subject. In the last half of the class they had to work together, and of cause that would be your side-comrade. Kiba sighed big and leaned back in his seat, eyes narrowed at the ceiling.

"First day at school, and I'm already thinking about skipping classes" he said sleepy and yawned.

"You shouldn't skip school, Kiba… It'll pull down your grades" Chiharu said as she wrote a note by a line in a poem they were given. She glanced up at Kiba and saw ham pout and look out of the window sullenly knowing that she was right.

"I'm not really suited to sit still by a desk… I'd rather spend my time outside with my dog." he crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow while looking at her. Chiharu shrugged, she could relate somehow. That was how she felt about math classes.

" If you say so. I can relate though, but if math didn't exist I wouldn't have been able to relate to what you were saying" she straightened her back and smiled to him sheepishly

"Actually it caused me a bit of a reputation, of being a troublemaker" she snickered and Kiba smiled admirably at her, suddenly changing his attitude a bit.

"Well, imagine math in every class, every day… Think about my reputation" he said leaning his elbows against the table.

"Honestly… I thought that every student at such a prestigious school would be really passionate about their school, and that there would be no troublemakers" she looked at him out of the corner of her eyes and smiled. Kiba shrugged with a smile

"Well that was mostly in the lower grades. Me, Naruto, Shikamaru and Chouji used to skip school and make trouble a lot. We drove our teacher – Iruka – crazy" he grinned and scratched his neck. Chiharu couldn't help but smile around this guy. She liked guys who were impulsive and a little bit rebellious. For some reason had she always fitted well in between those types.

"Okay everyone listen. If you will join the table behind or in front of you, to discuss what you've analyzed so far" Kurinai said and returned to helping someone in the front. Chiharu looked at the table in front of Kiba and her, and saw a tall guy with spiky hair and sunglasses turn around along with a guy whom Chiharu remembered from the math class. The guy with bushy eyebrows and a mop-top haircut. She looked to her side and saw Kiba with crossed arms and raised head, looking stubbornly at the tall guy who now sat by their table.

"It's so nice to meet you, Chiharu-san!" the bushy-brow grabbed Chiharu's hand and shook it violently and enthusiastically. It was unusual for a multi-cultural school to use the formalities as "san" or "kun" except for the sensei concept, but if he was so used to calling people that it was no problem really.

"My name is Rock Lee and I really hope that you like it here!" he said enthusiastically and smiled big to her. _Seriously, what an outgoing guy_ she thought, a bit frightened by him.

"Nice to meet you Lee" she said beginning to get tired of the 'nice to meet you' quotes. The tall guy in front of Chiharu cleared his throat, scratched his black spiky hair once and then spoke

"So…" he glanced at Kiba briefly – "How far are you in the text?" he asked looking at Chiharu. There was an edge of something in his (he hadn't given her his name yet!) voice that she couldn't quite put a finger on. Kiba snapped out of his proud façade and snapped Chiharu's paper over to himself to take a look at it. This startled her a bit and she looked surprised at him.

"You're welcome" she muttered as Kiba began to talk

"Eh, the sun represents a young woman who—"Kiba began to read up what Chiharu had written. It trickered something in her to be suddenly pissed, that he had the guts to just take what she'd done and read it up like he was the one who'd made it. She was about to open her mouth when the tall guy spoke

"Did you make that, or did Chiharu make it?... Kiba" his voice was low and calm despite the obvious one-sided tension there was between the two of them (the tension coming from Kiba).

"What do you know about that? You haven't even introduced yourself yet. That's so rude" Kiba said and hurled the paper back to Chiharu. She sat, with raised eyebrows; that guy was full of surprises, he had such a gruff attitude despite being actually nice to talk with. He now looked offended but was trying to cover it up by looking proud. Chiharu couldn't help but smirk at this kind of one sided rivalry, cause the tallguy seemed utterly and completely unaffected.

"My name's Aburame Shino…" Everyone looked at him in silence, his black glasses preventing any hint of emotion.

"O-okay" she said and looked the side evasively, followed by silence. Lee laughed nervously and tapped his pen on the table

"Come on guys, don't be like that. Let's start, okay?" he said trying to ease the suddenly dark mood that lingered around their table. Chiharu looked at him in relief for breaking the silence and took her (now a bit crumbled) paper.

The mood eased quickly as soon as Kiba dropped his rivalry and acted as a nice guy again. Lee seemed to be a very nice and glad person, and had a very formal yet childishly eager way of speaking. Shino on the other hand was quite mysterious and tense in an awkward way. When a bug had crawled up to the table and Chiharu was about to poke it away, he had stopped her by taking her hand and looking intensely at her (even though she couldn't see his eyes). That was only tensified by Lee and Kiba sitting plainly while holding their breaths, obviously they knew something she didn't. Apparently Shino had some kind of thing for bugs, so Chiharu ended up marking Shino as 'avoidable' cause he seemed a bit creepy and questionable. But perhaps if she got to know him, he would turn out to be different. Who knew?

When recess was up, Chiharu had no chance to catch up to Kiba, cause he sprinted past her (almost knocking her over at the neighbor table) while shouting:

"Yo, Naruto wait up!"

_Just wait; when he gets to know me better he won't do that again! _Chiharu thought darkly and adjusted her backpack. She caught up with Sakura who was on her way to the cafeteria to get some lunch and told her about her 'encounter' with Kiba and Shino, and the 'blessing' of meeting Lee.  
>The cafeteria was a large and crowded place and it was now easy to see that it was a multi-cultural school, with the diverse mixture of different skin colors and looks. She followed Sakura – the pinky head – over to a table where Ino, Hinata and another girl of Asian origin, with brown hair put up in two panda-ears and brown eyes - sat. Chiharu had conveniently made her own lunch consisting of riceballs a.k.a. onigiri's with a small piece of salmon in the middle (there's nothing wrong with having your own lunch! It's healthy!). She took a seat beside the talkative Ino, and smiled to the brunette seated in front of her. The brunette narrowed her eyes a bit and pointed to Chiharu forming a 'who' in her mouth - Ino catching up immediately<p>

"Oh! This is our new classmate, Chiharu… Chiharu this is Tenten from one of the other classes" she introduced them both nicely, and Chiharu could continue with eating her Onigiris. Despite being surrounded by so many people Chiharu felt lonely and insignificant. But that was only because everyone knew eachother, and she didn't know a single person in this school. If she had to admit it, her impression of her new class was rather positive. They all seemed very open and funny, especially some of the guys. The girls seemed like real girls, but as honest persons who probably would be a lot of fun to have a night out with.

Either way did the day run by fast with the electives; Chiharu had chosen gym classes with Might Gai as teacher who had freaked her out pretty much, starting his first sentence to her with;

"What do we have here? A new flame of youth!" he'd stated then swirled around and given her a thumbs up and a big smile

"I'm Gai! Konoha's green beast!" … ( No, seriously he WAS scary) and he reminded her a lot of Lee who by the way seemed to be the best of friends with Gai.

When the day was over and the class was dismissed, Chiharu went to her new locker to put some of her books inside. The locker was a bit hard to get up, but nothing like Sai's locker had been when she'd met the good looking guy. She sighed while closing her locker again, annoyed by the fact that there was one year left to the final exams, and she had some social catching up to do as well as some study catching up.

She looked at her blurry reflection at the dull metallic locker door, blocking out all the voices around her. But her ears caught a nearby voice, which belonged to her new math teacher. She looked subtly over her shoulder, her green forest eyes watching his side profile and how he explained something to a student – Something about teamwork… she didn't quite catch it. But what fell in her interest was his eye. It was a golden-brown color, and she was a hundred percent sure that his eyes were a black-grayish color. A chill ran down her spine as her eyes widened the slightest, and her mind began to put the puzzles together, cause it didn't make any sense… Unless he was a vampire! That would explain the weird hair-color and his plain behavior. Perhaps she had read too much twilight… NO, there was no other explanation! She rushed instinctively forward twisted her way in between the student and teacher, taking a peep at his face while pointing accusingly at him

"You! Your…" Chiharu caught her words before they got out of her mouth as two pair of different colored eyes stared puzzled back at her. Across his golden eye, brown eye was a scar, starting from the middle of his forehead and down across his eye, breaking the tan skin by his cheek. Her cheeks flushed red in embarrassment, cause she felt very bad about pointing out peoples 'mistakes', especially when it was something none-removable. Of cause he wasn't a vampire! She slapped herself mentally and began to stutter as her eyes flickered at his.

"Yes" he answered and removed her pointing hand "I have a grey and brown eye" he then smiled to her with his eyes and pushed her to the side to talk with the other student, leaving her completely flabbergasted. She lifted her finger again, but still there came nothing out of her mouth. She shook her head and blinked twice to come to her senses again. She'd just never seen eyes like that before. He moved his bored eyes to hers and turned to her, obviously finished talking with the other student.

"Are you still here?" he said, propping his hands into the pockets of his black pants.

"Eh… Sorry I've just never seen anything like your eyes before" she said taking a peep at his eyes again.

"Well" he leaned a little backwards, uncomfortable about her staring and continued –"that almost sounded like a compliment" he said with a small glimpse in his eyes. Chiharu stopped peeping realizing how inappropriate she was being and therefore cleared her throat while narrowing her eyes in a cocky way.

"I suppose it sounded like that" she answered dryly and tore her eyes away from his, turning away reluctantly

"Well I'm off… Sayonara" she said and trudged away bored, leaving her math teacher staring after her. Sometimes she would use Japanese words, of no reason really, only that some people liked it when their original language was spoken.

Chiharu lived in the far end of Konoha and had decided to walk to school every day, just because it was healthy for her and the environment. She looked upwards as she walked under the gates of Konoha High which cast a big shadow over her. She was amused by the fine work that was put into the big wooden doors that stood tall and silently open, as if no one had touched them for years. The weather was warm; at least 30 degrees and she enjoyed the sun to the fullest while trudging down the pavement. The combination of a low, humming chirping sound of cicadas and a breeze picking up a few strands of her long hair made her suddenly realized how glad she felt about the day. She breathed in the sweet scent of summer in the city; a spicy mixture of concrete, dirt and trees. The thin layer of sand on the pavement cracked under her sandals while she trudged in silence until the landscape changed from city to … The outskirts of a city; meaning more trees, sand pavements and narrow streets with wooden fences. A bicycle came from behind, cracking the sand under its wheels, and then bypassed with a man familiar to her; a grey haired man with his worn leather back on the hatch of his bike. She paused for a moment staring after him, not sure whether or not how to feel about her math teacher living so close by. Further on he turned a corner and she assumed that he lived in the small apartments a few blocks away from her house.

Her mood fell drastically when she'd made it to the little street with rows of similar small houses. The similarity between them was creepy and impersonal – but she was used to living in such kind of streets, not knowing anyone near, and when she was about to, Emi (her aunt) would come home and say "we're going to move"… For once Toshi deeply hoped that Emi could stay here for at least a year. Chiharu kicked a stone furiously which landed misplaced on the perfect grass of their small house. She stopped and looked resentfully at it. _Fits that stupid stone well _she thought, stomping up the four stairs, fumbled a bit for her key and forced the key aggressively into the keyhole, getting more and more irritated in line with her attempts to turn the key because of her sudden rising temper.

"Fucking shit key!" she hissed aggressively and finally got the key turned around. She sighed big in relief and pushed the plain white door open. She breathed in the scent of new furnitures while she threw her black bag with a thud on the floor. The house wasn't big, but the furnishing in the house was thorough and – to Chiharu – impersonal and she didn't feel home at all. It was like sorrow was just behind the door, like a black, transparent, cold person – greeting her into his sorrowful arms. The floor was of polished black granite and the walls where white. One of the walls ended midways, leading (to the right) into their kitchen and living room.

"I'm home!" she shouted with no reason, knowing that Emi wasn't home and probably wasn't going to be any time soon.

"Welcome 'home'" she muttered sarcastically to herself and wandered into their new and 'smart' kitchen which stood perfectly clean and untouched. She felt almost awkward in her new home; as if her every step echoed through the silence of the entire house. She sat down by their white dinner-table, resting her head in her hand while looking around, getting anxious because she had nothing to do.

She decided to go to her room, at the end of the staircase, which was opposite to Emi's bedroom. Chiharu liked her room more than the rest of the house because it was beginning to smell like her. Books were standing in randomly order on her shelves, her white plastic desk was clean for any mess and some pieces of clothes lay lonely on her messy bed. The floor was wooden, and besides from all the resent things in her room, did it still seem quite empty. She wished that she had a cat or a dog, or just something that was alive, but she didn't so she often turned to the next best… Her laptop.

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><p>I'm sorry if the spelling isn't the VERY BEST, but I'm danish, so I'm still learning. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2 Help needed!

Chapter 2 is up :)

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><p>3 weeks at Konoha high, Chiharu was already blending well with her classmates. The weather was still hot, and currently she laughed very hard at a video Naruto had shown her and some of the guys over his laptop which he had brought with him in school. Recess was up and Chiharu waited for Sakura to come into to class so they could go to the upcoming gym class together.<p>

"That is some freaky shit" Kiba roared in between a laugh and smacked Naruto hard on his back. Chiharu looked at the two smiling friends and smiled at them. This was one of the best classes she had ever been in.

"Can you keep it down a bit?" Shikamaru asked annoyed, only tilting his head to speak to them. He sat in the window, looking at the clouds like he usually did; something that Chiharu over the time had found very peculiar about him.

"Come on, you're ruining the fun Shikamaru" Naruto said and began to search for new videos.

"What a drag" Shikamaru muttered and turn to look at the sky again.

"What're you guys doing?" Sakura asked from behind them, which coursed Naruto to suddenly tense up. It was no wonder though; she was about the only woman who could keep the wild Naruto in place.

"Hey Sakura, you're here!" Chiharu greeted and grabbed her gym back.

"Are you coming too Naruto?" She asked, stopping by Sakura. You see, the only ones that had chosen gym classes were; Chiharu, Sakura, Naruto and Lee. Everyone else had choosen another elective… For an example were Ino, Kiba, Shikamaru and Chouji in music.

"Yeah yeah just two sec" the brighty said and began to pack his laptop.

Sometime after that, they parted ways by the girl's and boy's locker-room. It was a very typical locker room. Smelled of shampoo, the air was unchangeable humid and of course the always slippery white tiles.

Being the first one to finish dressing she went into the gym and saw Naruto standing bored up against a wall a few feet away from Neji and Lee. Neji (who was the guy she'd picked out in the hallway on her first day) nodded to her in recognition. He was not really his type in personality being extremely mature for his age and rarely lost his self-control, though she hadn't met him that many times yet. He was good at everything they'd been doing in gym so far and was always picked. Naruto and Neji's beliefs had been completely opposite of each other ; Neji concluding that fate is something decided at birth and that no matter what one does, people cannot escape their destiny. But Naruto had obviously proved him wrong, or beaten it out of him… She didn't really know what exactly happened, but it was over now. It had involved Hinata and Lee as well but Hinata didn't want to talk about it, and she didn't know Lee well enough to ask. Neither did Sakura and Ino, course Hinata didn't want to… Chiharu suddenly wished that she'd been in this class from first grade. Obviously Neji had been stepping over quite a lot people in his 'younger' days.

"Hey hey Chiharu!" Naruto called and looked at her sheepishly.

"Yeah? What is it?" she asked and walked over to him curiously.

"Someone has left their shoes" he said capriciously and grinned. Chiharu looked down by Naruto's feet and saw a pair of used shoes lay innocently and alone at the floor.

"… So?" She asked cocking an eyebrow. She knew that he was up to something. Naruto dropped his smile and looked warily around.

"Sakura hasn't come out yet" he muttered—" I bet you, that I can throw these longer than you!" he said and took up one of the worn shoes. Chiharu looked at it with disgust. It was no wonder that someone had abandoned it; it was a pretty loathsome shoe!

"Well…" Chiharu looked around for Gai, their loveable gym teacher –"You bet!" she said and picked up one of the shoes as well. Naruto laughed abruptly and grinned evilly.

"You see that wooden post up there?" he asked and pointed to a post hanging in the ceiling, which was supposed to hold the climbing-robes.

"Yeah?" She asked questioningly, eyeing the piece of wood.

"If you can throw this through the space between the post and the ceiling I'll buy you lunch tomorrow… And if I can hit, you buy ME lunch." he said daringly.

"But you're a girl, so if you—" Naruto was interrupted by Chiharu, knowing that, that kind of sentence could get her to do almost everything

"It is on!" she said and stumped stubbornly past him. He grinned smock and followed her.

"Okay, girls first" she said to Naruto and crossed her arms.

"Who are you calling a girl?" he said sullenly and took a stance. Either way, were Naruto's throw not quite good enough. The shoe hit the post, and landed on Lee's head, which caused the top-mopped boy to give a speech about how disrespectful it was to throw another person's shoe without permission.

Unfortunately did Chiharu's throw go just as bad, as Naruto. Whether if that was because Sakura had entered the room and called 'NARUTO?' at the same time, or just pure misfortune, didn't Chiharut quite know. Her shoe flew into the gap between the post and the ceiling, and stayed there. (yep the gap was that small).

"Come on! What are the odds?" She cried and smacked her forehead with her hand. And there came that voice and that sentence that was the least thing she wanted to hear…

"Where are my shoes?"

She turned around reluctantly and saw her math teacher stand dumbly by the entrance of the boy's locker-room. She should've known… SHE SHOULD'VE KNOWN that Gai didn't turn up late for classes! Why o' why didn't she read the signs? Naruto laughed nervously, when Kakashi shot him a look and then the loyal and good friend Naruto pointed secretly at Chiharu, which she noticed out of the corner of his eyes.

"You traitor!" she hissed at him and glared at him aggressively.

"So where is it?" Kakashi asked and went to collect his one left shoe. Chiharu brushed her forehead in frustration. She was so unlucky with this teacher! He always caught her in the worst situations, as the only teacher!

"… Up there" she muttered and pointed to the shoe, stuck by the ceiling.

"How'd it get up there?" Kakashi asked and scratched his hair. His calm and controlled demeanor always seemed to provoke her in some way she couldn't explain, and the worst thing about it was that she couldn't complain to anyone about it, cause he was on good terms with about every student in school.

"… I threw it" Chiharu answered reluctantly with a hint of aggression to her voice. Kakashi's scratching hand fell down to his side and then he looked at her with an unspoken sigh.

"Well then…" he looked back and forth at her and the shoe, seeming to consider what to do.

"You better get up there and get it then" he said, he turned around and walked over to the robes hanging in the side of the gym.

"What? You have to be kidding?" Luckily for her, everyone small talked so the attention wasn't directed at her, only those who'd been following the scene. Kakashi pulled in the robes, and the thick white robes lashed out along the post.

"That's not my problem is it?" he said, cocking an eyebrow lazily. Chiharu frowned confused. He had to be kidding, right? Kakashi swooped around her avoiding eye contact (to her annoyance)

"And since I'm a substitute for Gai cause he's sick - until Chiharu has gotten my shoe down you guys will be running laps, and taking pushups. And if anyone of you help her, talk to her or cheer her you'll get detention…" he stuffed his hands into his pocket and pulled up a book. Everyone began to groan and complain about how stupid it was, some even lay down on the floor yelling "this is so typical!" or "Why didn't I skip when I had the chance?". The worst was that she knew that people blamed her.

"Good going Chiharu!" Sakura said and shot her a glare.

"Jeez, relax… It's not the end of the world!" Chiharu for the first time snapped at Sakura.

She should've figured… Sakura was way too mature compared to Chiharu, if that didn't end in some snapping sometimes, something would be seriously wrong. All things considered is it a good thing to have a girl friend that can pull out the sane side of you. Chiharu turned her back to the glaring students and rubbed her hands as she looked up at the long rope.

"Piece of cake!" she mumbled to herself and grabbed the rope tightly. She counted down from three in her head and pulled herself up the rope.

Halfway up her arms was beginning to ache and she tried hopelessly to pull herself further up but failed and had to slide down the rope to take a break. She looked resentfully at her red hands feeling too stubborn to look at the others or Kakashi. The only thing that lingered in the gym was the bumping sound of people's feet and of those students that small talked with each other while running. Once again she tried to climb the rope and made it a bit further than before; the only thing getting her going was the thought of the others running, and Kakashi sitting there like it was going to take a long time for her. But she failed once again, and this time she began to get pig-headed and angry. This time she twisted the rope around her feet as she climbed and tried to use that as support, but once again she stopped three-quarters up the rope. Her arms simply couldn't get higher up. She dried some of the sweat off of her lip with her sleeve and tried to raise herself. Seconds later she stood on the floor again, panting and looking into the floor pig-headed. She couldn't explain the burning stubbornness that filled her, and she refused to give up. She looked over her shoulder to see Kakashi reading his book by the wall, not even taking any notice of what she was doing. Chiharu brushed her hands against her shorts to get the sweat off and tried once again. She made it to the exact same point as last time and watched, beyond irritated how the post just didn't get closer!

"Come on Chiharu, you can do it!" a voice broke the silent humming of shoes running. It was Naruto who'd spoken up and now stood by the end of her rope. She looked down at him, filled with new energy, sincerely glad that the boy who had coursed this in the first place came to her. She looked up the rope and managed to raise herself a bit more.

"Yeah, come on" Sakura called from below which came as quite a surprise to Chiharu. But she simply didn't have any strength left, and the last previous tries had made her arms weaker. She clenched her teeth hard, and gave it a last try, but nothing simply happened. She noticed how everybody had stopped to look at her now. But she just couldn't, and slid down the rope, relenting to herself. She received an 'aaw' from Naruto and felt too stubborn to look at him.

"Well well… It seems that you can't reach it Chiharu" Kakashi came over to them having put down his stupid book. It lit a dangerous fire in Chiharu, who had put hard work into to her tries in reaching that stupid shoe! She wasn't sure if she subtly was trembling with anger or just exhaustion. She kept staring at the floor being too stubborn to look at her (to her) mocking teacher. She could feel him look at her for a few moments and then he turned to the rope, which coursed her to look up. He climbed it like it was the most natural thing in the world. He wore a T-shirt and there was no question about why it looked so easy for him to climb the rope; one could tell that he had a strong chest and strong arms. Chiharu felt a pinch of ice inside… That was the most provoked she'd ever felt because of a teacher, and she suddenly understood Gai's rivalry with Kakashi. He'd always rant about how Kakashi was 'hip' and 'revolutionary'. A shoe fell to the floor right beside her, and she didn't even flinch. Her gaze was fixated on her sardonic, always late, prowess, nonconforming teacher who slid down the rope and landed beside her looking at her plainly and solemn briefly, as he turned to the others.

"Teamwork is the most important thing in gym classes, if you want to your team to succeed. As demonstrated was Naruto the first one to cheer Chiharu despite what I'd told him. As you can see did that cheer make Chiharu climb one more bit. Let this be an important lesson" he smiled with his eyes and continued—"I'm just glad that you're not like the other brainless kids that don't know what teamwork is"

_What? I had to be a subject of ridicule so that he could teach us about freaking teamwork? _Chiharu thought crossing her arms and raising her eyebrows like she'd been insulted.

The rest of the class continued with a game of soccer. Naruto kept glancing over at Chiharu knowing that she was very grumpy. It even seemed as if some of the others walked a circle around her. But she didn't care; she was definitely not going to be a good team player now, after that lecture!

Finally when the class was dismissed, she walked straight towards the girls-locker but was caught by Naruto before she got inside.

"Hey Chiharu, I've noticed that we live in the same direction, so I wondered if we could walk together some of the way?" he patted his indexfingers together and smiled sheepishly at her. She'd never walked home with anyone from school cause everybody took the bus, and this actually brightened her mood a bit.

"Yeah sure" she said and smiled to him. Someone behind the two cleared his throat and they both looked around at the same time

"Chiharu, can I talk to you when you've changed?" Kakashi asked politely. A nervous wave ran through her. She hated when teachers wanted to talk to her.

"S-sure" she said a bit startled and followed Kakashi with her gaze as he disappeared into the boys-lockerroom. Her mood immediately went back to where it was before.

"uuh! You're in trouble" Naruto grinned at her while pocking her playfully.

"Shut up" she said half-hearted, pretending that she didn't care.

They parted ways and Chiharu entered the locker-room brooding in her own anger and didn't even notice when Sakura came over to her.

"Cheer up Chiharu. It can't possibly be that bad" she said while she put on her school top. Chiharu fought a bit with the urge to rip something apart before she answered.

"Kakashi asked if he could see me when I was finished in here… God, this is so stupid. I don't think that I've had so much trouble with one teacher in my whole life." she muttered the last thing out sullenly while she began to change. Sakura sighed.

"You know, I think it's really ridiculous. Kakashi's on good terms with almost about everyone… Or, I don't know a single person who has something against him. I think that you've misjudged him a lot. And if you want to stay out of trouble, maybe you should stop pulling pranks like a kindergarden kid. It's so immature and teenage-like. I don't even get why you do it." Sakura said matter-of-factly.

"Well thank you for the honest words Sakura! And I DON'T pull pranks! He's the one who misjudges me. He always catches me in these really bad moments, and now he thinks that I'm a troublemaker…" Chiharu said as Sakura lifted up in her back, ready to leave

"With what you pulled today, it's no question… Sorry, but I gotta go if I have to catch the bus in time. We can talk about it tomorrow if you want to." Sakura said and smiled insuring to Chiharu as she disappeared behind a locker.

Chiharu sighed annoyed and decided to take her time with the clothing, so she could think of some good comebacks at whatever Kakashi was going to say. He was probably going to say something about her bad attitude and her behavior today, or something like that! She stuffed her gym back roughly and took a deep breath in before she walked out of the locker-room, considering what Sakura had said about the teenage-atitude. Kakashi stood in the hallway by the opposite wall reading his 'Make out paradise'. Chiharu's mood was easily provoked by jus the sight of him, and had to take another deep breath before she reluctantly walked over him.

"I'm here" she muttered through gritted teeth. Kakashi looked away from his book with a 'hm?' as if he hadn't heard her.

"Oh, good" he stated and put away the orange book.

"Listen… As your contact-teacher I—" Kakashi was interrupted by Chiharu, who obviously had been missing something

"Wait? My contact-teacher? You are my contact-teacher?" this came out more as a remark, and that wasn't what she'd intended.

"Yes I am. You didn't know that?" He asked a bit startled, which was a weird emotion to see him express.

"That is merely an observation, Kakashi" she snapped back, knowing that pronouncing him without 'sensei' was very snappy and personal. Kakashi shifted a bit in his stance, and his eyes change drastically from startled to very serious which suddenly made her more nervous than angry.

"Your attitude in school and frankly some of your actions has to change if you don't want to have you stay here hang in a threat. Now, I don't know why you make troubles some times, but as your contact-teacher I have to make sure that your behavior somehow stops." He said, looking at her intensely with his two different colored eyes. Chiharu was silent for a moment not being quite sure about whether if she should begin to discuss with him or just give him right in everything he said. She'd never seen him so serious before, and she suddenly understood why everyone obeyed him so willingly.

"Look—" she leaned up against a locker trying to calm herself down a bit;

"You always catch me in these really bad moments, and some of them you completely misread! Okay, today was an exception, b-but… I just… This is how I am… It's just you who bring this out in me!" Chiharu felt herself running out of words to say, knowing that what she'd just said didn't justify anything.

Kakashi looked at her indifferently, crossing his arms over his chest.

"…If I've misread anything, then just tell me. As far as your attitude… " he said moving in front of her with one slow step and pinning her with an expression that gave her all the more reason to keep her words and thoughts to herself. She felt goose bumps crawling over her arm, and suddenly got more respect for his authority. Clearly he was tired of her bullshit.

"Well yeah… I-I just don't like you. And there's nothing you can do about it right now. I've never liked any of my math teachers." she said evasively, trying to hide the intimidation she felt.

"That's unfortunate since I'm your contact-teacher. And you have ALWAYS felt this way about math teachers?" Kakashi looked a bit startled again – to her relief and felt the world coming back around them. Chiharu immediately came to think that her attitude towards her math teachers always had been none caring. But, for some reason, he made her angry… He actually had an influence on her emotions.

"Um… Well. I—" Chiharu began to get flustered, because she was beginning to step out on bare grounds.

Actually, he was very confused about the girl. Sure there were some people that didn't like him, but he'd done nothing in particular to tick her off, and she should be mature enough to see that it was her own fault today. Actually it took him by surprise that she would just blurt out that she didn't like him. That took a lot of nerves. Nonetheless, didn't he know anything about her, and her attitude was probably caused by something that had happened in her past or because he didn't react in any particular way to her behavior. If she was so easily provoked by him, it was because she didn't like people who had the upper hand, or intellectually threatened her. What did he know? He knew Sakura and Naruto so well that he knew how they reacted in certain situations and why. He decided to drop it, seeing that she was beginning to get uncomfortable, which kind of was his intentension anyway.

"I actually have something else as well… You have to participate some more in math. You seem really absentminded" he said.

Chiharu knew that he was right about this. But, it was so hard to follow up in his classes when she didn't get half of what he was saying. Shikamaru was too smart to help, Sakura got impatient, Ino began to gossip… It just seemed like it was too difficult to get any help with it.

"I know that. I'm really trying to follow up" Chiharu looked to the floor, embarrassed that he noticed it so fast, and that she was totally helpless.

"What about your aunt? Can't she help?" he asked her, his voice now softer and more understanding, which Chiharu found surprisingly pleasant.

"I doubt she has the time" she muttered darkly. The conversation was beginning to take an uncomfortable turn. Kakashi raised his eyebrows seeming to consider what he should answer to that and that time seemed like forever to Chiharu

"You seem to do very well in other classes, so I'm sure you have other ways to get help" he smiled with his eyes and uncrossed his arms.

Yeah, she had other ways; doing it herself!

"Meh" she shrugged and rolled her eyes subtly. She suddenly felt as if he was towering over her, not intentionally, but… well she couldn't explain it.

"Well, if that was all" she smiled timidly and turned around to get away.

… The further she came to the door, the more she began to regret her behavior. Why'd she act like a timid little teenage girl, that was just so pathetic? Acting aggressively was so also so lame! Sakura was right. She gazed backwards with enmity just before she opened the door to the school yard.  
>Naruto stood against a wall with closed eyes, seeming to enjoy the sun and the light breeze that tickled his hair. Chiharu felt warm and welcome inside when she saw him and sprinted over.<p>

"Hey Naruto" she said and smiled. He seemed to wake up and smiled back evilly.

"So did you get detention?" he asked and pulled up in his bag. Chiharu rolled her eyes and looked away darkly.

"Luckily, no. But god that teacher can be so… " Chiharu groaned frustrated as they began to walk.

"What? What'd Kakashi-sensei say?" he asked, looking enthusiastically at her like a child. She pouted annoyed and snorted.

"He said that my attitude in school wasn't very good. And that I'd have to step up my game in math-classes" she said reluctantly. She hated to admit such kind of things to others. Naruto cocked an eyebrow confused while considering his words.

"You know, you should do as he says concerning the math-thing. He may not seem like it, but he's very strict when it comes to grades and he will fail you if you don't do anything. He has failed a lot of students in the past. There's no mercy" Naruto sounded pretty serious when he said this and she looked at him a bit flabbergasted.

"About the attitude thing… Well" he smiled big and giggled to her.

"But Naruto I don't have attitude towards the other teachers! You've seen that! And then he goes on about him being my contact teacher and that he HAVE TO 'care'… Please, what a load of crap" she muttered as they turned a corner.

"Hey, I don't think it's the attitude itself, but the question of why you are like that." Naruto slowed his steps and looked into the sky with dreamy eyes.

"We're very much alike. Of course I don't know that much about you yet but it seems like that. The first one to actually be my real friend was my kindergarden teacher Iruka-sensei. When I moved up in higher classes Kakashi-sensei became me and Sakura's contact-teacher" Naruto paused as his eyebrows furrowed a bit.

"I live with Jiraya now, but before that I used to live at an orphanage, cause I have no parents. Ever since Kakashi-sensei became my contact-teacher he became more and more involved with, especially me and one of my old friends. He would check on our, mostly mine, eating habits, or teach us material arts or whatever that would make our everyday a little bit more fun."

I listened with interest, beginning to understand why everybody thought I was weird for not liking the math-teacher.

"So you don't do that anymore?" I asked. Naruto stopped his word-stream and blinked a couple of times

"Um, sometimes but now I live with Jiraya and he's a bit like a dad to me." Naruto said, smiling to the sky like he'd done through the whole conversation.

"So after you got him into your life, Kakashi lost interest?" I asked again, trying to dig some dirt up about the teacher. Naruto blinked, and looked at me again.

"No I don't think so. Though he may not seem like it to you. He's kind of a loner." Naruto paused with a cocked eyebrow.

"Despite his help in the past do I know very little about his personal life." He shrugged

"I'm sure he has other things to do like reading that perverted novel. He can be such an idiot sometimes despite his intelligence." he glanced at Chiharu with a solemn smirk

"But usually it's nothing that can make one be as mad as you are" he said, his smirk turning into a smile.  
>She shrugged thoughtfully. It wasn't like it was funny to be 'mad' at your teacher.<p>

Naruto and Chiharu parted ways not long after their conversation. Naruto lived with Jirarya near Centrum of the town. She heavily breathed out when she opened the door to her house when she got home and threw her bag as usual on the floor.

"Hey Haru, you're home." Emi's voice rung trough the hallway, happily squirming around with something inside the kitchen. Haru was Emi's nickname for Chiharu. She'd never really liked it, but at least it was nice to have nickname. She hadn't expected Emi to be home so soon and was actually glad that there finally was someone when she got home from school.

"Hey Emi, you're home early." Chiharu said and walked in the direction of the kitchen.

Emi stood by the cooker, roasting two beefs, swaying her hips back and forth to the music that was playing in the radio which stood in the small island the separated kitchen and dining room. Emi's naturally dark, red hair was down in big wavy curls – unusually for her to wear after work. Despite being in family with Emi, was Chiharu's mother – and Emi's sister – born with blonde hair, just like Chiharu. She'd inherited her father's green eyes and therefore also a mixture of her mom and dad's haircolor. Her mom had blue eyes and blonde hair, while her father had brown hair and green eyes. Emi and Chiharu's mother had always looked alike – facial – but their hair colors were very different. Emi chimed happily around as Chiharu grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl, peeping over Emi's shoulder to see what she was making.

"Tell me some more about your school Haru, I haven't heard that much. Are there any cute guys?" Emi sputtered some salt at the beefs and looked down at Chiharu, smiling genuinely.

"Lots of cute guys." She thought for a moment. Should she mention the warning she had received today? She knew exactly how Emi would react. That disappointed, skeptical look that her eyes had whenever Chiharu had done something wrong.

"Really? Who is it then?" Emi turned around to face Chiharu fully, her eyes full of expectation.

"There no particular, just a lot of cute guys… Doesn't mean that they're boyfriend material." Chiharu snorted taking a big bite of the juicy apple. Emi's eyes faltered disappointed but with a genuine smile.

"That's too bad. You should really try to date some guys Haru. You could be missing a lot of great things." She said.

Chiharu didn't know if it was normal parent behavior to encourage your child (even though Chiharu wasn't Emi's child) to date and speculate about the 'other great things' they could be missing. It wasn't like Chiharu was completely ignorant. She liked to go wild at parties… sometimes. Well she couldn't really control it when she was REALLY drunk. Either way, Chiharu wasn't much for going further in to subject of boys, which Emi actually knew very well, so she decided to change the subject. She turned to the island and looked at her apple a bit embarrassed about what she was about to tell.

"Actually I was given a warning by my math teacher today." Chiharu dug her head a bit and took a sudden interest in the half bitten apple. Emi sighed behind her.

"Are you having problems with your math teacher again? You know, I really hoped that it would stop after the last school! What are you doing to those poor teachers?" Emi's voice was precisely as Chiharu had predicted.

"What do you mean with poor teachers? You should say poor me. I mean it's not my fault that—" Chiharu had looked up from her apple to turn around to Emi, but was caught mid-sentenced when she saw a man sitting by the dining table, looking half embarrassed about hearing all this, but was smiling politely to Chiharu. Emi looked around, confused to why Chiharu had suddenly stopped talking but laughed pleasantly as she found out why. She should've figured. That was why Emi was wearing her hair down and seemed so happy.

"What is that guy doing in our house?" Chiharu asked not moving a finger, but looking at Emi from the corner of her eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry Chiharu. This is Damien." Emi chirped happily. Perhabs she was lucky to get rid of the teacher-speech now.

"Nice to finally meet you Chiharu." He said and got up from the seat to offer her a handshake. She took it, a little bit suspiciously. What'd he mean with 'finally'? He was around his forties, was very VERY tall and broad shouldered. His hair was black as well as his eyes and there were some kind of etnick arab-ish about him. He was wearing a black business suit and she could see that there were products in his short hair.

"Um, hi." Chiharu replied and received a light handshake from him.

"You remember I've told about him, right? Damien from LA which I've been having a long distance relationship with?" Emi added.

Oh yeah, that was right. One of Emi's many long distance relationships. Damien. She could recall a little bit about him but not much. The time they got to talk together was in the morning, when Chiharu was most stressed because she always got up late. Not to mention that Emi's relationships was head over heels. She'd had so many long distance that Chiharu couldn't count them anymore.

"Yeah, of course." She answered politely and let go of his hand, proceeding with eating her apple.

"I've heard a lot about you." He smiled to Chiharu and looked lovingly over at Emi. He had probably just heard the whole story of why she was with Emi.

"He has moved to Tokyo for three months, isn't that great?" Emi went around the island and hugged him from the side, looking up at him looking a teenage girl lost in her boyfriend.

"And that's only two hours away from Konoha, so everything fits perfectly." She chirped laying a hand on his chest. Chiharu did her best to smile genuinely at the two, even though she didn't feel that happy. If she knew Emi well, the relationship wouldn't last that long.

"That's good for you." She chuckled

"I'll go upstairs and do some homework." She easily got sick if there were too much love in the air. Especially if it was Emi.

"Okay, can you get dinner yourself? I only made for me and Damien." Emi tugged into Damiens chest and smiled sweetly.

Chiharu rolled her eyes and snorted with a smile, could she act more like a teenager? She went upstairs and into her room where she sat alone with an English assignment they'd gotten two days ago, her mind sometimes drifting away from the homework and to different things about her life. Like, if they ever threw any parties here, or what the others were doing right now… Chiharu looked up suddenly when a very disturbing noise reached her ears. There had been a bump followed by a laughing Emi, and not just any laugh but this to familiar embarrassed, naughty laugh. One word; gross. Chiharu rubbed her temples with a sigh. She couldn't do her homework if she sat in here, listening to those wrong disturbing sounds downstairs.

"Come on." She muttered and clapped the screen of her laptop down and gathered her papers on top of it. She went to the large window by at the right side of her bed and looked out it to see if there was any chance of sneaking out of it. She'd done on in their old house realizing that it actually had become a bad habit since it wasn't that safe. She looked to both sides of the house, nothing seemed to be climbable. Unless she was Spiderman and could crawl down the sides of the house – whom she wasn't. Maybe she could climb down the gutter… Nope not with her laptop and papers. She sighed heavily and snapped her things under her arm, grapping her cellphone on the way, and took a deep breath before she when out the door to her room. Why couldn't they try to be a bit more discreet? She strode down the stairs and hurried past into the hallway without looking to her sides as she shouted.

"I'll just go for a walk." - Hearing a surprised gasp come out of Emi as if she had been caught in something bad.

"O-okay I'll see you later Chiharu, don't be out too long." Emi replied. Okay, perhaps she had some motherly sense her, but only when she was forced to… as now.

Chiharu groaned to herself and pulled out a random bag from the closet in the hallway before snatching Emi's keys to her bike from the small black drawer and hurried frightened out of the house. Perhabs she could find some kind of café where she could buy a cup of tea and then make her homework there.

Emi was a tall woman and therefore Chiharu always looked very awkward whenever she used her bike. She had to stretch her toes just to sit fairly straight and not rock back and forth rapidly. She rode through the quiet and peaceful neighborhood. It was a lot easier to reach center of the city with bike, and Chiharu decided to stop by a café called "The hide". It looked nice and cozy, with sofas and very chilled. Chiharu brushed her hair to the side and as she went in the door, and looked around to find a nice place to sit.

Not a few moments after she had her laptop sat up on a table, and ordered a cup of tea before she began to do her homework. She felt comfortable here, and was glad that she had found this spot. She looked out of the window briefly and saw that a light summer rain rained over the street. She smiled a bit to herself and looked automatically to the door when the bell rang. Chiharu's good mood sank into the floor and disappeared when Kakashi opened the door and held it for a woman he (obviously) had been walking with when it suddenly started to rain. They both giggled and the woman looked at Kakashi with an admiring smile before they continued to find a seat. Chiharu dodged her head behind her laptop. If he was on a date I would be SO awkward if he knew she was in there too. If she stared enough on the other side of the café they would probably sit over there… Nope, they were moving over at 'her side' of the café. Great… Just great. Next thing you don't want is for him to sit with his face towards you, and that was exactly what happened to Chiharu. There was one table between them, and Chiharu made sure that she was well hidden behind her lap top. She mumbled something incoherent and began to type on her computer again, somewhat distracted by the thought of her teacher sitting just before her.

A few times she subtly looked over her laptop, curiosity getting the best of her. The woman, who Chiharu could not see the face of, seemed to be sharing a lot more words than Kakashi did. She actually seemed a bit nervous and awkward while Kakashi just sat there nodding and smiling (with his eyes). At least he didn't have that same indifferent face he always managed to keep all day at school. Nonetheless, the woman who was dating Kakashi seemed to be pretty good at keeping the waitress from flirting scantily with Kakashi whenever she came by the table. Why'd she even flirt with him? Why was this woman even dating him? It wasn't like he was THAT special to look at. Chiharu tipped her head a bit to the side and studied Kakashi profile.

An uncomfortable tickling rush ran through Chiharu when Kakashi's eyes suddenly were on her, staring indifferently and with a hint of surprise at her. She flushed in embarrassment and made some awkward movements before she nodded to him in recognition and quickly dodged behind her laptop.

"You know, you can just as well drop it. When that slut is finished with trying to get him, I'm going to ask for his number." The waitress stood by Chiharu's table and looked down at her with a smug raised eyebrow.

"Um… Excuse me? I'm not interested in that guy. Why don't you go back to the kitchen where you belong, before I call your superior?" Chiharu felt seriously offended by suddenly being thrown into the category of Kakashi-fan girl (apparently there WERE a category). The waitress made an insulted snort and turned on her heals before disappearing somewhere.

Chiharu made big eyes behind her laptop while mouthing the word "what?" No, seriously; what the fuck? What was wrong with people these days?

Almost finished with her homework, and only half finished with her math (math didn't count that much) she ordered her last cup of tea and decided to take a look at the math homework. She looked at the question she had been lost in before and sighed. She felt that she wasn't going to get any further with it and started to get distracted as always. She'd managed to work without her curiosity for Kakashi's date taking over, but now found herself in a big dilemma. It looked like Kakashi's date was soon over and she was debating whether or not to ask him for advice. She was afraid to do so because of the way she'd been acting lately, not to mention the very same day. She'd just left him in the hallway without really finishing their conversation completely and he'd seemed genuinely concerned about her homework. And now she needed his help.

"Karma is a bitch." She muttered to herself, as she absently watched Kakashi as he payed the bill and nodded politely to the waitress as she flashed a smile. The woman got up from her seat and so did Kakashi. Chiharu had to make the choice right now. She shallowed a big amount of pride as Kakashi's date went for the door and Chiharu caught Kakashi's eyes and nodded awkwardly to him, losing her guts. He turned his head to open the door for his waiting date.

"Um, Kakashi-sensei? Do you have some, um, time?" Chiharu stuttered and raised her hand automatically, like she would do in class, swallowing her pride.

A few people turned to see who was talking so loud, and Kakashi and his date turned around to look and Chiharu immediately regretted asking him for help. He looked a bit surprised back at her while she slowly took her hand down and smiled sheepishly. For a second, disappointment hit her stomach when Kakashi turned around, but it was only to talk to his date. Chiharu couldn't hear what they were saying, but his date looked quite understanding and polite, nodding and smiling as he explained something. Chiharu looked into her laptop slapping herself mentally. She peeped up, and saw them hugging before his date turned to walk out the door and Kakashi turned to Chiharu. A burst of nervous excitement hit her, realizing that she had Kakashi's full attention, not like in class where the others kept him busy. Should she apologize for earlier?

"Hello Chiharu. What can I do for you?" Kakashi now stood in front of her table looking down at her, in his usual relaxed way.

"Hi Kakashi-sensei. You live close by I can tell." She said and nodded towards the door where his date had left. Why'd she even start small-talking? She'd never been small-talking with him. Never really talked to him outside school actually.

"You are sure observant. I believe we live in the same neighborhood." He said and smiled with his eyes. Chiharu could smell his usual scent from where she was sitting and found that it wasn't as unpleasant as she remembered. She remembered what she'd been told by other students about Kakashi, and felt bad again that she'd been such a lame teenager in front of him. She decided for good to drop some of the attitude and sighed.

"Yes—" she forced a smile "I'm just really lost right now. I'm trying to figure out this question and I was wondering if you could help me?" she looked at him, once again trying to swallow her pride and hoping that he wasn't going to mention what had happened earlier.

"Let me see the question." He said and went to her side of the small table and bend down to take a better look at the book. Chiharu moved at bit in her seat so he could see better and because she suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable that he was so close.

"You know we went over this at class today, right?" he said and looked at her without removing his head. She met his eyes, and found herself suddenly startled. She'd never seen him this close, and there surely WAS something charming about him and his two colored eyes.

"Um, I-I…" Chiharu forced her eyes away from his and looked at the question, suddenly forgetting what she was supposed to answer at the moment.

_What the hell is wrong with me? _She thought and stared at the question before she dared to look at Kakashi again, who looked as if he was smiling behind that mask. Chiharu sighed and pulled it together, starting to get annoyed that he was beginning to win her over on his 'Kakashi is on good terms with everyone'-side. Maybe she was simply too stubborn to admit that he actually was a nice teacher who did his job. That she could actually have a good time with a math teacher. Even though this reaction had nothing to do with this. This was just some lame girly reaction to someone who looked good and was nice at the same time.

"Okay, it doesn't seem like you were paying attention in class then." He said and finally got up to pull a chair over to her side.

"Sorry, it's a bit embarrassing so I just… Space out when I'm embarrassed." She lied to him, trying to justify her awkward silence.

"Well, I guess we can talk about why you don't listen in class, later." He said. She looked at him as he seated himself close to her.

"um, you know, I don't want to take your time if you had other plans I just wanted to quickly understand this, so you don't have to like…" Chiharu said quickly and paused to be polite.

"Don't worry, I have plenty of time today. You never know how a date will go, so it's best to put the whole day off." He said and smiled with his eyes. Chiharu found herself suddenly smiling at what he said.

"I guess it wasn't that good a date, huh?" she said and scratched her neck.

"Well, let's just say that you saved me from an awkward goodbye." He said and looked as if he was a bit sick. Chiharu couldn't help but laugh briefly at this, and was surprised that she had a none-school, none-uncomfortable conversation with him.

"Wait, I saved YOU? You gotta be kidding. You'd rather help me with math than being with your date?" Chiharu laughed outright as if he was kidding.

"Yeah—" he admitted bluntly "I don't go on dates often, and when I do, the relationship doesn't last more than a couple of days." He said and took Chiharu's pencil up as he looked at her with a smile in his eyes, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Oh yeah? They dump you when they get to know you better?" Chiharu snorted a bit as she smiled, not quite believing she was having this conversation with someone she almost hated just a few moments ago.

"Hmm. I would say it's the other way around. But they are usually aware of the fact that I'm not looking for commitment." He said bluntly, the way he always talked, as if this was something he had accepted a long time ago. He might as well just have said that he preferred one-nightstands. Chiharu wasn't sure if she wanted to know more about this subject, but didn't feel disgusted or repulsed in any way.

"Well, okay… That explains it." Chiharu said with a shrug and smiled.

Kakashi started to explain what the question was about and what she was supposed to do. She tried hard to follow him, but had to make him explain a few things twice. He was very relaxed and didn't rush it. She felt embarrassed about getting him to explain to her twice, but soon found herself a bit more comfortable about it. When they moved on to the next questions she got a bit frustrated, because he had to explain a few things again or rephrase the questions. But she was surprised about how patient he was, and started to wonder if she could've been better a long time ago if she'd given her teachers a chance.

"How would I ever have finished this question if you hadn't explained this to me?" she said more to herself than him as she finished the question on her computer.

"You just have to ask some more in class… Do you really not have anyone who can help you?" Kakashi leaned back in his seat and looked at her with a serious expression, which was one Chiharu never had felt comfortable about. It was like a piercing look, not a glare or a scowl, but just piercing, like he was going to crack her open at any moment.

"Um—" Chiharu shrugged, not wanting to tell him too much about Emi. She felt her old attitude towards him pressing back, but she tried hard to stay in the good mood she'd been in while he was helping her.

"My-my aunt is never home so she can't help me. And, well I've tried to ask some in class, but they can't explain it to me, because I'm too lost." She sighed and felt appease. Now she'd said it straight out while having his full attention. She took a few deep breaths subtly, trying to tame the feelings that suddenly swelled up in her, the familiar pricking in the eyes.

"So, I'm just trying to my best. Or at least I can focus on the things I'm good at." She said, Kakashi still looking at her in that serious way.

"Well, I can see that you're trying with your homeworks at least." He raised an eyebrow and looked at the screen of her computer. She laughed a bit.

"Yeaah. I'm trying." She said knowing that he'd probably seen the first half of the math she'd done.

She wondered if she should apologize to him for her behavior, or her general impression on him, but couldn't figure out if it was necessary or too soon to think that this math-teacher-war was over.

"I see you don't have other ways to get help then, as I claimed earlier today." He said thoughtfully. And now he had opened the bag of 'earlier'.

"Well, I don't like to talk about this, or to ask for help." She stated and leaned back in her chair as well, crossing her arms and looking thoughtfully ahead.

"I'll figure something out for you." He now smiled insuring to her and took a look at the bill a brooding waitress had served Chiharu.

"Kakashi-sensei, I-I know that you're my contact teacher but you really don't have to bother. I think I'll manage. I'm very grateful for your help today, especially my past behavior considered, but you don't have to—" Kakashi interrupted Chiharu in her little speech.

"Chiharu, I take my job serious. I help every one of my contact-students as much as I can. If I didn't want to do that, I would've chosen a school with no contact-students. You are the future of the world after all." Kakashi was leaning a little closer towards Chiharu to indicate that he meant what he was saying. She smirked –

"Well, can't argue with that." She said and began to stack her papers and books.

"As long as you're willing to cooperate I'm sure you'll do better." He said.

Chiharu smiled to her teacher and packed up her things, and put some money on the table to pay the bill. Kakashi got up and waited politely for Chiharu as she swung her bag up on her back.

"No, I'M opening the door. Thank you." She said and got to the door before Kakashi would open it for her. He looked at her in that bored way and shrugged.

"Okay." He said nonchalant. Chiharu found his attitude quite entertaining for some reason and suffocated a snicker that was on its way.

"Well, thank you for the help." She said and felt a bit awkward and amused at the same time. She waved with her hand politely and smiled.

"No problem at all." He said and smiled while he stuffed his hands into his pockets.

Chiharu smiled and went to her bike, while Kakashi disappeared somewhere around the corner by a parking lot. She stood a bit by her bike, going over what just had happened. Was she really on friendly terms with her teacher now? A motorcycle rolled out from the parking lot and on it sat Kakashi with a black helmet. It was a sporty motorcycle where he had to lean forward and she had never guessed that he would have one. He drove out on the street and disappeared to the left. She cocked an eyebrow and was surprised by how much had happened this day. She locked up her bike and began to drive home again her blonde hair waving behind her. This day was so off that she actually felt a bit glad about the big change. Now she just had to get home.

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><p><em>Will update soon!<em>


	3. Chapter 3 Mysterious haters

Finally got this chapter done! Yaay! I hope you enjoy ;)

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><p>The week after, Chiharu sat in math class Monday morning, looking forward to see the assignment which every student in the class had delivered the week before. She was sure that her grades were a bit better than usual because of Kakashi help, and felt kind of happy about being at math. There were always mixed results in the class, some were silent when they got their assignment back, some were cried "yes!" and some growled irritated.<p>

"Good work Chiharu." Kakashi handed her, her assignment smiling to her acknowledging.

Smiling back to him she turned her paper and saw a C+ ridden in a thick red ink. She put her head in her hand and sighed, having hoped for a little higher grade. At least it was better than her usual grades in math. She'd gotten pretty well along with Kakashi the past few days and had started to somehow enjoy it whenever they spoke; if it was in class or in the hallway.

**.**

Chiharu was on her way to school on a Thursday the same week. She entered the busy school yard as Naruto walked up to her, looking glad. Sakura hadn't mentioned anything about what they'd been discussing in the locker room a week ago, so Chiharu had decided to drop it. She felt that going to math classes was a bit more easing than before.

"Hey Chiharu! What's up?" Naruto put an arm over her shoulder and smiled big as he usually did.

"Good morning Naruto." She said and smiled back before he began to talk about something that he and Sai had been doing yesterday after school. Chiharu looked around the school yard as they walked towards the door, feeling a creepy feeling of someone staring at her. There were a lot of people so she didn't see anyone in particular while she subtly looked out of the corner of her eyes. But then she saw it. A small group of girls standing by a corner of the school yard like a pack of glaring wolves. They were one or two grades under Chiharu and Naruto, and one was looking over her shoulder with a mocking smirk. Chiharu immediately recognized her as the waitress in the café, who had been very rude, not to mention interested in Kakashi. Chiharu had never guessed that she was younger than herself, and she found it kind of gross that she was so interested in a teacher, why couldn't the girl find someone on her own age. _Weird,_ she thought frowning and looked away. If those girls were mad at her for snapping at the waitress, they should seriously consider to find a hobby to spend their time on.

"Why are those girls staring at you?" Naruto asked suddenly, looking a bit dumb.

"I'm honestly not sure." Chiharu said looking over at them again. She didn't like to mention that she'd been receiving help from Kakashi on a café

"What're you looking at thick-make-up-girls?" Naruto shouted across the schoolyard aggressively.

"Naruto? Stop it. I don't want any trouble!" Chiharu hissed at him and elbowed him in the ribs.

"What? They shouldn't be staring like that. It's rude." He said seeming genuinely annoyed with them.

"Well, they're probably just jealous because they saw me with you." She said to ease his mood. He mumbled something about them being sluts as they came to the front door which was propped with people.

"What's going in here?" Chiharu asked and walked up the few stairs, trying to peep inside.

"Is someone fighting?" Naruto asked confused.

They both moved through people, Chiharu following curiously behind the taller Naruto.

"What's this?" she heard Naruto say and when she pressed herself past him to see, she almost tripped in mortification. Written in big letters someone had written across the lockers "Wise child rules! Fuck school". Chiharu was beyond startled. First of it was embarrassing, but secondly; who would write that? She furrowed her eyebrows in disbelief;

"What is this crap? Who did this?" she asked turning around to face all the staring students. No one answered and most people looked embarrassed away, like the believed what was written.

"Who's wise child?" Naruto asked dumb-founded and scratched his hair.

"I am! My name means a thousand springs wise child! But I didn't do this!" she practically shouted at Naruto. He laughed at her padding her shoulders hard.

"I wouldn't in a million years believe it was you. You're too smart to write your own name" He said.

"But… I'm so confused." She said staring madly into the distance trying to figure out what the hell was going on. She grabbed her hair manically. Then both Chiharu and Naruto snapped their heads to the back;

"TOSHIKO CHIHARU." No question that all students could tell that the voice belonged to principal Tsunade, and frankly she was standing in the small clearing between the students and the lockers.

Chiharu turned frustrated around to face Tsunade. She couldn't believe this, and this week had been such a good one.

"I'm here." She said with a sigh, hoping that she had a fair chance of explaining herself. Tsunade's gaze was even worse than Kakashi's when he was in a serious mode. Chiharu felt small even though she knew she hadn't done anything, and it was almost like Tsuande grew larger in front of her.

"Come with me!" Tsunade barked and stomped towards her office, innocent students jumping frantically out of her path. Chiharu felt everyone stare at her like she was some freak, and felt as if she was right back at her previous schools.

"Shizune! Find Kakashi!" Tsunade roared as soon as they got into the quietness of her office.

"Y-yes." Shizune stuttered confused and began to look in some papers, which Chiharu only could guess was his schedule.

She followed Tsunade into another room, which probably was the main office of where she worked.

"Sit down." She demanded and Chiharu obeyed willingly, sitting down with a headache starting to erupt. Tsunade sat aggressively down in her chair, clearly trying to control her anger, and began to type harshly at the poor keyboard at her computer. They just sat there in silence for a few minutes before Kakashi knocked on the door and trudged inside looking somewhat tired of the situation. Chiharu looked at him hoping that she would catch a glimpse of pity for her, but unfortunately didn't get anything but a simple glance from him. Tsunade stopped typing and took a deep breath in as she folded her hands while Kakashi took a seat beside Chiharu.

"I believe you have seen the graffiti in the hallway Kakashi." She said

"I just saw it now before Shizune dragged me in here." He said calmly folding his hands on his lap. Tsunade sighed again seeming more irritated than before.

"Can you explain yourself Toshiko?" She directed her gaze at Chiharu and waited expectantly.

"I-I didn't do it!" she spat finally letting the situation getting on her nerves.

"Then why is it your name that is written?" Tsunade asked, clearly fighting her temper as much as Chiharu did.

"I don't know! I mean, if it WAS me I wouldn't have written my name for crying out loud! It would be the stupidest thing in the world!" she stated as a matter of fact.

"Well you have been known to make trouble at times." Kakashi said crossing his arms over his chest and cocking an eyebrow. Chiharu felt utterly disappointed seeing that Kakashi was taking Tsunade's side.

"Are you serious? I would never do that! Frankly I've had a really good week and I'm doing my best in school right now." Chiharu took her hands to her face to shut out the two staring at her, for a moment.

"And here I thought I was getting some trust, for the first time, from my math teacher and now you're accusing me of doing dumb stuff, right out of the nowhere! What the fuck! You should know me better." she said irritated and more than ever angry that they didn't believe her.

"Well, some students tend to misuse their trust." Tsunade said now seeming more skeptical than angry. Chiharu sighed heavily wanting to just give up. She didn't know what else to say. The only thing she knew was that it wasn't her.

"Well, I have spoken my case. I can't prove that it wasn't me cause I don't know who did it." Chiharu said falling back into the chair feeling Kakashi looking at her as if he was trying to read her mind.

She felt somehow disappointed in him. She'd hoped that he at least would try to see it in her way. But that was how it had always been. Math teachers couldn't be trusted, ever.

"I'm afraid that I'll have to give you detention somehow, seeing that you're somehow involved in this case." Tsunade said.

"Detention? That's not fair! "Chiharu stood up from her chair and looked at Kakashi;

"Kakashi, you know that I would ever do that! Why don't you say anything?" she burst out.

"Chiharu, the fact is that it's your name on those lockers. Somehow you are involved.—" Kakashi looked suddenly serious and cold, his eyes filled with determination. He turned his head to speak to Tsunade;

"But I have been thinking about a way to improve her grades in math. I can take her after school and help her with math in one of the empty classrooms." Chiharu looked intensely at the profile of his face and sat down slowly seeing that she didn't get any help from him. Tsunade seemed to consider his proposal for a moment before nodding.

"She's your contact-student after all. That'll make do. Tomorrow you can clean the lockers. You can both leave." She said and gave Chiharu a look that could keep anyone in place.

Chiharu fought the tears that were pressing behind her eyelids. This wasn't fair at all. They both got up and Chiharu did everything she could to look away from Kakashi. He held the door for her and she rushed past Shizune and into the empty hallway, fighting with all her power to hold the tears away. She stopped and pressed her hands to her eyes while trying to keep her mouth as relaxed as she could.

"Chiharu you have to understand that—" Kakashi stood a few steps away from her seeming to have stopped as well, but she interrupted him.

"It doesn't matter... This always happens to me anyway." She said trying to hold the fury away from her voice. Kakashi was silent for a minute.

"I'll meet you after school by this office." He said simply and moved to get to class.

"I can't… I have to clean the house. Emi is never home so someone has to do it." She said her voice now sad and depressed. Kakashi sighed;

"Well, then we'll just reschedule and meet at my apartment instead at 5 if that fits." He said. Even though Chiharu had been lying, simply trying to avoid meeting him after school, she had to give in.

"Fine." She sighed and let her arms fall to her side.

"Here's my address." He took a few steps over to her and handed her a piece of paper without getting any eye contact.

She propped it into the pocket of her pants as Kakashi walked away in the other direction. Finally she could release some of the pricking tears. She was actually beginning to think that she for the first time was getting along with her math teacher. But apparently he was very quick to jump to conclusions about her.

The rest of the day went slowly by. She tried to explain everything to her friends at lunch, but didn't mention to anyone that Kakashi had helped her with math at a café the week before. She felt a bit weird about it. Math class had been more than awkward for her. She didn't want to listen and it seemed like Kakashi was kind enough to just ignore her mental absence.

After school she went home, feeling tired and broken. At least her friends believed her and that was about the only upside to the day. Emi wasn't home, so Chiharu threw her bag in the hallway. She had two hours before meeting with Kakashi. O' how deeply she wanted to stay away. If there was something that she didn't have the strength to do today, it was doing math. She went to her room to take an hour's nap and to clear her head from the day's events. She shouldn't have asked him to help her at the café; it was no use at all. Brooding over her misfortune she finally fell asleep.

**.**

Two hours later she stood in front of Kakashi's door. He lived at the second floor in an apartment building not many blocks away from Chiharu. She sighed deeply and manned herself up before she knocked on his door, ready to face awkwardness… maybe death. She knocked twice and opened the door when she heard Kakashi yell "Come in." She came into a small entrance which lead directly into what could only seem as his living room. Without saying anything she took off her shoes and wandered inside. Kakashi sat by a desk in the right corner by a window, typing something into a document.

"Hi." She said simply and took a look around the living room which was mixed with the kitchen, also by the right side of his apartment.

"Hello Chiharu and welcome." He said and looked up from his computer, turning around in his chair to face her properly.

A sofa was standing in the middle of the room, and a television hung just to the right where the entrance started. On the left side of the entrance was a bookshelf, it looked like a recent edition taken that there wasn't that many books in it. Behind the sofa was a big slide-door which probably lead into his bedroom. She noticed in particular that there on a long shelf stood three katanas, and an old, used bamboo staff hung over them on the wall. It stood clear to her that he was into some martial arts. The apartment wasn't that large and keeping such a small space when considering how much money he probably made, she thought that he was being either a miser or just practical.

"So you can put your books here and we can start." He said, looking as if he was enjoying her looking around his apartment.

"Sorry, I was just analyzing your place." She said and walked over to his desk and took the chair beside his to sit on.

"Do you want a cup of tea?" he asked and smiled with his eyes.

"Um yeah… Thanks." She said, feeling suddenly confused. He was being just like when she'd met him in café. Subtly she looked over at him making tea in the kitchen. It was like he'd forgotten everything at school.

"You should know that I want to believe that you didn't write the graffiti on the lockers, you're too smart to write your own name. Obviously you have someone that's after you. But both Tsunade and I know that we can't do anything about it." He rummaged around in the kitchen, and caught Chiharu a bit off guard, as if he had read her thoughts.

"Are you being sarcastic about the smart thing, because I didn't really catch it?" She asked with a cocked eyebrow. He looked over at her while opening a shelf.

"No I'm serious. You seem very intelligent." He said.

Chiharu felt herself soften a bit, and looked away to hide her sudden shyness, digging into her pencil case as if she was searching for a specific pencil.

"Umm, thanks I guess." She muttered. She couldn't believe that she was sitting in her teacher's home, after all the trouble that they both had been going through ever since she had started at Konoha high.

Kakashi came over to her with two cups of tea and sat down beside her. She smelled his fresh scent. It was like a scent of sunscreen and newly washed clothes which she found surprisingly soothing. As they started with her homework, it seemed to go pretty well in the beginning, but as they continued she felt more and more stupid as Kakashi had to explain a lot of things over and over. Her temperament and impatience began to resurface in places where she normally just would've given up or written a wrong answer. She soon began to take out her frustration at Kakashi without really knowing.

"You know that I'm just trying to help you right?" he asked, leaning back in his seat seeming to control his voice. She looked at him, seeing that she was starting to get on his none-existing nerves too.

"Sorry." She said with a sigh looking back at her computer, feeling him looking at her in a wondering way. For some reason she felt a bit shy whenever he did that.

It bugged her though, that he somehow got to her. Everytime she saw him or spoke to him she felt SOMETHING; irritation and a bit of anger. Usually she was indifferent to teacher, they rarely stirred up actual emotions in her. That was probably why she felt a different feeling whenever he was being kind to her or getting too close.

"Sometimes you just irritate me. Like normally I don't get this irritated with a teacher, often I just don't care, but you… you get on my nerves." She said trying to explain her behavior, looking over at him to see his none-caring expression.

"Well, you irritate me too sometimes." He said seeming to smile a bit like he suddenly was enjoying the conversation.

"I just don't get it! You do it in a way that makes me feel like I'm the idiot." She snarled letting out some of her frustrations.

"Maybe it's because I challenge you." He said getting somehow cocky.

"So… What you're saying is that I challenge you too?" she said, remembering that she irritated him too.

They looked at each other in silence. She could see now how they challenged each other just by the very last sentence in their conversation and he looked like he had just realized that too. She felt and uneasy, nervous feeling rise in her stomach and quickly snapped back to her computer. What the hell was going on with her? She mentally slapped herself to get out of the state she was in.

"I guess you could say that." He muttered, probably more to himself than to her. It didn't come as a surprise that he had difficulties with admitting that people could get to him. He always had a relaxed demeanor, like no one could reach him emotionally or change his state of mind.

"So can you explain this again?" She asked tilting her head to the side to get eye contact.

"Of cause." He answered suddenly seeming to be back in his usual state of mind.

They continued from where they had left, and Chiharu had a difficult time with concentrating on the task, suddenly being too self-aware. Now she was madder at herself for being so aware. Why couldn't she just snap out of it? But eventually she came to relax more and not long after they were done. She stretched her arms and yawned after having pressed save on her computer.

"What time is it." She asked through her yawning and peeked down at her computer. Her eyes widened.

"It's already 8pm. Jeez did we really spent 3 hours on this." She asked surprised and turned off her computer.

"Well, time seems to fly by when you're having fun." Kakashi said and took their empty tea cups and began to walk to the kitchen area.

"But it wasn't fun." She said and scratched her neck casually, sighing inside. She couldn't muster to pack all her things away at the moment, because she was very tired. Kakashi chuckled a bit and put the cups on the kitchen counter, leaning against it as well while crossing his arms.

"I'm not going to comment on that." He said and smiled with his eyes. Chiharu cocked an eyebrow at him and shrugged, trying to read him.

"Okay okay, I'm packing my stuff already." She said in surrender and lifted her arms in defeat.

"I didn't say anything." He said still seeming to smile.

"I know. Mathematics just tires me out especially when I'm forced to make it 3 hours in a row." She muttered, starting to pack her things together in her bag.

"Frankly I don't get how you can sit with a student this late, and waste your free time." She said lifting her eyebrows in disbelief.

"I guess it depends on the student." He said taking a finger to his chin, being quite honest in her opinion. She looked at him again cocking and eyebrow.

"I don't even want to know how you feel when you do it with me." She said and zipped her bag finally finished with packing.

"You're being delusional. I don't do it with students." His eyes curved in a big smile as he chuckled a bit. Chiharu looked dumb-founded at him at first and then her face turned the slightest red.

"Oh my god you're so lame!" she barked at him swinging her bag violently up her shoulders. Kakashi seemed to chuckle a bit more at her reaction. Walking to the couch she stopped and looked at him indifferently before she smiled and him and chuckled. It was a bit fun after all even though it would've seemed wrong with any other teacher.

"Okay I guess I asked for that." She said and began to walk to the entre.

**Kakashi's POV**

He almost lost his grin when she chuckled at his bad humor. She seemed to be more or less relaxed now compared to when she came. He'd enjoyed her presence the slightest, it wasn't as bad as he had thought it would be. Actually when he thought more about it, she made his job that much more fun. It was always nice with some new blood. Even though he knew that she had a hard time to read him, he could tell that she was smart by nature. He actually liked to have a student to help again, cause it seemed that his other contact students had somehow moved on. Naruto lived with Jiraya, Sai at foster family where he got plenty of help it something was wrong, and Sakura had somehow gotten very close to principal Tsunade. He liked to be of use again. He walked to entré with her and watched her put her shoes on.

"I'll see you at the same time tomorrow then." He said. She sighed;

"Yeah I guess." She smiled to him and waved with her hand as she'd done by the cafeteria. She had a nice smile, and it was rare that he saw it.

**Chiharu's POV**

Just like when she'd been in the café she found herself having a hard to time looking away from his different colored eyes. There was simply something about them. Something that made her want to know more about him, like there was a lot more to him than the eye meets.

"Bye." She said and waved to him, leaving out of the door.

"Have a safe trip home." He said and came to the doorway as she went down the stairs.

**.**

Chiharu came home to an empty house. It was already dark and she always felt a bit uneasy about coming home to an empty dark house. She turned on all the light downstairs, and went to the modern steel kitchen and checked the fridge for anything. Emi had bought some rye bread - something she seemed to spend a lot of money on these days, but it tasted good with some butter and ham. Now, when being home alone her time with Kakashi seemed more enjoyable than it had done when she was actually there. At least his apartment was true to him, warm and welcoming. Not like this new modern house with no memories, and no warmth. For some reason it was always a bit cold inside. 

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><p>That's it for now, but i hope at i can make another chapter soon. Reviews and favs always help on the inspiration.<p> 


	4. Chapter 4 Teacher or friend?

**Yay! Finally a knew chapter up! **  
><strong>And thank you for all the reviews and favs! they help a lot ;) Enjoy<strong>

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><p>Nine days had swooped by before Chiharu knew of it. It was a Friday morning, around 11 am, and she was sitting outside in the grassed area of the school yard with a bunch of her friends. She, Sakura and Naruto sat on a bench in the sun. Tenten who was good friends with Neji sat under a tree very close by, and small talked with Neji. To their left sat Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba, Ino and Hinata in the grass too talking and enjoying the sun even though the air still was a bit morning cold. Kiba had brought his guitar from music class and was playing some cords now and then, while muttering lyrics.<p>

"Sometimes I just wish I could be at a beach." Sakura sighed and leaned back tired.

"Tell me about it." Chiharu said enjoying the cold breezes that flew by here and now.

Recess was up and they had all been busy this morning with a project in English class so everyone was relieved to get outside and relax as much as they could before classes started again. Luckily the school ground were quite big, so even if every student decided to be outside it wasn't that crowded or noisy. She leaned back as well looking into the blue sky with white clouds hanging around. She enjoyed her daily routines at the moment, just like she enjoyed this very moment. She had good, funny friends which made her days so much better.

She'd met up at 'detention' every day at 5 by Kakashi's place and had found herself starting to look forward to their meetings. No, she still didn't like math but she'd started to enjoy Kakashi's company much more than she would've ever guessed was possible for her and a math teacher. She still felt somehow aware whenever she was around him, and felt that she often met him in the hallway or saw him.

"How's it going with you and detention with Kakashi?" Sakura suddenly asked from beside Chiharu. She got a bit startled as if having been caught in doing something bad and cleared her throat a bit and quickly reminding herself that it was normal to be close with your contact-teacher.

"Umm pretty good I guess, even though I'm getting a bit tired of doing math every day." She said sighing.

"Yeah, that's typical Kakashi. Filling our heads with too much information tirelessly—" Naruto said in a yawn "God, so tired." He muttered after.

"It could be worse. Kakashi's serious about math, but he takes his time which makes it a bit more tolerable." Chiharu said.

"You're starting to like Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto looked closely at Chiharu, a smile plastered all across his face.

"W-what?" she cried out almost falling down from the bench.

Sakura leaned over Chiharu her hand balled up in fist as she gave Naruto one of her infamous glares while gritting her teeth.

"Don't say dumb stuff like that Naruto, you idiot! Why would Chiharu like Kakashi-sensei? That's just wrong!—" she growled aggressively at the scared Naruto "Sometimes I could just kill you, you big perv!" she continued barely noticing that Naruto was half off his seat by now.

"Sakura-chan, I-I didn't mean it like that." He said, holding his hand up, trying to pacify the angry Sakura. Naruto had a habit of calling Sakura for Sakura-chan whenever she got mad at him (which happened quite frequently).

Chiharu let out a relieved breath. For some reason had her heart started to pound quicker, and she got all tensed up by the thought of someone thinking that she was in love with their teacher. Yes, she was fond of him at the moment but that wasn't the same as being in love – actually far from! Sakura apologized on Naruto's behalf as usual while Chiharu sat in shock for a bit trying to recover from her adrenalin kick.

**.**

After a day at school without math Chiharu made her way through the school yard, following the crowd of people who also was done with school for the day. The weather still felt morning cold, but perhaps that was because autumn was soon coming to Japan. Today Chiharu was free of her detention so she had nothing to do after school… Well except for home work. Her green eyes glanced up that large gate of Konoha high as she heard someone calling. She turned around with a frown, barely getting to wonder who it was before a girl bumped into her.

"Not smart to stop suddenly. Loser!" the girl shot Chiharu a nasty glare and slapped her black hair behind her shoulders before making her way around Chiharu.

Chiharu took a moment to realized what had just happened as Sakura came trudging up to her.

"Thanks for waiting." She said, seeming to have struggled a bit with trudging all the way up to the gate with that many people.

"No problem—" Chiharu looked confused around and looked at Sakura again, seeming to search for words.

"What is it?" Sakura asked, now realizing that Chiharu was behaving a bit weird.

"Um, that girl who just bumped into me… She was being really mean." She said a bit bewildered, almost like she was talking to herself.

"Umm… Sorry I didn't see it." Sakura said, starting to look just as confused.

"So weird. She called me a loser." Chiharu said turning around to look after girl. –"you know, the usual reaction is 'sorry I walked into you'"

"Maybe she had a bad day." Sakura said with a shrug.

Chiharu decided to shrug it off as well, she knew the girl too little to even care.

"Actually I was wondering if you want to go downtown and grab some ice-cream." Sakura asked. Chiharu's eyes widened the slightest. She and Sakura hadn't been hanging out outside school before.

"Oh… Yeah of course!" she chirped happily.

The two girls took their time with getting to the Centrum of the city, and the streets were for once nice and quiet. They'd mostly been talking about the project in English class, but Sakura had a bad habit of complaining about Ino. Chiharu had a hard time figuring out what kind of friendship the two girls had. On one side it seemed like they got along pretty well and were there for each other when the situation called for it. On the other side it seemed that there were some kind of completion and rivalry between them. For sure Ino knew how to push Sakura's buttons. When mad at Sakura she'd always use the same phrase 'foreheard girl' which would eventually take Sakura down to the same level. Chiharu couldn't help but think that Sakura perhaps was looking up to Ino. She was a very pretty girl, strong willed and had social skills that even Chiharu admired. Not that Sakura wasn't pretty too; she was indeed but in another, timid and intelligent way.

As they walked suddenly in silence it was as if a small puzzle peace just suddenly clicked in place in Chiharu's brain. That girl who'd bumped in to her earlier; her face suddenly fit on one of the girls who'd been staring at her in the school yard the day someone had written Chiharu's name on the lockers. It wasn't the girl form the café, but one of her girl friends who'd sent her a nasty glare that day.

"I just realized something." Chiharu said, stopping in her tracks.

"What? Please don't tell me you're getting a crush on Lee." Sakura answered looking genuinely worried.

"Yes, it was exactly that—" Chiharu said, her voice filled with sarcasm—"No, I just realized that the girl who called me a loser today, was the same girl who'd given me a really nasty glare in the school yard, the day somebody had written my name on the lockers, if you remember that." She said, suddenly remembering that she hadn't told anybody about how she did her homework with Kakashi on a café.

"Really? Do you think it was her who wrote that thing on the lockers?" Sakura asked now looking more pissed. Another puzzle peace fell into place in Chiharu's mind:

"… Of course!—" she breathed in realization, might as well just tell Sakura now—" Okay, I'll give you the whole story then."

She started to explain everything with the waitress who'd been rude, and who ironically enough was going to the same high school.

"She has also giving me a glare at the school that day, and they were, like standing together in a bunch, so I'm pretty sure they knew each other." Chiharu was mad at herself for not realizing sooner that the jealous waitress was the 'mastermind' behind the locker-incident.

"You know, I think I know who they are!—" Sakura hissed, looking fired up—"Ino, Hinata and I call them the Kakashi-fangirls. They'd do anything to suck up to him, and seem pretty obsessed with him somehow. I know because they've always been jealous of me for being his contact-student. They've always been a bit bitchy, but what they pulled on you… That's crossing the line." She said crossing her arms stubbornly.

"Why didn't I see it before now!" Chiharu breathed looking at Sakura for help. Sure she could stand up for herself, but she had never been in a situation like that. Worse was that Chiharu felt somehow flattered that they got jealous of her 'hanging out' with Kakashi. Most of all she was happy that Sakura took so well, that Chiharu and Kakashi had been on a café together, doing homework.

"Hey, look… Isn't that the guys and Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura turned and looked to Chiharu's left with a curious expression.

Chiharu turned to see and open area in the city with a three section concrete wall with different highs and ankles. On top of a lower part of the two of the walls stood Naruto, Sai and Kakashi; Sai taking of and jumping to the opposite wall where Kakashi stood.

"What're they doing?" Chiharu asked with a raised eyebrow. Sakura chuckled by the sight of them and partly looked at her.

"It's a parkour playground the city government decided to make, a controlled environment for those who would practice parkour." Sakura said."Hey guys!" she shouted and waved to them.

Chiharu flushed a bit a red. She didn't want to interfere in whatever they were doing, and she suddenly realized that they were all shirtless. Sakura hooked herself to Chiharu's arm and started walking towards the boys with determination. Chiharu felt a bit baffled again, and watched as Kakashi who had been sitting in squad position on the wall, stood up to wave at them. Chiharu's stomach turned, feeling herself watch in horror how she got closer and closer, to the shirtless Kakashi. She wasn't sure she wanted to see him that way, she wasn't even sure why she was suddenly feeling so bewildered. She knew the boys, and she knew Kakashi. Seeing them shirtless for the first time wasn't even a big deal… Except that… Kakashi's upper body was so perfect that she wanted to look away, but at the same time she couldn't help but taking in this rare sight. He wasn't fitness trained, but more naturally well trained as if his muscles had just the right size on both arms. The upper arm muscles weren't too big compared to his lower arms and his chest wasn't too big (in that cheesy way) just naturally trained. Her eyes fell down to his trained six-pack stomach and then further down to the twin rope of muscle that edged bellow the top of his sweatpants. Chiharu caught a lump in her throat, holding her breath as she tore her eyes away from him, embarrassed to be caught in checking out her teacher, even though she had done that in the start of the year. It just felt different this time when she did it. How the hell could he have such a good body? He was a teacher. Chiharu wasn't surprised though, that Sai and Naruto were well trained as well; boys her age often were.

"What's wrong Chiharu? You're afraid to look at us?" Naruto commented with a mocking edge to his voice. Apparently Chiharu had been staring at the ground ever since she checked out Kakashi.

"umm." Honestly Chiharu didn't know what to say, having been caught off guard and she flushed red when her eyes fell on Kakashi again.

"Can we join?" Chiharu heard Sakura say beside her and snapped up her head at Sakura.

"Sure." Naruto replied with a smile, looking happy that Sakura joined him for something outside school.

"Wait, what?" Chiharu said, she hadn't been practicing parkour before

"Come on, it'll be fun Chiharu." Sakura waved Chiharu with her, and jumped the wall elegantly like she'd done it before. Chiharu would never have guessed that Sakura were the type to do such a rebellious and rough hobby as parkour. She went to the wall, while trying not to look at Kakashi, and tried to somehow get herself up. Apparently it wasn't as easy as it looked. Naruto was 'politely' trying to suffocate a chuckle as Kakashi spoke.

"Looks like you need a hand." He sat down in squad position again and offered her his hand.

Everything between them had been kept strictly none-physical. She was aware of the spaces that were between them, and now she felt like he had just filled that space. She looked at him with a cocked eyebrow as if he was kidding, but as he kept the same relaxed, pleasant face she gave in.

"Fine." She muttered with a tiny hint of a smile and took his strong hand.

He pulled her up easily, also receiving a small yelp from her in the process. But he got her up, held her hand until she had steadied herself and then let go. She felt as if she was pretty high up even though the wall had looked small down from the ground. But what she noticed was how she felt aware about her hand, the one Kakashi had held. It was like she could still feel his warm, strong hand around hers.

Mentally she slapped herself to get it together and looked at the faces smiling back at her.

"What?" she asked crossing her arms over her chest.

"It's just fun to watch someone new at this." Sai said smiling politely back at her.

"Well… Haven't exactly tried this before." She said trying not to look down.

"It's all about efficient movement around obstacles. Not just physically; parkour is a type of freedom, more a state of mind—" Kakashi prepared for a jump and jumped to the opposite side, between Sai and Naruto—" rather than a set of actions, and it's about overcoming and adapting to mental and emotional obstacles as well as physical barriers." Kakashi turned around, a smile evident in his eyes.

"For me it reclaims what it means to be a human being. It teaches us to move using the natural methods that we should have learned from infancy. It teaches us to touch the world and interact with it, instead of being sheltered by it. It is as much as a part of truly learning the physical art as well as being able to master the movements, it gives you the ability to overcome your fears and pains and reapply this to life as you must be able to control your mind in order to master the art of parkour… Works perfectly for kids like Naruto. In general it's very good for young people to play around with." He said crossing his arms over his muscled chest.

"Hey what do you mean by kids like me?" Naruto asked loudly, his temper getting the best of him. Kakashi only smiled and pushed Naruto by the shoulder, coursing the temperamental boy to stagger for a moment.

"I have heard about it before… So is it a sport you can practice at any gym or?" Chiharu asked her (shirtless) teacher. He shook his head and closed his eyes as if he was thinking.

"Competition pushes people to fight against others for the satisfaction of a crowd or the benefits of a few business people by changing its mindset. Parkour is unique and cannot be a competitive sport unless it ignores its altruistic core of self development. If parkour becomes a sport, it will be hard to seriously teach and spread parkour as a non-competitive activity. And a new sport will be spread that may be called parkour, but that won't hold its philosophical essence anymore. Those who truly practice parkour have the same mind aspect of each other, therefore it brings people to work together rather than compete."

Chiharu listened carefully to everything he said and began to wonder where Kakashi had learned parkour. What he said was quite thought through; quite mature considering that he was only 26 years old.

She wasn't sure if she was interested in learning parkour, but however enjoyed that company of her friends and Kakashi. She and Sakura had gone away from the boys to lower grounds, Sakura teaching Chiharu some basics and trusting her body by jumping from one place to another. The boys had moved to a pipe rack ride beside the three sectioned wall and practices jumps and landings. Chiharu had a bit difficulties concentrating on her own task. What the boys were doing was so much more impressive than what she was doing. Kakashi's set of muscles was even more impressing when he used his body to jump and swing through a gap. She watched him diving forward over a pipe so that his body became horizontal, pushing off with the hands and tucking the legs, such that his body was brought back to a vertical position, ready to land.

"Chiharu?" Sakura waved a hand in front of Chiharu.

"Hm? What?" Chiharu asked, dragging her eyes away from the pipe rack.

"You have to focus here." Sakura said with a grin while crossing her arms over her chest.

"Sorry… It's just that I've never seen anyone actually do that kind of stuff in real life. It looks so effortless." Chiharu said. Sakura looked over at the boys with a pleasant smile.

"Yeah. We're very grateful to Kakashi-sensei for taking the time to teach us. In our younger days we didn't have anything to do, so he decided to take us out here and teach us so we didn't become gnarled little nerds. He's a great mentor… Even though he's a bit buffoonish at times." Sakura said.

"I guess you've been lucky. Even I feel better here than any other school I've been to. I do think though that he's awfully mature for a 26 years old." Chiharu dared to say and looked partly over at Sakura. She shrugged her shoulders.

"In some ways I guess." She said—"Yet, despite his lazy attitude in school and in general, he rises to the forefront, in control of the present situation whenever it's needed and other teachers look to him for advice." Sakura said.

Chiharu moved a bit uncomfortably trying to fit the information with the Kakashi she pictures in her mind.

"But… He's only." Sakura continued Chiharu's sentence—"26…Yup."

She frowned a bit and looked at Sakura in thought. There was much more to Kakashi than Chiharu had ever imagined. She'd been completely blind to the fact that there was a reason for his laid back / hard to read attitude.

"But it's no wonder though. After all he did finish high school two years before his time." She said as a matter of fact.

Chiharu's eyes widened in disbelief. She'd never known anyone who'd finished high school two years before his time, it was almost absurd. Was there anything this man wasn't good at? It was almost too much like he was taken straight out of a book. He was athletic, super intelligent AND still went out with women? There was something seriously disturbing about that. The only flaw she could come across was that he was a pretty anti-social man for what she knew. Not that being anti-social was a flaw but the world today is, after all, built up around extrovert behavior. Chiharu's interest had been kicked in gears even though she didn't want to admit it. There was something different about this guy, something she hadn't been across before, and she was going to figure him out.

**.  
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"I'm home!" Chiharu yelled through the hallway, taking off her shoes and throwing them into a corner.

"Oh Chiharu, hello." Emi chirped from the kitchen which made Chiharu stop in surprise. With her school bag around her shoulders she walked into the kitchen, purposely letting her surprised face stay.

"You're home now?" she asked and looked even more surprised when she saw Emi's lover, Damien.

"Yeah isn't that great?" Emi smiled to Damien who smiled back and nodded politely to Chiharu.

She didn't feel quite comfortable with him, he was always too polite and uptight, but at the same time there was something… wild hidden inside of him. Which were creepy.

"So why are you home this late?" Emi asked nipping to a piece of chips.

"Oh… I was hanging out with some friends and my contact teacher Kakashi." Chiharu said leaning against the kitchen counter, trying her best to not show how exciting the day had actually been.

"Your contact teacher? The guy you spent a lot of time with while doing 'homework'" Emi chuckled again and flashed Damien a smile from another world, who also chuckled.

"Oh my god Emi! Stop saying things like that! It's not even funny!" Chiharu felt annoyed that Emi was acting like a teenager. Just the fact that Emi even thought of Kakashi that way, annoyed the hell out of Chiharu. It wouldn't surprise her one bit if Emi would flirt with Kakashi by the first sight, even if it was in front of Chiharu. _God please don't ever let Kakashi fall into Emi's heart-breaking hands_, she thought and turned around while rolling her eyes.

"I'll head upstairs." She said shortly and went for the stairs, leaving to two 'adults' alone to their games.

Chiharu snuggled under her warm covers and opened her laptop to finish some homework before the start of the weekend. She might as well just do them now, so she could be free of them. Sometimes her mind would drift to Kakashi and his persona. She was still a bit fascinated by him after having watched him and hearing what Sakura had to say. What could he have been doing in his life that made him how he where. Time after time she mentally slapped herself for even taking a fascination in a teacher. There were so many cool guys in the school and she HAD to think about her math-teacher? The persons she often despised the most in school. She scratched her hair irritated and typed 'google' into her computer… Should she google him? She was so curious that she felt like a creepy stalker. Smacking her lap-top closed she told herself no. Eventually she would have to ask him herself, she might as well just settle with that! She tapped her fingers at her laptop in deep thought before looking at the watch at her desk. It was already 6.30 pm. Moving her head to scowl out of the window she noticed that it was getting dark and rainy. The innumerable raindrops were already pricking at her window, slowly seeming to get heavier. Sighing she leaned more into her pillows and looked at her ceiling. Why couldn't she get him out of her head? It was so frustrating! A picture of him playing around at the pipe rack, shirtless, flashed in front of her eyes. For the briefest of moments something in her stomach fluttered happily up and was suppressed in the same instant. Once again she slapped a hand to her forehead. It was ridiculous, the way she was acting! Growling slightly and moving her laptop to the side, her door was opened in a rash. A drunk Emi and Damien stood in the doorway, looking both silly and stupid. Chiharu's heart sunk, knowing how Emi could be when she was drunk.

"Hey, knock the next time—" Chiharu was interrupted –"Listen, we are probably going to be loud, so can you leave the house, go somewhere else?" Emi asked staggering a big with Damiens nasty hands around her waist.

"Um, no? I can't… I don't have anywhere to go." Chihari argued. It was a completely unreasonable demand.

"Chiharu you have to leave." Emi started to sound serious, frowning at her.

"Are you stupid? I live here too!" Chiharu said, now getting up from her bed.

"Chiharu! I'm serious. Do as I say." Emi lifted her index finger at Chiharu in her drunken state. How much had they been drinking downstairs?

"I won't! You two can go get a hotel or something." Chiharu said with a scowl, trying as much as she could to keep her temper down.

"No! I'm telling you to leave so we can be alone Chiharu!" Emi was now starting to sound mad as well.

Chiharu took in a deep breath trying to calm her temper. She'd had a really good day and now it was all ruined because of Emi and her stupid boyfriend! She couldn't muster to argue with someone who was impossible to discuss with.

"You should listen to your mom." Damien said, trying to look serious and in control. That sentence tipped Chiharu over the edge and she couldn't hold back anymore.

"SHE'S NOT MY MOM!" she cried, grabbing her bag harshly.

"I'LL LEAVE YOU TWO ALONE! YOU CAN GO TO HELL EMI!" Chiharu rushed past the two drunken adults, almost pushing them over. She stormed downstairs with her bag over her shoulders and put her shoes on aggressively.

She closed the door hard in anger, barely noticing the heavy rain that touched her warm skin with a freezing cool. Why'd she end up with such stupid, mean aunt as Emi, with her stupid boyfriends who she couldn't even hold on to? She was nothing like her mom was; she didn't even try to act a little like a mom! Storming to the nearest bench she kicked stones away on the way, muttering and cursing at Emi. Right now her life seemed like a drag. Sitting down on a bench placing her bag on the ground, she took in a deep breath to calm herself down and listened to the silent raining. No cars, no bikes no barking dogs, only rain could be heard around her. Feeling alone tears started forming in her eyes, burning behind her eyelids, begging to come out. She put her face in her hands feeling suddenly utterly alone. Her skin was getting cold too and she could feel every little raindrop that fell. As if the situation couldn't get any worse, suddenly she yelped surprised when she heard something rummage around below her. She opened her eyes and looked down to see a small mops-dog sniffing in her school bag.

"Hey get away!" she cried and ripped her bag away from the dog instinctively.

To her great 'luck' and mortification the dog had gotten a grip of her pencil case, and everybody knows that if you start chasing a dog with something in its mouth it will start running. That was what Chiharu did. As soon as she reached for her pencil case the dog took off. She couldn't believe how unlucky she could be. It was like she was being punished because she'd had a really good day. _The higher you climb the harder you fall_, she thought to herself and swung her bag up on her shoulder, deciding to run after the small dog.

The rain beneath her feet splashed as she ran as fast as she could. It hit her eyes making it hard for her to see fully and it didn't make it easier that she was starting to freeze. She hit the main road getting more and more agitated and frustrated with the situation. She felt like sitting down like a child and cry, but managed to man herself up, following the dog into small road behind some apartment buildings. Stopping and catching her breath she followed the dog with her eyes as it disappeared into a backyard of an apartment section. Ruefully she tried to dry away the water from her nose but only in vain. Trudging to the opening of the backyard she heard a lot of barking. But in her own pity she just walked directly into the small yard, and found herself standing flabbergasted looking at Kakashi, feeding an immense amount of stray dogs at the porch. Kakashi looked up at her, surprise (or more startled) for once showing in his eyes. Chiharu stood there, looking dumb and confused in the silent rain.

"Looks like we have another stray dog." Kakashi said, not taking his eyes away from her while still looking startled.

Then and there embarrassment flushed over Chiharu like a giant wave, blood streaming to her face. No, it was beyond embarrassing to stand there in the rain like some sniveling, pathetic, miserable teenage girl, who hated her life.

"I-I… umm." She stuttered. She couldn't believe she had walked straight into the backyard of Kakashi's apartment building. She yelped when a larger dog went up to her and broke the silence by barking loudly once. Considering the situation, she came to think of the fact that she didn't know that Kakashi fed stray dogs.

"Yo-your dog took my pencil case." She said and tried to dry her nose again with her arm.

Despite her effort to maintain a cool face she knew that she'd already given away the fact the she was miserable at the moment, but she didn't want Kakashi to pity her.

"Pakun, did you take Chiharu's pencil case?" Kakashi sat down and scratched the small mops behind its ear taking the pencil case of its mouth at the same time. "There you go." He breathed and stood up.

"Well, you sure look like a wretch… Why are you still standing out there in the rain?" Kakashi asked, looking as if he was actually worried.

"Oh… I don't know." She muttered a bit to herself, snapping out of her misery to discover that she was freezing holding her arms around herself, shaking ever so slightly. Honestly she didn't know why she was just standing there, looking stupid. She always knew what to say and do but at it was like when she was with Kakashi she always felt stupid somehow. She walked through the mud and onto the porch, not really knowing what to say to Kakashi.

"Well how am I going to explain this?" She said reluctantly with a sigh.

"First of all. How did Pakun get your pencil case? And this late?" Kakashi moved in front of her.

"Honestly, with a chance of sounding rude, it's not really your problem." She said, looking at the dogs avoiding his intense seeking of eye contact.

"So you're just going to stand out here, freezing, soaking wet from head to toe, until the rain stops and then go home?" He asked crossing his arms over his chest forcing her to look at him just by the tone of his voice.

Dumb-founded she looked down at her drenched body before she smacked her arms around her chest in more embarrassment as she saw that her bra was visible underneath her wet shirt. _SHIT you moron Chiharu! _She thought to herself meeting Kakashi eyes to hoping not to see some kind of perverted side of him. She met his intense eyes, staring at her worried as if he was trying to pick her mind. Feeling the heat in her cheek she looked away, cursing that she hadn't noticed before.

"Can this be more embarrassing?" she cursed turning her back to him so he couldn't see her bra… Even though it probably was too late.

"Listen—" Kakashi put a hand on her shoulder and turned her around—"Why don't you come inside? I'll make you a cup of tea and you can borrow some dry clothes. I get the feeling that you don't want to go home."

Rolling her eyes in her own irritation she sighed once again, relenting to his offer. She'd never thought of coming to Kakashi when she got kicked out of her home. And he was right; she didn't want to go home or rather; she couldn't. She dared to look up at him seeing that he'd changed back to his normal lazy attitude. She found it strangely pleasant that he was being so relaxed.

"T-that sounds good." She gave in to his offer, feeling that she had to swallow her pride to do so.

"Come on Chiharu… Don't look at me that way." Kakashi said padding her shoulder and turning around to open the door for her.

"Look at you in what way?" she asked, suddenly confused. She hadn't been looking at him in any particular way. This seemed to make him stop and think for the briefest of moments which amused Chiharu.

"Actually I already forgot." He said and smiled under his mask. Chiharu laughed mockingly at him and smiled.

"I made you think there for a moment! You're such a liar—" she changed her voice and sounded stupid—"You just won't admit that you like my eyes." She teased pointing to her eyes and widening them. Kakashi rolled his eyes and held a hand out mentioning her to go through the door.

"Oooh you got me." He said sarcastically as she walked through the door with a victorious grin plastered across her face. Unbelievable how quickly she felt better.

"Well, it's okay. Every boy I know can't resist my eyes." She said swaying flirtatiously with her hips, all in fun.

"Actually I was just thinking that your green eye color is very dull. Green is such a boring color." Kakashi said with a chin to his finger as he walked with her through the hallway and up the stairs.

Chiharu's heart sunk the slightest for some reason. That wasn't very nice of him to say, and she'd probably hoped, somewhere deep down in her mind, that he had been somehow admiring her eyes.

**Kakashi's POV**

Actually Kakashi was a bit bewildered. He hadn't really thought about it when he'd said that she shouldn't look at him that way. He'd said it instinctively, and had to think about it afterwards. But she was standing there in front of him, cold and looking miserable, her wet and tangled hair clinging to her chins and down around her shoulders. Her shirt was like glued to her body and… Well he was a guy for crying out loud of course he'd noticed her visible bra and the beautiful round shape of her breast. She looked kind of cunning to him when she stood there looking up at him with her green eyes, at the most vulnerable he'd ever seen her, and at the same time there was something about her that made her seem so mature and grown-up. Actually he thought her eyes had changed color. He remembered that he'd actually noted to himself that she had a normal green color when he'd met her, but now it was like they were more a bright forest green color. But he was glad to hear that her mood was getting better when she walked up the stairs over-doing her flirtatious walk with that shirt clinging to her body. Shaking his head at her, he thought her to be very unique for girl her age.

"Well I was only joking." She said, stopping in front of his door taking a hand to her shoulder while shrugging, her lips seeming to be the slightest purple.

"Jeez you're freezing." Kakashi said and opened the door to walk in.

"Good observation." She replied and stood in his entre looking a bit small and whimpering, while he went to his bedroom in a hurry to get some clothes for her.

Quickly he found a T-shirt which probably was too big for her, and some sweatpants, also too big. He rushed out of his bedroom, seeing the girl looking just as whimpering as he had left her and started to feel sorry for her.

"Kakashi, I don't feel so well." She stuttered, looking a bit worn out.

"Here I got this for you. You can go change in the bathroom." He said trying to sound patient even though he wanted her in the dry clothes as fast as possible. He gave her a gentle push in the right direction and she limbed off, disappearing into the bathroom.

**Chiharu's POV.**

She was starting to feel a bit dizzy. Feeling the warmth from the tiles of his bathroom floor made her realize even more how much she was freezing and it was a pain to drag off the wet clothes. She stood a bit and looked herself in the mirror, taking her time to comprehend what had happened and how she was ended up by Kakashi. Of course there was the big question in her mind; should she take off her wet bra or keep it on? It was a thick fabric and wasn't as wet as her shirt was. With a sigh she sat down on the toilet, trying not to think too much, but only trying to calm her sudden nerves. She'd probably gotten them because of a mixture of being dizzy and the fact that she was at Kakashi's place, this time without having a homework deal with him. What a weird coincidence. Deciding to keep her bra on she swooped into Kakashi's clothes and took a short look at herself in the over-sized clothes. God she looked so pathetic. She hung up her clothes in the shower cabinet after trying to fix her hair a bit (lucky for her that she didn't wear make-up often) and then opened the bathroom door and walked into Kakashi's living room. She could hear Kakashi rummage around in the kitchen:

"You can just get comfy on the couch while I make some tea." He shouted to her surprise. She thought she was being very quiet when walking out of the bathroom.

Kakashi had left a thick blanket for her to wrap up in and she sat satisfied down and wrapped herself in it, throwing her feet up into the couch as well. It felt good to sit down; it took some of the dizziness away. The TV was on playing the news. Chiharu didn't really follow it but found it pleasant to just stare at the screen with the voice of the newscaster as a humming background noise. Kakashi was being so nice to her, and she couldn't quite figure out if he did because it was his job or because he actually cared. She had been acting like a troubled teenager at times which she always got embarrassed about when she thought about it.

"Here you go." He said, coursing a little yelp out of her as she hadn't seen him come.

"Thanks." She said and took the warm cup of camomile tea. Kakashi chuckled at went to sit at the end of the couch where her feet weren't.

"I've never seen you so out of it before. You make me a bit worried you know." He said looking at her with those intense eyes that he did sometimes.

"Well, Emi threw me out because her boyfriend was visiting and they were drunk." She said shortly with a sigh. As much as she wanted Kakashi to stay out of her problems, she couldn't not tell him when he was being so nice and concerned. Kakashi's eyes widened a bit:

"Your aunt threw you out…" he said simply.

"Yup, and then I sat on bench and cried until that dog came and began to search my bag and took my pencil case. Then I followed it and ended up here." She shrugged, trying to stay collected. Crying in front of Kakashi would take her pride to the bottom of the pit.

"No one should throw out a child, even if it's not your own." Kakashi said suddenly looking determined.

"Well, tell that to Emi." She said tugging herself more into the blanket.

"I was just about to." Kakashi rushed up from the bed, heading for his cell phone.

"Wait! Wait! What are you doing?" Chiharu suddenly started to panic a bit and rushed after him throwing off her covers in the process.

"Calling her obviously." He said and started to flip the papers of a map he had on his desk.

"No! Don't call her! It won't help!" She yelled as Kakashi started to dial some numbers into his phone.

"Kakashi!" she continued and went over to him putting a hand on his to stop him.

"It'll be of no use! Don't you think others have tried this before?" she asked, her eyes pleading him to stop.

He looked at her a bit, looking as if he should listen to her or just do his 'duty'.

"Please don't." she breathed, keeping more eye contact with him than she had ever done before.

But she knew that Emi had her way around the teachers and was good at excuses. She had a hard time with trying not to look away from Kakashi's different colored eyes. They were so deep that she could fall right into their depths and disappear, looking like a dumb idiot.

"Okay, I won't." he said simply not removing his eyes from her.

A brief moment of silence was followed as they tried to read eachother. Chiharu realized that she was still holding her hand over his and right after realized the situation. Immediately she released his hand and took a step away finally releasing his gaze. She was sure that she could've felt his breath through his mask. A chill ran down her spine as she looked embarrassed at the floor.

"Come on, you're still freezing." Kakashi said and seemed to relax his posture a bit more, subtly rolling his eyes.

"Yeah." She muttered and went back to the couch and wrapped herself into the blanket once again.

Luckily for her it seemed that Kakashi thought she was sad rather than embarrassed for going blank when looking at his eyes. Right now she felt despairing. Leaning her head on the armrest of the couch she couldn't think properly and couldn't figure out what to do. She didn't want to leave Kakashi's place for the moment but knew that she had to eventually.

"I'm starting to realize your destructive behavior at school." Kakashi said, looking at the TV screen. She looked at him without moving her head:

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean, that you're obviously not feeling well at home. You're often left alone, you don't have anyone who can help you and you get kicked out whenever it fits." He looked at her from the corner of his eyes as she sighed.

"I don't know. Probably." She said evasively feeling a bit uneasy that he was so observant.

"You know that you can always come to me if you're in trouble." He said, now turning to her while looking at her in that serious way. She lifted her head up to look at him as well, feeling surprised. He'd never told her that before.

"… Thank you. But why? I've been such a brat. This is probably about the only place you get some real privacy in this city" Her voice was carefully neutral.

It annoyed the hell out of her that she had such a hard time with looking him in the eyes. The whole situation was very private as it was only her and him sitting in the couch with nothing to do. She was alone with a grown man, a rather attractive one at that, who liked pornographic books. That should have been enough to make just about any girl nervous or very anxious in a way that she did not want to be at that moment. Except for his smooth way around girls (like his date at the café), she'd never really noticed anything that could connect him with the books he read. That was probably why she wasn't nervous in the way she was supposed to be.

"Well, I wasn't very nice in the start either. This is my private place, but I don't mind sharing it for the moment being. You need it. But there's always a different side to everyone." He smiled with his eyes.

"I guess you're right—" she smiled for herself and added playfully—"and just for your information I'm beginning to figure you out too." She said and stuck out her tongue at him.

"No one can figure me out." He said leaning too confident into the couch.

"Sure… Whatever happened to that lady in the café you were dating?" Chiharu asked, as a question from her previous thought process.

"Oh… Umm…" Kakashi seemed to think a bit too much about that one, as if he couldn't remember her. "Right… Do you really want to know that?" he asked now with a teasing curve to his eyes. Chiharu cocked and eyebrow knowing what he was implying.

"So, is she your girlfriend now?" she asked, still sounding carefully neutral. Somewhere deep down she wished for a no, for some reason finding him more interesting as a single guy. Kakashi laughed an outright laugh as if she was joking.

"Definitely not! I can't remember when I had a girlfriend. I think that was back in high school." He looked at the TV screen as if he was recalling some memories that were precious to him.

She couldn't quite believe what she was hearing though. This intelligent handsome man hadn't had a girlfriend since his high school years? How on earth was that possible? This only confirmed her suspicion even more. She couldn't help but think that his whole persona was like that because he was trying to prevent forming close relationships with any woman; who would approach a guy who reads books like that in public? What more was that he not only controlled his emotions, but also how people perceived him. The mask created an aura of mystery and privacy. The scandalous books read in public created an image of a perverted buffoon. Yet she wasn't repulsed, yet she couldn't help but feel that there was so much more to him. She decided to drop it.

"Really? Oh well." She said and shrugged on her shoulder, pretending not to care even though her curiosity was about to get the best of her.

They sat in silence for a while watching the TV. Mostly Chiharu was in her own world, pretending to watch the news. But she couldn't help but feeling self aware about her cold body, and Kakashi sitting right by her feet, looking relaxed and… well, handsome, the shifting light of the television hitting his face with different changing lights. She could feel how she got tired and her eyelids were like heavy blankets beginning to press down on her. She felt so tired, tired in mind, tired of Emi and comfortable… comfortable in Kakashi's presence.

**.**

That night Chiharu woke up to the sound of pulsing rain. The room was dark, except for the light of the moon that shone in through the window. She sat up bewildered temporality having forgotten were she was, her heart racing in confusion until she realized that she was at Kakashi's apartment. Taking in a deep breath to calm herself, she went to the bathroom feeling nauseous and locked the door. Apparently she'd been sleeping heavily, not having noticed that Kakashi had gone to bed as well. She shouldn't have fallen asleep; she hadn't intended to sleep over… And she didn't even know why she was freaking so much out about it. It wasn't like they were sharing bed, not even the same room. She took some water from the sink and rubbed her face, deciding to go back to the sofa, still feeling tired. The thing she was most worried about was what her friends would think of this, if they were going to find out that is. They were going to think that she was one of those fan girls.

She tip toed over the floor and tucked herself under the thick blanket, breathing in the scent of Kakashi, while starting to relax again. Hearing the rain outside she shivered and was glad that she was some place that felt safe and warm. The mere thought of being out in the rain chilled her body to the bones.

"You okay in here?" Chiharu yelped when she heard Kakashi's voice coming from the bedroom door.

Instinctively she tugged more into the covers, feeling embarrassed that he'd heard her tip toeing around.

"Y-yeah." She stuttered still surprised by his voice.

"I just didn't expect to sleep over." She said looking over the back of the sofa to see his figure in the dark.

Curiosity getting the best of her, her stomach turned excited when she realized that he might not have his mask on. Unfortunately she couldn't see it from where she was sitting.

"Well, you looked like you could need the rest." He said lifting his arm to scratch his back tired. "Anyway I was just on my way to the bathroom." He added and walked into the living room, darkness still lingering over his tall figure.

"Sure." She muttered accepting that he was being so casual about her sleeping over.

She followed his figure with her eyes, going around the sofa and stopping by the bathroom door to open it. Holding her breath as he opened the door and turned on the lights, she hoped that she would catch a glimpse of his face. But she could only see his back, still dark in contrast to the sharp light, and could only make out the outlines of his back muscles before he closed the door.

**.**

… Chiharu opened her eyes next morning, once again realizing that she was at Kakashi's place. She squeezed her eyes together and blocked the sun with her hands as yesterday events sank in place in her mind. She'd fallen asleep again, and hadn't even noticed when Kakashi had left the bathroom. With all her senses coming back, she could hear that the TV was on and she yelped when she realized Kakashi was sitting at the end of the couch. In her morning dizziness she tugged her feet to herself and in surprise took her hand out for support, but ended up falling down, head first, from the couch.

Kakashi laughed at her, quite loudly actually as he leaned forward to look at her better.

"Are you okay?" he said, obviously trying to suppress a chuckle.

"Jeez, you scared me." She said and sat up rubbing her head thinking that she might get swollen now.

"Sorry." He said and scratched his hair in an insecure way.

"You better be." She said and crawled into the sofa again, a bit embarrassed about the whole situation; on top of that probably looking morning-ugly, you know with swollen eyes and messy hair.

She tucked the blanket close, feeling a bit sullen about bad luck.

"So do you have any plans about your day"? Kakashi asked turning to her with a more serious face.

"Umm." She replied, taking a moment to think everything through. She hated when he looked at her that way.

"I haven't really thought everything through yet. I just woke up." She said and rubbed her forehead frustrated.

"Well, no rushing. You know you're always welcome here." He said still looking a bit worried.

"There has to be a limit your hospitability." She stated, now looking at him again to check of she was right.

"I don't think it's healthy for anyone to be treated like you do, quite frankly I'm wondering how you turned out as you are, when you're being treated that way."

"What do you mean? How am I?" she cocked and eyebrow, starting to feel a bit uncomfortable about the direction of their conversation. Kakashi sighed as if there was something he didn't want to talk about either, but now had to.

"I mean that you're a beautiful and intelligent girl who are good in school and do her homework, sometimes in my classes too. Sure you've had some issues in school but obviously you can overcome them with the right guidance. I'm just saying that you could've done a lot worse than this." He said and looked at her as if he was trying to read her mind.

Chiharu's brain had kind of stopped by the word beautiful. Just the thought of Kakashi thinking that she was beautiful made her feel something that she probably shouldn't be feeling. She was bad at taking compliments and this sure was one, coming from a good looking man who apparently had his way around girls.

"So you think, you've figured me out?" she said, crossing her arms, shoving off any kind of hint that would give her actual state of mind away. Kakashi shrugged, looking a bit surprised as if he hadn't foretold that reaction.

"Well, I can tell you that I'm in the process of figuring you out too." She blabbed, only being set on saving herself from one more embarrassing situation. Kakashi laughed a short, outright laugh as if she was kidding.

"So you're trying to figure me out? Well good luck with that." He said, looking back at the television.

Chiharu moved her blonde hair to her right shoulder and sat up more straight.

"Yeah! I am… You think that your whole nonchalant, calm and collected attitude, makes you hard to read when it actually makes you easy to read." She said stubbornly, now getting Kakashi's full attention.

He looked at her, obviously as if he wasn't quite sure if she was right, or as if he suddenly got a bit uncomfortable.

"Is that so? And what can you tell about me then?" he asked, now putting his feet up on the sofa.

"Obviously, you try to keep people at bay with your nonchalant behavior. That way people will like you, but still not come too close. I have a theory that, that is why you read those books in front of people too, and you just confirmed my theory even more when you told me that you haven't had a serious relationship since high school, where you by the way graduated two years ahead of time." She said as a matter of fact.

Kakashi looked at her, eyes wider and with an even more surprised look on his face. He probably hadn't seen that coming.

"Well, maybe you're on to something. Who knows?" he said with a shrug—"Frankly I don't know why you even bother. Most people give up." He said now leaning back smugly.

"Most people, you mean the ladies who… aren't your girlfriends." She mentioned lifting a finger.

A confused sound escaped Kakashi mouth as if he was about to correct but stopped himself.

"I would imagine that they are the ones who get closest to you." Chiharu said, knowing that he knew that she was talking about him being… intimate with those ladies. People, like his students, didn't think much about his behavior it just was as it was.

"So that makes you?" Kakashi answered raising an eyebrow, seeming to be genuinely touched somehow by her words, either in a good or a bad way.

"Me?—"she hadn't really thought that one through.—" Just a normal girl trying to figure out the people who I spend I lot of time with. Teacher or friend." She said, satisfied with the outcome of her 'speech'.

Kakashi seemed to smile the slightest under his mask.

"What do you know? Here I'm getting lectured by my own student." He said looking away thoughtfully.

"What can I say? You'll probably be lectured a lot if we spend so much time together as we do at the moment." She said, suddenly realizing that it somehow sounded wrong.

They looked at each other, both too stubborn to be the first to look away, sharing a moment in silence as they both thought the situation through. There was no denying that they spend time together, even though it was school related.

"Well." Kakashi broke their eye contact and got up from the couch.

Chiharu frowned the slightest, looking at her knees, and then up at Kakashi again who took two steps to her side of the couch and crouched down in front of her looking her directly in the face. Automatically she moved a bit away, pressing up against the backrest of the couch, while looking at him startled. She looked at his deep mysterious eyes, taken completely off guard and felt herself seep into the couch like a timid mouse. Had she been sending the wrong signals?  
><strong><br>**"Well then, normal girl, you better spend a lot of time with me if you want to figure me out." He said, finally leaning back a bit. She released a breath she'd been holding, cursing herself for being so nervous suddenly when he was only teasing her.

"You wish." She said with a smile and straightened up. He cocked an eyebrow:

"You wish I wished." He said, now falling back into his usual relaxed façade.

There was nothing to say to that comment except for just smiling and shrugging. Maybe she wished that he wanted to spend time with her. She didn't really know, only that she liked his presence… and his eyes, and his hair, the way he was; hard to read… _Chiharu! Stop it. You're being a fan girl right now!_She mentally yelled at herself, mad and afraid that she was starting to be like those maniac fan girls.

"Do you want breakfast?" Kakashi asked, now from his desk by the corner where he was looking at something.

"Umm—" Chiharu hadn't noticed him moving, and automatically rummaged for her iPhone somewhere on the floor. She looked at the display which said; **13 missed calls, 1 message**, all from Emi. She thanked herself for putting it on mute.

"No thanks, I think I'll go and get the Emi apology over with." She said, and sighed heavily afterwards.

"I was actually thinking of going to the bakery and have some, are you sure?" Kakashi asked, now turning around to her again.

On one side, Chiharu wanted to stay with Kakashi and have breakfast with him. Actually she wanted to just stay for as long as she could.

But on the other side, she didn't want to be seen at the bakery, sitting with Kakashi and having breakfast as if she had slept over (which she had obviously, but no one had to know that). That part of mind thought it was dangerous to get too close to him, a teacher, and one with crazy fangirls. She was afraid that he would think she was a fan girl, just like the girls at school. Therefore, if she wanted to get to know him better, she had to pretend that she wasn't really interested in him, didn't think he was handsome, and all that. She had to stand out from the crowd somehow, and to stand out she would have to say no to breakfast, cause a fan girl would definitely have said yes.

"Naah, I'm fine. I want to sort this out as soon as I can." She said and waved her hand at him evasively.

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I insist that you go with me." He said, now moving the backrest of the couch, trying to give her a serious glare.

So, what should she do now when he insisted? She hadn't taken that one into her 'calculation'. A fan girl would've said yes… A smart fan girl would've said no at first, and then said yes! She rubbed her forehead, deciding that it was about time she stopped thinking so much about how he perceived her. She should just be herself.

"I'm really grateful for your help Kakashi." She said sending him a genuinely serious glare back. He seemed to take the hint and looked at her silently as she moved out of the couch. It was like she had just smacked a puppy, the way he looked at her. But how could he sad about her saying no? She looked at him from the corner of her eyes as she went for the bathroom. Was he really enjoying her presence as much as she enjoyed his? She shook the thought out of her head and closed the door to the bathroom, and began to take on her now dry clothes.

"Thanks for everything." She said as she handed him the burrowed clothes. He took it, looking at her thoughtfully. She gave him a smile and nudged him playfully.

"Why are you looking so serious? Where's your relaxed façade?" she asked and went to take on her shoes.

"Do I look serious?" he asked, suddenly looking surprised as if he hadn't really noticed himself.

"Yeah, you did, now you just look surprised." She said and grabbed her bag, receiving some muttering from him.

"Well… Again, thank you for everything." she got up, looking at her shoes not really knowing how to say goodbye.

"And I say thank you for bringing some drama once in a while." He said and smiled.

" Hey! I don't… wait, okay maybe yesterday was a bit dramatic…" she muttered the last, getting a perspective over things.

"Anyway, I'll probably see you soon." she said, waving like she usually did, and opened the door to leave.

"Probably yes. And remember that you are welcome here." He said as she went into the hallway.

"I will. Thank you." She said, starting to sprint down the stairs.

Hugging when meeting was still not something they did apparently. She had never been friends with one of teachers before.

**.  
><strong>

"Emi! I don't even want to listen to you! This is not the first time you know, and you always apologies afterwards, like that's going to make anything better!" Chiharu yelled at her aunt.

As soon as she had gotten home, Emi had been waiting in the kitchen 'worried' and embarrassed about the whole thing as she always was.

"We just really needed that privacy, and I was drunk at the same time, I'm so sorry. I'm just glad that you're alright, I was being so worried." She said trying to pull Chiharu into a hug, which she had some trouble with.

"I said already, that I don't want to listen to your explanations! Jeez!" Chiharu said, trying to avoid Emi physical contact.

"Well them at least tell me where you were all night, you didn't sleep outside did you?" she asked, hurrying after Chiharu who was on her way to her room.

"No I slept at… at a friend's house." Chiharu said. Hell if Emi was going to know anything about her sleeping at her teacher's apartment.

"Well that was good." Emi said, seeming to be more relaxed now. Chiharu sighed and closed her eyes, fighting a headache.

"I'm going to my room for some time, just leave me alone." Chiharu said, and went in the door. It was almost standard procedure.

"Okay, I'll give you some space." Emi said, as Chiharu smacked the door in her face. Emi never had a way of fixing the problem, it was just there, and then she could apologies for it and everything would be good.

She sat down with her laptop, to get her mind off everything. But it was hard though to get her mind off Kakashi. She couldn't remember the last time anyone had been so good to her, and in a none-creepy way. She felt somehow satisfied with the feeling that there was something unexplainable happening between her and Kakashi. It wasn't that she was getting a crush, but more that there was something about him that fascinated her, interested her as if they had some kind of game about who make the other one look like an idiot, going on…

* * *

><p><strong>That's it for now!<strong>  
><strong>If you don't quite get the parkour pibe thing then you should watch this video ( or watch it anyway cause it's really amazing!)**  
><strong>with some boys from my hometown who really inspirred me with their athletic abilities! WATCH IT!3<strong>

.com/watch?v=qgwf3xc6Z8s **-**


	5. Chapter 5 Surprises upon surprises

Another chapter is up! Enjoy :)

* * *

><p>Chiharu stood in front of the mirror at the girl's toilet in school, admiring herself in the small summer dress she was wearing. She never whore dresses, and for once she felt comfortable in one. Ino was at the toilet, so Chiharu had a little time to have ego-moment. The weather changed from day to day, but for once the weather was warm and summer-like, and she felt… well, attractive in the dress. It had only been a week since she'd been kicked out by Emi and ever since then things between her and Kakashi in school had somewhat changed. She started to fix her hair up in a ponytail as her thoughts wandered on; it was like they had some kind internal bickering going on, all the time. It had actually come to a point where people would sigh loudly if they began to talk to each other. The weird thing was that outside of school there was no bickering. She'd only visited him once this week, to do homework, but had also met him a couple of times. Things were very relaxed and casual outside of school. Everyone was burning up in classes today. The sun was shining so fiercely in through the windows that the schools air conditioning couldn't follow up. Their last class this day was math with Kakashi.<p>

"Who're you flirting with?" Ino asked, cocking an eyebrow as she opened the door to the toilet.

Chiharu stopped her girlish act in front of the mirror, looking dumb-founded.

"No one?" she answered obliviously and shrugged. Ino smiled and went to the sink to wash her hands.

"I know that behavior in front of the mirror! You're into someone. Who is it?!" Ino said swaying her long blonde hair.

"What? I'm not into anyone… I just feel pretty today."She enthusted, nodding in agreement with herself

"Besides, Emi is forcing me to go to this fundraiser with her in Tokyo this weekend. She's trying make up for throwing me out this weekend. So I have to decide what to wear—" Chiharu was cut off by Ino's loud gosh.

"Emi threw you _out_?!" she gasped wide-eyed.

Chiharu closed her mouth and thought about the words that had just come out of her mouth. She hadn't told anyone that she'd been thrown out, cause she didn't want to lie about where she'd been sleeping over.

"Um, yeah." She sighed, giving up on the secrecy that was starting to build up.

"So she threw you, out, out?" Ino raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"No, only for the night." Chiharu replied, hoping for the love of god she wouldn't be asked a certain question. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to speak to Ino about this.

"Why didn't you call me immediately? You could've slept over at my place." She asked crossing her arms and looking the slightest disappointed.

"I slept over by someone who lived a bit closer than you." Chiharu answered starting to get a little irritated and claustrophobic, hoping that Ino would let it go.

"Who? Is it someone I don't know? You can tell me, I won't get mad you choose someone else over me." She grinned at Chiharu with an undertone of seriousness.

"Well, umm…" Chiharu rubbed her forehead frustrated.

She was so afraid of Ino's reaction and assumptions, that she could barely form the words.

"Don't tell me you slept in the _street_?" Ino unfolded her arms and put them stubbornly on her hips.

Chiharu really wished she would let it go.

"No I didn't—" Chiharu said, her eyes flickering away from Ino's—" I… I slept over at Kakashi sensei's place, okay?" Chiharu let her hands hang frustrated down by her sides as she looked at Ino to await her reaction.

Her mouth dropped quickly before she smirked and crossed her arms.

"Oh my god, you have a crush on Kakashi-sensei!" and there it were, the assumptions –" Chiharu I would never have thought that about you, sleeping with a teacher. Oh my god you're so—" Chiharu cut Ino off before the talkative blonde spun out of control.

"Wow! Wait! I never said anything about that. Listen closely Ino—" Chiharu looked at her friend in all her seriousness—" I do not have a crush on Kakashi and I have not slept with him… Jeez! He simply helped me on a bad day. Is that so weird?" Ino looked a bit embarrassed as she had listened to her, but just like a girl in her period , her apparent embarrassed emotion at the moment changed faster than lightning, and she smirked fishy again.

"Yes, that _is_ weird Chiharu… Sleeping over by the teacher." Ino spun on her heels and began to walk out the girls room.

"I can't change your mind can I?—" Chiharu asked with a sigh—"Just don't go spread any rumors! I don't want that pack of fan girls on my back."

"Believe me, you already have them on your back." Ino said, waving a hand nonchalantly in the air—"I spoke to one of them a while ago, her name is Mura; she thinks we're friends. She was totally bitching about you taking advantage of being one of—" Ino opened the door and stepped into the busy hallway while blabbing on. "one of Kakashi-sensei's contact students. Of course I told her that she should mind her own business." She popped a smile backwards to Chiharu who was looking dumb-founded back at Ino.

"So you knew they've hated me for while? And you didn't tell me?" Chiharu said trying to catch up to Ino.

"Yeah, cause I didn't think they were serious. But now I understand why…" she flicked her long platinum blonde hair behind her shoulder and spotted Sakura.

"We'll ask Sakura what she thinks." She chirped. "No, Ino… No!" Chiharu didn't want everyone to know, unfortunately Ino was already spreading the rumor.

"Sakura!" Ino waved at the pink haired girl who was currently organizing her locker.

She turned around a bit dumb-founded by the tone of Ino's voice and turned around with raised eyebrows.

"I just wanted your opinion on something." She chirped as Chiharu was catching up.

She put a hand to her forehead and shook her head at what was about to come.

"Did you know that Chiharu slept over at Kakashi's place?!" She bursted out.

Sakura blinked a couple of times looking from Ino to Chiharu all the while Chiharu fought a not anticipated blush. Sakura cleared her throat confused;

"Um, okay? No I didn't know that."

Ino seemed startled by Sakura's reaction and cheered her on.

"Isn't that totally weird?" She pressed on.

"I guess it depends on the situation?" Sakura said, and looked to Chiharu with a confused expression.

"First off; thank you Ino for talking so loud in the hallway!" Chiharu shot Ino a glare and continued.

"Second, even though I didn't want to drag you into this - I was kicked out from home and since Kakashi lives nearby where I live he was so kind as to offer me some shelter for the night." She said.

Sakura raised an eyebrow and looked at Ino, turning to her locker once again.

"Seriously Ino. Is that what got you so worked up? There's nothing unusual about that. Kakashi-sensei will always try to help us the best he can if one us is in trouble." She said while putting some books into her locker.

Ino looked disappointed and crossed her arms with a sigh.

"Well, to me it seems a little weird. No offense Chiharu." She said.

"It was weird for me too. But I was surprised he let me in, you know, considering I've been such a brat towards him." Chiharu said, feeling slightly relieved by the outcome of telling what had happened.

"Girls, it's not weird. It's normal. I think Naruto have slept over at Kakashi's place too!" Sakura said and closed her locker.

The three girls started walking down the hallway while discussing the event.

"But Naruto's a boy. It's different with a girl." Ino protested.

"No it's not! He doesn't treat girls differently from boys! Besides, Kakashi would never hit it off with one of his students, and I definitely don't think Chiharu is interested in a man that is so much older than herself. I mean seriously, who would be interested in Kakashi-sensei? He's so uninteresting." Sakura said and snorted.

Chiharu didn't agree at all. The fact that he was older than her, made him much more desirable in her eyes. He was definitely an interesting character and she confirmed with herself that his private persona kept his students at bay, even though he had a lot of respect.

"Um, have you seen the fan girls? Some girls think his interesting, so why shouldn't Chiharu? I mean it's not like you seem to be very interest in the guys from class." Ino said.

"I'm not a fan girl Ino, but I do appreciate that he helps me." Chiharu said, starting to find Ino irritating.

She didn't want any rumors to spread, and she certainly didn't want to boost Kakashi's ego if he heard the rumor and believed it.

"Drop it already, can't you find something true to gossip about?" Sakura snapped at Ino, who pouted at her two friends.

"Alright alright!" She said and waved a hand evasively in the air.

"I take it that you remembered your book today Ino?"

The three girls stopped dumb-founded, almost walking into Kakashi when he had stopped in front of them. They had all been so busy with talking that they hadn't noticed what was going on around them. Sakura smiled sheepishly, Ino just stared dumbly at him and Chiharu didn't know what to with herself, as her stomach turned by the thought of him having heard their conversation.

"Hi Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura chirped, breaking the awkward silence Ino created by not answering his question.

Chiharu elbowed Ino hard in the ribs which seemed to snatch her out of the rude staring she was doing.

"Umm, yeah you course!" She said, her eyes flickering at him as if she'd been thinking too much.

"Good. I'll see you in class." He smiled with his eyes, and met Chiharu's eyes too.

She fought a blush, feeling overly self-aware about her small summer dress.  
>He strode past them smoothly and left the girls in silence of the many people roaming the hallway.<p>

"Why're you being so awkward?!" Chiharu snapped at Ino who was still looking for Kakashi.

"Sorry! I was just afraid he'd heard our conversation!" She hissed.

They started down the hallway again small talking, when Hinata joined them together with her cousin Neji. Both Hinata and Neji had stunning eyes, and Chiharu had grown intrigued over the weeks by Neji's handsome and serious look. She had been paired up with him during science class and he was surprisingly intelligent. They worked well together, and she wasn't quite sure if her grades had been so great in science class if it wasn't for him. But he was a hard shell to get through. He barely told anything about himself and wasn't a small talker. He was calm and balanced and wasn't the kind of guy to take any bullshit. He had a decent sense of humor and was social with a few selected students who seemed to know him well. That included Tenten, Lee and Naruto, even though the relationship with Naruto was like ice and fire.

"Are you ready for presentation on Monday?" Neji asked Chiharu.

She looked at him, appreciating his effort at trying to talk with her.

"Almost ready, what about you? Have you memorized everything?" She asked him gazing up at his violet eyes. He looked away with a stern look;

"Yes I have." He answered simply as they approached the class room. Sakura stopped everyone, turning around fiercely.

"Guys we really need to go out soon. Ino gossips too much!" She said and sighed frustrated.

Chiharu cold only guess that Ino had already started talking about Chiharu and Neji.

With that they went to class. Kakashi started out by delivering their assignments back and Chiharu saw the disappointing D written in red on her paper. She smacked herself in the forehead with the heel of her hand and looked to Kakashi who was still handing out assignments. He sensed her gaze and looked at her seriously before continuing. She stared back at the D, wanting to rip the paper apart and storm out of the classroom. She seriously felt like she'd done good on this one, by her own, but apparently she was falling backwards when Kakashi didn't help her. Se peeped over at Naruto's paper with a B on it and felt even more despairing. She fought the disappointment and looked out the window, clenching her jaw in anger.

"If you want to see your assignment through with me I'll tell you what you did wrong while the others work."

She turned towards Kakashi who stood by Naruto. She could hardly look at Kakashi even though he was just doing his job. Her eyes flickered away disappointed even though she was trying to hide it.

"No it's fine." She managed to say, her voice thick with disappointment.

She sensed that Kakashi felt bad for her, but couldn't hide her feelings. It wasn't his fault that she sucked so badly at math. He nodded and walked back to his desk. Naruto was clearly sensing her bad mood and kept silent. She hated how Naruto was so easily influenced by her feelings. It made her feel bad, that he felt bad because of her.

"It's fine Naruto." She said, forcing a smile at him.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He laughed nervously.

She shrugged him off, took her book out to start doing assignments. The two hours went quietly by. Chiharu tried to stay focused, but couldn't but peep up at Kakashi who was sitting behind his desk while reading his 'Come come paradise'. Her bad mood was reflected right off of him, and it annoyed her an pacified her at the same time. The fact that she actually cared about what he thought and what he felt, irritated her and removed her focus.

Chiharu caught Kakashi's eyes before she rushed out of class. She didn't want him to feel her bad mood, so she decided to avoid him as much as she could. Walking down the hallway, Sakura caught up to her along with Naruto.

"What's wrong Chiharu?" Sakura asked.

Chiharu sighed and stopped by her locker, feeling that it was inevitable to avoid her observant friends.

"I'm just a bit upset that I got a bad grade." She said, shrugging to show that there was nothing to do about it.

They both looked genuinely sad about it, knowing that they couldn't change it either.

"Do you wanna come and practice parkour after school?" Sakura suggested with a smile.

The thought was appealing, but for some reason, Kakashi wasn't the one she wanted to see at the moment.

"No I think I'll skip." She answered and turned around to open her locker and stuff her books into it.

"What about we go get some ice cream then?" Sakura asked as Chiharu turned around once more.

"Guys, you don't have to worry about me. I'm fine! I just need to relax at home today." She said and started down the hallway followed by her two friends.

She'd noticed Naruto's interest in Sakura a long time ago. He always acted a bit differently when he was around her, and it was almost cute. Sakura on the other hand didn't show any particular interest in Naruto, more than as a friend. Kind of sad she thought. Maybe she should ask Sakura about a crush some day, when the opportunity showed itself. Well, she could always ask Ino if she wanted to know the easy way.

On the way out of the school yard she saw Kakashi talking to Mura, one of the fan girls. It struck her how easily and casually he talked to everyone and reminded herself that his behavior towards herself wasn't anything unusual as Sakura had said earlier.

Being home was quiet. She made her homework and watched a movie, and before she knew of it, Saturday came and the afternoon was upcoming. Emi was preparing a few papers for the fundraiser (who knows what it was about) while Chiharu had found a dress and put on a decent amount of make-up. She whore a long black dress witch covered the chest and showed her back. She'd straightened her blonde hair, which hang elegantly loose, and had tried as much as she could to preserve a natural make-up which wasn't overdone. When she looked herself in the mirror she was surprised at how much mature she looked. Her green eyes was much more green with the black dress. She'd been at a fundraiser before so the dress code she knew.

"Are you ready?" Emi called from downstairs.

Chiharu turned in the mirror one time before she headed downstairs.

"Yup, I'm ready." She called.

Emi was dressed elegantly too, though her dress was shorter and a dark blue. She looked professional and ready to do business, in contrast to Chiharu who just looked like she was there to look pretty. Mostly she just liked to come to fundraisers because of the food and the champagne, and didn't really care what role she played there with Emi.

It was a two hours drive to Tokyo and Chiharu almost fell asleep on the way. Emi was talking a lot about the purpose of the fundraiser, but Chiharu didn't really listen, but just nodded once in a while, already knowing the customs of being at a fine fundraiser.

The event was private but big. Chiharu quickly scanned the place seeing that it mostly was older people apart from a few one who was Emi's age. She'd never been at such a big fundraiser before, and was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of people and the fine hall. The hall was buzzing with people and a band playing at the opposite end of the room. She greeted the people she met with a smile and was polite enough to answer any questions she was asked. Emi's business associates meant a lot to her work, so therefore Chiharu had a slightly different facade up. People complimented her and a few men smiled flirtatiously from across the room. Even though she wanted to roll her eyes she remained polite and mostly silent.

She stood beside Emi, scanning the room for the food table while drinking a glass of champagne when a particular grey color hair popped out from amongst the crowd. Flabbergasted she stared at the hair almost hidden in between people, her heart rate picking up at the thought of Kakashi being here and seeing her like this. She took a big sip of her champagne, starting to feel light headed. It was beyond embarrassing to see Kakashi here, not to mention the fact that he'd felt her obvious disappointment the last time they'd met. Would he even recognize her?! Was it even him? She took another big sip, but chocked violently in pure shock when a few people moved and Kakashi was bared for her... Not wearing a mask. The woman Emi was talking to looked at Chiharu confused as she finished her cough, while Emi asked her if she was okay.

She couldn't believe how handsome he looked, well, much what she had imagined, but a bit more handsome. There he stood, all cheekbones and stylish. The bridge of his nose was straight, and his lips full, although his upper lip was thinner than his lower. His jaw was smooth and masculine and altogether Chiharu suddenly understood why he had his way around girls.

"Chiharu are you okay?"

She snapped back to reality, her heart racing in utter shock. She looked to Emi and drank the rest of her champagne while she got herself together.

"Sorry I drank a bit to fast I guess." She answered and recovered a smile to the lady in front of Emi.

The two women looked at Chiharu with a slightly confused expression, but moved on quickly. Chiharu switched position so that she was standing with her back towards Kakashi and tried hard to stay focused on the conversation.

"Well I should introduce you to the man who agreed to this fundraiser. I'm so very proud for this opportunity you know." The woman chirped and started looking around for whomever.

Chiharu looked behind her only to see Kakashi standing closer than before. A rush ran through her when he accidentally looked up and caught her eyes. He looked away casually, but his eyes darted to her immediately when he realized who she was. She tried hard not to blush, but didn't quite succeed. Seeing him without mask was almost like looking at him naked. Also, she didn't know how he felt about her seeing him without the mask on.

"I think it's this way." She heard the woman say.

Chiharu ignored her and smiled sheepishly at Kakashi, when he excused himself and made his way towards her. Chiharu's head felt completely empty and seeing him smirk at her seemed so off. She was so used to just reading his eyes that it gave him a whole other charm when his mouth smiled too. She felt his gaze like a touch as it roamed over her, her cheeks lightly warming at the look in his eyes when they reached hers.

"Oh there he is!" The woman beside her chirped, but quickly discovered that his eyes was set on Chiharu.

When he reached her, he looked a bit lost briefly but recovered quickly without removing his eyes from Chiharu. She, on the other hand, had no idea as to what to say. She was absolutely stunned by how handsome and charming he looked without mask and in a black suit. It was almost as if he'd stepped out of a fragrance commercial for men.

"What're _you_ doing here?" He asked in a surprised voice (well surprised for him).

"I could ask you the same!" Chiharu almost snorted in surprise.

"My company is hosting this fundraiser. But I didn't think they would be inviting teenagers." He replied and smirked.

Chiharu tried hard not to look at his lips and concentrated on answering him.

"_Your_ company? What _are_ you?" She answered startled ignoring the challenge in his words.

Emi laughed nervously beside her;

"Don't talk like that Chiharu. This is Hatake Kakashi the heir and owner of Hatake industries. You should bow." She said and introduced herself.

"I know who he is!" Chiharu snapped at Emi, irritated that she was correcting her, when she'd said things a lot worse to him. Kakashi chuckled;

"It's okay, we know each other." He said.

"Miss Toshiko, is this true?" The woman, whose name Chiharu still hadn't caught, suddenly looked admirably at her and shook hands with Kakashi.

Chiharu once again stopped herself from rolling her eyes. What to them seemed like joyful coincidence was to Chiharu an embarrassing and awkward situation.

She hoped for all there was, that Kakashi wouldn't treat Emi differently when he knew that she'd thrown Chiharu out.

"Chiharu where do you know mr. Hatake from?" Emi asked startled, and was almost blushing on Chiharu's behalf.

Subtly Chiharu shot her a glare. She knew what Emi was implying, that they knew each other from dating or something like that.

"He's my math teacher." Chiharu said, this time not able to hold a polite facade. Both women was silent for a moment as they looked at the evasive Chiharu and the confident Kakashi.

"Well well... That really took me by surprise. Of course I've heard a lot of things about you then. You've helped Chiharu quite a lot with her studies." Emi said.

Chiharu felt the tone of Emi's voice when she implied "studies" and wanted to dig herself a deep hole and burry herself in it. Of course Kakashi didn't catch that.

"I've heard a lot about you too." Kakashi said, his relaxed and casual facade starting to fall into its place again.

Chiharu grabbed a knew glass of champagne when a waiter walked by as Emi and the other woman started to converse with Kakashi. She looked at the people passing by as she swallowed the champagne to dull her nerves, and also trying to avoid Kakashi's casual teasing eye contact once in while.

Eventually the tension she felt got too much and she had to excuse herself and go to the ladies room. She grabbed a new glass of champagne on the way and started sipping. She didn't have to pee, but just looked herself in the mirror, feeling suddenly warm. She had to get herself together, just because she was dressed up it didn't mean that he found her any more attractive than before. Her only thought was how people now looked at her now. A young and pretty girl at a fundraiser that was way out of her age and league - knew "mr Hatake". Everybody would think that she'd (sorry for bad language) fucked her way into the higher circle of influential people or was there to catch his attention. Everyone here probably knew that he had his way around the girls! She looked at herself and nodded determined. All she would have to do was to seem uninterested and avoid too long conversations.

She quickly fixed her hair, starting feel the champagne influence her body before she went into the hall once again. She looked for Emi, hoping that she was finished talking to Kakashi. Finishing her third champagne she snapped two more glasses from passing waiter, but one of the glasses was snapped smoothly out of her hand when she turned around.

"Do you really think it's such a good idea to drink so much?" Kakashi asked her.  
>She felt surprised but his invasive move, and backed away slightly. The alcohol was really starting do it's work.<p>

"With you here - yes." She answered with a cocked eyebrow.

He looked concerned for a moment and slightly confused too, and didn't have a chance to answer before she strode past him. She sighed irritated when he followed her and stepped in front of her one more time, his tall figure demanding her to stop. His cologne hit her and dazed her for a second as she met his eyes and the teasing smirk he held.

"What?" She asked impatiently, trying not to be influenced by his handsome face.

"Have I done something to upset you? Is it because you got a D in your last-"  
>Chiharu cut him off, and failed to notice that she was being bossy towards him because of the alcohol.<p>

"No. It has nothing to with anything! It doesn't matter why. You would never understand it anyway." She snapped.

She didn't want to explain how people perceived him and about the fan girls at school, and how she would look in other people's eyes. It was such a shallow thing to feel, when he had been nothing but helpful towards her. Her bravery faded a bit when his face turned serious and the air turned sombre around him. His eyes was always the most intriguing when he looked like that while his mouth went into a straight relaxed line.

"Is it that strange to you to see me without mask?"

His expression changed again and he smiled teasingly, enjoying that he was taking her by surprise. She blushed slightly by the mentioning of seeing him without mask and let her guard down for a moment, slapping him playfully on the arm.

"No! Well, yeah. It is kind of strange. I had imagined you a little bit uglier." She teased, receiving a few stares from the surrounding crowd.

"That means you were positively surprised seeing how handsome I was." He teased, smiling confidently at her without removing his eyes.

She cocked an eyebrow and tried to look serious. Admitting that he was handsome felt like a big defeat for her.

"Handsome. That's an overstatement. Don't get cocky just because you're a rich guy." She said and folded her arms under her chest.

"You know I'm still the same." He said genuinely, his smile fading the slightest.

Three men approached Kakashi and greeted him before Chiharu could answer. Immediately she was out of the conversation, and Kakashi had to stay polite, even though he wanted to talk some more with Chiharu. What she didn't know was that Kakashi immediately had singled her out in the crowd, even before he realized it was her. He'd had a good eye out for her, when he saw the slender figure in the black dress with long blonde hair. He couldn't figure out what he felt about having made plans for how to get her home with him for the night. Here he thought he was going to take a beautiful girl with him tonight, when in fact it was Chiharu, one of his students. It had taken him by surprise that such an attractive young woman was the 17 years old Chiharu, and he felt ashamed immediately.

While Chiharu's didn't have a clue about that she rushed away from the conversation, eager to get away from Kakashi and the stares she started to receive. She found Emi busy with talking to a guy her age, stood by her side unil Emi was finished with talking. Chiharu was in a constant watch for Kakashi and hadn't realized Emi was done talking until she spoke to her.

"I can't believe mr. Hatake is your teacher in school! It's no wonder you've been spending so much time with him." She poked Chiharu with her elbow and smirked teasingly.

"Stop it Emi! I'm not into him. He's just my annoying teacher." She answered evasively without looking at Emi.

"A very much sought after guy like him. I would've gone for the hunt." Emi said, looking at the crowd like Chiharu.

"Well then maybe you should." Chiharu snapped, annoyed that Emi was always so flirtatious.

Emi caught Chiharu's tone and toned her excitement down a notch.

"Why're you reluctant? What's there not to like about him?" Emi asked.  
>Chiharu sighed and swallowed some champagne.<p>

"Maybe the fact that he's a player, he thinks he can get every woman he wants, he's extremely secretive - I mean, I didn't even know he had a whole company on the side. He's hard to read, he's 26, oh wait, and he's my teacher! You shouldn't judge by his appearance here in this crowd Emi." Chiharu counted a finger every time she found an argument for her to dislike him.

Truth was that all those facts was something that made him much more interesting. Emi clicked with her tongue seeming unaffected by Chiharu's arguments.

"If you don't want him, then I'll take the chance." She said simply and walked away determined.

Chiharu was boiling inside by her aunts words, and wanted to scream at her, but was luckily calmed by the alcohol in her blood. The thought of Emi, who had a boyfriend, flirting with Kakashi made Chiharu want to do things she would never admit to anybody. Not that she was jealous, but the thought was so embarrassing and humiliating that she could never face Kakashi again if Emi made a fool of herself. Deep down, she knew Kakashi would never return the flirting as he was Chiharu's friend, but still the thought made her blood boil.

She swallowed another glass of champagne and followed Emi from a distant, watching how she approached Kakashi. Emi laughed seductively, touched Kakashi's arms now and then, and smiled sweetly at him, while he looked relaxed and polite. Seeing that Kakashi wasn't interested and seeing Emi getting more and more desperate to get some kind of read on him - Chiharu retracted to mingle elsewhere.

As the evening progressed, Kakashi approached her three times in which other people interfered and she snuck away discreetly. Mostly he addressed that he was worried about her drinking, and she could tell that he was being genuinely concerned about her. People she talked to was starting to comment on Kakashi's approach to her and asking about the nature between them, but a particular comment struck her more than the others.

"I've never seen mr. Hatake so intrigued with a girl. Usually it's the girls who follow after him."

It was a pleasant round man who had said this, but of course he didn't know that Kakashi was her teacher and that he was being concerned like he would've been of any other student.

Soon a dance floor was set into action, and the band started to play songs appropriate for a slow dance, fit for the event and the people in it. Chiharu was avoiding the dance floor and any chair that would make her look bored, and kept herself busy with talking to different people, and occasionally Emi who had given up on Kakashi.

Chiharu was making her way over to the food table as her stomach was starting to make awkward sounds, when she saw Kakashi standing alone by the table and picking out food. She stopped before she was visible to him, and considered coming again later. When her stomach protested one more time, she rolled her eyes at her own stubbornness and approached Kakashi (for the first time).

"Finally some time to eat huh?" She said, taking a plate and smiling at him.

He looked slightly surprised as a smile tugged in the corner of his mouth.

"I realize I'm not going to get full of this food. This is more snacks than actual food." He said, picking up a grape and throwing it into his mouth.

Chiharu who'd been watching his mouth, looked away quickly to take a look at the food. Why on earth was she acting so lame around him? Admiring him like some big fan of rock band or something like that. She'd been so cool (almost) all night, and know when she approached him herself, her mind just went blank. To make it worse was the slow romantic music playing in the background and the great female singer whose words constantly infiltrated her mind.

"Aw, I was really looking forward for some real food." She managed to say, and mentally slapped herself for not thinking enough.

He smiled a cute smile and she returned it insecurely and started to pick some fruit to eat, to avoid his penetrating gaze.

_I get so weak in the knees  
>I can hardly speak, I lose all control<br>Then somethin' takes over me_

Chiharu listened to the music, starting to blush madly. There was a silence between them and Kakashi turned around to look at the crowd while he ate some grapes. Chiharu's mind was working hard on finding a topic to discuss with him, but everything she thought of just seemed like she was trying to hard while she looked at the food.

"I'm sorry about Emi. She's so embarrassing." Chiharu felt like she had to force the words out and try not to stumble over them as she went to Kakashi's side.

He chuckled and looked at her from the corner if his eyes.

"She was quite obvious wasn't she?" He leaned a little closer for her to hear as the music had grown higher when the dancing had started.

"Jeez." Chiharu breathed and took a hand to her forehead in embarrassment.

"Don't worry. She's not my type." He said, his eyes shimmering with playfulness.

Though his expression was still relaxed and stern, she had grown used to the small changes that revealed the feeling behind his words. She chuckled playfully, and thought about the comment the round man had made about Kakashi following her. She blushed slightly at the thought that he didn't treat her like a fan girl, but actually treated her like one equal to him.

"Wanna dance?"

Chiharu looked up in surprise and at the hand stretched out for her. Her heart started beating triple times and she couldn't help the blush that crept to her cheeks. A smile tucked in the corner of Kakashi's lips as he saw the blush, and she started to look for words to deny him.

"I-I'm really not... Umm, I don't know. I mean-" she stuttered barely able to meet his eyes.

"You're not going to make me look like a fool in front of all of these people are you?" He asked grey and brown eyes locked onto hers a simmering challenge brewing in their depths.

Chiharu was so swept away that she couldn't pick herself up again. She couldn't do anything except taking his hand. Kakashi rolled his eyes at her expression.

"Relax, it's just a harmless dance. I'm not up to anything." He assured her reluctantly.

She gulped and followed him through the crowd, her eyes directed at the floor all the time.

Stop being such a coward Chiharu! You're usually in control of the situation! Get yourself together! Say something smart, she thought, while being super aware of Kakashi's hand holding hers.

They entered the dance floor filled with people dancing slowly and elegantly. She looked at Kakashi reluctantly, feeling awkward and drunk. He moved in front of her and lifted her hand while putting the other on her back. They were close, but appropriately close and Chiharu felt ashamed of going blank right now.

"You're drunk." He commented.

"I know." She answered simply, focusing on moving with him as he snickered mockingly.

She felt his breath on her skin and his warm hand on her bare back. Why was she enjoying this so much? She avoided his intense eye contact, looking at the people staring back at them and whispering.

"God, people a looking." She whispered, meeting his eyes when she finally had come up with something to say.

"Does it bother you?" He asked, a teasing smile starting to show on his lips.

She gave him an are-you-stupid look and pulled slightly against him.

"Of course. You're my teacher and everyone here knows how you are-" she snorted in disgust-" everyone here thinks that I'm some kind of gold digger!"

He gave her a skeptical look and moved her around.

"Why do you think that? What do people think of me?" He smiled knowingly at her pulling her slightly closer.

She wasn't sure if she should tell him if he didn't know himself, but his smile suggested that he knew clearly what she talked about.

"People here knows that you... Like girls, and like to take them home with you... To spend to the night." She muttered the last thing, and looked away embarrassed.

Kakashi laughed out loud, and cocked his head to the side at her words.

"Does it matter what people think?" He asked and cocked an eyebrow.

She looked into his mysterious and tentative eyes considering what to say.

"Well yeah. I mean, I don't want people to think badly about me." She admitted.

"Do you think badly about me then?" He asked his face going more relaxed and nonchalant.

"Of course not! Jeez, what's up with the questioning?" She snapped at him as if he'd said something stupid.

"Then it doesn't matter what all the others think. You're not a gold digger, I'm not going to sleep with you. There's no other truth." He said, looking down at her, a genuine warmth shining through his eyes.

She sighed in defeat, knowing he was right and immediately relaxed. Her cheeks reddened at the mention of 'not sleeping with her'.

"You're right. I'm sorry." She breathed looking apologetic at him.

"Don't apologize." He said while looking serious.

He pulled her closer so they couldn't look at each other. Her left hand rested on his shoulder, and right then and there she relaxed fully, letting her mind work normally again. She knew the song that had started, and the quiet slow tunes decided their rhythm.

_You said I was the most exotic flower  
>Holding me tight in our final hour<em>

_I don't know how you convince them and get them, but  
>I don't know what you do, it's unbelievable<br>And I don't know how you get over, get over  
>Someone as dangerous, tainted and flawed as you<em>

_One for the money, and two for the show  
>I love you honey, I'm ready, I'm ready to go<br>How did you get that way? I don't know  
>You're screwed up and brilliant,<br>Look like a million dollar man,  
>So why is my heart broke?<em>

Even though it had taken some consideration Kakashi was glad he'd asked Chiharu to dance. It allowed him to force her to tell him why she was avoiding him so much. Her reason hadn't struck him as a surprise. She was smart and observant so of course she had taken immediate caution against him. He was sure she didn't believe in any way that he would make a move on her, but she'd still seemed cautious. Although he liked to take her off guard, he would never dare to scare her away or jeopardize her education by hitting on her. Sure there was an undertone of flirt between them at times but it was harmless and all in fun. At least he hoped from her side. He had to admit to himself that if he didn't know her and had met her here the first time, he might've tried to get her home with him tonight. He breathed in her sent, thinking that his thoughts was straying towards the danger zone and focused on the trust and relaxation she radiated towards him.

The songs ended and everyone stopped to clap. Chiharu was starting to feel weird and Kakashi noticed immediately. She swayed a bit as she clapped and Kakashi grabbed her upper arm worried.

"Are you okay?" He asked and peeped at her face.

"I don't feel well." She muttered. She'd relaxed too much and felt how her body didn't listen to her that much anymore.

Kakashi started to lead her gently away from the dancefloor, dragging her upwards now and then when she faltered. He laughed at her and looked at her in disbelief.

"We should find your aunt." He said, seeming to scan the crowd.

"Seeing how you attract her it shouldn't be that hard." Chiharu said, leaning more into him, while looking vaguely around the crowd.

"Mr. Hatake can I have the next dance?" A young attractive woman asked boldly.

"I'm sorry, but I have to get this girl home somehow. She can barely stand." He said politely.

The woman looked at Chiharu strangely and then bowed slightly to Kakashi and left quietly. He lead Chiharu to the boarder of the crowd, still searching for Emi. Chiharu laughed sheepishly, starting to get really silly. Being drunk, and being so close to Kakashi was tantalizing, and she was starting to feel some hidden urges for him surface.

"Sit here while I look for your aunt." He said, and helped Chiharu sit in a chair by the wall.

"No don't leave me!" She said, holding on to his hand.

He paused and looked at her, trying to release her hold on his hand.

"I'll be back in a minute." He said, flashing her a gorgeous smile that made her gulp in admiration.

He disappeared into the crowd leaving her dazed and drunk. She put her face in her hands, starting to think it was embarrassing to get this drunk at such a fine event. Starting to feel sick too, she hoped she wouldn't puke here. It felt like an eternity before Kakashi came back, and she was suddenly grateful that she could count on him, even though she was a bother.

"Don't get worried, but your aunt left." She looked up to see Kakashi standing in front of her, his expression serious.

"That's surprising." She answered sarcastically and sighed.

She took a grip in Kakashi arm to help herself up again, getting up wobbly. He supported her by holding her upper left arm, and searched her face for a hint of what she would do.

"Don't look so worried Kakashi-" she said, waving a hand dismissively in front of her-"I'll just grab a cap or something."

"A cap or something? Do you know how expensive a two hour drive to Konoha is?" He asked her, helping her towards the entrance.

"Emi will pay..." She answered nonchalantly.

It was obvious to Kakashi that Chiharu was hurt by being abandoned by her aunt, although she was good at hiding it. She didn't even know it herself that she was by it, but her body showed.

"What if Emi isn't home?" He asked her, coursing her to frown at all the questions asked.

"I don't know! I just wanna get out of this place!" She breathed.

"I'm not going to send you home alone in this condition." He said, and turned her around to face him.

They were by the wardrobe now, in the silent hallway and he handed his ticket to the girl working in the wardrobe. Chiharu looked up at him, starting to show the worry inside her, snorted angrily at the situation.

"I don't know what to do then." She breathed, leaning into his chest and hiding her face.

He embraced her with one arm to comfort her, feeling frustrated that her aunt kept disappointing her. She was to intelligent and sweet to deserve the treatment her aunt gave her at times. He sighed, when he felt a sudden desire for her at her closeness while feeling her bare back, and pushed the thoughts away immediately.

"Here you are mister." The wardrobe girl said, putting his coat on the front desk.

"Thanks." He said, blinking at her with a smile.

"You can drive home with me, alright?" He said, immediately wondering if it was a bad decision.

She leaned away from him and looked up at him dazed, once again feeling attracted to his handsome face. She went a few sentences over in her head while she stared at him closely, feeling his breath coming down at her.

"God that's so lame." She said, coursing him to laugh abruptly.

"That's better than you ending up in some slave trade." He said, forcing himself to push her slightly away.

"Do you have jacket?" He asked her, starting to find the situation exciting.

"No." She shook her head, looking up at him with innocent eyes.

He rolled his eyes at the absurdness of the situation and swooped his long black coat around her shoulders.

"Here. At least you wont get cold." he said, put his arm around her waist to lead her out of her building.

It was dark when they came outside, but the busy city was still lit up by commercials and a buzzing of people who still roamed the streets. He handed yet another ticket to a young man, who ran off to the garage to fetch Kakashi's car. The way they stood was almost like a couple on their way home, and he found it somewhat a satisfying thought only because he stood with a girl that to him was very unique in looks and personality.

Chiharu on the other hand didn't think about anything else but not puking in front of Kakashi. She thought if she could just get into a car, and fall asleep she would 'survive' the ride. She'd been drinking way to much champagne, and could barely keep on her feet if not Kakashi had supported her. Whenever it struck her that she was standing with Kakashi, she felt a satisfying warmth inside of her that she only wanted more of. But her body let her thoughts astray when she felt the nausea that crept up on her constantly. A black car parked in front of them and a private driver stepped out and opened the door to the backseat for Kakashi and Chiharu.

"You know I can take care of myself, right?" She said.

He looked down at her, her green eyes staring up at him. The fact was disturbing, but necessary with a guardian like Emi.

"Sure." he said teasingly, but Chiharu was too drunk to catch the tone.

Barely a minute had gone by before Chiharu fell asleep on Kakashi's shoulder. He looked out the window as Tokyo passed by, starting to wonder if he was getting on dangerous grounds. As the innocent flirt between them was probably nothing from Chiharu's side, but Kakashi feared that he in the end wouldn't be able to resist her if there were going to be this close.

Chiharu barely registered where they were as she awoke, but felt Kakashi help her up a few stairs. He chukled at her as he opened a door, and she stumbled inside drunk and tired.

"God I need to get out of this dress." she muttered trying to reach behind her back to unzip the long black dress.

"Wait!" Kakashi said startled, and rushed to her before he could get his other shoe off.

"But I-" she said, swaying in her place as he took a hold of the hand that tried to open the zipper.

"I'll get a t-shirt for you and then you'll go to the bathroom and undress, okay?" he peeped around her to make sure she understood.

She frowned at him and pouted falling slightly backwards into the warm comfort of his chest. He took her by her shoulders, his large warm hands sending pleasant chills down her arm.

"Just wait here." He said, moving her to sit in the couch before he left to fetch a t-shirt.

She'd removed me a thick strap of her dress when he came back, and he hurried to her to make her stop before she would sit in only underwear. He might as well be a gentleman and spare her the humiliation she would have to face the next day.

"Here's a t-shirt, now go to the bathroom." He said in a gentle tone, moving the girl towards the bathroom.

"So pushy." She muttered, coursing him to chuckle at her in amusement.

"You have to help me unzip." She said as he'd finally gotten the swaying girl into his bathroom.

"What?" He said, finding himself slightly startled and aroused by the thought.

She frowned, turning her back more to him and lifted her blonde hair to the side, baring the low back-cut dress she whore. His eyes roamed over the smooth surface of her skin and the lean muscles hidden beneath. Suddenly feeling immensely drawn, he thought her tantalizing and felt the desire starting to build in him again. He moved up behind her, carefully taking the zipper with his fingers, and let it move slowly down from her lower back and over the upper delicate shape of her bottom. He gulped, his hands almost shaking at how wrong this was, even though he knew she was unattainable.

"There." He said hoarsely, taking brief second to enjoy her beauty before he stepped away.

Finally outside the door he breathed heavily, wondering how a student could make his body go rigid this way. He felt ashamed of himself somehow, but couldn't deny the fact that he was drawn to her.

.

Chiharu woke up the next morning with a banging headache. Feeling disorientated, she couldn't figure out where she was at first, but when taking a second glance and taking in a deep breath through the nose she knew she was at Kakashi's place.

_Oh god what happened last night?! He was so handsome, god I hope I didn't make a move on him!_ Her thoughts were spinning, a slight panic taking over her when she looked at herself under her covers seeing she was wearing a t-shirt. She looked to the floor, not seeing her dress anywhere but found it neatly folded on the chair by Kakasi's desk.

She sighed and turned to look at the ceiling, every memory from last night, before she fell asleep hit her consciousness. Smacking a hand to her forehead she cringed in embarrassment at being so drunk in such fine company, and with Kakashi helping her sorry drunk ass. He must've thought it was so immature of her to get drunk. Another thought struck her as she pictured seeing Kakashi without a mask among the crowd... And he was rich too. What the hell was happening?

It was no wonder he had a fan club at a school, he looked like a freaking model without the mask on! And here she laid, in his living room like the morning trash.

"Jeez." She muttered and sat up in the sofa.

Looking for her phone, she found it by her feet, and took a look at the clock. It said 10 am. She was up early. She relaxed into the couch with a sigh checking her Facebook account for anything interesting while listening to the silence in Kakashi's apartment.

Naruto had as usual posted a few funny photos from 9gag which she smiled at. There were a few pictures of Ino and Sakura together, Sai had posted a picture of a painting and Shikamaru had posted a status update about politics and how corrupt the system was... and besides that nothing interesting.

Not able to fall asleep again, she wondered if Kakashi was still home, and got up to take a glass of water at the kitchen. She looked out the window at a grey day, the streets still and boring. Looking down herself she noticed that she hadn't put on any pants for the night, and flushed again in embarrassment. It was only barely that her panties were hidden beneath the t-shirt she'd borrowed. She went to Kakashi's desk and looked at the pile of paperwork stacked there and was struck with a sudden curiosity as to how he could have such a big company in such a young age.

Moving some papers aside she peeped at what was on the desk, feeling secretive about meddling in other people's affairs. There was nothing on the desk related to his company, only school work.

Sitting down, suddenly fired up, she opened his laptop hoping there was no password to it. She got up again quickly while it started up and went to his bedroom to see if he was in there. Opening the slide door slowly she peeped inside, and bit her lip when she saw him lay in his bed on his back, his upper body showing. His head was slightly tilted away from her, his grey morning hair pointing in every direction. She gulped, noticing the released muscles of his breast and the six pack roaming down his stomach. His left hand was up under his head, revealing the small patterned muscles up his rips. God he was hot... Her math teacher was hot, and rich and smart and charming - she stopped herself, moving out to stand against the door she'd closed again. Oh no, she was turning into a fan girl... A big one. She closed her eyes breathing out heavily to remind herself that a guy like him who had so much attention from girls and was her teacher could never fall for her. She didn't even have a shot at a one night stand. Again, she had to stop her thoughts, reminding herself to be cool around him.

She tiptoed to the laptop and sat down by the desk, seeing the password bar pop up on his computer. She brushed her hair backwards frustrated and leaned back in the seat, looking around the desk. A yellow note stood out, and she picked it up after having searched some papers through and smiled when she read:

New password: Adf35kD891jz

It was a hell of a password, and she hadn't expected less from him. She almost jumped into the ceiling when the startup melody sounded loudly, and she immediately covered the speakers, hoping she hadn't waked him up. With a beating heart she listened to hear if he was up, and sighed relieved when nothing happened

She opened Firefox and typed in google in the address bar, taping her fingers at the table while waiting for the page to load.

Hatake enterprises Kakashi

She typed into the search engine, starting to feel anxious and alert. This couldn't go fast enough. Hatake enterprises was the first page that came into view, and she skipped it, searching for articles or forums where she could get some history and truth.

_Hatake Enterprises looses stock value - stock owners enraged._

_Baddest business in Hatake Enterprises history._

_Hatake enterprises in shock._

_Sakumo Hatake commits suicide: what will Hatake Enterprises do?_

_Scandal at Hatake Enterprises._

_Reasons for suicide - Sakumo Hatake._

_Young boy inherits Hatake Enterprises._

_Front figure Kakashi Hatake._

_Kakashi Hatake, a genius._

_Times magazine: Hatake Kakashi_

_Hatake Kakashi genius or playboy? Why not both._

Chiharu sat, wide eyed and scrolled the titles of the articles through, skimming a few of them. There was no need to read them. The titles said it all. Kakashi was somehow famous. Famous in the world of hardcore business. How he had managed to keep that away from Konoha was a mystery to me! No wonder he worked at such a prestigious school. He'd experienced more than I would ever do before I turned 26. It was ridicules! He had inherited his fathers company, and owned it all, except he wasn't much involved in the business. She leaned back, looking stunned around the small apartment.

She almost jumped when she heard the door to his bedroom being pushed aside, and she smacked to the laptop closed, her heart beating triple times. She found an awkward position to make it look Iike she was looking at his papers, and turned around casually when he came out.

"Oh, you're up." He said, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"Yeah and with a banging headache... You're not wearing your mask?" She said.

"Now you've seen my face, there's no point in wearing it at home." He said, giving her a cute lopsided smile.

He stepped away from the door, revealing his gorgeous upper body while wearing a pair of grey sweatpants. The picture couldn't make Chiharu more mesmerized.

"What're you doing?" He added, walking over to her and leaning over the back of the chair to peep at the mess of papers on his table.

She looked at his bare outstretched arm beside her and felt the heat he was giving off.

"Just grabbing a glass of water, and then I saw all the school work and took a peep at it." She lied hoping he didn't get suspicious.

"You looked at my mathematics notes?" He asked with a popped eyebrow and looked down at her skeptically.

"As I said, peeped." She said, trying to hold a good poker face.

"You're strange." He said with a smirk and started to walk into the kitchen.

"You're a mystery." She shot back, watching his bare back as he walked into the kitchen.

Her eyes moved downward to his butt in the grey sweatpants. Damn... She thought to herself and looked away immediately as he turned sideways to grab a glass. Forgetting she was only wearing a t-shirt with no pants or no bra, she rushed (making sure to look casual at the same time) to the sofa and propped herself under the covers again, having stirred up the headache she'd had again.  
>So, when were they going to talk abut last night? Was it even necessary? How long should she be staying?<p>

"You hungry?" He asked from the kitchen.

"No thanks. Not with a headache like this." She answered, suddenly remembering that she was still wearing makeup.

She became self aware immediately, and found herself rushing to the bathroom. It doesn't matter if I like stupid! She kept telling herself, but still dreaded to see her morning face with makeup running under her eyes.  
>She sighed relieved, seeing her make-up was still decently in place and she didn't look like a morning ghost. A stray thought suddenly hit her. Why hadn't Kakashi returned her home?<p>

She washed her face while contemplating and also went to the toilet while she was at it, and walked out, feeling slightly more attractive than before. A smell of eggs and bacon hit her as soon as she opened the door and was immediately nauseated.

"So... How did I end up here?" She asked, sitting down in the sofa again to relax.

She heard Kakashi laugh from the kitchen, peaking her curiosity all the more.

"How did you end up so drunk?" He asked.

She lifted an eyebrow, thinking about that. She'd been too surprised to see Kakashi without mask and to deal with him, while being at such a fine event. From her experience, alcohol only made it easier to deal with difficult situation. Kakashi appeared from the kitchen looking at her expectantly as she didn't answer.

"It's a bit irresponsible isn't it? Especially when you know how your aunt is." He said, and sat down in the sofa beside her, eating his eggs and beacon.

She blushed embarrassed and looked at her hands knowing he was right.

"I suppose it is. But it just-" she paused frustrated feeling a need to explain to him why she'd done it.

His eyes grew serious as he chewed on a fork full of eggs waiting for her to finish her sentence. Stuttering a bit and lost for words he interrupted her:

"Why do I get the feeling that this goes deeper?" He said.

"No, it doesn't. I just..." she growled frustrated not wanting to admit that he was the reason behind her drunk accident.

"It went a bit out of hand because I was uncomfortable with the fact that I had that ridicules dress on and you were there doing business without a mask on, and we knew each other and people would start thinking things-" she blabbed, spilling everything out like a sickness.

"Wait, you were drinking because I was there?" He said.

"Kind of." She admitted sullenly before he broke into laughter.

"It isn't funny!" She whined.

"Sorry, it's just I really didn't expect that from you. You keep surprising me." He said, fighting back giggles at the same time.

She shot him a death glare, deciding to change the topic and make him answer the question he'd avoided answering.

"So, how did I end up here?" She asked.

"Since I wasn't sure if Emi was home, I wasn't comfortable with leaving you to yourself so I took you home with me.

Since you've slept over here before I thought it was okay. Well, except for the part where you started to undress in front me." He said, sounding casual and shrugged.

Chiharu's cheeks flared up in embarrassment at the thought, and she sat there open mouthed and starred at him in disbelief, not knowing what to say.

"I didn't do that!" she exclaimed, really hoping he was joking.

"Yeah, but I stopped you in time, and lead you into the bathroom." he said, a playful smirk playing on his lips.

"Oh god. I don't even remember that!" she said and hit her face in her hands.

Kakashi laughed again as she fell back in the sofa and hid under the cover. He pulled it off playfully, coursing her to squeak while he stared at her to make her more embarrassed.

"Stop that!" she said, putting her foot in his face which he dodged by leaning away.

He took er grip of her ankle in a swift movement and pulled her closer so her legs were resting on his lap, and started tickling her while holding her feet still.

"Stop!" She said in between giggles, fighting bewildered to get his hands off of her.

"It's not good for my headache!" She cried out.

He stopped with a satisfied grin on his face, and she was just glad that the covers were still covering her waist and down and she would've had her panties screaming at him that instant. Flushed red, and heated up she panted in her spot and shot him a glare.

"Thank you... I don't suppose you have anything to cure my headache." She asked, feeling very aware of her legs across Kakashi's lap.

It was innocent perhaps, but much more physical than they had ever been. Except for the dance. Yes the dance hadn't been all that innocent. It wasn't only the dance, but the whole fundraiser that had held an undercurrent of flirt between them.

"Sure, I have some pills. But keep drinking water." He said, moving her legs aside to stand up.

Chiharu's thoughts continued on. She was confused, not able to figure out what exactly was happening between them. Was this just normal behavior from Kakashi between him and his contact student, or was there more to it? If he was like this to his fan girls, it was no wonder he even had fan girls at school. She didn't have the guts to ask any of her friends at school, afraid that this wasn't normal behavior. Nonetheless, she enjoyed it very much.

"Here you go." Kakashi held out a glass of water and a pill to her.

She sat up thanking him, and swallowed the pill, wondering if she should leave soon.

"I feel like a good day of relaxing. Wanna watch a movie?" He asked like he'd read her thoughts.

"Well, I'm not going to do anything active today, so yeah. Why not?" She said, wondering if she was laying on the casual facade too thick.

The day passed in the name of laziness as they sat under their covers and watched movies and played playstation most of the day. Chiharu had borrowed some loose shorts from him to move around less awkwardly. The attraction between grew thick as the hours passed on although none of them was aware of the others attraction. They ordered pizza and candy to the films and the games, and had, well, interesting discussions about conspiracy theories that, from Chiharu's part, turned heated as Kakashi was hard to argue with. He did have some insights to the police and the business world which was information Chiharu swallowed whole which he sensed she understood clearly.

"Anyway, Emi's been calling me all day, so I better get going." Chiharu said, forcing herself to stand up after having disucussed a movie while the end titles rolled the screen.

It was already nine pm, and she already felt like she'd been there too long. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had such a good time with a guy, a hot one at that, and was starting to grow frustrated with her obvious attraction towards him.

"Of course. You wanna borrow the t-shirt?" He asked as she got up.

She hadn't thought about her clothing and almost shuttered at the thought of taking on her dress again.

"Well yeah, at least I can cover up some part of the dress. I'm going to look like a tramp walking through the streets." She sighed and grabbed her dress and walked to the bathroom.

When she was finished and ready, she went to take her heels on, feeling like she'd was leaving a one night stand and was about to walk the walk of shame.

"Thank you for everything." She said, as she put on her heels.

"No problem at all." He said, moving the lean again the wall to living room.

She smiled, suddenly feeling slightly awkward about the goodbye situation. She felt like she'd been doing something bad and secretive, staying with him all day, but pushed the feeling aside to be brave.

"You're welcome to come again another time and watch a movie. The company is appreciated. You're actually interesting to talk to." He said, a smile playing on his gorgeous lips.

She got up and looked at his eyes, momentarily finding herself lost in the different colors as he leaned against the wall with an arm above his head.

"Thank you, I think." She said with a raised eyebrow and smiled playfully at him.

He chuckled and moved away from the wall, taking a step towards her. The odd thing about being at an international high school was that japanese and western norms got mixed up. It wasn't considered a normal thing to give each other a hug of goodbye in Japan, but in America it was. Chiharu had yet to figure out how Kakashi was on that point, but he mostly seemed to be at a physical level of an American.

Deciding to be courageous and present herself as vulnerable, she opened her arms to invite him into a friendly hug, smiling sheepishly at him. He looked at her lazily, almost slightly stunned, but then smiled and closed the gap between them. The hug was more satisfying to them both than what they had expected as they held each other close for a moment, Chiharu reaching around Kakashi's neck.

They parted, Kakashi's confidence helping Chiharu to walk out the door casually, not feel as though she was walking the walk of shame down the hall.

"I'll see you tomorrow." She said, and went out to the empty sunday street.

Her head were spinning with thoughts while she walked down the pavement and out to the Main Street. What the hell was going on? Was she starting to have small crush on her rich math teacher?! She faltered in her steps as a rush ran through her. She'd forgotten to close the page on his laptop with all the articles. Her heart started to race at the thought that he would now that she'd stalked him on the internet. _Oh god no. He's going to put me into the fan girl category! _She thought, knowing that there was no undoing it now.

As if it couldn't get much worse, she heard a bicycle clock ring in the distance, and she looked up to see Naruto riding a bike down the street, waving at her with a big smile plastered on his face. Her cheeks heated up, as she thought about turning straight to the left and disappearing. But it was too late. They'd already made eye contact. Dammit...

"Hey Chiharu!" He shouted, and tread hard in the pedals to make his way to her.

She sighed inwardly, thinking that the situation was almost humiliating, but put on a smile as Naruto stopped to greet her. He looked slightly confused, eyeing her outfit of high heels, a long dress, an over sized t-shirt and messy hair.

"Hey Naruto." She said, giving him a hug, hoping she wasn't smelling of alcohol.

"What on earth have you been up to?" He asked her, not even trying to hide his surprised expression.

"I was just on my way-" She said but was interrupted by Naruto.

"Hey that's Kakashi-sensei's t-shirt!" He bursted out.

Chiharu closed her eyes briefly to calm herself, thinking of a good excuse to fire off but came up with nothing as Naruto continued:

"Chiharu-chan, have you been with Kakashi-sensei?" He asked bluntly and secretively.

There was the walk of shame she'd been dreading, and again, the assumptions.

"No! Of course I haven't I just-" she dragged him to the side of the pavement to make the conversation less loud.

"I just crashed at his place because. Well it's a long story, but please don't tell anyone. People'll just start to gossip!" She said.

"Did you go to a party with him or something?" Naruto asked, starting to be nosy.

"Yeah sort of. But it doesn't matter! Please don't tell anyone." She begged.

"I wont... For a price." He said, smiling mischievously at her while rubbing his hands together.

She shot him a death glare, staring at him until he pouted sullenly and crossed his arms.

"Alright alright. Jeez, you have no sense of humor." He said.

"Good. I'll explain it to you another time. I just need to get home now." She said, flashing him a reassuring smile.

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow." He said.

They went their separate ways and Chiharu listed inside her home, hoping to avoid a conflict with Emi, but with no such luck. She told Emi what had happened, leaving out Kakashi of course, while Emi was constantly apologizing like always. It wasn't much of a deal, and Chihari went to bed, knowing that Emi hadn't dropped the Kakashi subject yet, and feared she was going to hear about him from Emi in the future. Chiharu breathed in the scent of Kakashi's t-shirt as she lay in her bed, feeling a butterfly flutter everytime the memory of his scent hit her. She was going towards dangerous grounds...

* * *

><p><em>Finally done with this chapter! Again sorry for the slow update! All followers are very much appreciated.<em>

_Songs to the lyrics in this chapter:_

_JoJo - Weak  
>Adele - Million dollar man<em>


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