Chapter Nine: Hot Spring
Feeling somewhat annoyed Kakashi made his way to the Hokage’s office. After being away from the village for over a month of grueling reconnaissance work he was getting sent right back out on some new unnamed mission. To say that he was irked would be an understatement. The elite jonin was so irritated with the situation that he was almost on time, by his standards that is, to his meeting with the busty blonde medic. Generally he didn’t particularly care if he was sent back out as soon as he returned; heck he had done as many as six back to back missions in the past with no real trouble. If the village needed his services he would oblige.
Kakashi’s annoyance though this time had nothing to do with him being tired or wanting to sleep in his own bed after over a month of being away. It had nothing whatsoever to do with him, rather he was perturbed that he had been interrupted in playing his games with a certain pink haired medic. He probably would have enough time to send her another photo and leave some sort of a gift, but he figured it would be too suspicious. The local gossips may start to put Sakura receiving gifts together with the fact that it only happened when he was in the village and she may figure out that she would receive photos when he had been in the village. From what little he had heard since he had returned the gossip of her secret admirer had died down considerably, if he wanted to continue it he would have to do it soon otherwise the whole thing would lose momentum and it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun as it had been.
Tsunade looked up as he entered her office. “Ah, Kakashi, you’re here, good.” She glanced back down to the scroll she had been studying, scribbling a couple notes at the bottom she hastily rolled it and dropped it in the basket Shizune or Sakura had placed beside her desk before looking up once again to assess his foul mood. The Hokage could certainly understand it, but still found it a little strange since he had never particularly cared how many missions he went on or how often he went out – back to back missions were something he usually welcomed.
“Tsunade,” he greeted her raising his head a little in respect. He was unwilling to say anything else in the rotten mood that he was in for fear that the easily excitable Hokage would saddle him with a load of D ranked missions, or worse another genin team, as punishment for his lack of respect or rarely sighted temper.
She sighed, realizing just how miserable of a mood he was in, a feat for the usually stoic man. “Kakashi, I’m sure you’re aware that I summoned you for another mission.” She held up her hand to cut off any protest that may be waiting for her. “I know you just returned early this morning after being away for over a month, and I’m sorry but time is critical for this next mission. The client has already waited over two weeks for you to return from your last mission.”
Kakashi’s eye widened as he realized that he had been requested specifically by the client and his aggravated mood begun to fade. It wasn’t unheard of, but didn’t happen all too often for shinobi with his particular talents –assassination and tracking. Generally the body guards, security specialists, highly specialized kunoichi and even medics were those who built the sort of reputations that brought in missions requesting a shinobi by name. Most clients requiring his sort of skills wanted to know as little as possible about the details of his missions, they tended to feel the less they knew the better and didn’t care what happened so long as the unnamed shinobi was successful. Those who did want to know the details tended to shy away from someone as well known as Konoha’s Copy Ninja since he had been in every Bingo book for the past twenty years and someone of his reputation could be considered too intimidating a shinobi to hire by name.
Feeling more at ease at the silver haired man’s apparent interest despite himself, the light brown eyed woman decided to continue. “I really am sorry to send you out again so soon after such a long and demanding mission, but I rather think you might actually enjoy this one.” She rummaged around on her desk for a moment before pulling a clearly often handled scroll and tossing it to him.
Reflexively he reached out and caught it, breaking the seal to open it without thinking. He skimmed the contents once before looking up at the medic in askance. “You have got to be kidding me.”
Tsunade snickered and shook her head in a negative. “Nope, that’s a real mission. They’re even paying the S-rank rate for it in addition to the extra fee for requesting a specific shinobi and the fee required to get you…”
“They must be pretty desperate I take it?” he asked, mentally calculating the pay off from an S-ranked request mission. It added up to a very nice paycheck especially coupled with the lengthy reconnaissance mission he had just returned from. Not that he particularly needed the money, but it would make a nice addition to his bank account nonetheless.
The medic rolled her eyes. “You have no idea. A representative has been sent down here every day since they submitted the request to make sure I still had the mission scroll and to find out if you had returned yet.” She sighed in frustration. “Anyway, now that you’re back you can set out immediately.” The blonde woman paused. “That is if you’ve already seen your medic?” she asked with a hint of amusement in her voice. Tsunade had decided not to push the issue too much with him unless Sakura should actively change her mind about their current situation. Far be it from her to stop her student from doing something the younger medic seemed dead set on doing. Besides, she now could use it as leverage against Kakashi in the future if she should need it.
The dark eyed man glared at her. “Yes I’ve already seen Sakura. Or rather she has already seen me. I’m fit to go back out.”
“Good, you can meet your partner at the gate in an hour.” She noted his annoyed expression return. “It’s in there. I’m sending you out with a partner to make sure you stay on track. I can easily see you getting distracted upon finding your target…” The Hokage looked back down at her paperwork on her desk and silently groaned as she remembered the only person available to assign to such a frivolous mission with Kakashi. In their case it was probably going to be the blind leading the blind, but they were the only two mission ready jonin available and able to be spared in the village at the moment. Since the client was so impatient she couldn’t imagine trying to make them wait even longer for another jonin to return or one of the ones in the village to become available.
~*~*~*~
Happily Sakura made her way into the main building with her friends. It had been a long day of travel, but well worth it with the promise of the famous hot springs. She felt gritty and travel weary and above all starving. The young medic simply could not wait to slip into the soothing hot waters but would like to fill her empty stomach first.
Ino headed to the front desk to check them in and double check to make sure that all their reservations were in order. The kunoichi had reserved the private hot spring for their use while they were there – none of them were particularly shy about using a public bath, but they were not really in the mood of trying to hide their professions. All four girls were adept at hiding what they were – as kunoichi it was part of the job description.
Unfortunately it could become a little difficult when they got together and shed their clothes; between the four of them they had enough scars for a good dozen ordinary male citizens. Generally in any situation where hiding their profession was necessary, other than bathing with other women, whoever they were with when they were required to shed their clothes were too focused on other things to notice the presence of extra scars. If they did notice the scars, the scars were not what they remembered later.
The blonde returned to her three companions with their keys and reassurances of the private hot spring being held for their exclusive use starting in the morning. For the time being they would dump their stuff in their rooms – a suite with private rooms for each of them – and head into the restaurant as dinner was just starting to be served. They would hit the spring first thing in the morning.
~*~*~*~
“Shhh!!!” the white haired man held a finger up to his lips. “You’ll scare them away before they even get here!” he hissed in annoyance. Though dawn had already broken several hours prior, the sun was only then just beginning to shed light upon the little clearing containing the Icha Icha author, the two shinobi sent to find him and one very tall, thick but compromised wall.
Kakashi sighed in disgust; he had finally found the elusive sannin, doing what he always did when left to his own devices – peeping. Though if one were to ask the legendary ninja he would be quick to make the correction, he was conducting research or on occasion consulting his muses.
Unfortunately his companion was not nearly as disgusted as he was with the perverted shinobi. Instead Genma quickly scooted over next to the legendary pervert even though the secluded private hot spring and adjoining little changing house they were currently observing was empty – it was far too early for anyone to be up and in the spring quite yet.
“We’ve got to talk Jiraiya,” the Copy Ninja began, not bothering to lower his voice much more than his usual speaking volume in hopes of quickly settling with the man before women appeared to distract the perverted shinobi.
The older man turned from his precious chink in the wall to shoot the younger man a pained look. “Kakashi, please… I’ve been waiting for hours; they could appear any minute now. What do you want?”
The Copy Ninja sighed in irritation; it had taken them a week with the aid of Pakkun and various other ninken to finally track the perverted sannin down. Now all he wanted to do was to drag the old man back to Konoha, collect his pay, check in on his medic friend, and spend a couple days catching up on his reading. He couldn’t help but smile to himself at the thought that upon dragging Jiraiya back the next Icha Icha volume would be put into production. It was Jiraiya’s editors who had hired Kakashi to bring back either the next completed volume of his treasured Icha Icha series or the author himself.
On a deeper level Kakashi was also looking forward to continuing the games he had started with his female former student. It had been so long since he had left anything for Sakura at the hospital that he figured the talk about her ‘secret admirer’ must have died down considerably if not entirely. The Copy Ninja would have to come up with something really interesting to leave when he returned, that is if he wanted to continue his, rather their little game... He also hadn’t had time to send her a second Polaroid during the brief hours he had been back in the village. Sakura might begin to suspect he was the one sending her the photos if she only received the little notes ‘from’ her dream guardian when he was in the village. He would have to figure something out when he returned. Sighing to himself, he pushed the troublesome thoughts of the pink haired woman from his mind in order to concentrate on the situation at hand.
“Your editors are very upset with you Jiraiya, you promised them the next volume four months ago and promptly disappeared once they started asking you for it in earnest.”
The older man made an impatient noise and waved his hand negligently. “Oh that.”
Suddenly feeling annoyed at the white haired man he snapped. “Yes that, now come on we’re heading back to Konoha or I will make it known to everyone in the area that a dangerous peeping pervert has been sighted and all women should stay indoors until further notice...”
The older man looked torn between abandoning his station to take Kakashi seriously and staying put and trying to reason with him while hoping the girls would be along soon. His desire to stay and wait for the girls quickly won out over his annoyance at the younger man.
“Look, can’t we work out some sort of deal here?” Jiraiya asked trying to come up with a suitable trade; it really was about time for him to return to Konoha. His newest volume had been done for quite some time, but for reasons of his own he had wanted to delay the publish date. The Icha Icha author’s publishers had stopped putting money into his bank account for royalties et cetera in retribution for his disappearing act and in hopes that once he ran out of money he would return to collect what they owed him if nothing else. As a consequence Jiraiya was beginning to find himself in a bit of financial difficulty as his funds steadily slipped away to feed his few but expensive vices.
Knowing that if the sannin was to actually put up a real fight that he and his partner would be in for some trouble the annoyed jonin nodded slightly to show he was listening.
“Good, good…Now let me see, what can I offer my number one fan to keep him quiet for say…” He paused trying to come up with a nice starting figure. “Ten days before going back to the village?”
“One day Jiraiya. We’ll stay quiet for one day, any longer and we’ll follow through and let it be known that there is a peeping pervert in the area. Once people know this you’ll be able to kiss all your ‘research’ time good bye.”
“Okay, okay, ten days was too many, how about five?” The author wheedled.
“One and a half,” the masked man conceded with an annoyed edge to his voice.
“Three! How about three?! I’ll even throw a little something extra in for you…” Jiraiya let it hang suggestively – knowing full well that Kakashi was a huge fan and there must be some secret fantasy the Copy Ninja would love to see appear in print or perhaps a woman he may like to see take on a role in his next book.
The Icha Icha addicted man’s mind reeled at the possibilities of what the older man could have been suggesting, unhappily his pink haired friend featured prominently in all of them. Hastily he pulled his thoughts back to reality upon feeling a sharp pain in his ankle. Looking down he found his oft used summons had sunk his teeth into his leg to get his attention.
“Kakashi, there’s something you’ll probably want to know…” The little pug began after releasing his friend’s ankle from his jaws.
“In a minute Pakkun.” He turned his attention back to the perverted man to find that he was grinning widely and sighed. “Two days, that’s my final offer.”
“Kakashi, there’s something you really should…” the little pug whined insistently.
“In a minute Pakkun, I’m sure it can wait just a moment.” In the distance he could hear feminine voices and he knew that once the girls the dirty old man had been waiting for showed up there would be no talking to Jiraiya, never mind bargaining with him.
The older man must have also heard the sounds of the women approaching and quickly nodded his ascent. “Agreed, you let me stay here for two more days – making no fuss about my research – and I’ll go quietly back to Konoha and submit my book to my editors like the good author I am. Now promise me not interfere with me or my research until then.”
“Kakashi you really shouldn’t…” the pug began again, pawing at his old friend’s pant leg in frustration.
The silver haired man glared at his canine friend, he was now almost able to decipher individual voices from the general echoing babble in the enclosed changing area next to the natural hot spring. Sensing his window of negotiating time closing quickly, he nodded “Agreed.” Finally he looked down at his small friend. “What was it you wanted to tell me Pakkun?”
The little dog growled in annoyance at his old friend. Before he could speak though, the voices suddenly resolved themselves into four distinct women as they exited the changing house, presumably clad in towels.
~*~*~*~
“… but seriously Hinata you need to be more aggressive if you want to have any chance of catching Naruto’s eye…” Sakura admonished as they exited the changing area, all four women were wrapped in towels and finally ready to enjoy the hot spring.
“Yeah, he’s too dense to pick up on your subtlety. He’s the sort who needs to be whacked over the head with something before he even thinks to notice it.” The blonde woman added.
Hinata flushed, knowing that her friends meant well, but not quite sure if she could follow through with their advice. “I-I’ll have to try harder and hope for the best.”
“Well if that doesn’t work let us know, we can always set something up that will work.” Ino winked at her friends. “And, while we’re at it we can work on you too Sakura.”
~*~*~*~
Kakashi’s eye widened as he recognized the voices. Without thinking he quickly joined the two perverts at the chink in the wall to confirm what he already knew was true. He watched as Hinata, Tenten, Ino and Sakura made their way from the little changing house, clad only in very short towels. If he hadn’t been so used to reading Icha Icha in public he may have had to join Genma in wiping a little trickle of blood from his nose at the sight of so much female flesh exposed. Once the shock of seeing them wore off, his mind panicked just a little at the thought that as soon as they reached the spring they would have to drop their towels to enter the hot pool of water.
Irrationally Kakashi was torn between wanting to watch the admittedly lovely ladies disrobe, and not wanting to allow his companions to see the same sight. He knew he shouldn’t want to see and had no real reason for him not to want the two men he was with to see the women nude. Desperately the Copy Ninja chalked the situation up to the fact that one of the women was his former student, the little girl he had spent years protecting from both danger and lecherous men who were up to no good. Of course he wouldn’t want other men to peep on his little kunoichi, but as he watched her walk and talk with her friends it hit him once again that she wasn’t a little girl anymore and the woman she had become was definitely worth a look – though he still did not want to share the view with anyone else.
As Kakashi crouched frozen, he watched the women walk to and disappear behind a natural rock formation at the edge of the pool – much to the obvious displeasure of the other two men. A couple moments later they emerged from behind the rocks fully submerged in the water to settle themselves in the deeper portion of the spring.
~*~*~*~
Hastily the medic raised her hands in front of her in defense as she and her friends dropped their towels by a large natural grouping of boulders concealing benches and hooks for their towels and submerged themselves in the water before making their way into the more open area designed for sitting and soaking. “I’m just fine, thank you very much. I don’t need help with any part of my life right now. Kind of you to offer, but the answer is still an emphatic no thank you.”
“Oh really?” the previously silent weapons mistress asked managing to put clear doubt in her words. “What’s all this about your secret admirer then? Is he why you don’t need our help in setting you up with a decent guy?” Tenten eyed the medic slyly out of the corner of her eye.
“Oh! Er… um. No, no…I wasn’t even thinking of him…” Sakura trailed off realizing they had stumbled upon the one topic she had hoped to steer them clear of for their entire holiday.
“Since it has been brought up…” Ino smirked, a twinkle clearly present in her eye. “Just who is this shy Romeo anyway?”
Feigning innocence the medic smiled a bit bemusedly. “I really couldn’t say… Then again if I could he wouldn’t be a ‘secret admirer’ now, would he?”
Feeling somewhat chagrined the three girls exchanged looks; they had been hoping to get the identity of her secret beau while on holiday, away from the prying villagers and the local gossip mongers. They were sure she had to know something about him that she wasn’t telling anyone else. Otherwise, they had reasoned that she would have taken action one way or another by now – months had passed with the whole village still abuzz about it.
“Oh come now Sakura, that’s not fair! You have to know something.” the brunette weapons mistress wheedled.
Sakura remained silent. Clearly she would say no more on the topic. Feeling slightly defeated, though not wholly, Ino turned to the slightly older woman.
“So Tenten, how’s it going trying to win Hinata’s stoic cousin?” There was some sympathy in her voice as Ino had gone after a similar man and pursued him along side of Sakura for years before giving him up as a lost cause.
The brunette blushed a deep red as did her crush’s cousin. Hinata wanted very much for her friend to find happiness – but wasn’t too sure if the brunette would find it in Neji.
Tenten sighed audibly. “To be honest it’s going miserably.” She paused but suddenly turned hopeful, flashing an expression worthy of her former sensei Guy or teammate Lee. “But that does not mean I will give up! I’ll just have to try harder!”
Sakura sighed to herself before smiling at the optimistic woman. “I wish you the best of luck with it Tenten. I really do hope it will work out for you.”
“Y-yes, I hope you are able to soften my cousin’s defenses enough for the two of you to get together. He deserves some happiness in his life too…” Hinata trailed off knowing that as a part of the Hyuga clan, Neji’s life had already been planned for him, most likely down to his wife and how many children he was expected to produce with her. She had hoped that with the state of things in the family that perhaps tradition might relax enough to allow them to choose their own spouses – but had yet to see any serious progress to that end.
The blonde, a little more cynic than the others made an indelicate noise. “I say just forget about him and move on to greener pastures.” She giggled as she realized what she had just said – thinking of the two green clad men in Tenten’s life.
“Oh no!” the brown haired woman almost squealed. “I’ll be more than happy to leave Lee to Sakura, thank you very much.” She shuddered. “And I’m not even going to think you might have meant to include Guy…”
All attention turned to the pink haired woman who was only too happily losing herself in the hot water, mostly ignoring the squabbling going around her. “Eh, what?” Sakura asked as they were staring at her. “Don’t look at me. I certainly don’t want him either…”
The girls lapsed into silence for a few moments before the blue eyed woman decided to get a little more sober in talking to the brown haired weapons mistress. “Seriously Tenten, I know how it is chasing after a cold fish for so long… after a while you have to start to wonder when to pull up your stakes, cut your losses and move on to more responsive men.” Ino made another indelicate sound. “And, who knows, he may not even be interested in women… Have you ever actually seen him with one?”
Wide eyed the smitten brunette shook her head in a negative – all attention then focused on the wide white eyed woman. Hinata flushed a little and shook her head in negation as well. “I-I never would have thought…”
The blonde kunoichi continued. “Same thing with Sasuke – all those years wasted chasing him and he might not even play for the right team to ever even be interested…”
Sakura couldn’t help but laugh at her friend’s comment, inadvertently drawing their attention on back onto herself. She blushed under the scrutiny and felt the need to explain herself a little. “Sasuke is definitely attracted to women.” She paused to think about it. “Though, that doesn’t mean he isn’t also attracted to men…” she mused aloud as if the idea had just occurred to her.
All the women’s jaws dropped at her suggestion. The resounding silence proved to be deafening. Finally the shy dark haired woman was able to shake her head and find her voice.
“H-how would you know that?” she asked with wonder evident in her voice.
Sakura shrugged. “I was on his team, remember?” She asked suddenly realizing that she didn’t want to have to explain just how she knew – her female friends already thought she had a rather unhealthily close friendship with her former teammates. Telling them that she had let Naruto and Sasuke walk in on her on multiple occasions while dressing and twice while nude and otherwise engaged with her boyfriend of the time… She rather doubted they would really understand…
“So you were on his team, and a fat lot of good it did you in winning him.” Ino rolled her eyes. “Just because he and Naruto beat the shit out of or intimidate all the guys you date doesn’t mean that he…”
“Oh no! Nothing to do with that.” Sakura paused, not really wanting to explore this particular path. Hastily she tried a bit of a half truth, and hoped they wouldn’t press for too many details. “Look, I’ve seen him get nosebleeds from viewing semi-clad and nude women okay?” She felt her cheeks redden and hoped they either wouldn’t notice or attribute it to the hot water instead of her embarrassment.
The women looked at her in astonishment, making her feel distinctly uncomfortable. Sakura really didn’t want to admit that she was the semi-clad and nude woman to cause the nosebleeds.
“When was that?” the blonde woman wondered incredulously aloud.
The green eyed woman shrugged as casually as she could. “Several different occasions actually – so he’s at least on some level physically attracted to women…”
“No kidding – nosebleeds – really?” Tenten asked, taking it as a sign that maybe Neji wasn’t a complete lost cause as she had always inwardly feared. “And, I had thought he was just as disinterested as Neji and…” She paused and flushed realizing she had spoken before she had completely thought the sentence through, but decided to finish it anyway. “Well… your former sensei Kakashi… Sure he’s always reading those books and has quite the reputation but…”
~*~*~*~
Kakashi, who had secretly been enjoying listening to the kunoichi’s unguarded conversation, suddenly stiffened. He would never have imagined that his name would come up at the baths, never mind by women so much younger than him. Thinking about it he wasn’t displeased with the fact that his name was brought up, but he was irrationally displeased at the context. He was certainly not disinterested in women as Tenten had implied, he did have a bit of a reputation among the women in the village when it came to the bedroom, though he had to admit that it had been a while since he had publicly spent some time with a woman in Konoha.
The shaggy brown haired man next elbowed him with a lecherous grin, while the Icha Icha author patted him on the back companionably – suddenly reminding him of what the older man was actually doing at the hot spring, peeping. Not only was the old pervert peeping, but he was spying on his former student and her friends.
Kakashi’s conscience kicked in, after being lulled into a false sense of security by the fact that they not seen anything that the kunoichis may willingly show while wearing their usual ‘going out’ clothes, and he tried to pull the two other men away from the chink in the wall.
“Come on you two, we shouldn’t be here.” He hissed when neither man seemed inclined to move.
The older white haired man waved his hand dismissively at the Copy Ninja without turning from the women in the water. “Go on then, have fun, you know where to find me in two days.”
Kakashi paused as he realized just what he had actually promised the perverted old man – he would not interfere in any way with his ‘research’ such as it was. Severely angry with himself he crouched down between the two men again, his mind working on a way to get them away from the potentially dangerous chink in the wall without disturbing the women currently soaking in the spring.
~*~*~*~
“Yeah, I know what you mean. Going by the rumors he hasn’t been particularly interested in women for a while now, at least not in the village anyway.” Ino amended her statement. “You never know what he does when he’s out of the village on all those long term assignments… Regardless it’s a damn shame.” The blue eyed kunoichi sighed with genuine regret – surprising the medic.
“What?!” Sakura exclaimed, not quite able to hide her surprise. Ino had not too long ago admonished the medic for her apparent poor taste in men when she had allowed Kakashi to step in and frighten away all potential nocturnal companions from her birthday party at the pub. She knew that Ino could be fickle, but couldn’t see her making such a drastic change in her opinion of her silver haired former sensei, it just didn’t seem to mesh with the Ino she knew.
The brunette weapons mistress sighed. “I was so jealous of you when we first met and I found out who your sensei was…”
Sakura tried not to laugh at the serious brown eyed woman’s confession. If she had been in Tenten’s place she probably would have been jealous of just about anyone else’s sensei – but it was still strange to hear, especially thinking back on how irritated the man had made her over the years and even in her recent past with the ‘anonymous’ gifts that kept setting the gossip mill going.
“Oh come on Sakura, you have to admit that your former sensei is hot, despite him being a pervert and… an older man.” Ino paused as something only just occurred to her. “Actually both those things could be benefits instead of detriments… He must really know what he’s doing in the bedroom…” Her eyes lit with a sudden interest at the unfinished thought.
Sakura laughed. “That’s quite a one-eighty you’ve done Ino… Of course it has come after I told you he was younger than Genma… One of your favorite bedtime buddies…”
~*~*~*~
To the silver haired man’s inner disgust, his brown haired friend found himself on the receiving end of an enormous grin with an accompanying congratulatory pat on his back from the long haired author, no doubt for bedding the attractive blue eyed woman. He hadn’t known that Genma had spent any time with Sakura’s former rival and wondered just when that had happened and why Genma hadn’t bragged more about it.
Shaking his head his mind went to what the younger generation apparently thought of his personal life. He had no idea that they had thought to call his preferences into question considering his chosen reading material was strictly of the heterosexual nature – then again none of the four of them were likely to have actually cracked the cover of one of Jiraiya’s books. Regardless, Kakashi did have to admit to himself again that he hadn’t spent the night with a woman in Konoha for a while; he hadn’t really been granted the time or opportunity. All of his romantic encounters of late had occurred in other villages after the completion of or even as part of his missions.
The fact that Ino seemed to have ideas of her own about him didn’t disturb him as much as he felt it should, though a small part of him really would have rather heard Sakura making the same musings. Firmly he took a hold of himself and banished the inappropriate thoughts from his mind chalking them up to the fact that he was spying on them while they were bathing with the most well known peeping tom in the shinobi world.
~*~*~*~
The blue eyed kunoichi grinned at her memories of the time she had spent with the lecherous senbon wielding man – he had definitely shown her a couple things she would not easily forget.
“Ah Genma, definitely a favorite… Without a doubt he lives up to his reputation and perhaps a little more, that’s for sure…” Ino trailed off in thought before realizing that Sakura had effectively sidetracked her from the topic at hand. “But, Genma’s prowess in the bedroom is beside the point.”
The blonde waved her hand negligently as she changed the topic back to what she had been discussing before Sakura had distracted her. “Age isn’t really the obstacle I thought it was and I guess he isn’t as old as I had figured, it’s the hair, the baggy clothes, and the fact that he keeps most of his face hidden you know? Kinda hard to tell how old he is… Anyway in our profession, you’re really only as old as you feel.”
Sakura shot her an unconvinced look, not believing that her friend could have had such an epiphany going on so little new information. There had to be something she wasn’t sharing.
Ino giggled. “And, well… I happened to catch him the last time he was in the village after a spar with your boys on one of the water filled training grounds… and damn, soaking wet and without his vest, that baggy shirt and his forehead protector…If only he didn’t wear that undershirt with the attached mask…” She sat lost in her thoughts for a few moments before perking up to catch the pink haired women’s eye. “So, what’s he really like under there?”
~*~*~*~
The current topic of discussion felt his face heat and redden as his blood turned cold. Part of him really wanted nothing to do with hearing his former student stuck in this particular conversation but another smaller part was very interested in hearing what she had to say. Cursing himself he found that he was once again unable to leave as his curiosity kept him glued in place.
Finding that he was unable to leave he settled himself down, knowing that as soon as the girls were gone he was never going to live their comments down and Genma was going to be completely insufferable after the huge ego boost the beautiful blonde woman had given him.
~*~*~*~
Finally finding herself on firmer ground the medic shrugged. “How should I know? I’ve never seen his face…” She paused as something too embarrassing to even contemplate occurred to her. “Oh… I hope that’s what you meant…” Sakura flushed as the other girls laughed at her fleeting dirty thought.
Once the three women were able to control their mirth Ino grinned. “I did mean his face… but if you have information on the rest of him, I wouldn’t be opposed to hearing it. He always wears those ultra baggy clothes; I’ve never seen the actual shape of him other than that one time... Really, now that I think of it, what does he look like under all those layers?”
The medic blushed a deeper red and shook her head. “I’m so not going there.”
“So you have seen him then?” The brunette weapons mistress asked with interest.
“Er, no… I, I didn’t say that…” the deeply blushing woman stammered trying to regain her mental foothold. This was exactly why she avoided the public baths in Konoha.
“But you have seen most of him, other than his face I guess, haven’t you?” Her blonde friend leaned closer to the pink haired medic in a clear display of interest. “You are the only medic he’ll let near him these days…”
“Er…” Sakura’s mind just could not quite wrap itself around the absolute embarrassment of the conversation she had somehow managed to find herself in the middle of.
“Well come on then, does he have as hot of a body as we suspect or what?” Tenten pressed eagerly. She had always been fascinated with the shinobi who actually covered them selves up instead of leaving little to the imagination by sporting bright green spandex.
“Do you guys even know how weird it is for me to be…involved in this conversation?” Sakura asked in clear distress at the situation.
“Oh come on Forehead!” the impatient woman snapped. “It’s not like you’re interested in him or anything, right?” She eyed her former rival waiting for a confirmation.
Unable to find her voice, her eyes wide at the questions she had just been asked, she found herself slowly nodding – knowing that she couldn’t possibly have a different answer for the question.
The blonde kunoichi nodded. “So what’s the problem then? Share the wealth!” She and the other two women laughed, missing the fact that Sakura didn’t exactly join in with their mirth.
Thinking incredibly quickly the pink haired medic grasped at straws, “Sorry girls. That would be a violation of medic patient confidentiality.”
After a moment of shocked silence the brunette woman splashed the medic irritably. “That’s bull Sakura, you just don’t want to share.”
The medic sighed heavily. “Kakashi is a shinobi of the leaf and is built like one. That’s all you need to know and that’s all I’m going to say.”
“Aw Sakura…” The blonde woman whined convinced that she definitely knew more than she was letting on.
Having had enough the medic rose from her seated position, to take her leave from the naturally heated water. “Use your imagination like every other kunoichi who’s asked me the same thing about one of my boys…” Carefully she made her way from the pool to her towel, wrapped it around herself and entered the little changing house.
“S-Sakura! W-wait!” the timid Hyuga woman called as she hastily took her leave as well.
The two remaining women exchanged looks, sighed and followed the Hinata back into the little changing house. Tenten called out as she and the blonde exited the hot spring.
“We’re sorry Sakura! We didn’t mean to upset you!”
~*~*~*~
Kakashi watched as the pink haired woman rose, thankfully with her back to them, and made her way from the pool. She chose to take a different path in the spring to make her exit than she and the three other women had used to enter the pool. This portion of the spring was not nearly as deep. Once she had taken a couple steps the water receded until it only came to just below her waist, giving them a tantalizing view of her bare back, the curve of her slender waist and, as she moved her arms to run her fingers through her short hair, the very edges of the rounded curve of her breasts. Try as he might to prevent it the image was etched permanently into his memory and he was inwardly disgusted at the delight a small part of took from viewing his former student in such an inappropriate manner.
Once the four women were safely out of hearing range, none of them revealing more than the pink haired woman, the perverted sannin and senbon wielding man let out groans of frustration before turning on the still embarrassed and slightly surprised Copy Ninja.
“Quite a woman your former student has become, eh Kakashi?” The old man asked with clear amusement in his voice.
Kakashi wasn’t sure if the white haired man was talking about Sakura’s refusal to spill his personal details or the all too tempting tease of an eyeful she had unknowingly given them. Regardless he had to agree with Jiraiya, though he would never admit it out loud.
