After the pain

Disclaimer: Oh how I wish I owned these guys, of course I wish more that Kakashi was a
Real person and lived next door. But Hey that’s how life works. Neither one
Is true so just enjoy my stealing of another person’s genius.


Sorry for the wait but spring has finally arrived where I am and that means I gat almost no free time.

For those of you who are waiting so patiantly for the story to get to where it left off I am sorry for the wait but don't be surprised if it's closer to fall before new material shows up.


Thank you all again for your reviews sorry I don't have time to answer them right now.

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Chapter 10

He smiled down at her and Temari’s still sluggish mind absently wondered if he was close enough to kiss her, and if she should ask him too.

“What time do you have to be at the training grounds?” She asked instead, her voice remained soft.

Her eyes strayed down his mostly bare body as the words left her mouth, admiring all the hard muscle that covered his chest, arms and legs.

Even though they were no longer touching she felt like she was still surrounded by his body, with his hands on either side of her and one knee resting between her legs.

‘I wonder what his skin feels like.’

Naruto’s voice drug her back from her inspection.

“I don’t have to be there until six.” He was giving her a lopsided grin as if he knew what she was thinking as she stared at him.

“So that gives me…..”

Her eyes followed his to the alarm clock sitting on the bedside table.
The digital numbers read 5:45.

“Fifteen…” His eyes went wide. “SHIT!”

He abruptly rolled away from her and ended up falling off the bed.

Temari sat up, completely forgetting about the intimate moment that had been interrupted as she moved to peer over the edge of the mattress were Naruto’s head suddenly popped back up and he scrambled to his feet.

‘Sorry babe.” He said as he leaned down and brushed a quick kiss across her cheek before dashing to his closet to grab clothes he then slid across the hall and disappeared into the bathroom.

Temari found herself frozen in place; one hand came up to gently touch the spot where his lips had landed.

‘Did Naruto just kiss me?’ She was too stunned to answer herself.

The thought that she had almost asked him to kiss her on the lips didn’t have time to surface because she was distracted by a startled yelp coming from the bathroom.
The sound made the girl grin as she realized that Naruto must have stepped into a cold shower.

Grabbing a second pillow from beside her own she propped it behind her so she could sit up and watch the show, she decided that it would probable be very interesting.

Glancing at the clock it now read 5:47.

At 5:51 the bathroom door banged open and Naruto emerged, half way through pulling on his black t-shirt which, once in place clung to every plain of his still damp body.
His hair was also still dripping wet.

Temari did her best to keep a straight face as he rushed out of sight into the living room.
She could hear him running around the apartment, muttering to himself.
It seemed like only a moment had passed when he reappeared inside the bedroom to grab a weapons pouch that lay on the dresser.

“I’m turning into Kakashi.” He muttered mostly to himself as he headed back out the door.

5:55

His head instantly popped back around the corner.

“I’ll see you for lunch okay.”

Temari managed a smile and a half wave of her hand before he disappeared again.
She heard the door slam and looked at the clock.

5:56.

Silence reined for about two minuets before Temari burst out laughing and flopped back onto her pillows.
She couldn’t remember ever seeing anyone get out of bed and ready to go that fast in her life.
Not that she had seen a lot of people get out of bed.
Her personal contact with others was mostly limited to her brothers.

On her missions or during her duties in Suna she focused on getting her work done as quickly and efficiently as possible, the people she was helping were in some ways barely background noise.

She continued to chuckle as she replayed the mornings events through her mind.
She suddenly sobered as she recalled her own actions, or rather lack there of.

Frowning she stared up at the ceiling.
Last night she had gone to bed alone, she didn’t recall waking up at all during the night and then this morning she had opened her eyes to find a man sleeping on top of her.

So why wasn’t she upset?

Hell! She would have brought the roof down on any one’s head who had even tried to cozy up to her in the past.
In fact she had been known to break a couple wrists and arms that were attached to wandering hands.

But that was before…… before THAT had happened.
Now she should be even more wary, so why wasn’t she?

Naruto had kissed her for crying out loud!
On the cheek granted, but what about earlier?
She may not have a hell of a lot of experience in that area, okay no experience.
But she was pretty sure the two of them had almost kissed for real.

She should have freaked!
Pushed him away!
SOMETHING!

But no, she had wondered what his skin felt like.
And know she was just lying there, staring into space with butterflies in her stomach just thinking about the whole thing.

With a groan she rolled onto her front, taking the blanket and sheets with her as she buried her face in the pillows.

She was messed up, to messed up at the moment to make any sense of her own actions or lack there of.

The soft feather pillows muffled her sigh as she gave up trying to pick apart the mornings events.

Hopefully Gaara and Kankuro would arrive soon to retrieve her, and then maybe once she was home she could start getting back to normal.

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Naruto was half way down the street before it occurred to him to simply teleport to the training grounds.
He shook his head at himself as his hands made the correct signs.
With a puff of smoke he appeared in the middle of his favorite training field.

“Your LATE sensei.”

Naruto spun around at the sound of a child’s voice to find Taruno, Meeka standing with her arms crossed over her chest and one small sandaled foot tapping on the ground impatiently.

‘I’m not that late.” He informed her with a chuckle when a quick glance around the area revealed that she was the only one present.

“You are two minuets and twenty…six seconds late.” The twelve year old declared after consulting her wrist watch.

Naruto walked up to her and patted her on the head, mostly because he knew she hated it.

“I didn’t mean to be late, sorry for making you wait for me.”

He suspected that the girl was more worried then angry.
Even though she tried not to let it show, he had noticed a long time ago that she was very insecure and had an understandable fear of loosing the people she cared about.
The blonde man hoped that with time she would get over that fear.

“So where are your co-harts?” He asked changing the subject.

The green haired girl shrugged her petite shoulders. “Oshi’s parents wouldn’t let him out this early and Hiki was still sleeping when I left.”

“You didn’t wake him up?” Naruto raised a brow in query.

“I’m not my cousin’s keeper.” Meeka huffed, her jaw set mutinously.

Naruto suppressed a chuckle.

‘I wonder if I looked like that when I had someone asking me questions that I didn’t like.’ He wondered for a moment, because it wasn’t the first time that the girl had reminded him of him self and he was pretty sure that it wouldn’t be the last.

“All right then, are you warmed up?”

The girl practically started to bounce.
“Yes sensei.”

“Then let’s see if you’ve been improving.” With that said he stepped back several paces and fell into a fighting stance.

Meeka clapped her hands in glee at the prospect of showing off her talents.
The girl barely set herself before rushing at him, a fist aimed for his head.

Sidestepping he grasped her arm and used her momentum to flip her into the air.

Her recovery was quite impressive, twisting her body around she managed to land on her feet, even though she skidded a little over a meter before coming to a complete halt.

She glared at him through her bangs, emerald eyes flashing.

“You’re in to much of a hurry.” He pointed out as he mirrored her stance from earlier and folded his arms across his chest.
He gave her a meaningful look before turning his back on her looking around the training field like he didn’t have a care in the world.

Naruto knew the action would make the young cadet mad, it always did.
He heard her growl under her breath before she attacked again.

The next half hour proved that the girl was indeed improving, but she was very impatient.

‘She so reminds me of me.’ He mused hiding a smile.

They were interrupted by Hiki who finally arrived and yelled at his cousin for leaving without him.
That of course started an all out fight between the two; they were far too alike for either one of them to back down.

Naruto finally broke them up and set them to work.
Other youngsters continued to show up, so by the time Kakashi made him appearance at just after seven the blonde was directing nine pupils.

“Multi tasking again are you.” The silver haired jonin commented casually to his former student as he came to stand at the younger mans side and took a moment to look over the talents of the newest generation of Konoha ninja.

“More like refereeing.” Naruto replied a wry smile touching his lips.

“Sounds familiar.” Kakashi remarked his visible eye crinkling. “It’s an interesting group you have here.”

“A little this, little that, so I hear you’ve been asked to be a teacher again.” The younger man stated.

“I have.”

“And?”

“Turned it down.” Kakashi stated simply.

Naruto gave him a strange look.

“Why? You’re a really good sensei.”

Kakashi smiled. “A sensei who failed every single team sent to him before you, Sakura and Sasuke came along.”

“That’s because we’re amazing.” Naruto informed him with a cheeky grin, which earned him a light thump on the head.

“Seriously though, why not?”

“I have other things I’m working on. Besides after having an Uchiha genius, the Hokage’s apprentice as well as the future Hokage as students, I’m afraid any new ones would be a disappointment.”

Naruto chuckled at Kakashi’s bland reply.

“How about when Sasuke’s boy graduates? Who would be better then you to teach him how to use the Sharingan.”

Kakashi sighed. “Ask me again in three years or so.”

“So are we going to stand around all day of are we going to spar?” The copy-nin asked.

“I don’t see any brawls I need to break up, so let’s go.”

Naruto shrugged out of his vest as he turned to move farther away from the children.
His shirt was stripped off as well, Naruto preferred to have the least restriction possible when he worked out.

Kakashi trailed after him until they were both a safe distance away from where the other occupants of the training grounds were working.

The two jonin finally turned to face each other, their stances more that of two friends having a conversation the two opponents squaring off.

Kakashi had his hands stuffed into his pockets while Naruto’s rested casually on his hips.

They stood silently taking each others measure.
Then as if on cue they both vanished from sight.

The sound of metal striking metal echoed off the trees as the two reappeared.

Naruto wielded a single Kunai in his right hand that Kakashi currently had captured by scissoring it between two of his own.

Naruto’s left fist struck at Kakashi’s stomach but the copy-nin saw it coming and forced their locked hands down one brought one knee up. Effectively blocking the punch.

Using the momentum the Kitsune vessel brought his left leg up in a round house kick aimed for the silver haired man’s head.

The kick was blocked as well but Kakashi was forces to release the hold he had on the blonde’s kunai.

The two pushed away from each other, Naruto grinning like a chesher cat.
He had finally had a good nights rest and he felt good.

For the next hour the two jonin clashed in a no holds barred session.

Although they mainly used Tai-jutsu, there was no shortage of Gen-Jutsu and weapons usage.
Kakashi even resorted to using several tag bombs at one point to flush his former student out of hiding.

Naruto was in his element, fighting was the one thing he did really well and he could forget about everything else and just loose himself in the anticipation of the moment.

It was his stomach growling hungrily that pulled him out of his single minded fighting mode. Until then he hadn’t realized that he had missed breakfast.
Ducking a shuriken he mentally shrugged.

‘O well, I’ll just have to eat more at noon.’

Having an empty stomach in no way hampered his fighting ability.

‘I need to pick up Temari for lunch, I wonder if she’ll want to go out? I should have asked she might want to stay in.’

‘Stay in! Stay in! Stay in!’

‘Why?’

‘Then you can finish what you started this morning!’

‘What the hell are you talking about?’

‘Come on, you were so putting the moves on her!’

‘I was not!’

‘Oh REALY……. What would you call snuggling on top of her?’

‘I was sleeping!’

How about when you kissed her? I know you were awake then.’

Kakashi went low trying to kick his feet out from under him.
Naruto did several back flips to distance him self and landed in a crouch.

‘I kissed her? When?’

‘ARGH! Moron!’

Trying to remember when he had done this so called kissing, he played the early mornings events over in his mind.

Images flashed, and he suddenly froze.

‘NO WAY!’

He never saw the blow coming, Kakashi’s fist connected with his face.
The force sent him flying backwards to skid across the ground on his back.

It barely registered in his stunned brain that he was now sprawled on his back, staring blankly into space.

He had! He had kissed Temari.
Hell! he woke up on top of her for crying out loud!
Granted he had barely been coherent at the time, she must have been half asleep herself he decided other wise he was sure that he would have been sporting some very big lumps and bruises on his person.

Groaning he mentally hit himself in the head.

‘O God, I treated her like it was the morning after or something.’

‘Well, now that you’ve had the morning after thing, you need to back track and do the night before the morning after.’

Before he could slap himself for real a gloved hand waved in front of his face, jerking him away from his thoughts.

Looking over he saw Kakashi crouched down beside him with a questioning look in his one eye.

“I didn’t hit you that hard.” The older man commented.

“You didn’t?” Naruto pushed up onto his elbows and looked around trying to remember exactly how he had ended up on the ground.

Kakashi gave him a hand up.

“You feeling alright kid?” He asked as Naruto regained his feet.

After rolling his neck and shoulders Naruto nodded.
“Must have gotten distracted.” He mumbled as he brushed dirt off of his body.

‘O man, I better apologize to Temari. She’s probably upset with me.”

He shook his head at him self for doing something so stupid. Completely oblivious to the fact that his former Sensei was still watching him closely.

‘Maybe she’ll be mad. Mad would be nice, I can handle mad.’

“Looks like your students are rioting.” Kakashi commented, once again dragging the blonde away from his thoughts.

Following the copy-nins line of sight he saw all of the youngsters bunched together and shouting.

Sighing heavily he teleported across the training field to where the group was gathered.
Pushing his way into the circle he rolled his eyes when he saw Meeka straddling an older boy and was beating the tar out of him.
The group grew quiet as he walked up to the combatants and drug the furious girl off of her victim.
The boy instantly scrambled to his feet, nursing his jaw.

Naruto had to keep a firm hold on the back of Meeka’s jacket to prevent her from attacking the boy again.

“Does anyone want to tell me what’s going on here?” He asked sternly looking around the circle. All eyes were down studying the ground.

“Meeka?”

The girl folded her arms and glared at the boy across from her who was sporting a bloody nose and lip as well as more then a few bruises.

“He said I’m not allowed to be a ninja.” She finally growled. “Just because my parents weren’t.” Meeka lunged at the boy again but Naruto held her back.

Then he turned his hard gaze on the boy.

‘Toya.” The boy blanched and shifted uncomfortable. “Is this true?”

“I was just kidding.” Toya mumbled as he shifted his feet nervously.

“That is NOT something you kid about.” Naruto informed him. “I’m disappointed in you Toya.”

The genin’s head jerked up, his eyes wide. “I..I’m sorry sensei.”

“You don’t apologize to me, to Meeka.” Naruto told him before turning his attention to the other children.

“Training is over for the day. Some of you are due back at the academy in a few hours, you had best get ready.”

As the others slowly started to head back towards the village Meeka pulled out of his grip and dashed farther into the training forest.

With a sigh the jonin turned to follow, leaving the boy Toya where he stood.
He saw Kakashi give him a two fingered salute before the silver haired man disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Naruto had no problems following the girl through the forest; he took his time wanting to give her a few moments alone before he got to her.
He finally found her sitting under a tree with her knees drawn up to her chin sniffling.

He didn’t say a word; he just sat down beside her and leaned against the tree, waiting for her to say something.

It didn’t take long.

“Toya’s a jerk!”

“I’ve been told that all boys are jerks when they’re Toya’s age.” Naruto suppressed a chuckle as he spoke, he didn’t want to upset the girl any more then she already was.

“He’s the jerkiest.” The girl sniffled as she wiped her nose on her sleeve.

“Well don’t worry about it to much, after the beating you gave him I doubt that he’ll bother you again.”

Getting to his feet he brushed off his pants and waited as Meeka slowly got to her feet and did the same.
He had taken a couple steps in the direction of Konoha when the girls quiet voice stopped him.

“If my Mom and Dad had been ninja, they would still be alive.”

Naruto turned in time to see her emerald eyes once again fill up with tears.
And her slight frame started to quiver with silent sobs.

‘Uh oh.’ Naruto went back and knelt down in front of the girl so that they were closer to eye level. ‘Now what?’ He didn’t think that he should point out that shinobi didn’t exactly have a long life expectancy.

So instead he did the only thing he could ever think of doing when confronted with a crying female. He gathered the grieving girl into his arms and held her close.
Almost instantly her small arms wrapped around his neck and she buried her face in his bare chest.

Naruto knew there was nothing he could say that would help so he decided to just hold the girl until she felt better and then take her home.

Sighing he mentally shook his head.
He hated seeing a woman cry and this was the second one he’d had to deal with that week.

‘Why me?’

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Kakashi watched how Naruto handled the brawling children and was rather impressed.
His former student had certainly learned patience over the years.

It still amazed the scarecrow that the blonde always seemed to have a never ending stream of children following him around.
And from his observations the younger generations seemed to hold no fear or hate for the demon vessel.
Perhaps he mused; attitudes towards Naruto were slowly starting to change.

Kakashi doubted that Naruto even noticed.
Just like he didn’t seem to notice the devastated look on the boy Toya’s face when he voiced his disappointment.
The genin was obviously crushed from the mild rebuke from his idol.

‘Yes very interesting.’ He mumbled to himself.

But the former teacher pushed that aside for another time.
Right now he wanted to know why the young man had seemed to zone out in the middle of a match.

The punch that had sent him flying had been meant to be a distraction for crying out loud!
Kakashi knew Naruto was way to skilled to let that kind of a punch hit its target, usually.

Some thing was definitely up with the blonde and he stroked his cloth covered chin thoughtfully for a moment before suddenly grinning.

Sending a salute Naruto’s way as he prepared to teleport.
He knew someone who would probably know what was going on.

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There you have it, sorry again for the wait.