Caught in the Fray

Caught in the Fray

Breaking the seal…

Kosuke fiddled with his fingers looking down at the ground, while walking next to sasuke. He was still embarrassed about earlier. Sasuke occasionally glanced down at Kosuke. Sasuke caught himself grinning. “Come on.” He said turning the corner. Kosuke looked in wonder at the sight. They had just turned into Konoha’s shopping district.

Sasuke grabbed Kosuke’s hand and led him through the crowd. Kosuke’s eyes wondered all over the place. All the shops, the food stands the trinket counters. “Sasuke-san…do you come here often?”

“My mom brought me here all the time as a kid…” Sasuke stopped a moment and looked around. “Come on.” Heading for a particular shop Sasuke led Kosuke through the crowd.

“Sasuke-kun!” A high pitched voice called from the crowd. Pushing through the people Sasuke spotted Ino dragging a very bored Shikamaru.

“Oh great…” Sasuke muttered under his breath.

“Sasuke!” Ino screeched as she latched onto his arm. “What are you doing here, Sasuke?” She asked sweetly.

“Yeah Uchiha, what are you doing here.” Shikamaru asked bored. “You’re supposed to be on guard duty at the south gate.”

“Tsunade told me I would be off duty for a month to take care of him.” Sasuke motioned to Kosuke.

“Aw!” Ino let out a girly squeal which caused Sasuke’s eye to twitch. “Is this the boy Sakura was talking about?” She asked and knelt down to look at Kosuke. “He’s so cute!”

“Sasuke.” Shikamaru looked seriously at Sasuke. “I wish someone had informed me. Ill have to ask you to take south tower, I have no one there.”

“What about him?” Sasuke looked at Kosuke, who looked like he was being tormented; Ino had his cheek in a death pinch.

“Well…” Shikamaru pondered. “You could leave him with Kakashi, he’s not doing anything.”

“Shika-chan! Come on we still have shopping to do!” She grabbed his hand.

“Sasuke.” Shikamaru nodded to him.

“Squad leader.” He nodded to Shikamaru before he was dragged off. Sasuke sighed and looked down at Kosuke who was rubbing his red cheeks. “It looks like we’ll have to do this later, okay.” Kosuke nodded.

Kakashi leaned against his door frame looking blankly at Sasuke. He looked to Kosuke who stood slightly behind sasuke, eyes down cast. “You want me to what?”

“Take care of him for about three hours…” Sasuke sighed ‘Damn Shikamaru…’

“Sorry can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t?”

“Sasuke I haven’t taken care of a kid in seven years, plus I don’t have food.” Sasuke dug in his pocket and handed Kakashi some money. “Uh…”

“I’ll be back in three hours.” With that he was off in a poof of smoke. Kakashi sighed and looked down at Kosuke who was still looking down.

“Come on in.” He stepped aside to allow the boy inside. “Alright, I’ll be back in a couple of minutes. Going to get food for you.”

“Okay…” Kakashi stepped out and Kosuke looked around. He went from the living room to other rooms until he came to a locked door. ‘Hmm…’ He grabbed the handle firmly and transferred chakra into the lock; the door glowed and sent Kosuke into the opposite wall. “Ow.” ‘It has a chakra seal on it…’

Examining the door he placed his palm on the center of it. Applying a bit of chakra a design appeared on the door. Pressing the top of the design he drew a line to another point and from there to the center. The door clicked and opened.

Slowly Kosuke entered the dark room. Feeling along the wall he found the switch. When the room was illuminated he saw a couch, a table, a desk and boxes piled everywhere. Being drawn to a particular box he walked to the desk. Opening the box he pulled out a bunch of pictures. The first was of a man with tanned skin, with a scar running across the bridge of his nose. The man was blushing a bit, wearing a pink apron and what looked like flour covered him. The next picture was of the same man in the park. Skipping through most of the pictures, all being of the same person, he stopped when he came to a picture with four people in it. There was Sasuke-san, Sakura-chan, Kakashi-san, and one he’s never seen before. A blond who was grinning and looked triumphant. Kosuke’s chest began to hurt. The more he looked at the boy the more his chest started to hurt.

Deciding to put the photo back in the box he spotted something else. A little orange book labeled ‘Icha Icha paradise’ Flipping open the first page he sat at the seat of the desk and began to read. ‘I didn’t think Kakashi-san would like drama types of books…’

About five minutes later Kakashi came walking in through the door with groceries in his hands. Setting them down he made his way into the living room and notices the door open. Narrowing his eyes he grabs a kunai from under the couch and heads to the open door. Slowly peeking into the room he spotted Kosuke sitting at the desk. Slowly Kakashi walked up behind the boy to see what he was doing. The sight before him almost caused him to laugh. Kosuke was red faced with his nose in the book. The expression on his face said ‘Put the book down’ but he kept reading on.

“Ahem.” Kakashi cleared his voice. Kosuke jumped up and slammed the book closed.

“Kakashi-san!” He faced him blushing furiously from embarrassment.

“Snooping are we?”

“S-sorry…” He started to fiddle with his fingers, looking down again.

“Tell me, how did you get in this room?”

“Oh, I uh, released the seal…”

“Oh really? Well I have something for little snoops like you.” Kakashi cackled evilly.

Sasuke wiping the sweat from his brow he knocked on the door to Kakashi’s house. When there was no answer he let himself in. The house was dead quiet and Sasuke was getting worried. The sudden clash of metal got his attention. He headed to the back yard. Upon exiting the house he spotted Kosuke sweating and panting with a Kunai in his hand. Kakashi, on the other hand, stood calm and hadn’t even broken a sweat yet.

Charging at the gray haired man, Kosuke aimed a slash at Kakashi’s chest but the strike was parried. Kosuke, with determination in his eyes, preformed hand seal that Sasuke knew too well.

“Fire ball jutsu!” The fire ball exploded on contact leaving a huge hole in the ground. Knowing it wasn’t that easy Kosuke looked around for his opponent. Sasuke knew what would happen next…like he predicted Kosuke found himself neck deep in the ground.

“Now, now Kosuke you have to try harder than that.” Kakashi said teasingly. For the first time in his life Sasuke was dumbfounded. He hadn’t seen Kakashi having this much fun since Iruka died…and Kosuke…he was skilled, he knew some fire jutsus it would seem.

“Oh, Sasuke your back.” Kakashi said looking at the Uchiha. Sasuke nodded and headed over to the two.

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