Peaceful Waters

Kakashi disappeared from the table unnoticed with a skill that one can only achieve after years of cutting out on the check. Searching for Genma’s chakra he found himself heading off into a garden softly lit against the darkness that had come upon the world while they had been eating dinner. A mere matter of moments later Kakashi found his target sitting on a park bench, elbows on knees, head resting in hands.


“Yo,” Genma mimicked to the copy nin, waggling his senbon in greeting.


“Genma-” Kakashi began sitting next to his friend on the bench.


“I know I know. I over reacted. I know that kind of kid. Hell I remember him myself from the damn exams before he ran off with the snake. I shouldn’t have goaded him. That kind just cares about power and wants to see where he stands. Well now he knows huh? I’m sorry man, I just can’t deal with that right now. Not with any subtly anyway. You know I usually like to play games but . . . This last mission man. . . I need to recoup. It’s been one after another for a long time now. It’s like it’s the killing season or something. Generally they’ve been pretty straight forward. This last one though. This last one. Well.,” Genma told Kakashi in a low intense voice, “I’ll be ok.You know me I just want to have some fun.”


“I know Genma. He’s been too cocky about special Jounin ever since he came back and jumped straight from genin to Jounin. I still don’t know why Tsunade let him. It’s past time he realized that ‘special’ doesn’t mean retarded. Although looking at you it CAN be hard to disting-” Kakashi answered, unable to finish his sentence as he currently had Genma’s elbow embedded in his stomach.


“Oh sorry man! Did I get you? I was just stretching my shoulder, working out that injury you know,” Genma explained in mock worry.


“That was your other shoulder teme!” Kakashi growled at the senbon chewer who frankly looked too smug for his own good.


“Oh, well I guess I was getting a head start on that fun then!” Genma answered cheerfully leaning back on the bench with his arms behind his head and his legs stretched out in front of him.


“If that’s the kind of fun you wanted you should have let me know, I’d be happy to give you an elbow to the gut right after eating anytime,” Kakashi replied rubbing his stomach fiercely.


“No, I think I’m all good now. Unless you want to come back to my room with me and wrestle?” Genma inquired innocently raising an eyebrow at a now fuming copy-nin. “No? Perhaps it’s for the best then. Did you see anything going on in the town while we’re going to be here?”


Kakashi took the change of subject gladly and answered, “Yeah, there’s some kind of dance thing in the club the day after tomorrow and then the day after that there’s a new Karaoke place opening that says they have private rooms for groups of 5 or more and some kind of game they invented. I also saw that the movie theater is playing the new Icha Icha movie.”


“Still? Didn’t that come out like a month and a half ago?” Genma asked.


“Yeah but this place is pretty rural it probably didn’t get here till too recently,” Kakashi replied.


“Sounds great anyway, we should all go out to that dance thing. Maybe the karaoke too. I’d like to see the Hyuuga sing!” Genma said laughing around his senbon.


“I think I’ll make it a mini-mission to go you know, like a team-work building thing,” Kakashi said smirking beneath his mask wanting to see Sasuke forced into a social event.


“I love when you’re team leader,” Genma said appreciatively eyes twinkling.


Then enjoying the night they both just sat on the bench together, Kakashi pulling out his faithful companion and flipping over to the best part, Genma leaning back and peering over Kakashi’s shoulders at the pictures, idly twiddling his senbon.


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Sasuke took went back around the table and sat down in a huff. This had gone far differently then he had expected. He had just wanted to scare the stupid senbon ninja and show him who was superior. He knew if it was an all out battle he would defiantly win, but he had just been shown that in these close circumstances, he could lose. That unsettled him more than he would like and while the rest of the table discussed how amazing Genma was in between bites as they finished what remained on the table, Sasuke idly picked at what was left on his plate brooding quietly.

To his surprise he felt a modicum of respect growing for the man. Ever since he had returned to Konoha after killing his brother he had become more emotional about some things then he would have liked. While with Orochimaru he had honed a mask of indifference that could not be shattered. He only killed when he felt it necessary and felt no remorse when he did. He had broken all his bonds and that gave him clarity and a certain kind of freedom. He did not want to become Itachi however and after he had destroyed that monster and returned to Konoha some new form of the bonds he formally had had returned. He felt now, contemplating it that he was unused to emotions and perhaps he was allowing himself to get carried away in some things. The emotions that were most familiar to him were hate, anger, sadness and as he would only admit to himself in the darkest recessed of his mind, fear. He was oddly uncomfortable with the bits of happiness that he had experienced since he came back. These mostly happened between Naruto and himself, and sometimes with Kakashi. He seemed to remember a few happy times with all of team 7 in the dim recesses of his mind but he had shut those away when he left for sound and he wasn’t sure if he could get them back, or if he wanted to. He needed to figure out what part emotions would play in his life now because obviously he had not handled them properly this evening. He did not want to be Naruto like, but perhaps he didn’t want to be quite Sasuke-like either. Still he would have to find out where Genma fit into all of this. He needed people to be put in their proper places and he still wasn’t sure if he would define Genma as a worthy companion or not.

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Sakura, Naruto and Neji chatted animatedly about Genma recalling everything they could about him from the chunin exam and from Sakura’s acquaintance with him in the hokage tower. No one could remember that much but no one’s recollections matched the awesome display of technique that they had witnessed.


“I remember he would come down from the ceiling whenever Tsunade called him. I never knew he was there! I even looked for him once I knew that he was supposed to be there and I couldn’t sense him at all!” Sakura said happily.


“He was pretty cool when he monitered the fight between Neji and me!” Naruto added cheerfully, “And didn’t he fight against Baki while Sand and Sound attacked us?”


“I think I did see him down there before we left to catch up with Sasuke,” Sakura said, and saying the fellow jounins name all three happy tale tellers became silent and peered cautiously at the dark Uchiha.


Fortunately for them Sasuke was too busy with his inner monologue to have heard their discussion and continued to stir the remains of his rice along his plate with his chopsticks.


Sai decided to take this time to ask a very odd question, “Does Genma-san have any children?”


“What?” Sakura asked stunned. “No, not that I’ve ever heard. Why?”


“Just curious,” Sai replied flipping a page in his sketch book and sketching away since he had finished eating a short while ago. “You look nice in my clothes Sakura. You should get into my pants more often.”


“HAHAHAHA! Sai made a joke!” Naruto howled kicking his legs wildly under the table.


Neji just averted his eyes away from the table smiling slightly despite himself and Sakura just stared at the artist like she had never seen him before.


Sai looked up from his sketch and gave Sakura a large fake smile causing her to sigh in exasperation and leave the table determined to go back to her room and go to sleep so she could get up extra early to make sure she had some clean clothes.


Returning to the cabin she shared with Genma and Neji she saw that Genma hadn’t arrived back yet and having the place to herself plopped down on the sofa to watch some tv. A luxury she didn’t get to have very often at home as a busy shinobi. She flipped the channels to get an idea of what was on and settled on a cheesy romance movie that she had been meaning to watch with Ino but had never gotten the chance. She had been watching for about half an hour when Genma came in. She looked up at him and waved happily, gesturing for him to join her on the couch.


Genma walked over and sat next to her careful to keep quiet so that she wouldn’t miss any of the sappy dialogue. A few minutes later the commercial came on and Genma couldn’t help but want to use Sakura’s sappy mood to his advantage. He did want some fun after all. He stretched languidly making sure she was watching and remembering what he looked like without his clothes. He let his arms rest on the back of the couch so so that one of them was resting across her shoulders.


Sakura laughed at his blatant flirting and turned to smile at him coyly. Despite his goofiness Genma was actually quite charming she never knew anyone who could actually pull off these old tricks and not look stupid.


“Do you really like those cheesy pick-up lines?” Genma asked her around his senbon, idly shifting it with his tongue.


“They have their time and place,” Sakura answered quirking an eyebrow at him.


“And now is one of those times?” Genma asked softly.


Sakura responded by almost imperceptibly pressing closer into Genma as she turned to face him and smiled.


“Did you know,” Genma began smoothly slowly removing his senbon from his mouth and placing it back in his holster. “My mouth is considered a lethal weapon? Can I invade your personal space?”


“You must be very tired,” Sakura replied turning her head slightly and leaning closer to Genma.


“Why?” he replied looking into her green eyes.


“’Cause you’ve been running through my mind all day,” Sakura answered trying not to giggle.


“Like to give as good as you get do you?” Genma asked bringing a hand up to brush a strand of hair out of her face and resting it on her cheek stroking it gently with his thumb.


“I do my best,” answered Sakura looking back into his eyes and placing her hand softly on top of his. “I can be pretty competitive.”

“That’s fantastic,” Genma whispered as he finally brought their lips together softly.


Sakura deepened the kiss slowly opening her mouth and caressing his tongue with hers. She was not totally prepared for his response. Evidently this was one battle she wouldn’t win. Playing with that senbon had done wonders for him, and for her. She found herself moaning softly into the kiss as Genma moved his hand from her face to the small of her back pulling them closer together. Sakura ran her hand gently up and down his back running light trails of warm soothing chakra along his spine earning a moan from him. The kiss, which up until this point had been slow and easy, began to grow more passionate and heated. Sakura found herself laying back on the couch legs wrapped loosely around Genma’s waist as he carefully supported himself on his elbows so he wouldn’t crush her. Sakura kissed him fiercely, her tongue continuing the useless battle against its more experienced opponent. Sakura pulled him closer with her legs and felt what she had only seen earlier pressing firm and hard against her thigh. She unconsciously ground against him causing them both to moan. It was precisely at this moment that Neji, Naruto, Sai and Sasuke came in the door.


Sorry, know it was sort but there you go!