Too Young, Too Early

"Sasuke! This is a three-man squad! The last time I checked, Naruto and Sakura made two." The voice of Kakashi-Sensei ripped Sasuke from his alternate reality, where a milder, gentler Kakashi was running slick fingers down from his collarbone and...

"SASUKE!" The partnered voices of Sakura and Naruto brought Sasuke completely back to earth. With a thrust of his left leg, and a well placed kunai, both of his teammates were free from the tree to which they had been tied. Folding his arms, Sasuke turned away from them all and stared into the distance. He fought back a bitter laugh.

"Teamwork, indeed," he though to himself. "If teamwork means I save their butts every practice."

"Hardly passable. But you'll just work harder tomorrow," Kakashi said, his one visible eye glinting with supressed anger. "You may go home. Everyone, but Sasuke. You stay here." Upon their release, Naruto and Sakura waved a shifty goodbye to their third teammate and walked in the direction of the village, too tired to give the teacher and student a second look.

"Sasuke, I don't know what has gotten into you." Sasuke dug his foot moodily into the ground.

Didn't he know? Hadn't the brilliant Jounin guessed what was flying through Sasuke's head every practice? How in the dark corners of Sasuke's mind, near the darkness that promised revenge on Itachi, their was a constant movie playing... A movie that involved a teacher and a student.

"And even now, I stand here trying to talk to you and you seem in a different world."

"I'm sorry," Sasuke said quietly, biting back at the impatience that was creeping into his voice.

"What was that?" Kakashi looked taken aback, the strongheaded youth had yet to ever apologize to anyone.

"I'm sorry. I have alot on my mind."

"Surely you understand that it is not within my nature to be caring about the troubles of teenagers, but you may certainly share your thoughts if you must."

Once again, Sasuke had to stifle his amusement. Mr. Emotional-Range-of-a-Teaspoon, of course, did not open to confidences often. Kakashi must have found feelings, especially those of lust and possibly love, below him. Below the mighty level of Jounin.

"Is it a girl?" The question startled Sasuke. How very wrong the sensei was. A girl... female and young? No, no. Sasuke did not like the giggling and the batting of the eyelashes. Ino and Sakura were foolish.

"No."

"A boy?" Kakashi's face, very little that was showing, became unreadable. Sasuke wondered if the teacher had finally caught on: Sasuke didn't like girls.

"Because if Naruto has grown out of hand with his fight challenges, I will speak to him." Of course. Kakashi thought Sasuke's problem lay in fighting males, not craving them.

"Not exactly."

"Well, if you will not tell me what is troubling you, then I can only ask you to try and put it aside during training. It would not do, on a mission, to allow your thoughts to get to you. See you tomorrow, Sasuke."

Perhaps it was the sound of his own name tumbling so nonchalantly off the lips of his teacher that spurred him into action. Perhaps it was the fading sun or the sound of the village drums as the first night of festival began that made his heart jump fully into his throat. In either case, however, he spoke out.

"Sensei." Kakashi paused in his determined walk from the practice area. He turned, raising an eyebrow at Sasuke.

"Yes?"

"I-I..." He stuttered, unsure of what to say.

"I'm gay," he thought. No. No. That was childish and didn't explain everything.

"I like you," he pondered. No, again. Kakashi wouldn't under the depths of his feelings.

"I know, Sasuke." Sasuke jumped, casting an uneasy look at the shadowed face of his teacher. Has Sasuke perhaps uttered one of the previous phrases? No. He didn't, he'd have heard it.

"I know how difficult feelings are when you're your age. You must, however, overcome such feelings," Kakashi said, with the air of a young father assisting his son. Sasuke bit his lip. How had Kakashi known? Of course, what he said was reasonable but it still stung.

"Sakura is your teammate and it would be unadvisable and unhealthy to pursue anything with her. She would become that much more important. More so than Naruto and that can finish a squad."

"No, sensei. I don't like her." He paused. That seemed rude. "No, not like that. She's nice. She's... just not... you. It's you."

"Me what?" A long silence registered in both male's minds, during which Sasuke's stomach seemed to have dropped into his lower abdomen, causing a squirming feeling of nerves.

"I like you," he said, wincing at the sound of it. "You. Maybe love. But definitely like."