A ninja must see underneath the underneath

Chapter 3 - Time to run wild

"Almost time, almost time!" Naruto was practically bouncing on his bed with impatience. Soon he would be allowed to leave the hospital after the nurse did her final checkup of his shoulder wound. He wanted to get back to his apartment as soon as possible in order to prepare for his journey with Kakashi. He still couldn't believe his luck. Two years of special training. Just him and Kakashi.

Ever since Naruto had seen his sensei giving special training to Sasuke at the beginning of their training years, he had jealously been hoping to receive the same privilege someday.

Suddenly, Naruto sensed Kakashi's chakra coming his way. He got out of bed and opened the window, knowing that the older shinobi didn't tend to use doors. When he sat back down on his bed, his sensei was making himself comfortable by the windowsill.

"Hi Kakashi-sensei, what brings you here? You know I get to leave any moment now." Naruto told him.

"I know Naruto, I remembered. I thought I'd pick you up and walk you to your apartment."

"Why?" Naruto asked rather bluntly.

Kakashi's face started to turn a little red.

"I don't know, I thought you might enjoy the company?"

"Sure Kakashi-sensei. Sounds great!"

Kakashi visibly relaxed as his student let the matter rest. Kakashi had experienced peculiar feelings lately when it came to Naruto. He had always kept an eye on the younger shinobi because Naruto was his old sensei's son. Even though Kakashi was only thirteen years old himself at the time that Naruto was born and lost his parents, he always felt like he had to make sure the boy was doing okay. So in between missions, he would always make time to observe the child. He knew Naruto had struggled with rejection in the village, and yet he had grown up to be the positive-minded, sunny-disposition shinobi he had before him today. Something in Naruto drew Kakashi to him. It was almost like Naruto was able to lift his spirits, only by being alive. Kakashi didn't exactly have a nice youth himself, and as a result of that, he grew up to be antisocial and reserved towards other people. Naruto on the other hand was the exact opposite. He was always happy to be around his friends, and he always seemed to think optimistically. Kakashi liked that about the boy. His enthusiasm and loudmouth bravado was unique to Uzumaki Naruto, and even though he could get really annoyed by it, he wouldn't want to miss it for anything in the world. Lately, however, Kakashi would think about Naruto more and more often. When he went out on solo missions, he even noticed that he would actually miss the boy. Kakashi had been struggling with these new feelings, but nonetheless, he wanted to be there for Naruto, as a friend, and as his teacher.

A knock on the door of the hospital room pulled Kakashi back from his trail of thoughts.

"Hello there Naruto, ready for your final checkup?" The nurse asked.

"More ready than ever!" The young shinobi shouted happily.

Without a care in the world, Naruto removed his orange-froggie T-shirt so that the nurse could remove his bandages. Kakashi looked at his student's torso. "He sure has grown up a lot." Kakashi pondered. "He filled out nicely. Puberty agrees with you Naruto." Kakashi got annoyed when he noticed he started blushing again. "Dammit, why does that boy always make me blush like a silly schoolgirl!" Kakashi tried to suppress his annoying and embarrassing feelings and he chose to take a closer look at the healed wound on Naruto's shoulder.

"This one might actually leave a scar Naruto, even with Kurama's healing abilities." The older shinobi said to justify his piercing looks.

"Hai, I know Kakashi-sensei, Kurama said so as well."

"Nonetheless, the wound has healed very nicely." The nurse said. She wrote a few things down on Naruto's medical forms. "Alright then young man, you're hereby free to go. But please try to take it easy the next couple of days. We don't need the wound to open up again, alright?"