Those Little Moments (Hatake Kakashi)

17

I woke up to a hand shaking my shoulder, but I kept my eyes closed, pressing my face into the pillow to try to alleviate my headache.

"I don't wanna wake up, Kure. Either cuddle me or go away." I whined, batting away the hand that was on my shoulder. As I hit it, I realized, it was definitely larger than Kurenai's hand. "This isn't Kurenai. Please don't be a stalker or robber or something, I'm too hungover to deal with that."

I heard a deep chuckle. "Emiko. You're in my bed."

I cracked an eye open, wincing at the harsh daylight, and saw Kakashi crouching over me in his office, where I was sleeping on the extra mattress. "Oh. My bad." I rolled onto my back, finally taking my face out of the pillow. "Hey, Hatake. How was the mission?"

Kakashi sighed. "Eventful. It ended up being A-rank, but Naruto and Sasuke really improved."

I shot up into a seated position grabbing Kakashi's shoulders anxiously, grimacing at the pounding in my head. "Is Naruto ok? He didn't get hurt right?"

"Yeah, he's fine. You should be more worried about your bedhead than him." 

I glared, hastily trying to flatten my very messy hair. My hand itched to punch him. "You should be more worried about me punching you." I rolled my eyes, adding under my breath, "to think I missed this guy."

"Your punches don't really hurt anyways." Kakashi shrugged, ignoring the tightened grip on his shoulders and the extra comment.

I scoffed. "Really? You know what, how about we spar today, and then you'll see how much my punches can hurt?"

Kakashi's brow cocked. "You think you're ready for that?"

I nodded defiantly, pulling myself out of bed. "What time is it anyways?"

"About 11am. I gave the kids the rest of the morning off, but they'll get to the training grounds at 2." 

I briefly mapped out the day, then headed over to the kitchen. "Ok, I'll make us brunch first, then we'll fight before the kids arrive. I don't wanna steal their sensei for too long."

To my surprise, Kakashi agreed, and after some eggs and bacon (and an ice cold glass of water for me), we headed out to the training ground, facing each other.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Emiko?" Kakashi asked, for once not having his makeout paradise book out.

"The chance to punch you without feeling bad about it? Why would I not take that?" I scoffed, grinning. Deep inside, part of me was still upset by the idea I'd had the previous night, the question of whether or not Kakashi actually cared, and I was looking forward to being able to take out my frustrations.

Before anything started, I summoned chains below the ground, with one at every square foot between me and Kakashi with a wide area. When Kakashi started coming towards me, I started with a water jutsu, shooting a powerful jet of water at him, which he dodged, then started fighting hand to hand with him, gradually planning out when I could strike with the chains. In my distraction, he managed to get in a solid kick to my side, and I instinctually called up the chains, one chaining his other foot and a wrist, pulling him towards the ground.

As he started to fall, I took advantage of it, despite the pain in my side, and tackled him with a kunai pressed against his neck.

Despite the victory, when I looked into his shocked eye, I could tell he hadn't been going at 100%, and that pissed me off. I glared at him, still straddling him with my knife against his neck. "You know, I would've preferred if you had won going full out rather than winning like this."

"You surprised me. I thought you said you were out of practice." Kakashi said, his eye still wide open.

I huffed, putting away the kunai. "I haven't done nothing while you were gone, you know. Guy and Kure have been training me, and I even beat Kure once for real. I wanted to test my abilities against you, since you were once my rival." 

"I'm sorry, Emiko." Kakashi said genuinely, though his eye still seemed to be in shock.

"Also, what's that expression on your face? Why are you so shocked?" I asked, starting to get confused.

It almost seemed to me that he was smirking under his mask, and there was a slight flush on the visible corner of his cheek. "Well, Emiko, not that this position isn't enjoyable, but, are you going to get off me at any time soon?"

I squinted confusedly. "What part of having a knife to your neck is enjoyable? I don't ge—" I trailed off, remembering when I had last been in a somewhat familiar position, though it had been against my will. This time, though, the memory didn't give me a panic attack, instead I found my own cheeks heating up and I hastily got off of him, calling away the chains too.

Once I was sufficiently far away, I managed to look back at him for a second, before looking away. "S-sorry, Hatake, I uh didn't mean to, uh, I mean... You know what I mean!" I pointedly faced away from him, not seeing him smile at me from behind my back and the growing flush on his own cheeks.

I was still trying to calm myself when Naruto and the others arrived.

"Naruto! I heard you guys completed an A-rank mission! I'm so proud of you!" I exclaimed, giving my nephew a tight hug and offering a high five to the other two. Only Sakura accepted.

"Oba-chan, how come your cheeks are so red?" Naruto asked, peering at me suspiciously.

My smile twitched and I tried desperately to stop myself from blushing any harder in embarrassment. Truthfully, the main emotion I was feeling was confused, and it hadn't been a particularly enjoyable nor uncomfortable moment, so I really had no idea what I thought about it.

"Kakashi-sensei's blushing too! I told you they were dating!" Sakura exclaimed. 

"No, no, we're not, we just live together, nothing like that." I waved my hands in front of my face desperately. "We just fought each other, so I'm overheating a bit." I'm probably just still a little drunk, that's it. That's why my cheeks are red, no other reason. Well, that, and the embarrassment of being attacked by children about my non existent love life.

"You guys fought?! Who won?!" Naruto exclaimed. "There's no way you beat Kakashi-sensei, right?!"

That was the perfect way to end my blush. I frowned, glancing back at Kakashi to glare at him. "And why not?"

"Kakashi-sensei's super strong!"

My mood fell further. My precious nephew thought my childhood rival was cooler than me. Once again, I remembered the urge I'd had to punch Kakashi in the face, and my hands curled into fists. When the kids had started their training, Kakashi came up next to me and said, "You still have those jealousy issues, huh?"

I punched him in the arm feeling a mixture of anger and embarrassment. "Shut up, Hatake."