Masked Rivals /A Kakashi Fanfiction\

Chapter 5

Kakashi had brought the two twerps and twerpette up to the academy rooftop and was now perched on the rail across from them.

When we headed for the steps I had a sense that a better opportunity was about to come up and cloaked myself again for the time being.

"Ok...let's begin with some introductions." Kakashi started.

"What do you want to know?"

"How about your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future...stuff like that." He answered.

"Hey hey. Why don't you introduce yourself to us first??" The blond interjected.

"Yeah...you look suspicious."

I couldn't help but giggle at the twerpette's comment and allowed the noise to break my barrier so just Kakashi could hear it.

He glanced at the girl a moment, having recognized it was a feminine giggle, but also noticed she had made no facial movement or expression to signal it was her.

I was watching from a distance and finally decided to plop myself in a matching cross legged position between the loud blond hair kid and the silent treatment black hair boy.

"Oh me?..."

He asked bored-like.

Once comfortable, I finally dropped the cloak again for just Kakashi to see me casually leaning towards the blonde boy with my elbow on his shoulder. When he stopped short of his 'introductions' I knew I was successful and gave him a little wink and a smirk.

To those kids, it just looked like he was mindlessly staring off. Once I had drawn his attention long enough, they each started to look around trying to figure out if there was something they hadn't noticed.

I had to admit, Kakashi hid his bewilderment well from them when he saw only confusion on their face when they looked right through me, then back to him.

"They're waiting." I chimed in with a coy little smile.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi-"

"Well, duh" I interjected, "get on to the good part already."

I egged him on impatiently.

Kakashi closed his eyes to finish, as if not seeing me was enough to get rid of me.

"I have no desire to tell you guys about my likes and dislikes-" he continued

I had gotten up at that point and strolled over to him while he had his eyes closed. Since my chakra was still hidden, making it as if I didn't exist, he jumped a little when my knee brushed his leg. I sat down next to him on the rail facing him with one leg crossed over the other. He did well to control himself and only I noticed the little jump since I felt it where my body touched his.

"Aw, that's no fun. You aren't holding back because of me, are you?"

"Dreams for the future...?hmmm-"

"Seeing a head doctor." I interrupted again.

He finally opened his visible eye and only gave me a sideways glance with a hint of a glare, not even turning his head to face me. Then he resumed back to the others.

"Well, I have lots of hobbies..."

"Like being a perv." I said while pulling out one of his Icha Icha Paradise books I had found on his nightstand while I had waited for him to wake up.

I flipped it open to a random page and started to read a passage aloud while the kids complained about his shpeal and started to introduce themselves.

I had kept my back to him, just walking random circles around the kids while I read. After a few minutes, I finally glanced over and noticed he was tugging his mask up a little higher to cover his visibly reddening cheeks from 'Naruto' and the other two, who were still introducing themselves.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke-"

Uchiha?! I thought I he looked familiar...could he really be...

I forgot myself for a moment and made my way around them and squatted facing the 'Sasuke' kid, studying his face for a moment.

"-And I don't really want to use the word 'dream' but...I have an ambition. The resurrection of my clan and...to kill a certain man."

Look out Itachi. You got a spitfire coming for you. And rightfully so...I thought, remembering how hard it had been to hide my disgust towards Itachi the day he joined the Akatsuki and someone had told me what he'd done.

Remembering where I was, I quickly looked over my shoulder at Kakashi with a creeped out grin and sweat drop, pretending to be freaked out by the younger Uchiha brother's introduction.

"I think he needs to join you to see that head doctor. Oooh-you could wear matching straight jackets! Wouldn't that be fun?" I giggled.

"Okay..." Kakashi closed his eyes for a brief moment, which I knew was his way of trying to ignore my comment, rather than shaking his head of his 'thoughts' which the others would notice. Then he looked over to the last of them and kept on looking like nothing was going on to those kids.

"And lastly the girl."

The girls cheeks turned as pink as her hair and for a moment I thought she had started a fever. She started babbling her introductions, not fully completing each sentence as she kept gazing longingly over to crazy Uchiha.

I cloaked myself again and chuckled at the audible sound that only I knew was a sigh of relief from Kakashi. Then I 'popped' myself back into his sight sitting next to him on the rail again.

"My hobby is...." She obviously looked over at Sasuke, "the thing I dislike is Naruto!"

I leaned to the side, shoulder to shoulder with Kakashi acting as if the others could see and hear me, and whispered to him with a hand over my mouth, "Girls of this age are more interested in love than ninjutsu, am I right?"

That's when I finally got some reaction out of him. For a moment he didn't think about his actions and started to turn his head to me. I could see just enough of his face from this angle to see his one eye had widened slightly. Then he came back to himself and stopped, holding himself in a position that just looked to his students like he was contemplating what they had said.

Were we just thinking the same thing? Oh, that would be too good. Well, here goes nothing.

.. "Why so surprised? I told you I'm a figment of your imagination. It's only logical I know what you're thinking." I tried not to laugh with him when he let out a small chuckle at my choice of words when I said, 'logical'.

"That's enough of that." He said, turning his full attention back to the trio who were bickering amongst each other...and yet I don't think that was for them.

"Fine." I said, deciding to 'play along' for the moment to really get into his head. So with a huff I 'popped' back out of sight.

He finally let himself fully look around in front of his students, making it seem like a leaf on the wind had caught his attention and now he watched it flit by. But, I knew he was just trying to make sure I was truly 'gone'.

"We will start our duties tomorrow."

I just sat, waiting and listening for the next ripe moment to interject.

"What kind of duties!!!" Naruto asked a little too excited than necessary. I couldn't help but smile to myself at his enthusiasm.

"First we are going to do something with just the four of us"

Oooh, this is a good one

"Don't you mean five of us?" I whispered in his ear, only revealing my voice and not lowering my cloak again.

Kakashi pretended to scratch an itch on his ear and swatted in whatever direction he imagined I was in response.

How rude I thought to myself and hopped down from the railing next to Kakashi.

Then I proceeded to simply pace back and forth around the small area they sat in as he went over their duty, which was really going to be survival training.

"Oh and skip breakfast, you'll throw up." He added, making them all pale as if they already had forgotten to eat. "The details can all be read on this printout. Don't be late tomorrow."

I decided to show myself again, pretending to hand out some of the forms to the twerps alongside him. He froze for a moment when he confused Sasuke reaching out to him as looking like he was actually trying to take it from me. After Sasuke took it from him with a little extra tug to get it out of his grip, Kakashi relaxed and kept his eyes on his hands so he could avoid glancing my way.

Once he dismissed them and the three exited the roof top, I noticed for the first time just how tensed his shoulders must have been with the way they slumped forward when he turned to me.

"This isn't possible." He grumbled to himself. Then he rubbed his one eye for a moment like that would magically fix everything, then looked back to me while trying to blink me away.

"Don't underestimate yourself. If you haven't noticed yet, you've got quite the imagination." I beamed at him with a wink.

Then before he could say anything else, I decided to show off a bit. Get a little dramatic so to speak.

I turned and ran across the rooftop. I jumped onto the rail, then hopped off. I waited until I knew he had seen all of my physical body pass as it dropped, then cloaked myself and grabbed onto the top of the window immediately below the rail.

Kakashi's jaw dropped under his mask and he ran to the rail, expecting to find the body of a strange woman splattered on the concrete below-but there was nothing.

While he was busy running across the rooftop and eying the ground below for signs of me, I had kicked off the wall and flipped back onto the rooftop behind him.

Getting as close as as possible without actually touching him, I dropped my cloak again and tried to 'peer over his shoulder' at what he was looking at.

"So, what are we looking for?" I asked.

He jumped at the sound of my voice and my breath on his neck. He slowly turned back around to face me, his hand on his chest like he nearly had a heart attack. He slouched forward with his hands on his knees, taking a few deep breaths before he looked back up at me with a sigh.

He just gave me a blank stare for a moment as he raked his hand through his hair in aggravation. After a few more minutes he finally opened his mouth like he had thought of something to say, but I decided to 'poof' away before he could get the words out.

He pulled the hand in his hair down over his face and rubbed his eye one more time before finally just giving up whatever thought he had and walked back home.