Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ 11 Ways ❯ Aghast ( Chapter 9 )

Nine: Punch

 

The first time his own body betrayed him (on Sakura's behalf) Kakashi was aghast.

 

Ever since she'd come back from that particular mission he'd been extra cautious around her. It wasn't her that he was being careful about, but he'd noticed that while all the questions about his strange behavior during her absence had stopped, the always-inquisitive eyes of his `friends' probed even deeper now at the interaction between the two.

 

It was only for that reason that he was forgoing his favorite way of dealing with such circumstances and avoiding her. So now he was around her only as much as necessary, nothing more. Not enough to incite speculation, not little enough to arouse suspicion.

 

Now he was sitting at a cramped table in the bar, pointedly ignoring Genma's graphic depictions of his many conquests and current interests. Not the most scintillating or thought provoking of topics, but it provided a nice droning background. All he truly wanted was some peace; when left alone his thoughts had a distracting tendency to pester him, so the monotonous noise around him allowed him to sink into a numbing mindlessness.

 

Until the senbon-chomping idiot had the audacity to mention her.

 

It wasn't much of anything really, probably the most innocent comment the other had made all night, but it didn't matter. Before he had the chance to even notice what he was doing, let alone respond, his fist had buried itself in his unlucky friend's jaw and sent the man flying across the room.

 

The accompanying din then proceeding silence was deafening, but when the other patrons saw no fight forthcoming (and the two who were involved), they quickly turned back to what they had been doing.

 

“Shit, Kakashi,” Genma muttered, slumping back against the wood behind him. He stretched his mouth until he heard a resounding crack then swiftly pressed his lips and changed to tenderly stroking the abused jaw. “You just had to tell me.”

 

“Tell you what?” he replied drolly, turning back to stare at his drink in denial. He sat there looking for all the world like a man with nothing more pressing on his mind than when to buy his next roll of toilet paper instead of a man who'd just punched a fellow jounin into the wall.

 

Idly, Kakashi wondered if he could start a new club; `Denial-Lovers Anonymous' had a nice ring to it. Maybe they could all move in together, form a commune, and he'd finally be in a safe environment where no one would bother to question his actions and motives because he could in turn grill them about theirs.

 

Going to all the trouble of making something like that happen would surely have to be easier than dealing with this…right?