Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Road I Take ❯ Gai's Not Totally Clueless. ( Chapter 5 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

She had found some plainer, nicer clothes to wear amongst her bags of clothing, settling for a plain, pale pink kimono with designs of a darker pink cherry blossom tree with a white obi wrapped around her waist and brushed her short brown hair, flattening her straight fringe and slightly longer bangs. She spotted the detestable gray rat, standing in the door frame through in reflection in the mirror, a twisted gleeful smirk on his features, watching as she readied herself for the unwanted date with a man she hardly even knew. "Are you happy now, now that you've got your sweet, sweet revenge?!" He chucked throatily. "I could see that you were totally dying to get to know him. All i did was help." She snorted in response to his comment, heavily laden with sarcasm and glared, pushing past him out into the hall and into the kitchen. He followed swiftly on her heels only having to pause when she slammed the sliding door to the kitchen in his face pushing it aside again before following her into the lounge room.

'Gah! That god damn, stupid sly rat, why doesn't he just let it go, its not like the book was such a big damn deal, you can just buy another one. And him loosing the fight was all his own damn fault, if he wasn't being so relaxed and friggen more interested in that crappy book, he wouldn't have gotten defeated now, would've he?! And why the hell is he following me like that, his hands behind his head and that damn stupid mask over his irritating grin. I swear one more comment and I’ll-'

" Ma, now you don't look like such a tomboy in these clothes..."

He stopped and noticed her shuddering shoulders and wondered if he had finally tipped the scale and gone too far with his fun. He stepped forward only to have to quickly respond to her flying fist, leaning back as the fist came a little under a centimeter from his nose. He staggered back a bit, out from under her fist and realized that she had not been crying at all, but was shaking with such rage and fury. She followed his stepping back stomping towards him, he could see and feel the killer intent that was radiating off her being and cowered back slightly. “Nowhere to run now, Kakashi-san” She grinned insanely and swung another fist.

At that exact point of time, Gai had appeared between her and Kakashi in the lounge room, a small puff of smoke protruding where he stood, receiving the full impact of the flying fist of fury right in the jaw. There was a split reaction of surprise where Kakashi just stood wide-eyed while Ritsuko had gasped and pulled back, all killer intent forgotten as Gai’s head recoiled in seemingly slow motion. Ritsuko rushed forwards, talking quickly “oh Kami, GaiimsosorryKakashiwasbeinganassholeandtickedmeoffsoiattackedhimbutyoutelep ortedinthewayididntmeantohityou.”

Kakashi meanwhile had started snickering uncontrollably, finally breaking down into multiple fits of laughter, holing onto the dining table for support as Ritsuko fussed over the pained Gai, racing to get some ice from the fridge. She shot a glare at the hysterical Kakashi while holding the ice to Gai’s face that hadn’t said a thing since being punched. After a minute he had been still laughing, sitting on the floor, rocking back and forth. He irritation grew and she launched the ice pack at him, hitting him square in the face and he rolled back onto the floor, making a thudding sound. “Didn’t you say you had to be somewhere, baka?” He shot up, suddenly, the surprise and his head shot to the clock on the wall. Ritsuko smirked at his response ‘He is sooo late.’

Kakashi had swiftly shoved them through the door, locking the apartment and saying a quickly goodbye all the while sending another look of victory at Ritsuko who only glared in return, and burst into smoke, teleporting to only Kami knows where. She looked nervously up at Gai, trying to smile sincerely “Where to?” he thrust a fist into the air “Yosh! Lets go!” and he was off, leading her into town, flashing white grin, blinding everyone in site. ‘Oh Kami. I hope this goes alright.’ She was silently pleading that it was going to be a good, normal night and not a full-blown disaster, like it had been so far. She could only hope he didn’t think this was serious and try anything, she felt slightly nauseous from the idea.

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It hadn’t been so bad. They walked around for a while, talking about random topics which had ranged from politics, to the Academy, to shopping and houses. She had been embarrassed a number of times by his especially flowery and passionate way of talking about beauty and other things that came close to his heart. They entered a small diner, which had a warm atmosphere to it, waiters busily going about the tables, the quiet hum of conversation. Gai talked on and on about his adventures as a young student, involving the continuous battles between him and his rival. Their meals were large and tasty, and it didn’t take long until they had both finished and were walking to the bar, which him and his friends had all visited so regularly. ‘So far so good.’

The music was loud, hell, the whole entire room was loud. People were yelling, singing of all sorts. You could tell that this was a pub, even though unspoken, was made to accommodate only for ninjas. Everyone there had a forehead protector (except for her who had decided not to wear hers with a kimono). Whether it was around the waist, neck, head or other available place to tie. Gai’s entrance was welcomed with the yells and waving of a number of people and amidst it all, stood the group she had seen earlier, including that gray rat, Kakashi. She scowled at the sight of him as they made their way over to their group.

The scraggly bearded Asuma had looked like he had had a few drinks and was smiling and grinning contently, the cigarette that always looked like it was full, even though it was burning slowly, hung limply from his mouth. His arm hung limply off of Genma’s shoulder, whose face was slightly flushed, stick from his mouth was twirling in his fingers slowly and was sitting on a bar stool. Kakashi had his hands in his pockets, that single eye creased in that way which showed victory and irritated her to no end. With his face covered you couldn’t really tell if he was drunk or not. Gai laughed at them all as Genma leaned down to rest his arms on his knees, grinning in a sly matter up at Gai “So how was you date, Gai? Give us the goss.” Ritsuko caught his underlying meaning and twitched slightly. Gai grinned “The lovely flower of Konoha here and I had a wonderful time at the dine in! Her youthful beauty is without comparison and she makes for brilliant conversation! But don’t take me as any old fool, I knew what was going on!”

They looked at him curiously, just as she did, his accusing finger pointed high, before falling front of Kakashi’s face. “My eternal rival, had set this up, twisting this poor girl into taking this night out with me for his own retribution! I knew as soon as he suggested the idea, knowing full well that a lady as innocent and pure as her, she is couldn’t refuse!” They looked at Kakashi curiously as he waved him hand “Hai, hai, you win, I knew you’d figure it out sooner or later.” Gai pulled a fist near his face, tears streaming down his eyes in the victory he had gained over his so hip rival. Ritsuko sighed in relief know that it meant she wouldn’t have to go on another date with Gai again.

Gai turned back “But the score isn’t settled yet! We are still at 52-53, so I challenge you!” Kakashi seemed fairly relaxed and Ritsuko wondered if he hadn’t already had some sake when they weren’t looking. Kakashi blinked “Ma, it’s your turn, choose the event, Gai.” Gai stumbled. He didn’t know what to do. He glanced quickly around the room and his eyes fell onto a bottle of sake and he picked it up, hoisting it into the air for all to see “I-I challenge you to a sake drinking contest!!” He yelled triumphantly “It will test the strengths of our endurance and with my youthfulness, I am sure of victory!” He flashed a blinding grin as the group sweat dropped.

Kakashi had already agreed to the challenge and so the contest was on. Somehow Kakashi was very good at taking his shot when nobody was looking, which was usually when Gai was yelling out some half witted speech about his soon-to-be victory and then started throwing down the line of glasses at top speed. By the time he had finished the group had looked to Kakashi’s row to find he had already finished. Sometimes Ritsuko wondered if he simply just threw it away, but it was shown soon after that this was not true when he expression turned from concentration to a sloppy grin as Gai’s speeches became more bizarre and less understandable with a mass of slurs and half finished sentences, making ridiculous claims like he invented the cardboard box.

It was late when Gai’s head groggily hit the table and the competition was over. Kakashi giggled. Ritsuko looked at him like he was insane and felt embarrassed that he knew such peculiar people. It was that time that she had decided that they should be taking their leave. She was happy she didn’t decide to drink. She had a feeling that they would need her help getting home. It had come to Ritsuko’s attention that she’d had an upset stomach ever since they had met up with the group after dinner and she was feeling slightly sick herself. Asuma, Genma and Gai (Who was passed out over Genma’s shoulder) had walked off one way, leaving Kakashi and Ritsuko to walk off the opposite way, back home, Kakashi was staggering slightly on the road, humming a random song.

“ So what happened to you yesterday?” He was slurring his words, head bobbing around strangely. Ritsuko blinked out of confusion. “What do you mean?” She struggled to be civil in front of the intoxicated Jounin. He scratched his face before concentrating on walking again, stumbling slightly over to her, grabbing her arm from balance. “I mean yesterday, on the way to the, to the, to the bridge. You were so gloomy about everything that had happened the day before but then suddenly you changed.” Her stomach lurched slightly, and she placed a hand on it, feeling nausea build up in her. Swallowing it down, she spoke calmly “I just had found a reason to be living, to go through it all every day. I found a solution to make everything in my life right again.” He face was screwed into a look of concentration and he stumbled again, this time, falling onto his hands and knees. She sighed at the incompetence of Kakashi’s drunken self and helped him up, putting his arm around her shoulder and her hand went around his waist to steady him. She glanced quickly to his face becoming suspicious if he were really as drunk as he made out to be. The image burned into her mind, he face was smiling proudly, as if he was happy that she had found something to live for and she wondered what was going on in his masculine mind of his.

They staggered in the door minutes later and she dropped him off at the couch, walking in the kitchen and back to bring him a glass of water, letting him drink it all before retrieving another to leave beside the couch, as he settled down to sleep and she went to get a blanket for him. She returned to find he had managed to take off most of his clothing, including shoes, gloves, forehead protector, his Jounin jacket and even his shirt which all lay on the floor, discarded. He lay on the couch, arm draped over his eyes while his mask still covered his face. She paused momentarily, hypnotized by such a view and she cursed herself for thinking such things about someone who had from day one been nothing but horrid to her. She snorted at herself, stepping forward, unfolding the blanket and starting from the feet and dragged it up over his body, eyes wandering to a muscular stomach and chest. “Having fun there?” She jerked up, his eyes were peaking out from under his arm and she stared at the mismatched crimson and charcoal eyes, blushing furiously and wondering curiously at such a thing.

She stiffened and chucked the rest of the blanket over him. “I hope you have a wonderful hangover in the morning” she added irritably as her stomach jerked again, catching her totally off guard. She felt herself paling as the coolness of the room attacked her and she turned away quickly from being noticed and walked out of the room, leaving him to his sleep.

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Hi everyone. I’m sorry for the delay of updates, but I had a lot of stuff over the last few days and there’s a good chance there wont be another update until next week, but I hope I can get another in before that. Yeah, i know your thinking, what the hell? You didn't do anything! Ahh but i did i will say because when i wrote this chapter i hated it for some reason and then went through it and edited it so it made a little more sense as to why in the hell would Kakashi ever get drunk. He doesn't seem that type of person, really. Anyways, Gomen and ja ne.