Naruto often covered deep insecurities with bravado, his loneliness with loud, his emotional fragility with a mask of stupid enthusiasm. He might not have worked with Naruto for long, but he'd noted that much. Though there were times when Naruto would be surprisingly insightful, Kakashi was used to seeing the "dead last" of the Academy being a clown and buffoon who'd try to rival with Sasuke.
His stance and manner were completely off from earlier that day. Admittedly, if he HAD gotten a bloodline ability - that might have boosted his real self-image and confidence to change that facade into reality.
He'd have to check with the Hokage as Naruto had mentioned discussing it with the old man. Now though, he'd have to see what he could see.
When Sasuke and Naruto were distracted as they started to spar, Kakashi adjusted his headband and studied Naruto with his Sharingan for a few seconds.
If it had been a simple henge or illusion, Kakashi knew he would have seen it immediately using the Sharingan. No such thing, but something was even more off about Naruto.
Sasuke started out openly scornful of sparring with Naruto. That changed quickly as Naruto blocked Sasuke's most powerful kick. Judging from Sasuke's reaction, it had been like hitting a reinforced wall.
Sasuke then used a Replacement jutsu to avoid being hit by Naruto's followup punch. The log... well, it didn't look very log-like after Naruto connected with it. More like a flying cloud of splinters and otherwise unconnected chunks of wood.
"Naruto!" chided Kakashi. "This is a friendly spar."
"Sorry, Kakashi-sensei," responded Naruto as he dodged Sasuke's attack. "I just got the strength and stuff, guess I don't control it all that well."
"I see," said Kakashi. Judging from Sasuke's expression, he understood that as well and had just shifted to a 'dodge like your life depended on it' strategy. "Okay, stop."
Sasuke was breathing hard. Naruto was quite obviously not.
"Uhm, Kakashi-sensei," began Naruto, looking very uncertain. "You've... I mean... I need some advice."
"Oh?" asked Kakashi. Naruto was quite nervous about this? "I'm not going to teach any new jutsu until you master the ones you already have."
"Errr, ehm, that's not it," said Naruto nervously. "It's kinda not related to that so much. But you are my sensei and all."
Sasuke glanced at Naruto, also not used to seeing Naruto acting bashful.
"I just heard that some girl might... actually kind of... like me," began Naruto.
Kakashi twitched, his visible eye widening.
Sasuke snorted. A girl might like NARUTO?! World was coming to an end, sign of the Apocolypse.
"I really don't think Sakura likes you," said Kakashi.
"At all," added Sasuke.
"More like tolerate you with a side order of contempt," added Kakashi.
"He's being generous," said Sasuke.
"Not her," growled Naruto at this tag-team approach. "I was asking Kakashi-sensei, teme."
"So this hypothetical girl, is she bigger than a breadbox?" asked Kakashi.
"Yeah, she's just under my height I guess," said Naruto, wondering what a breadbox was and how that entered into any sort of consideration on the problem.
"So you're not dating your Centerfold Jutsu?" asked Sasuke.
"NO!" responded Naruto, glaring at Sasuke. Shouldn't he be going off and brooding?
"So what's the problem?" asked Kakashi.
Naruto left off glaring at Sasuke as something he could do later. "I kinda know I just annoy Sakura, so I want to say hello and not screw up. How do I let her know she can talk to me, cause she's always going off and hiding and stuff."
"You're serious?" asked Kakashi. Twelve years old and already asking for dating advice. "She's shy?"
"Uh yeah, I guess so," said Naruto.
"I wish some of those fangirls were shy," mumbled Sasuke, not appreciating the way some of them launched themselves at him.
"So whatta I do?" asked Naruto.
"Hmmmm," hmmmed Kakashi. "I wonder."
"You don't know either, do you?" asked Naruto after a minute had passed.
"No, not so much," said Kakashi, disappearing in a puff of smoke.
"Great," said Naruto. "See you tomorrow, teme."
"Where are you going?" asked Sasuke.
"Going to try and say hello without screwing things up," said Naruto by reply.
Sasuke waited until Naruto had walked out of sight before smirking and starting forward himself. Someone else had girl problems. This might be amusing.
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(Posted Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:27)
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