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“Fuck,” Misaki said, sounding mildly disappointed.
Kakashi glanced up from his beloved Icha Icha with a quirked brow—not that one could tell if they didn’t know his mannerisms, considering only one eye was visible in the first place. The other jounin was hanging upside down by her knees from a tree branch above him, regarding her left hand with her lips drawn into a pout.
“My nail broke,” she sighed. She might have seemed almost betrayed if he wasn’t sure she didn’t actually care that much. Broken nails were the last thing ninja needed to worry about, for which very reason even most kunoichi kept their nails short as a matter of practice. Misaki had only been trying to keep hers longer for a few months. “I wasn’t even handing a weapon this time.”
“Maa, what would your sister say if she heard you using that kind of language around impressionable little children?” he asked dryly. He was only teasing, since his adorable minions - genin students, that was - were too occupied with sparring and bickering to pay their “lazy” teacher or his friend any attention.
They used to, back when Misaki had first started showing up to their training sessions; Naruto and Sakura were particularly eager to impress a high ranking kunoichi, and even Sasuke had been curious about her presence, though he’d never admit it. However, over time Misaki had become a regular visitor, and since she clearly was amused by and possibly even (gasp!) an enabler of his laziness, they came to regard her in much the same way as their sensei.
Which was not very highly, as she had discovered early on, to her (initial) delight.
“Aren’t you supposed to be a responsible adult kunoichi?” he finished.
“Oh, damn it, you’re right,” Misaki gasped, then clutched at her heart exaggeratedly for good measure. The effect was slightly lessened by the fact that she was still upside down. “We have to think of the babies!”
“You have to think of the babies,” Kakashi agreed, because he wasn’t the one cursing.
“They’re your babies to think of, aren’t they, Kakashi-sensei?” she said, sticking her tongue out at him. His only response was a noncommittal sound, which was really about as good as agreement in her eyes. He just pretended not to know that.
“I’d just painted my nails, too,” she lamented, sighing more heavily this time.
Kakashi turned back to his Icha Icha. “I’m not using my Sharingan to paint your nails,” he said. The corners of his mouth kicked up, hidden as always by his mask, when she sighed a third time with extraordinary gusto.
Misaki pouted uselessly at the top of Kakashi’s head. “You didn’t even let me ask this time,” she muttered. Kakashi merely hummed in reply.
“You’d be so good at keeping the edges clean,” she wheedled after a moment.
“No.”
She let out an overdramatic groan. “You’re no fun at all.”
“That’s not what you thought last night.”
Misaki’s arm shot down, stretching so that she could flick his ear. “What was that about watching what I say when impressionable little children are close by?” she retorted.
“Who’re you calling little kids, dattebayo!” Naruto protested loudly. Apparently Kakashi’s students had finally quieted down long enough to hear that last comment, though hopefully not the one before it. Misaki might have been right about it being a little…much in front of the pack of twelve-year-olds he was supposed to be responsible for.
Kakashi was still a little horrified by that, to be honest. Misaki thought he was being overdramatic. They both had valid points.
“Sorry, Naruto!” Misaki said. “I should have said impressionable little preteens. Or is that the same thing?”
She let out a laugh at the round of protests that comment garnered from all three of them, flipping off her branch to land lightly on her feet next to Kakashi, who was still leaning back against the trunk of the tree with his one visible eye trained on the pages of Icha Icha as if that would make them all go away. Silly man, she thought fondly.
Naruto’s shouting subsided into mere grumbles as she ruffled his hair; Sasuke tried to dodge his own hair ruffling and completely failed, while Sakura suffered her somewhat tolerable head pat with barely any more grace. Misaki caught the amused cant of Kakashi’s head and grinned up at him.
“Not feeling left out, are you, Kakashi-sensei?” she teased. “You’re a bit too tall for a good angle, but I’m sure I can figure something out.”
“Maa, aren’t I a little old for that?” he asked, finally lowering his book. “As you say, I’m a sensei now.”
“Saa, you’re not too old if I can still reach,” Misaki said, and then she pounced.
Kakashi let her pull him down to her height with good humor, but instead of the veritable noogie she’d telegraphed, he got an exaggerated kiss over his uncovered brow. And then, while his genin reacted loudly to that, she gave his hair a quick fluff and let him straighten back up.
“Kakashi-sensei, are you and Misaki-san dating?” Sakura asked with wide eyes, while Naruto continued to make exaggerated gagging noises behind her and Sasuke rolled his eyes. Kakashi scratched the back of his neck and felt his cheeks darken slightly despite himself.
“Well,” he said, dragging out the word as long as he could. “You could say that. At the same time, you could also say we’re not. I wonder.”
The three of them stared at him. He tilted his head and offered nothing more than his cheeriest closed-eye smile. They turned to Misaki, who held up her hands.
“Well, he’s not wrong,” she said, laughter clear in her voice. She turned back to Kakashi and, very purposefully, leaned up on her tip toes to place a kiss on his masked cheek. “See you at home, ‘Kashi. Later, kids!”
And then she shunshin’d away, leaving Kakashi to face the curious badgering and steadily rising volume of his students alone. He was definitely going to get her for that later.
After he had some more fun waiting to see how long it would take the kids to realize their sensei was actually married.
If, he thought, eyeing them as their voices began to overlap into an argument, they even get that close.