Chapter Text
I woke up in a different place
Then I left when I closed my eyes
And this feeling I can't explain
That this day would make me alive
The day Kakashi got hit with the ball was the day he knew he would always watch the boys’ volleyball team. Konoha High was located in the far east of Miyagi Prefecture, surrounded by nothing but farmlands, trees, few houses and convenient stores, and of course, more trees.
Sometimes Kakashi wondered why his dad even decided to move to the province side when they were doing well in Tokyo. At first, he was dejected by the sudden move, leaving all his friends behind, but afterward, he started to like the place.
His dad was at home more often, his environment didn’t consist of loud cars and many people, and he was also surprised that he managed to have friends. Well, Gai was the first one to approach him so.
Konoha High was also, unbelievably, a big school than what Kakashi had expected- honestly, he thought he would go to some high school with no name but Konoha High was pretty famous.
Gai was in the track and field team and apparently, he had gone to the finals last year. Not only that, the girls and boys volleyball team were also known throughout Miyagi. Some of his classmates, like Kurenai, the only girl Kakashi had talked to, was a genius and currently representing as Ms. Quiz Bee against other schools near Miyagi.
Amidst that, the school was pretty cool and also the people in it. He was already a 3rd year so there’s really no need to be attached to it. Though he silently wished he could stay more to enjoy the facilities.
But, that’s it. This was his new life. Wear his itchy black gakuran (next time he would be the one to wash their clothes because his dad wasn’t really that good with house chores), go to school either by bike or feet, meet his friends at the gate, study, eat, and then go home. Sometimes hang out near the riverbank.
It was going well. He had done his routine the past few months he had enrolled. Kakashi wasn’t complaining. He had got used to everything.
Until his head was hit by a volleyball.
“Fuck! Sorry,” He heard profanity before an apology. Kakashi thought his day couldn’t get any worse, but then when he was greeted with the worried face of the most gorgeous person Kakashi had ever seen—he thought wrong.
There stood before him was another student. He wore the basic training green jersey with the number 11 pasted in front. He was also sweaty with some small hair that framed his face. What got Kakashi's attention was those eyes. Big doe eyes that kind of held a dark galaxy that he can’t comprehend.
“Hey, you okay?!” The newcomer asked and Kakashi wanted to know his name right then there. But it seemed like his mouth was glued shut so he just resorted to looking at the beautiful angel in front of him.
Was he dead or?
“Ugh, please respond. I’m wasting time here,”
“Hey, is the dude, okay?” Another student came by but Kakashi decided he had embarrassed himself enough. He slowly stood up, his world was spinning but he could manage.
Kakashi then felt a hand on his wrist which forced him to turn and look at the one who managed to hit him. “Are you fine?”
Kakashi saw another student wearing the same uniform at the corner of his eyes but he didn’t pay attention to him much. What’s important right now was this person in front of him, his face all worried and sweaty and damn, Kakashi noticed he had a scar that downright looked awesome.
“Please respond. I hope I didn’t give you a concussion,”
“Your looks just surprised me…”
“Pardon?”
Kakashi grinned under the mask he wore as he leaned in closer to the sweaty student, took note of how he smelled like wood rather than sweat. “I think you hit me in the heart, rather than my head.”
The student took a step backward, face contorting into a confused one before turning to disbelief. He scoffed, ever so pretty, but the light pink hue decorated on his cheeks didn’t escape Kakashi’s eye.
“Yeah, you have a concussion,” He rolled his eyes, letting go of Kakashi’s wrist much to his dismay. “Look, sorry about that but I have to resume practice,” He turned around, greeted his teammate with a small update of the situation and was about to leave when the student stopped.
Kakashi saw him turn his head back, glancing at him with a raised brow. “Be okay, okay?!”
“What’s your name?” Kakashi managed to ask amidst his staring. His lone gray eye went up and down his form. He was expecting a name in return but then the volleyball player just smirked before putting his tongue out playfully.
“See ya, concussed-senpai.” It must be his uniform or not, but Kakashi doesn’t mind being called ‘senpai’ by him again.
-
Needless to say, every day after school, he would visit the open gym to see if he could get a glimpse of number 11. So far, he hasn’t and he was disappointed. Gai, on the other hand, was glad that Kakashi would appear at the open gym before his practice starts.
“Kakashi! My great friend. Are you here again to find your love interest?”
“Maa, he’s not here. Might as well go home,”
“Wait, Kakashi! Before you go, would it be fine if you do me a small favor? I promise to get back to you anytime,” Kakashi contemplated for a while, tempted to stay some more after school but at the same time, he was also tired and just want to lay down on his bed.
He had three on-going deadlines right now but he guessed helping his friend out won’t be bad.
“Okay, sure. What you need?”
“Thank you so much, my friend! I really owe you this one!”
“Okay, Gai. Just tell me,”
After a few more minutes of Gai telling him stuff Kakashi could barely grasp, he realized that Konoha High has so many gyms. Who knew this school would have seven gyms, two of it had a swimming pool.
Then again, Konoha High was known for its athletes.
Gai had instructed him to go to the 3rd gym near the cafeteria. He needed to give his book report to his group leader since it was needed to be submitted today, but he was unfortunately stuck at practice. Kakashi agreed with a nod only to receive a bone-crushing hug from his friend.
Minutes of walking by every building, he finally spotted the third gym. The sounds of squeaky shoes became louder as he neared it and also the smell of sweat and ointments. Kakashi looked around, noticed a few students wore their own varsity jacket and he was shortly reminded of that cutie that hit him with a volleyball on the head.
He shrugged that thought out and he found himself in front of the slightly opened gym door. Astonishingly, he could spot some students seated by the bleacher. A few were plainly conversing with one another, some were watching the athletes, and others were just there doing some other stuff.
Kakashi sighed.
He was about to step forward when the gym doors suddenly slide wide open, Kakashi backing up a little as wide eyes looked at Genma, who was grinning at him sheepishly.
“Oops, sorry. Didn’t see you there,”
“What are you doing here?”
“Isn’t that supposed to be my line?”
Kakashi huffed and took a look at Genma’s attire. They weren’t really that close, considering Genma was from class 2. He just got to know him through Raidou.
Genma barked out a laugh, one hand came up to wipe his sweat on his forehead while the other rested on Kakashi’s shoulder. “So stiff, Hatake. Anyway, I’m in the volleyball team—”
A loud whistle echoed through the gym, both boys’ gaze immediately turned to look inside and well, Kakashi’s breath was taken away.
There in the middle of the court, all sweaty and tired but smiling beautifully was number 11. He was cheering loudly, arms up in the air and Kakashi can’t help but stare at how magnificent he looked. Then he felt his cheeks heating up when number 11 grabbed the hem of his jersey, pulled it up to wipe some sweat off his face causing his lea abdomen to be shown.
Needless to say, Kakashi’s mouth watered just a little bit.
“Hello, earth to Kakashi?”
“You’re from Konoha Volleyball team,”
“Uh, yeah. Team captain ever since this year started,” Genma answered, rolling his eyes in the process but Kakashi wasn’t even paying attention to his attitude.
He just can’t believe he saw him again.
Number 11.
After a few more small talks, Genma excused himself out and Kakashi was forced to enter the gym and look for Gai’s groupmate. He still needed to do his task so—more number 11 view for him. The game had already started again when he entered, Kakashi quietly and very slowly walked towards the coach, maybe try to ask where Gai’s classmate was.
Passing by without making too much fuzz, Kakashi can’t help but look at number 11. He has his hair tied in a bun, small bangs framed his face just enough for him to see. Kakashi admired how focused he looked, the determination to not let the ball fall on the ground was strong enough that even Kakashi could feel it by the bleachers.
But then number 11 landed his eyes on him very quickly and Kakashi found himself with wide eyes and mouth agape because number 11 paused to glance at him again. He looked taken aback and was lost in momentum.
The next thing Kakashi saw was a ball landing not so softly on number 11’s face.
The whistle blew and as the coach’s voice boomed through the gym, the game stopped and all players went in to check on number 11.
“Umino. Look at the ball!” The coach sounded so frustrated – Kakashi recognized the coach, Mr. Sarutobi, his P.E teacher.
But all through the commotion, he could no longer see number 11 for he was circled by his other teammates. However, Kakashi doesn’t mind.
There was only one thing that’s running through his mind. That was, his number 11’s last name was Umino.
-
Kakashi barely knew some students but he can distinguish whether they were a 3rd year like him, or lower and for that, he assumed that gorgeous volleyball player with the jersey number 11 was a year lower than him.
It’s not like Kakashi can’t ask around if they knew who Umino of the boys’ volleyball team was. Hell, he’s sure if he asked Genma he won’t hear the end of it. His close friends only consisted of Gai, Kurenai, and her boyfriend Asuma—who was, fortunately, a ‘Sarutobi’ and friendly enough to not think weird things about Kakashi.
So after classes, Kakashi decided to accompany Kurenai. At first, she was skeptical, gave him weird looks until Kakashi sighed and explained to him that since Asuma goes to the gym after school to wait for his father to finish coaching, Kakashi would accompany her while waiting for Asuma.
Kurenai smirked at that. Punched Kakashi on the arms and asked who was unfortunate enough to have caught his heart.
Kakashi smirked. Not really caught per see, more like strike him in the chest type of thing.
As luck would have it, Kurenai was nice enough to not be a shitty friend about it. She gave him his support but in exchange, Kakashi was required to tell her everything. Kakashi didn’t have a problem with that, at least he would have someone to vent out.
And so, they found themselves at the gym watching the boys’ volleyball team practice. It was heavenly, to be honest, Umino was all sweaty and of course, he played very nicely. He had also learned from Kurenai that Umino was a second year, though she doesn’t really know his name.
That was fine. It would be nicer if he got to know his name on his own.
At first, Kakashi and Kurenai just sat there quietly by the bleachers. Kakashi had also caught number 11 sparing him a glance too many times when they were there, then after practice, they would quickly go out with Asuma in tow, and coach Sarutobi.
He didn’t have the time to talk to Umino but seeing him every day after school was enough for Kakashi.
Fast forward it had been two weeks since this daily schedule had started for Kakashi, sometimes he would be joined by Gai—who was maybe too dense or already knew he was a fanboy of a certain volleyball player, he just joined them and didn’t ask much. That’s why Kakashi liked him.
His dad had though asked him the other day why he always went home late. Kakashi reasoned out that his friends wanted to hang out and study. Good thing his dad was quite chill so he lets him be, like how Kakashi let him plant so many fruits and vegetables in their backyard.
On one fateful day, Kakashi was ready to leave with Kurenai to go to the gym, but fortunately, Kurenai was called by their advisor to talk about the upcoming spelling bee tournament. He went to Gai but the athlete was called for an emergency meeting.
“Go there first, I’ll follow suit once Ms. Uzumaki’s done talking to me,”
Kakashi had pouted under his mask, made a few stomps of protest but hence, he found himself at the gym. He waved at Asuma, who was seated near coach Sarutobi. He walked up nervously to Kurenai’s boyfriend before stopping before him.
This was actually the second time he’s near the center of the gym, most of the time he sat at the bleachers when Kurenai would greet Asuma, so being close to the practicing team was nerve-wracking. Especially since he could feel Umino’s gaze on him.
Not that he mind and all. He hoped he looked good.
“Kurenai?”
“Teacher needed to talk to him,” Asuma nodded and Kakashi took a seat beside him.
Practice continued on, Kakashi loving how the view had gotten closer. The sneaky glances continued and at some moment, Kakashi swore Umino smirked at him when he caught him looking at him with amazement on how powerful his spike was.
Damn, number 11 could slap hard and— Kakashi blushed.
He had also greeted Genma that caused him to know some members – who was not number 11. The practice match went on, the gym getting hotter by the second until they were called for a break.
“Who wants to refill the water bottles?” Genma shouted which resulted a lot of whines from the players. Asuma had explained to Kakashi why they were doing this on their own. Their manager had left the club some weeks ago and they still hadn’t found any replacement yet.
“It’s Umino’s turn,” One player with long silver blue-ish hair said, a smirk painted on his face. He was soon followed with agreements and number 11 just nodded, took the basket fool of water bottles.
“Anyone else? He can’t carry it on his own, you guys.” Genma commented, gave his team a tired sigh.
Kakashi’s ears perked up. He quickly stood up with a raised hand and he wondered where the hell he got this confidence because he found himself following number 11 out of the 3rd gym, holding another carrier full of water bottles.
Umino’s hair looked much softer up close and he smelled nice. He wasn’t talking to him throughout the journey but Kakashi didn’t mind. He just wished number 11 won’t feel weird about him because really, Kakashi’s knees shook with every step he took.
Being near Umino was something Kakashi didn’t prepare himself. He’s just glad his mask somehow hid half of his face.
“So, how’re my moves?”
“Your what?”
Umino stopped to look at him, cheeks stained with pink, and Kakashi thanked the heavens for an up-close view. “My tosses? My spikes?”
Oh.
Kakashi slowly nodded as a smile gradually appeared behind the mask he wore. “You’re too cute,” Kakashi chuckled then proceeded to put down the water bottles once he saw the drinking stations. “Asking me how your moves were,” His tone was playful and flirty, smirking as he turned to look at the volleyball player. “And of course you’re awesome, number 11”
Umino huffed and the two of them refilled each bottle silently.
It wasn’t awkward, it was just calming and Kakashi couldn’t wish for more.
After they were done, Umino had walked ahead again. Though Kakashi had expected the other to talk again, he’ll get what he’ll receive.
“Iruka,”
Kakashi glanced at him, they were still walking but number 11 was still not looking at him.
“My name’s Iruka…”
“Oh,”
Once they reached the gym and handed the water bottles to the players, Kakashi stopped right in front of Iruka, a water bottle in hand. He nudged it and Iruka took it with a pout.
“Thanks,”
“Kakashi,”
When Iruka’s doe eyes met his, Kakashi’s heart skipped a beat. But when he smiled, so blinding and pure, Kakashi was sure he’s already in heaven.
~*~
Kakashi doesn’t shout, or anything that involved people a few feet away to hear his voice. One, because he doesn’t have enough energy for that, and two, it was embarrassing.
However, some things change people.
Like how moving to Miyagi had changed his father. Or how having new sets of kind friends changed Kakashi’s view of being an introvert.
And maybe because when the one who caused your heart to beat violently against your chest invited you to watch their first practice match against a visiting team from another school.
When Kakashi had known number 11’s real name, it started there. During lunch, sometimes he would bump with the athlete, made small talks before leaving for class again. He learned Iruka was a second year, and more information had been learned—Kakashi couldn’t get any happier.
They became friends. After school, while watching them practice, if given the chance they would converse for a moment before resuming. On the weekends, Kakashi would sometimes accompany Gai in his weekend practice because Iruka would also be there.
Kakashi had told Gai. Good thing Gai was that kind of friend that won’t let you down and tell others. So yeah, Kurenai and Gai knew of his puppy love—and maybe Asuma too, because really, it’s Kurenai. She’ll tell anything to Asuma.
So yeah, that’s where Kakashi found himself on the bleachers with Kurenai, Asuma, and Gai cheering for Konoha High. The gym wasn’t that crowded but a few students were there just to see how Suna’s boys’ volleyball team were.
The match was intense. The sound of the ball hitting sharply against skin echoed throughout together with some cheers were powerful. Kakashi couldn’t even believe that it was possible to spike that fast.
But amidst all the commotion happening, Kakashi had his eyes only on Iruka. He smiled whenever Iruka had successfully served a ball, cheered internally when he did a spike or saved a ball.
Iruka looked so cool and Kakashi didn’t think it was possible to like him more.
The match has a nice phase, Suna struggled a little bit in the middle of the match, Konoha needed to catch up. Kakashi also took note that Iruka had missed a serve. One last serve or they were out.
Now, Kakashi had been brave before but for different reasons. One, when he defended his friend, Rin, back then from a wild dog. Two, when he learned how to ride a bike before this school year started. And third, was this.
The 3rd gym was covered in silence, people’s eyes were on Iruka as they waited patiently for him to serve. Kakashi’s able to see how tense Iruka was and—Kakashi took a deep breath before he stood up and pulled his surgical mask down, “Go, number 11!!”
Kurenai gaped, Gai gave him a delighted look, and Asuma looked thoroughly embarrassed. But not embarrassed enough as Kakashi.
Iruka turned to look at him, his shock was obviously printed on his face that it made Kakashi’s cheeks redder than before. But then Iruka made a short laugh then smiled at him.
As if all confidence went back to the volleyball player, he made a successful serve.
Kakashi sat back down again, pulling his mask up in the process. He’s very much aware of his friends’ eyes on him but he couldn’t care less.
Iruka looked so hyped and his sneaky glances towards him were enough for Kakashi.