A Girl's Mind is a Dangerous Place

Chapter 30

A/N: Sorry this is late! I got distracted binge-reading fic. I even discovered an old favorite author here on AO3 from back in the Livejournal days! I'm so happy! I plan to binge read even more of their fics ASAP.

I MUST READ ALL THE NEW FIC.

Anyway. Chapter's a bit longer than normal, to sort of make up for last week's short one I guess.

I apologize if Natsu is a little OOC. When I binge-read fic it kinda taints my image of characters and they all blur together in my mind and it's harder to write them properly which is why binge-reading should not happen until *after* I finish chapters.

Also my roommate still doesn't read/watch Fairy Tail, so she can't tell me when Natsu sounds out of character. *le sigh*

I had a second beta reader who specifically helped with my Natsu characterizations but the last time we talked they said that we should speak later because they were in the middle of stuff and I was never sure if *I* was supposed to reach out to them or if they'd reach out to me when they were done, and now it's too awkward. Alas.

ANYWAY!

Hopefully, once more, this chapter is not as bad as I fear. I am a fearful person by nature so I shall be hopeful that I am being unnecessarily fearful instead of having genuine cause for concern.

But as always, thanks for reading!

The next few days fall into an easy routine as Kakashi splits their days between training and more D-rank jobs. By the eleventh job with no sign of the she-demon bane of the genin, Natsu drags his teammates aside.

"Is it just me or is it suspicious how we haven't had to hunt that b- Tora yet?"

"Definitely suspicious! Have you seen how Kakashi-sensei's been working us too? We never spent so long training before! He's plotting something!" Naruto whisper-shouts, peering around as though expecting Kakashi to jump out at any moment.

Considering how the last three days have gone, Natsu can't blame him.

"Hn."

Sasuke adds his agreement with a flicker of his Sharingan.

Natsu very carefully doesn't look around for Kakashi, because someone has to be the non-paranoid one here.

"Ah! There you are, my cute little genin!"

Kakashi jumps off a nearby roof and lands easily between Naruto and Sasuke, smiling with his eye as he ruffles their hair.

"Wha-! We're not late sensei!" Naruto cries, flailing to get away. Sasuke shifts as far as Kakashi's hand will let him to avoid Naruto's reckless strikes as the sensei laughs.

"Maa, of course not! I just thought we'd have an early start today, and imagine my surprise when I found all of you had already left! What have you been up to all on your lonesome, hm~?"

Sasuke grunts dismissively and Naruto chuckles, clearly nervous. Natsu scrambles for a lie, because if they mention Tora, Kakashi will put them on that mission every day for the next year and Sakura-chan at least doesn't deserve that-!

Naruto babbles nervously about pranks, and Kakashi raises a disbelieving brow, but Sasuke doesn't react and Natsu can totally work with that!

So he tosses his hands behind his head and grins. "Nothin' wrong with a good prank, sensei," he starts casually, because the first rule of getting out of trouble is looking like getting in trouble is no big deal. Kakashi turns that disbelieving gaze onto him, and Natsu grins wider in return.