.Cooking with the Yondaime.

"...Cooking?"

    Blinking, Rin planted her hands on her hips as she looked up at the sheepish grin on her blonde sensei's face. Tilting her head to one side, she blinked, eyebrow still raised. "Why do you need to learn how to cook?"

  "Ah..that is....you told me that only eating ramen wasn't healthy!" Chuckling nervously, the Yondaime took a split second to avoid the medic-nin's face before he looked at her, grinning again to avoid any more scrutiny. After a few moments, the kunoichi sighed, giving him a(somewhat exasperated) smile.

"All right. I don't have a shift at the hospital the day after tomorrow, so come by then. Now..can you please get out of my window?" Yawning, Rin gave the man a moment to react before she shut the window quickly and crawled back into bed, snuggling under the covers as she absently wondered why he had to wait until two in the morning to come and ask her for a favor. Oh well.

-----------------

  Raising one thin eyebrow at the blonde head peering nervously around the door to her apartment, Rin pulled the door open the rest of the way, tilting her head to one side. "Sensei, you're late."

"Ehehehe...not too terribly so."

  "A few more minutes and you would have been later than Kakashi usually is." Smiling with her usual cheerful-ness, the teen gestured to the kitchen before heading there herself. She'd already prepared a few things; some fresh vegetables were clean and in a large bowl, and she had some pots and other such items out to be easily accessed.

  Clapping her hands together once, the medic nin glanced back to her sensei, smiling as she cheerfully suggested, "Lets start with chopping vegetables, all right?"

"Ah..all right." Grabbing a carrot from the bowl in front of them, and motioning for him to do the same, Rin began to demonstrate how to properly chop, slice, and dice vegetables. This, he picked up with relative ease..if nothing else.


"Sensei, you didn't add enough water."


"Sensei, if you don't pay attention it'll scorch."


"Sensei, be careful, you're going to--!"

-------------

Usually, Rin was the one listening to Kakashi incoherently mutter obscenities about whatever was currently irritating him until he felt better. However, today, the silver-haired jounin didn't have to be the genius he was to tell that Rin needed to yell at something.

"You smell like smoke", Kakashi said as he stood from his sitting place on the stone bench, allowing his burgandy-haired teammate to lay down..or, rather sprawl out on the bench and glare at the trees. Leaning up against the back of the bench, the male waited patiently until his teammate groaned.

"Sensei wanted cooking lessons and I--Kakashi-kun, are you laughing?"

"N-no, of course not."

Rolling her eyes, Rin took a breath before closing the brown optics, glaring at the back of her eyelids instead. "I wasn't paying attention for just a few minutes, but, apparently, he wasn't either because the rice he was cooking caught on fire an---Kakashi, stop laughing right now!" Sitting up as she opened her eyes, the kunoichi folded her arms, glaring at the bench across from where she sat now.

Resting his chin on the top of her head, Kakashi controlled the urge to laugh, which became easier as she stiffened when he put his chin on her head, before she gradually untensed. "Ah, gomen, gomen. So, what happened?"

  "Turns out the hose of my kitchen faucet won't reach to my stove. Sensei practically had to use a water jutsu on it. And now my apartment distinctively smells like smoke." At this, Rin could tell that he was slowly failing at supressing his laughter. Though, she didn't really mind; it was nice to hear him laugh for one of the first times since Obito's death, and she was now quite content with sitting where she was as her teammate tried, and failed, to supress his laughter. Of course, Kakashi stopped laughing rather quickly, which Rin was only given a split second to react to before she was aware of why he'd stopped laughing.

"Rin-chaaan~!"

Coughing, Rin glanced towards the green-clad male before her, who was holding a bouquet of white flowers. Smiling cheerfully, Rin stood, looking up at him. "Good afternoon Gai-san."

"Rin-chan, I was wondering if y--Rin-chan, you smell like smoke!" Scratching the side of her head lightly, Rin laughed lightly, not having time to explain before the exuberant male had turned to Kakashi. "RIVAL KAKASHI! You'd best not have asked Rin to train with you! You would injure her! Such things aren't y--"

"Did you say something?" Kakashi looked boredly at Gai through one eye, now standing behind Rin with his arms wrapped lazily around her shoulders as she 'meep'ed, stiffening as her face became red. Deciding to be somewhat wicked, the male nuzzled his mask-covered face into his teammate's burgandy hair, murmering into her ear, loud enough for Gai to hear. "You can come get cleaned up at my place, Rin-chan."

Rin had a brief instant to note Gai's eyes widen as he opened his mouth to protest before Kakashi was leading her away, probably with a smug look under his mask. She doubted it though; Kakashi didn't get -that- much joy out of besting Gai.

----------

Between working at the hospital and missions, Rin didn't have much time to help her Sensei learn to cook. The first time she had a break, she simply treated her Sensei out to ramen to congratulate him on finally finishing his paperwork. He was intelligent enough to realize that she was too tired for another lesson. Of course, as she paid for the ramen, she told him that she'd have a shift off from the hospital in a few days, so she could give him another lesson.

A few days later, Rin realized that her lesson hadn't been much help, or it had helped immensely, because he knew what he was doing, and save for a bit of slightly hardened rice, nothing was burned, or tasted bad.  

"Sensei, did you teach yourself how to cook?"

"Ah..no, you taught me, remember?" Grinning, he gestured to the food. "I just paid more attention when I tried to cook for myself a few days ago. It wouldn't be proper to almost burn down your apartment twice, Rin-chan." While he was still grinning, the expression faded to concern when he saw that tears were falling from his former student's eyes. "Rin-chan, what's wrong?"

Shaking her head as she wiped at her eyes with her sleeve, Rin looked up at him, beaming as she reached up to pat the blonde on the shoulder. "I'm proud of you, Sensei!" Looking towards the sink, the medic nin wiped at her eyes again. "Well, I guess I should get to work cleaning this up!"

"Do you want me to help?"

"No, that's fine; I've got it."

"All right."

"....Sensei?"

Glancing back at the kitchen from where he now stood at the door to her apartment, the Yondaime blinked. "Yes?"


"Good luck with your date."