Prolouge
"I ended up passing them after all." Kakashi mused to himself as he wandered down the streets of Konoha with his hands deep in his pockets towards Ichiraku.
"But, then again, teamwork is all that it matters. Even if one of the members is weak, everything can work out in the end by good teamwork." he thought as Obito's smiling face with his stupid googles and Rin with the two violet tattoos on her face crossed through his mind. His stomach rumbled and complained at him and Kakashi increased his pace, wanting to reach Ichiraku as soon as possible.
"Listen, listen, Iruka sensei!! Kakashi sensei passed all three of us!!! You were worried about nothing!"
"Oh, did he! I am glad Naruto, now you are a genin." Iruka smiled at Naruto.
He would be lying if he said that he wasn't worried sick over the fact that whether Kakashi-san would pass Naruto or not. And after hearing Naruto say that he would go on missions from tomorrow Iruka was rather surprised.
"Iruka sensei, today you will be treating me for passing Kakashi sensei's test!!" Naruto's chirpy voice broke through his thoughts as he beamed at his former student affectionately.
Kakashi stopped in his tracks as he heard Naruto's boisterous voice from Ichiraku and grinned to himself, a warm feeling filling up his heart. 'What an amusing kid', he thought. In the small period that Kakashi had known him, Naruto had already weaved himself inside his heart.
Kakashi then turned the opposite direction, not wanting to interrupt their time together and his mind wandered back to the time when Iruka was sitting on his usual spot, sighing loudly wondering over what to do about Naruto. 'Time sure passes quickly', Kakashi deemed and went ahead, deciding to skip dinner after all but his stomach had other plans.
"Guess, a warm cup of coffee will do," he thought to himself loudly while looking up at the thousand stars scattered across the sky.
'BUMP'
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there. This whole basket was kinda covering my vision you know." Kakashi heard someone babble as he fell straight on his butt with a small gasp of surprise emitting from his mouth.
"its fine," he heard himself say involuntarily and stood up only to slip on one of the apples that had fallen from the person's basket and found himself face to face with the hard, concrete road.
He spluttered as a few drops of blood spewed from his mouth to stain the road.
"Oh my god, I am so sorry. I should have immediately picked up my fruits" the person exclaimed rather loudly again drawing the attention of some of the people around and in a hurry then proceeded to drop the whole basket.
Kakashi instantly fell two or three apples fall on his head as he was attempting to get up and sighed loudly.
"I am so sorry. How stupid of me. I accidentally dropped the whole basket. I am so sorry, I did not do this on purpose I swear. It just accidentally fell from my hands." the person rambled on and on, apologising again and again while Kakashi took his own sweet time getting up in the process picking up some of the apples that had fallen while the person rambling went on and on. Kakashi whispered back that it was fine as he handed her some of the apples but it seemed that she hadn't heard him as she was continuing on and on, not even sparing a glance at him.
Kakashi stared down at the girl, or rather woman crouched down, her skirt tucked under her knees as she moved about picking up her apples and calling herself crazy now and then and adding a sorry or two.
"And that's why it slipped so........oh wait. You said something?" she asked getting up as her mind finally registered Kakashi's voice.
"I said it's fine." Kakashi sighed for the tenth time that day and finally took a good look at her.
"Oh, that's sweet of you. People usually are irritated with my clumsiness but I think you're one of the first people who said that it was fine after a long time," she spoke in one breath.
"I am rambling again aren't I.," she said at last with a sheepish look on her face as she adjusted the basket on her waist this time.
"I am sorry but I have to agree to that," Kakashi said giving her one of his closed eye smiles for no reason at all. He himself didn't know why he did that, after all, it was not a funny matter at all. He had just felt like it.
"I am so sorry. I took a lot of your time. And a shinobi like you must be very busy. I must be going now. Sorry for getting you into that much trouble" she said and went on as quickly as possible not hearing what Kakashi had just said.
Kakashi just stared at her disappearing figure amongst the crowd as he rubbed his sore butt and cursed himself mentally. 'Fool, why on earth did you say that! Where did that come from even? Thank god she didn't hear.' he thought to himself and moved on ahead with a small smile on his face.
'What the hell Misumi! How could you go and embarrass yourself that much? First, you bump into him, and then even the basket falls from your hand. Okay fine, I agree that his face was enough reason for your hands to tremble and lose balance. But couldn't you have fangirled after you went away from him, somewhere where he couldn't listen? Honestly, your hands practically shook as you saw him. Get a grip on yourself. He is just a shinobi. You have seen several shinobi. NO! HE IS HATAKE KAKASHI!!!! NOT AN ORDINARY SHINOBI. THE sSAME SHINOBI WHO HAD MADE YOU SWOON 8 YEARS AGO!!! THAT KAKASHI!!!.' Misumi's inner selves argued with one another as she struggled to catch a breath and stopped as soon as she doubled checked that she was afar from the famous copy ninja.
'God, he looks good even after all these years. You probably made a fool of yourself for the 3rd time in front of him while trying to run away with that huge basket.'
Misumi tried her best to calm her raging heart that spiked up after seeing Kakashi after all these years again, took a deep breath and then continued on her way towards her shop, her cheeks tainted a permanent red already.