Chapter 14
Asuma Sarutobi
Asuma woke up, his vision and memory fuzzy.
Must’ve been some weird dream, he thought. When his vision cleared, Asuma saw that he was still on the field.
Damn it. I guess it wasn’t a dream after all.
It was dark by now. Asuma checked the time. 6:00. He groaned, knowing the amount of work he had to do would be a lot. Asuma dug into his pockets for a cigarette. Nicotine was the only way to calm him. After he was finished smoking his cigarette, he left the field and headed towards the empty school.
Maybe I shouldn’t even finish my schoolwork, he thought. Guaranteed, I’m going to be fired for what happened today. But I would’ve died if I didn’t do something! That kid was going to kill me and my students!
That kid…
He lit another cigarette. The thought of the kid bothered him and Asuma didn’t want to think about that right now. When he arrived at the school doors, instead of putting out his cigarette, he continued smoking it as he walked through the hallways.
If I’m gonna be fired anyways, I don’t think smoking in school is gonna matter.
He walked through the empty, dark hallways. Hallways that he may never see again. He walked past classrooms that he’s taught in. Rooms that he will soon never have access too.
I’d probably be sad if this school weren’t so bad to me. To be honest, I’d have already left if the check weren’t so good.
Asuma walked up the flight of stairs, getting closer to his homeroom. He tossed his cigarette on the ground and crushed it with his foot. Asuma almost continued walking until he realized that a student may be blamed for the cigarette. He rushed to the bathroom, grabbed paper towels, and cleaned the mess. Afterwards, he continued his journey to his homeroom. When Asuma was close, he saw it.
The lights were on in his classroom. He cautiously walked in.
Seated at his desk was the most beautiful woman in the world. Her messy, black hair was perfectly seated right below her shoulders. Her pretty red eyes was scanning the multiple assignments that Asuma had yet to grade. Her perfect red lips were mouthing the questions she was reading.
It was Kurenai Yuhi. The Social Studies teacher.
“You should go home,” she said, not looking away from the assignments she was grading. “You’ve had a tough day.”
“We should go home,” Asuma responded. “You don’t need to worry about those papers, I’m probably going to be fired anyways.”
“You don’t know that,” she said, still grading papers. “It’s just a kid who got in a fight, right?”
“It’s more than that,” he said, taking a seat in front of the desk Kurenai was working on. “I hit the kid, Kurenai.”
She stopped grading. “Really,” she asked, concerned.
“I’ll let you read my mind for this,” Asuma said. “What happened today was too crazy to describe.”
“Are you sure you want me to read your mind,” Kurenai asked. “I know you don’t like it when I do that.”
“Yeah, do it,” he confirmed.
Kurenai walked around the desk, to Asuma. She gently grabbed his hand. Her quirk only allowed her to read minds through touch.
After a moment, she let go.
“I don’t think what you did was that bad,” she said, sitting back down on her side of the desk. “Besides the ‘hey fuckface’ part, I think Sarutobi will understand. At most, he’ll give you suspension with pay.”
“You don’t know Sarutobi like I do,” he responded. “He’s a hard, stubborn man. I think you forget that he’s a war vet.”
“Well, he’s a lot more sensible than what you give him credit for,” she responded.
“If he’s so sensible, why can’t you and I date publicly,” Asuma asked.
Kurenai frowned. “You already know two coworkers can’t date each other,” she said. “It’s written in the school policy.”
“That he wrote,” Asuma exclaimed. He then realized he was being a bit harsh. “I’m sorry, I’ve had a long day.”
“Don’t worry, I know,” Kurenai responded. “You’re stressed. Just go home, and I’ll finish grading these assignments for you.”
“No, you don’t have to do that,” Asuma said. “It’s fine, I can grade them myself tomorrow. Let’s both go home.”
They both got up and organized the papers back into the cabinets. They then turned off the lights and left the room.
As they walked, Kurenai held Asuma’s hand and arm, pulling him close. For a moment, Asuma felt like they were a true, public couple and not some secret affair.
It was moments like these, when Kurenai was close to him, that he wished he could quit smoking.
I know I reek of smoke right now, he thought.
“Do you want to come over tonight,” Kurenai asked. “We can order some food and have a sort of mini date. Maybe watch a movie?”
“On a school night,” he asked. “Wow, you’re a bad kid, Kurenai.”
She laughed. “Oh, are you not cool enough to hang out on a school night, Asuma,” she responded. “What are you, some kind of lame-o?”
“I have a curfew,” he said, chuckling. “Hiruzen says I have to be home by 9 pm.”
Soon, they arrived at the parking lot. The empty lot was soon filled with the talking and laughter of the secret couple.
“So, I don’t have a change of clothes,” Asuma said. “I’m going to have to stop by my house to get some.”
“Oh, you’re spending the night,” Kurenai asked.
“Oh- I jus- You know, I thought-.”
“I’m kidding,” Kurenai said.
The two got to Kurenai’s car. She got inside and turned on the engine. She then lowered the window to talk to Asuma, standing right outside.
“Stop by your house, get a change of clothes. I’ll prepare while you’re gone and order the food.”
“Ok, let’s split the check,” Asuma said, reaching for his wallet.
“No, my treat,” Kurenai said. “You’ve had a tough day. Plus, you’re probably going to need that money if what you think is going to happen is true.”
“That’s not funny,” he replied. He pulled out his wallet and threw a 20 ryo bill into her car. She grabbed it and threw it back out.
“You’re taking my money, one way or another,” Asuma said as he chased after the bill she threw.
“It’s okay, the meal is on me,” Kurenai said as she closed her window. “I’m leaving now. Love you!”
“Love you too,” Asuma yelled as he finally caught the bill. He turned around to see Kurenai driving away. He put the bill in his pocket and smiled.
It felt good to say I love you out loud. They rarely got the opportunity to say it out loud in public. It was usually said in the privacy of their home or through a whisper when passing by each other at school.
They had been together for almost a year and a half now. It was around this time when Asuma’s uncle assigned the two of them to supervise Room 13, the current detention room. Back then, it was only a storage room for clubs to put random things. But it was more than that. To the students, it became a place where you could smoke after school. Asuma remembered always getting blamed for the smell of smoke inside of the school before Hiruzen figured out it was coming from that room.
“Why am I getting blamed,” Asuma would say to his uncle. “Why are you pretending like I’m the only smoker here? You know Tsunadae smokes AND drinks on campus, so why are you only blaming me?”
Eventually, Hiruzen figured it out and assigned Jiraiya to stay inside the room an hour after school to monitor it. Until Asuma caught a couple hooking up in the room and Jiraiya was nowhere to be seen. So, Jiraiya got removed from the position and Asuma was assigned.
But, like typical Hiruzen, he couldn’t just assign Asuma the “big” responsibility of monitoring a room for an hour. So, he assigned Kurenai to supervise Asuma supervising the room.
That was Hiruzen’s biggest mistake, Asuma thought as he got into his car. You assigned the only two, single, people in the school who also happen to be the youngest and forced them to be together an hour every day, alone, for months! What did he think was going to happen?
Back then, the secrecy was fun. Asuma remembered the slow, tension that built up between them. It started with just small talk, which turned into deep conversations. Work drama which turned into gossiping.
Casual compliments which turned into hard flirting.
He remembered the first time they kissed each other. The two were watching a movie on Kurenai’s phone. The screen was so small that they had to sit real close to the phone in order to watch.
Which meant that they had to be real close together watching.
They already had been playfully flirting with each other by that point (but only playfully flirting alone, not in front of others). The two were watching the movie normally until…
“It’s really cold,” Kurenai said.
“You think so,” Asuma asked. “Damn, I wish I could turn on the heater, but I know that the fencing club won’t like me messing with their thermostat. I can look for a jacket in my car if you want. I forgot to bring one with m-.”
“No, you don’t have to do that,” Kurenai interrupted. “Why don’t- I jus- Like- Just do-.”
She put Asuma’s arm around her. She then backed away, brushing the arm off.
“Sorry, I didn’t know if you wanted to-,” Kurenai started.
“No, no! It’s fine,” Asuma said. By that point, Asuma had already started to form some feelings for Kurenai, so he was ecstatic. He put his arm around her, this time holding her close. They cuddled together for a while. The movie stopped playing and they still cuddled. It was time to leave, they still cuddled.
They cuddled until they started making out.
In hindsight, Asuma thought as he arrived home to pick up his clothes. We probably cuddled so long because we were waiting for nobody to be at school anymore.
From then on, the hour after school they’d usually spend monitoring Room 13 changed to making out in Room 13. Which soon turned to hooking up in Room 13. Which that turned into just hooking up in general.
They started off purely as friends with benefits. Back then, when Asuma would ask about becoming an official couple, Kurenai responded with a multitude of excuses. They couldn’t because of how it was against school policy or how she was 34 and he’s only 28, or that they weren’t hooking up anymore and the last 20 times they hooked up didn’t mean anything and that they were over.
Just for them to hook up again when it came time to supervise Room 13 for an hour.
But back then, Asuma didn’t mind. The secrecy fueled his passion. It made the relationship more attractive and fun. They would sneak around, finding new hiding spots to make out or do a quick one. They brought a pair of clothes on Friday, clocked out at different times to avoid suspicion just to go to each other’s home for the weekend. When with others, they didn’t acknowledge each other, only saying hi in passing. Asuma felt like he was undercover, working in a top-secret mission to keep their affair confidential. It was fun.
Until Hiruzen caught them.
He caught them while the two were kissing each other. Asuma remembered Kurenai screaming out of shock and him turning around to see his uncle at door of Room 13, Hiruzen’s eyes disappointed in what he created.
All I could think about, Asuma thought as he put his clothes into the car and drove out the driveway. Was how lucky we were that he didn’t come in five minutes later.
Hiruzen then shut down the monitoring of Room 13 and turned it into a detention room. He also told the secret couple that they could not date each other because it was against school policy and they would be fired.
However, that didn’t stop Kurenai from finally admitting that she wanted to be more than just friends with benefits. Which was great news for Asuma since that’s what he wanted all along.
But now, the secrecy isn’t fun anymore, he thought when he pulled into Kurenai’s driveway. It’s just depressing.
He got out the car and picked up his clothes from the trunk. He sighed.
Today has been a rough day. It has been rough for a while. I work at a school where the boss doesn’t respect me. I am in a relationship that I cannot even be public about. And now, I might be fired from my shitty job because of that kid who tried to kill everyone on the field.
That kid…
He knocked on the door. Kurenai answered it with that same, beautiful, infectious smile she had.
But, Asuma thought. She always makes the days feel a lot less rough.