Chapter Text
Seagulls cried out as the muffled roar of the ocean traveled even to the inside of the city. Smells of food both foreign and familiar mixed into a heady, delicious aura of comfortable dining. Beautiful people and more beautiful scenery. Kakashi sighed, snuggling more comfortably into his chair with his newest book, a local author’s series. It was a blissful vacation. Though those crying birds were sounding closer than before.
“Agh! You threw sand at me, you Jerk!”
“Nononono-Sakura I was throwing it at Suck-suke!”
“... you knocked over my rock stack…”
Oh right, the kids were here too. He had figured that the lifeguard's job had included babysitting any children nearby, but that turned out to have just been wishful thinking. Though maybe they would if the kids were tussling in the water... hm
The bickering grew louder as Sasuke’s voice joined the argument, nearby parents were starting to glare at them.
Kakashi knew, he had to do something.
Standing up, he slouched off the beach without a backwards glance, his nose still buried in “Sigma Strife.”
It took the children another quarter of an hour to realize he was gone.
“KAKASHI-SENSEI, MAKE NARUTO—Kakashi-sensei? Helloooo?” Sakura finally poked her head out from the three-way brawl that was rapidly developing on the beach to realize their sensei wasn’t in view. She quickly scanned up and down the beach, but there was no sign of his mask or his cargo-green swim trunks.
“Hey. HEY, STOP FIGHTING YOU GUYS!” She grabbed Sasuke by the arm and pulled him to his feet, and watched as Naruto’s clones finally stopped trying to drown him and he splashed to the surface.
“BLEH! It’s up my nose!” croaked Naruto, sitting in the surf as a wave hit him in the face. He staggered to his feet. “What, Sakura? Wait, why are you on his side?? He tried to drown me!”
“Those were your own clones, you moron. I was up here.”
“Pssh, like I’d believe— wait, really?”
“Shut up you guys! Kakashi-sensei is missing! This is serious!”
At that the two boys looked up to where they’d set up their towels and umbrella and sure enough, there was no sign of their amazing disappearing sensei.
Sasuke shrugged. “He probably just went to buy a soda or something.” He pointed back towards the snack booth on the boardwalk.
Naruto perked up. “Hey, you might be right! Hey if we go over there, d’ya think he’ll buy us lunch?”
Sakura frowned. “You already ate lunch.”
“Yeah, but almost drowning burns calories and now I’m hungry again!” whined the blonde. She rolled her eyes.
“Let’s go check anyways.” The three made their way to the snack booth, Sakura trying to be the mature one and ignore the boys shoving each other behind her. But there was no sign of their sensei at the stand either.
“Can I get you kids something?” asked the older teen manning the booth, mostly to Sakura, as he too was ignoring the slapfight behind her.
“Um, just wondering if you’ve seen a tall guy with like, really spiky gray hair and a mask? Kinda looks super tired all the time! He was probably reading something.”
The teen shrugged and shook his head. “Sorry dude, haven’t seen anybody like that. Are you guys lost or something?”
“Nooo~” Sakura immediately lied, with conviction and poise. Naruto had stopped trying to kick Sasuke in the shins, distracted by the tasty smells of beach snacks.
“One hotdog please!” he yelped, reaching into his trunks and pulling out some soggy-looking paper money. The snack bar guy looked super unimpressed, but rang up Naruto’s order all the same, extra relish and onions included. Naruto grinned and immediately tore into the snack like a ravenous fox.
“Naruto, you’re gonna get sick eating like that.”
“Lemme ‘lone Sakura, I’m hungry,” he mumbled through a mouthful of mystery meat and relish.
“I thought you wanted Kakashi to buy you snacks.”
“Well, yeah, duh, but I still brought my own money. I’m not that dumb,” he assured her. She doubted it.
The streets here were much brighter than Konoha’s. Kakashi supposed that might have something to do with the missing 100ft trees. The sun was halfway to evening and that probably meant he should make his way to his meeting. No rush, that would be suspicious. Just casual. Make his way to the breakfast diner and find the mission contact.
Ah. Wait. Breakfast. He checked the sun again. Yep. Still late afternoon.
He swung by a nearby sweets shop to grab a box. Hopefully sugar will distract the contact from the time. It did for him, he had spent 2 hours savoring his morning doughnuts while under the increasingly frustrated looks of the wound-up trio. Or had it been 3 hours?
He shrugged and headed toward the fancy section of town, chocolates in hand.
The kids moved as a clump in the streets, the buildings were weird here and didn’t support your feet. Plus a large man had yelled at Sakura for climbing on his roof, which is just Rude. It’s not like anyone else was using it, jerk.
“Great, Kakashi abandoned us to die and now we’re gonna have to survive off crabs and hot dogs! I’ll never have ramen again!”
“Shut up, you moron.”
“We searched the whole boardwalk, where else could he be?”
The three kids were seated on a bench that was thankfully located beneath an awning, as the late afternoon sun was still quite intense. Sakura fanned herself with her hand and peered hopefully into the crowds of tourists, hoping to catch a glance of spiky silver hair. No luck. They’d dried off by now and luckily had some clothing to throw on over their bathing suits.
Sasuke frowned. “What are we missing? Where would Kakashi go that he wouldn’t tell us and wouldn’t bring us along?”
“The bathroom?”
“Eh…” Technically Naruto was right, but Sasuke didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
“Maybe he went back to the hotel to nap?”
“Long nap. I doubt it.”
“Maybe he was abducted and we gotta go save him!” shouted Naruto, jumping up. Several tourists glanced at him in alarm.
“Um… kidnappers usually leave ransom notes, I think,” replied Sakura, rubbing her chin.
“If he did ditch us, it’s your fault, Naruto,” added Sasuke, glaring at the blond preteen.
“Yeah, if you hadn’t chucked sand at me—”
“I WAS AIMING AT SASUKE, NOT YOU!”
Another three-way argument would’ve broken out had the owner of the gift shop near the bench not chased them off with a warning. Despondent, the three meandered into the restaurant district, which was a bit fancier than the boardwalk.
“GUYS LOOK!”
Sakura seized the boys by their arms and pointed wildly. There, entering a restaurant with a fancy foreign-sounding name, was Kakashi. Next to him was a tall woman with dark hair wearing an expensive red kimono. The trio watched as the door slid shut behind Kakashi and the mystery woman.
“HE’S ON A DATE!” the three shouted at the same time.