All you need is love (Love Triangle)

Chapter 4

The rest of Kaori's morning was spent catching up on paperwork as usual. When lunchtime came around, it was Otoha's job to see to the patients and Kaori was left manning the front desk by herself.

Curious to learn more about Kakashi, she logged onto his administrative records and learned he graduated the Academy at age 5, became a chuunin at 6, and a jounin at 13. His distinguished career included 38 S missions, 276 A missions, 413 B missions, 189 C missions, 197 D missions at the last computerized update.

As a senior medical professional, she was also able to access other confidential records. A search on Hatake revealed there was no more of the Hatake clan in Konoha. Each available record had deceased at the top of the file. Hatake Sakumo, his father was apparently a great shinobi who died when Kakashi was 8, by suicide according to the autopsy records. Kaori also ran a search on Kakashi's teammates whose names she retrieved from the admin records. She felt like a stalker but convinced herself she needed to know all about him in order to help him. It was not some strange obsession.

She found that Kakashi received the sharingan from Uchiha Obito, his teammate. His other teammate Rin was also deceased. Kaori vaguely remembered Rin. She was a shinobi medic and thus attended a few of the same medical classes with her, but Rin was much more advanced. 'See what talent gets you,' Kaori thought sadly, 'Guess I should be glad to be a lowly nurse (but a damn good one!).' And of course his sensei, the Fourth was also long gone.

The more she learned about her sleeping prince, the deeper her sympathy, and a great respect for this man, who sacrificed so much of himself for the village, developed. She could not reconcile the image of the man she formed from his paper trail with Otoha's allegations. Was he a pervert? It couldn't be true. How could a man with such a distinguished service record, who kept his mask on all the time (indicating an obsession with privacy), who had had no sexual harassment charges on record, be a pervert?

Was he really a notorious ladies' man? That didn't make sense either. How could a man who perpetually wore a mask be... intimate with that many women without his face being known? 'Unless it was all done in complete darkness...how...kinky...'

And what about all of Gai's boasting that he was better than Kakashi? Based on their mission records, Kakashi was definitely better, with more A and S class missions. Gai's assertion, that he saved Kakashi, seemed to be rather suspect in her opinion.

Kaori decided that all of this was hearsay, just shinobi gossip perpetrated by envious imps to tarnish an honorable man's reputation. Of course Kaori did believe he read smut books, all men were addicted to porn, but being an actual pervert was something entirely different.

Her ponderous thoughts were interrupted by a flash of bright green. Gai suddenly appeared before her, smiling his shiny white smile. Before she could greet him, Gai launched into his prepared speech. "Nurse Kaori, I would like to thank you again for the excellent care you have shown to my dear Lee..."

"You're welcome, I'm just doing my job..."

"Maybe so, but I would like to do something special for you. You deserve it."

'Is he trying to bribe me into letting Lee do more exercise training?' "Thank you but it's not necessary..."

"I am offering you the honor of accompanying me to dinner."

Kaori was confused by his words. 'Does that mean there's an award ceremony he wants me to attend?' "Sorry, I can't get involved with patients..."

"I'm not a patient..." Gai pointed out.

"...or their parents or relatives or friends." Not exactly true but her usual excuse when she was not interested.