Changes

By Dolly

Because it wouldn't stop playing around in my mind.

Disclaimer: Proper noun? Chances are I don't own it.

-Chapter 1: Where It Started-

When I woke up on the dull, grey Tuesday that our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be... Okay, no, I'm sorry. This is not Harry Potter, no matter how kick-ass that would be.

In all honesty, it was a Friday and I couldn't possibly tell you what the weather was like. My memory is not that good. I could tell you, though, that I was a high school student in my eleventh year and I absolutely hated it. I specifically remember two particularly hormonal, overly emotional, and very annoying teenage girls sitting in the back of the classroom, staring at the back of my head while giggling and whispering. Like I couldn't hear them or something.

Most people, when asked if they would like to be able to read minds, say yes without really thinking about it. My answer would be a definitive, 'no way in hell, you moron,' because I really have zero inclination to know what goes through those two heads while they're talking about me. To this day, I do not know, and that's the way I like it.

Another thing I specifically remember is my history teacher showing up late for class that day.

All right, so, in all honesty, I don't really remember these two details so much as I assume they happened because they were something of daily occurrences. Really, I don't know how our teacher wasn't fired or something, because he looked way too young to have tenure.

Okay, so that was another lie. I don't really even know what he looks like because he always wore this scarf thing over his nose like he was playing cops and robbers or something dorky like that. But I assume he was young, because... Well, old dudes just don't play cops and robbers.

Anyway, so the man of the hour finally showed up, and I only call him that because the moment he stuck his head in, everyone (except me) immediately started shouting that he was late, as if it would stop him in the future or something. Honestly, it was the strangest thing, because every day he's late, and every day they yell, and every day he just smiles (I think. I mean, the man wears a freaking mask, the weirdo) and comes up with some obviously false excuse as to why it was that he was late.

This is just a theory of mine, but I think he actually enjoys people shouting at him for stuff like this, the damn masochist.

But I digress.

Or, for those of you with no vocabulary, I got off topic.

So, he comes in, gives some lame excuse why he was late, and everybody (except me) accuses him of being a dirty, rotten liar.

Uh, which he is, by the way. He denies it to this day, but he so is.

Once again, he just kind of laughed and went to the front of the room to begin his lesson, which started out as follows:

"So, did you all do your homework? You were supposed to find a partner for your history project." And then, looking right at me, he said, "All of you."

All right, so I didn't have a partner. Then again, I didn't need a partner. Not only was I perfectly capable of working by myself, but I preferred it. There were only two people in the entire class that I wouldn't mind being paired up with: Shikamaru, because he would just sleep the entire time and make me do all the work, and Shino, because he would probably just agree to 'split the work.' Or, in other words, have no contact with each other and do two completely separate projects. However, both of these choices had been taken by the time I could talk to them, so I just didn't bother.

"There's an odd number of students in the class," I pointed out, which was quite possibly the worst excuse ever invented by mankind. After all, the common sense solution would be to simply make a group of three, and probably lecture me on how it was 'important to get along with your classmates,' like Iruka-sensei liked to do.

But, big surprise, the man who wears a freaking mask to the freaking bank wasn't too big on the whole 'common sense' thing. Who ever could have guessed?

I could just see the wheels in his head turning as he continued to stare at me (uh, which he really needed to stop doing because it was kind of freaking me out) and all I could think was, 'dear god, what is this twisted man thinking of now?' Then I got my answer.

"Fine, then, you'll be my partner."

The classroom immediately erupted with shouts of 'favoritism' and 'unfair,' (both of which so didn't apply here,) and he had to shout over them to make them shut up.

"I won't help him out any more than I would help any of you," he said, which I knew quite well to be true. He didn't strike me as the 'helpful' type. "And maybe you should think of this next time you're picking partners."

Oh, that clever bastard. He did that on purpose.

I suppose I should explain for all of you who aren't as intellectually advanced as I am (don't feel bad, it happens.)

Right, the day before in class, he had told us all to find a partner for a history project. Never mentioned what it was or anything, just said to find a partner. As explained above, I did not find one. So, instead of being a good, not-so-manipulative teacher and just assigning me to a group, he decided to team me up with himself. He isn't going to help me out any, so in essence, I'll be working on my own. That's not how it looks to the rest of the class, though, so when the next project comes around, they're going to bug me extra to join their group so that we can all avoid that 'favoritism' and 'unfairness' they were all complaining about.

You see? It's all part of his secret plot to ruin my life.

Anyways, no one really had the guts to defy the scary teacher, so they all shut up. I'm not sure if he would consider that a good thing or a bad thing. Either way, he shrugged and continued on like nothing happened.

"Right, so I want you all to get with your partner and arrange times to meet outside of school. You'll be expected to do your project outside of class."

I assumed that meant that he was going to just pull out his little book'o'porn and let us all cut up through the rest of class, like the bad teacher he was. Instead, he pulled up a chair beside my desk and let us all cut up through the rest of class like the absolutely terrible teacher he was.

He sat backwards in the seat, unusually casual, and... I think he was smiling. "So?" he asked.

I immediately knew what he was talking about. He wanted to know when we would be meeting. Outside of school...

Wait, was that even legal? It seemed awfully suspicious to me. Either way, I had no intentions of going out in public with this guy. I mean, seriously? Imagine sitting at a coffee shop with him and his hair and his mask and his little book'o'porn. Not happening. I have a very low tolerance for embarrassment, thank you.

"I have fifth period free," I offered, even though it wasn't, technically speaking, true. Fifth period was physical education with Gai-sensei. If you think Kakashi is weird, you should wait until you see this guy. He must put, like, hair-growing products on his eyebrows or something, because those are the thickest brows I have ever seen, and he has this weird bowl hair cut. I think he thinks it looks good or something. And then, that's not even the worst part... No, the worst part is what he wears. Green spandex, from head to toe. And orange leg warmers. But, seriously, he looked like some sort of weird, deformed, and very ugly turtle. I don't want to see weird, deformed, and very ugly turtles wearing nothing but spandex.

I want to know... Who exactly is in charge of hiring these people? There is no way they're sane.

With that said, I skip P.E. Every day. It's not like we have tests or anything, so I don't have to worry about that bit, and Gai-sensei is always too busy being slightly psychotic to notice I'm missing, so my grade doesn't drop due to my lack of actually taking the class. But there was no way in hell I was going to tell Kakashi that. He would probably lecture me on how important it was to show up to class or give me a detention or something else useless like that. To him, it was my free period.

He seemed to think about that one, meaning that he must have had fifth free, too. Or something like that. I mean, if nothing else, I could sit in the back of one of his classes and work, since I was already doing it on my own. After a moment, he said slowly, "That's only about forty minutes..."

I raised an eyebrow. "Just how much time do we need, exactly?" Surely he wasn't thinking I was going to sit around working for three hours at a time. That just wasn't going to happen. I'm sorry.

He shrugged. "I was thinking a full hour and a half at least three times a week."

Hence why he had said 'outside of school.' Of course. Well, going out in public with him was out of the question. Yeah... Obvious reasons. That meant that I would have to drop by his house – because there was no way he was dropping by mine. Nope. I would much rather invade his privacy than have him invade mine, thank you.

"Okay... My place is off limits." I thought for a minute before adding, "My mother wouldn't leave us alone." Which was kind of true, kind of not. My mother was rarely there. But if she was, she would most certainly assume that Kakashi was my one friend – if much older – finally come home, and would probably hug him. And then, when she found out that he was just my teacher, she would continuously ask about my school performance/behavior and who I talked to most often and the whole nine yards. Yeah, she was like that.

He raised an eyebrow at me and said in a tone that made me feel very foolish, "I'm not going to snoop around your room every time you turn your back, you know."

Yeah, uhuh. Sure you won't. You're a teacher, remember? It is your freaking job to snoop through your students' lives. Seriously, I think Iruka-sensei only proves this point. It's probably their form of entertainment or something weird like that. We are nothing more than a real live soap opera to them.

I stared.

He sighed.

He conceded.

Victory.

"Fine, why don't we just go over to my place? I can set up snacks or something."

What? Snacks? I am not five. I do not need snacks. No, I don't want snacks, I just want to make sure I'm out of there before dinner, thank you.

"Fine, that's okay, I guess." I shrugged and leaned back in my seat to stare off at the ceiling. Oh, what pretty dots you have. It looks like someone spent an entire forty-five minutes tossing a pencil up there to make it that pretty and... Dotty. Oh, wait. They probably did. God, am I bored. "Just nothing sweet."

-after school-

It was the end of the day, and I was heading to my doom. I could even feel chills running down my spine and the whole shebang. Which might have had something to do with the fact that Gai-sensei had just passed by, but for the sake of the story, we'll say it was my impending doom wreaking havoc on my innocent little mind.

It had been decided that, since I am not a stalker and do not know where Kakashi lived, he would have to give me a ride over to his place to work on the project. I didn't really know when he was leaving, though, so I headed straight to his classroom after my last class.

He looked up when I entered the classroom and nodded a greeting. Either that, or he was nodding in response to an unasked question, but I preferred to think that he was mentally stable. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but I really didn't want my teacher, who I would be spending immense amounts of time with (much to my disdain,) to be, you know, a total loon. When the trees talk, I like to think he doesn't talk back. Call me optimistic if you like, especially considering the lack of evidence behind my theory, but those are just my thoughts on the matter.

"I have some work to do," Kakashi explained, pointing his pen in the direction of my usual seat. "You'll have to wait a few minutes on me."

I took a seat, though I wasn't quite sure that I believed him. Kakashi and work just didn't seem to mesh well to me. It was like combining two chemicals that should be kept well away from each other in order to form Michael Jackson. Two seconds ago, I was going to say that they formed some gruesomely unrealistic picture, but I think M.J. fits that description pretty well. Even if he didn't, there was some Michael Jackson look alike standing in the doorway, and it kind of changed my train of thought.

As I looked at the... Creature-thing in the doorway, I considered asking what the hell that thing was, but I figured that would be rude. Instead, I said, "And who the hell is this?"

See how well developed my manners are?

Kakashi's immediate response was simply, "Language, Sasuke." I'm assuming it was nothing more than a teacher's reflexive response to a student cursing, because his voice lacked the stern tone that was necessary to make any sort of lasting impression. So... Cursing in front of Kakashi was okay. Yeah, I recognize weakness (or, you know, apathy, whichever you prefer) when I see it.

He looked up and visibly stiffened when he saw the dude. I mean, I couldn't blame him really. I know I said that he was a Michael Jackson look alike, but it was more like Michael Jackson had somehow managed to reproduce with a snake, and this highly implausible lovechild grew up in a cave, away from all sunlight, and started wearing make up. Yeah, it was more like that. So, no, Kakashi becoming highly uncomfortable at the mere sight of this creepy, creepy man? Understandable. But I couldn't help but feel like there was something deeper to this than just 'run away from the snakey pedo!'

"What are you doing here?" I did not miss the cold tone Kakashi used to say this.

"Kakashi-san, aren't you going to introduce me to your little friend here?" I am not exactly pleased to announce that this man's resemblance to a snake didn't stop at his appearance. No, he even drew out his S sounds a little bit, which was really, quite frankly, extraordinarily creepy.

I could only assume his 'little friend' was me. The fact that both of their eyes flashed momentarily in my direction certainly helped this assumption, and... Well, I didn't even want to consider any other situations.

Hesitation. Now, on one hand, I really don't want this guy knowing my name. He seems like the type of guy who would give me some sort of weird mark to mark me as his because he wants my body for crazy and completely impractical reasons having to do with immortality and then follow me around and try to get me to join some band of random and extraordinarily power-hungry/loyal (sometimes both) freaks who are hellbent on destroying our country out of revenge for not giving him the power that he wanted... So maybe that was a bit over the top, but, point being, he was really creepy. On the other hand, I saw no reason for Kakashi to not want him to know my name. Maybe I'm missing something, but, seriously, why should he care?

"Sasuke Uchiha," he finally said, really quickly. I think he was hoping the man might not understand it. Hint? It doesn't work in the books. It doesn't work in real life. They just ask you to repeat it. "Now, what do you want?"

The Snake proceeded to ignore him again. "Uchiha, huh? Related to Itachi Uchiha?"

"He's his brother," Kakashi answered shortly, as if I wasn't there. Yeah, I don't appreciate it. "Now why are you here?"

"Brother? And how, Kakashi, do you know Itachi Uchiha's brother?"

Now, I don't know if Kakashi was going to catch onto this, but it seemed to me like every time he answered one of Reptilius's questions over there, he was only condoning his 'I'll ignore your questions and keep asking my own' behavior. Yeah, but I'm a genius, so naturally, I would notice this before he did.

"Orochimaru-sama... Why. Are. You. Here?"

Or maybe not. Dammit.

The creepy man (who I now knew to be Orochimaru) sighed and finally answered. "I just dropped by to visit." He smiled. More like leered, but I think he was intending to smile, so I'll be nice and throw him a bone. He smiled. "Am I not allowed to do that anymore?"

"You never were in the first place," Kakashi snapped, really hostilely. I think he was probably scowling behind that dorky mask of his, but I'll probably never know for sure. "I think it's time to go. Come on, Sasuke."

I had two thoughts on this: Yay! and then, Oh, shit. Yay because we got to leave and I really didn't want to spend any more time with this guy than I was forced to. You wouldn't, either. Trust me, he isn't the type of guy you call up for afternoon tea. Oh, shit because in order to leave, I had to walk right by the guy, as he had never left his spot by the doorframe. That wasn't something I was looking forward to. However, Kakashi was giving me this really urgent look, so I walked towards the door, however unwillingly. It kind of, sort of helped that Kakashi was right behind me with his hand right on my shoulder the entire time (however over-protective it was of him,) but any feelings of security that came from this were immediately annihilated when, after we had passed by the creep safely, he called after us, "It was nice meeting you, Sasuke."

I think Kakashi was thinking something along the same lines that I was, because his hand immediately tightened on my shoulder. That thought? Orochimaru is no longer Orochimaru, Reptilius, Michael Jackson or anything else that I have previously called him. He is now officially My Pedophilic Stalker. I'm double-checking my doors before I go to sleep tonight. And I think Itachi has a gun I could borrow...

-author's note-

Okay, so just a few notes: My first story. Yay. So, if it's terrible... That's why. The idea came... Well, it was more like I really like these two interacting. Kakashi and Sasuke. So I really wanted to do a kinda father/son deal. The Orochimaru thing at the end was a random plot-twist-of-sorts I came up with completely out of the blue while I was still writing the first part. I like the idea, but I'm not sure if I like how I executed it.

Another note, the grammar is intentionally very casual. For one, because I think that if we could get inside Sasuke's head, he would sound a bit like a prissy sixteen-year-old girl. It would explain why he randomly smirks at everything for no real reason, amiright? For another, because I like the tone that it gives the story. I feel like any sort of serious Sasuke-like tone would make it more serious than I would like. Could be me over-thinking, though.

The chapter's a little short, so I apologize. I was going to add the next scene in with Sasuke interrogating him, but I figured it would be a good place to start off chapter 2.

So, yeah. Thoughts, reviews, etc. Loved.