This was just a thought that nagged at me until I wrote it down. I hope you enjoy it. But remember it's my mind, Masashi Kishimoto's characters.
The sound of glasses clinking together, the jukebox gently playing some old soul singer pouring her heart out in a sad song, the smell of cigarette smoke… Genma was a happy man. He had just gotten back from a mission and his first stop in Konoha was the local ninja bar, the Rusty Kunai. He had just sat down when his favorite drink was placed in his hand. He winked at the woman at the end of the bar. She was ballsy for a civilian and not too bad to look at. She must have been watching him before tonight to know that he preferred whiskey but then again some people were blessed with good luck. That's what Genma thought he had, good luck. This mission's paycheck would set him up for a year if he didn't just drink it away. And it only took two days. Except those few, very brief two days he had to act as some cougar's toy thing while she made her ex husband jealous. Now Genma didn't mind the ladies young or old but his client was definitely not his type. He didn't know about anyone else but when you needed things replaced he drew the line. Just remembering the old broad talking about her hip replacement led him to thinking about the scars she showed him. He shot the whole glass down at the still freshly vivid memory. He long ago learned to enjoy the burn of whiskey.
The bartender refilled his glass as he looked around the bar. It seemed that the youngsters were all out on missions this week. He sighed. Kakashi's pink haired medic was one of his favorites to flirt with as long as Kakashi wasn't around. The old mop head got real cranky when Genma went within ten feet of her, which led Genma to discuss Kakashi's abilities to make a baby, which in turn led Genma to the ER. He rubbed the back of his head where he swore he could still feel the imprint of Kakashi's foot. He joked about it but he knew where Kakashi's protectiveness came from. He had practically raised that girl. She grew under his care becoming a strong kunoichi and an amazing young woman. Kakashi was at her side as the whole town watched her fall apart after the Uchiha dick deserted her, not to mention his country. His second favorite to flirt with was the leggy blonde Ino. While Asuma had been protective he didn't go out of his way to physically threaten Genma. Ino could banter and shoot witty remarks right back at him and Genma couldn't help but feel a sort of understanding with the girl. The line with her never went passed anything platonic. But he especially liked to make Hinata blush. She was too… adorable. But it wasn't like he was a pervert or anything. He flirted with them. He would never follow through. He was old enough to be their fathers. Getting girls younger than him was one thing but robbing the cradle was another.
He played with the senbon in his mouth, rolling it to one side and then the other as he thought. He did have to give his mission report. He was sure that Kotetsu and Izumo notified the Hokage of his return. That's what were supposed to do anyway as Gate Guardians. He didn't really feel like doing anything except maybe getting his mind off of the old hag and her irrelevant scar shows. He fought back the shudder as he heard the rustle of a silk kimono sit down next to him. He smiled into his glass as he felt the women's eyes on him. She wasn't as old as he originally thought. But laugh lines were beginning to form at the corners of her mouth. That fact alone made Genma want to talk to this woman. Laughter wasn't as big a part of a ninja's life as it should be. He also didn't mind her dark black hair or her rather curvy form.
"I've been waiting for you to get back."
He turned on the stool to face her better. "Really now?"
She nodded, her eyes never leaving the long over exaggerated toothpick that rolled around his mouth.
"My name's -"
Suddenly Genma felt a hand ball into the back of his jacket and pull him to his feet. He gave the woman next to him a confused stare before allowing himself to be dragged away to a dark corner of the bar. He knew from the quick quiet movements that it was another ninja. He caught the smell of rose water and he knew who it was instantly. He had gone on a few missions with this particular person, back when he was still remotely active in ANBU. He was thrown roughly into a chair.
"Uzuki Yuugao, couldn't you see I was talking to that nice lady?"
The second his eyes landed on the purple haired woman he knew.
"Get me a drink Genma."
He would be tempted to make a joke that someone as pretty as her shouldn't look so sad if he didn't know how dire her situation was. Yuugao never drank. He immediately went back to the bar and asked the bartender for a bottle of whiskey. Genma's admirer scowled at the back of the distraught woman's head at the table.
"Sorry darlin' but she needs a friend right now."
The woman did stop scowling to run a slender finger down his chest, "I'll wait for you Genma."
He stuck a smile on his face even though he didn't feel like it. His morals might have been a bit crooked but he still stuck to them. The first on his list was that friends came first always. And he couldn't be with a woman, if only for a night, that wanted him to up a leave a friend in need.
"I wish that you wouldn't."
We walked away from her open mouth with a bottle and two glasses in hand. He sat down and handed her a glass filled about halfway with the fire water. She surprised him by gulping it all down, wincing at the burn, before handing him her class again.
"Yuugao?"
"Where is everyone?"
He felt the need to roll his eyes at her question.
"What? I wasn't your first choice?"
"I was looking for Hana."
He refilled her glass and took up his own again, "sorry, she's in Rice Country with her brother's team. Tracking some drug ring or something."
The girl threw back her glass again and held it out for him. He had known this girl since she first entered ANBU ranks. She was still dressed in most of her ANBU gear, it wasn't unlikely for this particular bar to receive a visit from the covert ninja for a drink after a mission well done. But Yuugao never stayed in the uniform if she didn't have too. She was one of the Hokage's personal guards. The less people saw her in her uniform the less likely anyone would make the connection. If they knew about her position someone might try to use it to harm, kidnap, or kill the Hokage. Yuugao was always careful about keeping her ANBU career quiet. Only a handful of people knew who she really was. And that was what had worry gnawing at Genma's stomach. The purple haired woman was always calm, collected. And when she wasn't that she was smiling and laughing. One look at her told him that something drastic had happened. Her eyes were dark and far away. Her face seemed paler since the last time he saw her too.
He held her glass down on the table, "Tell me what happened."
The look she gave Genma hurt him. He bit down on the senbon in his mouth hard enough to break it but luckily it didn't. He let the glass go. With that pleading look he would be happy to let her drink it from her eyes. It told him a number of things. Like he had thought, something had gone wrong. But the look of shear pain on her face was enough for him not to push the topic. He left his empty glass on the table. Tonight he'd play the part of watcher even though seeing her like this nearly killed him.
"Genma give me another glass."
He heard the heaviness of her voice and he didn't like it one bit.
"If you can pour it yourself than you can have it."
Her brown eyes shot daggers at him. He stared her down. She hadn't said a single word the entire night and she alone had demolished a bottle of high grade whiskey. He knew that she reached her limit and he also knew that alcohol really did chase away your problems at least for a while. He had used this method once or twice himself so he couldn't goad her for it. But he sure as hell wasn't going to leave her to go through it alone. He pushed the bottle forward sending it towards the edge of the table. It fell over and she shot up to catch it. But then she fell to the floor along with the bottle. Genma immediately rushed to her when his nose picked up the familiar smell of blood. Her hand was clutched to her side, blood pooling out of the tight knit fabric. If it wasn't black he would have noticed she was wounded the second she sat down. He hefted her into his arms.
"Shiranui you touch me and die."
"They all say that sweetheart… at first."
His joke made her roll her eyes and that put him at ease for now. It meant that she hadn't lost that much blood. He was careful about landing gently on the rooftops. He didn't want to put her under any more kind of pain tonight. He could almost see the hospital.
"Genma, please don't bring me there."
He looked down and that same gnawing feeling tore at him. Those pleading eyes! He growled his aggravation at her but turned in the opposite direction. His feet moved on autopilot. Like any other girl in his arms he took her back to his house. The place was nice. It was a huge house fit for a clan if his family was still one of Konoha's greatest. After his grandparents death his father just let the title slide. He didn't want it and neither did Genma. But his parents still left him the money and the house. He put the money in a bank and never touched it. He'd rather work for his own meals. But the house held too many memories for him to part with. It was massive building. It took of two blocks of prime Konoha realistate and had a lush garden that he made sure was saw to often. His mother loved it and so did Genma.
He had the front door open within seconds. He carried her up stairs and into his bedroom. He sat her down on the counter in his bathroom shoving a few things aside. She was still clutching her side. He pulled out a well used first aid kit. He shrugged out of his jacket and toosed it to the floor. He was focused on the shaky hands pressed into Yuugao's side. He gently pried them away from her wound. She stiffened as he pulled the blood sticky clothes away from the gashed skin. He used a pair of shears to cut away the fabric before she finally pushed him away and tugged the shit off of her heard altogether. The girl was all business when it counted and so was he. There was a girl sitting in her bra right in front of him and all he could think about was who did this to her in the first place. He wiped the wound clean and frowned at what he saw.
"You've got a nice little piece of shuriken stuck in you Yuugao."
"Then get it the fuck out Genma."
He smiled trying to hide the worry in his eyes. He pulled a pair of sterilized tweezers from the bag and put them right back in. The metal object was too big for the pointed tongs to fit around. He pulled the senbon from his mouth and poured cold alcohol from the rather large bottle over it thoroughly.
"This might hurt a bit love."
She braced herself against the wall as he pried open the wound further. He knew that her hiss meant it hurt. He gently slid the reed into her side, sliding it along the sharp shard ignoring the blood that trickled down her side and stuck to his hands. He was almost there when he heard her shaky voice.
"Genma."
"Almost got it."
A few more inches allowed him to slip the reed behind the fragment and jerk it free. She sat bolt upright her hand clutching the shoulder of his shirt tightly. He tossed the metal object into the sink and grabbed the bottle of alcohol and poured it over the wound. He felt her nails tear into his skin through his shirt. Ignoring his pain, he picked up the plastic syringe and emptied the purple surgical glue into the wound until it was coming back out. And like Sakura had told him he pushed the skin together and ignored her hard breathing. He knew it hurt but he had to seal the wound. At least he knew she wouldn't bleed out anymore. He ripped open a thick piece of gauze and tapped it securely in place. Now she wasn't clinging to him. When he looked up he knew exactly why. He rinsed his hands quickly and helped her down off the counter. Her knees hit the cold tile the second her stomach emptied its contents into the toilet bowl. He lifted her hair away from his face as he remembered the first time he had gotten this drunk. Asuma was holding back his hair then.
He waited patiently until there was nothing left to heave. He helped her sit on the floor still eyeing the wound for signs of fresh blood. When he caught sight of the still white bandage he relaxed. He pulled the medic bag onto the floor and rummaged around in it until he found what he was looking for. Sakura was definitely getting flowers for this. Knowing that he hated going to the hospital almost as much as Kakashi, she had packet his first aid kit with a lot of things only a medic-nin could get their hands on. Like the bottle of plasma pills he palmed. He popped off the lid and shook out two pills. He reached up on the counter and filled his bathroom cup with tap water. He made his way back to Yuugao and wrapped a hand around the back of her neck.
"Swallow these."
She did as she was told and he could tell that she wanted to spit them right back up.
"Keep them down."
She nodded weakly. He sat like that for a few minute until some of her color came back. When he was sure she wouldn't throw up again he slid the arm he had around her neck to under her shoulders and another under her knees. He carried her back to the bedroom and put her down gently on the bed. The instant her pale skin was laid on the blood red sheets he quickly turned away to find something for her to wear. He found a t-shirt in one of his drawers and brought it over to her. He eased it over her head helping her into it. Then he unlatched her high black boots and tossed them on the floor. He reached for the button of her pants only to have her hand catch his wrists. He rolled his eyes at her fearful look and tugged his hands away from her grip.
"I don't take advantage of woman. I might be a dirty minded ladies man but I'm not a rapist."
In an instant the pants where gone too joining the boots on the floor. She was still watching him with wide eyes as he tucked her into his large, comfy bed.
She turned her face away from him her embarrassment tinted her cheeks red, "I'm sorry."
He pulled the chair in the corner next to his bed. "I'll forgive you if you tell me what happened."
When she didn't say a word he closed his eyes, "Then would you like to hear what I think happened?"
He still got no answer. "I think the reason why you didn't want to go to the hospital was that there was someone in there you didn't want to see. And it had to be someone important for you to ignore that kind of wound and go straight for the bottle. I know you never drink. And that chunk of metal I took out of you was definitely not a shuriken fragment, now was it?"
He looked at her calmly and tried not to let the anger he had in his head out. He wanted to ask her if she was stupid, to be putting her life at risk like this. His angry thoughts stopped when he saw a tear glisten in the moonlight. Fuck. He quickly made his way next to her.
"Yuugao."
She curled around him and hugged herself to his chest. By instinct he slid into bed and wrapped his arms around her. The muffled sound of her crying hurt him like a thousand of his silver needles lodging themselves into his heart. Sure he had seen women cry and he had comforted them out of kindness. But this was more than kindness. He felt compelled to hold her and to take care of her.
He couldn't hide the desperate plea in his voice, "Tell me what happened."
She didn't move from his arms, she just lay against him, as she began to tell him what he wanted to know.
"I hesitated. But he was just child Genma. No older than Konohamaru. I-I couldn't take his life."
He stroked her hair as he thought. It had taken nearly an hour for her to tell him everything, the mission to Rain, the warlord they had to kill. Everything went off without a hitch until their target's son walked in on them right after the deed. She refused to take his life. She had convinced her partner that a simple memory Jutsu would be sufficient. She had him convinced until a sword went though his belly and into hers as well. The kid wasn't used to a broad sword from what she described to Genma but he knew how to deliver a killing blow, only that the tip of the blade broke off in her abdomen. But in the end she still had to kill the boy and now her partner might die too.
"You followed your heart Yuugao. You did what you thought was right even if it turned out to be a bad choice. But when the day comes that you can easily cut down a child then that's the day you truly lose your humanity."
She buried her face trying to hide her tears. Her voice came out muffled against his shirt as he held her tighter against him.
"But because of my humanity I might lose my partner. He trusted me with his life Genma."
It hurt him how hollow her voice sounded. "He agreed with you though. He didn't want to take that boy's life either. He would forgive you Yuugao."
She took in a shaky breath. Weariness had sunken into her skin along with relief, "thank you Genma. For letting me try to handle it myself, for taking care of me when I couldn't, and for understanding."
He rubbed her back gently as he rested his chin on top of her soft purple strands, "go to sleep love."
It was nearing dawn when Genma woke up to something pulling the sheets off of him and to the floor. He picked up the puppy by the scruff of his neck and dangled him in front of his face.
"Where the hell have you been Buck?"
The German Sheppard pup squirmed in his hands to smell his fingers. The dog's nose scrunched up at the lingering alcohol on his skin. Last night's first aid session came back to his mind. He looked toward the open bathroom door and then back down to the kunoichi sleeping soundly at his side. As the puppy squirmed into the warmth between them Genma sighed. He scratched the dog's soft furry head.
"Take care of her boy. I've got a few things to do before she wakes up."
"Genma if you've got that late mission report just give it to Shizune I'm busy at the moment."
He gave the weary looking Hokage a smile. "I'm afraid that's not why I'm here Hokage-sama."
"Genma I really don't have the time."
"How is he?"
The blonde fell back into her chair and let out a relieved sigh. "You found her."
"More like she found me. I took care of her. She's still asleep."
The hokage ran a hand through her hair, "He's in stable condition, but he had slipped into a coma last night. He's out of it now but with all the damage to his internal organs and the blood loss I was surprised he didn't stay in it longer. He's tough. He'll make it out of here just fine."
He felt relieved to be able to bring back good news to the woman hopefully still asleep in his bed.
"Are you going to send her to the council for this?"
The Hokage shrugged her shoulders, "She broke the rules. Someone made her and she refused to kill him and got her partner nearly killed and wounded herself as well. The whole mission could have been blown. I have to send it to the council even if I don't want to."
"What'll happen to her?"
"Genma, are you worried about Yuugao?"
He fought back a nervous twitch; instead he flicked the senbon in his mouth, "She is my friend Lady Tsunade as well as one of your own personal bodyguards. Aren't you worried about her?"
When red nails reached up to rub her temples Genma knew that his feelings for Yuugao were off the hook for know. He didn't even know what his feelings where. Yes, he had always liked her but he liked most of the kunoichi in the village. Yes, he always flirted with her but he flirted with everyone. But he had never wanted to care for someone like he did last night before. He had never wanted to talk on anyone's behalf to the Hokage before. He also had never had trouble blocking out the sight of pale skin contrasting beautifully with his bed sheets from entering his mind. Tsunade's voice pulled him from his memories.
"They will probably demote her. Have her do communication in the radio tower or something that is horribly below her for a while before they let her take the ANBU exams again. She'll have to start over."
He flicked his glorified toothpick again. Yuugao wouldn't like that at all. But then again she wouldn't like what he had in mind at all either. His clan was still owed a debt by the city of Konoha itself. "May I suggest something then?"
He found her still asleep he got back which gave him time to clean up the bloody mess in the bathroom. He left the discarded metal on the counter though. He knew that she would want to get rid of it herself. Once he was done he placed a glass of water and some aspirin on the bedside table and sat back down in the chair he placed by his bedside last night. He watched her as she woke up, her violet hair streaked golden in the sun light. She sat up slowly feeling in the space next to her for him. He hid his smug smile away as he watched her pick up the now awake and excited puppy. He chuckled as she let it lick her face.
She turned towards him, "You have a dog?"
He reached out to pet the brown hairball before explaining. "It's an orphan Hana found. I had mentioned that there were some cats around my house that needed scaring away. Then she pawned this little guy off on me."
Her fingers scratched behind the dog's ears and the puppy became puddy in her hands. "What's his name?"
"Buck."
She stared at the older ninja questionably. He smirked, "As in a bucket of fur."
She looked back down at the puppy snuggling into her lap and smiled. "He is kind of fluffy."
"I went to see Tsunade."
Her hands stilled on the little dog. He continued watching her closely. "He's fine. He'll make a full recovery. She needs your report as soon as possible though."
"And the council?"
He stood up, "We'll talk about that over breakfast. You're hungry right?"
She nodded looking relived and slightly worried. Once again he felt the need to squash that worry. He pointed to the water and pills on the table.
"Take those and get a shower. You can borrow some clothes. Then come downstairs for breakfast. I'll tell you about everything else."
She nodded again as he walked toward the door. He expected Buck to follow but he didn't. He grumbled about a certain conniving man's best friend as he made his way downstairs.
The click clacking of paws let him know that she was finished in the shower. He threw Buck a piece of bacon and turned to find that Yuugao was not there. He smiled and made his way to the large french doors in the kitchen opened to the garden. He leaned in the door jam and watched her. She had borrowed another of his shirts and a pair of charcoal gray drawstring pants. The ends of her damp hair stuck to her cotton covered shoulders. Even in his baggy clothes she still was a sight to see. The sunlight bathed her in gold and her hair stood of beautifully against the dark pink of the flowers. He watched as her finger delicately caressed one of the pink petals.
"Paeonia rockii."
She didn't turn to him but he could still see her smile, "Peonies. They are my favorite."
"They were my mother's favorite. Come on breakfast is ready."
He looked back long enough to see her linger near the flower before bending over slowly to smell the lotus-like flower. He sat at his chair stirring his coffee as she sat next to him.
"So?"
"So eat."
She sent him an annoyed look that made him smile, "Eat first and then I'll tell you."
She glared at him and his little game before picking up some toast and chewing it down. Seeing as much as she drunk last night it was probably better that she didn't eat just yet. He slid the scroll to her over the table. He watched her gulp down her food. He hid his smile with his coffee cup as she opened and read through her punishment.
"She can't be serious!"
Buck sat on the floor with his head cocked to the side as he watched the purple haired woman along with his master.
"I have to be your dog sitter! For three months!"
Genma finally let his smile fall into place as he waved another piece of bacon at her. "Keep reading love."
"And your house sitter! Genma!"
He shrugged; it was better than her rank being pulled out from under her and all her work in ANBU thrown down the drain. And somehow he knew that deep down inside of her she knew that he had only her best interests at heart. But that still didn't ease the glare she was giving him.
"You're wound didn't reopen in the shower?"
She nearly snarled, "No."
"How's the hangover?"
She ripped off a piece of toast violently and chewed it to oblivion. He sighed and got back to his breakfast. Why did he always have to like the women that wanted to kill him? Well, he did have three months to change her mind…