Chapter 4: Conversation
Kakashi learned a few things about his little ghost throughout the whole three months she started her haunting. He knew so much about her that it almost seemed as if he had known her his whole life.
When it came to water, she was literally a fish. Once she ran down the hallway, interrupting him from his sleep, and launched her small body towards the refrigerator. When she wrenched it open, a small screech of disbelief rent through the air when she didn't find what she wanted inside the small compartment. It was then Kakashi knew she drank water like an amphibian when the black blob hovered near the sink for a good ten minutes until she was satisfied.
A small bulged around the stomach area confirmed his suspicions of her gaining weight.
Two times in the last three months, he witnessed the spitfire during her menstrual cycle. His ghost would moan and groan much like a wounded animal, rolling and crawling on the floor and strike out when annoyed. It took her about a week to settle down from her bloody days.
Some days he found the ghost's haunting amusing, occasionally listening to her foreign words and lazily scrutinizing her as she flitted around.
And there were those days he didn't want anything to do with her.
He would enter his home and be shocked when he found her sitting on his couch, throwing her feet on the coffee table and throwing the Icha Icha book collections he had neatly piled there on the floor.
There once was a time she broke his vase. It was a vase that belonged to his mother's family, which has been passed down from generation to generation.
Even when he snapped and rage (which he did rarely, which were becoming more common because of her), it did nothing to deter his ghost from stop running around like a chicken with no head.
The creaking sounds that came so recognizable to him made him sigh and close the orange book in his hands. Immediately, as directed by the Hokage herself, Kakashi lifted his headband and watched his front door for the flicker of the ghost's entrance. The only ones who knew about the 'ghost' were the Hokage, her apprentice, the Sarutobi couple and Genma. This was to be kept on a hush-hush level till Tsunade decided what to do with it.
When the darkening space before his wooden front door began to thicken, Kakashi sighed and straightened up. His body froze, eyes widened when he noticed something was different with his ghost.
It was…getting lighter.
As the ghost moved around at the pace of a snail, colors bled into it ever so slowly.
A light color of green washed over the flimsy, thin pants she wore, trailing up to the v-neck baggy shirt and stopping from there. The clothes looked like it would fail to conserve body heat, leaving it up to the thin white long sleeve she had under to do the job.
The color of peach gently flowed through the black, conquering the dark color with something light and carefree. Soon, the peach color traveled up her neck and over her face, leaving the brownness to finish the woman's body.
She was a rather pretty thing, he mused.
The now colored woman turned, closing the door behind her and removed her shoes at the foot of the entrance. Her chocolate brown eyes blinked tiredly, the shadows under her eyes signifying how she had spent her days. She brought her hand up and rubbed her reddening eyes, sniffling at the recent cold she had caught. The wavy brown hair spat out in different directions, determined to embarrass the girl further with her unknown spectator.
Kakashi watched, curious as she moved about.
She trudged along to the kitchen, hand moving through her hair and grunted when it tangled. He winced painfully when she yanked at her hand, fighting with her man-eating hair.
After the mini-battle, the woman drank her cup of juice, turned off the light and headed upstairs.
Kakashi followed her, keeping at a distance. He studied her body movements, watching for any signs of violence, disease, misfits, etc, anything that would serve as information to him about what this girl was and why she was here.
It was a side mission Tsunade assigned him whenever the ghost appeared.
The woman turned right, entering his room, which she had made herself quite comfortable for the past few weeks. She placed the white, expensive, highly designed bag hanging on her shoulder to the right, moving his eyes away from it when it disappeared, and moved across the room. A yawn escaped from her mouth quite obnoxiously, stretching her arms over her head and even scratched her stomach for good measure. "Ohhhh, what I would do for a nice massage."
Whenever she spoke, it never failed to make him tilt his head to the right. It was almost instinctive by now.
A low hum echoed from her chest, singing a song that was all too natural by now. It was a song that she always sang when she showered.
As if on cue, her hands went to the hem of her shirt. Usually, Kakashi only saw a blackness being pitched to the side, but now he knew it was her undressing before she entered the bathroom. He continued to watch her as she continued to his bathroom.
"Damn, I hope Akane didn't use up all the warm water." His ghost grunted, cutting off from her song as she pulled the knob to the shower. Her hand dipped under the weather, staying there for a few moments until she was supposedly satisfied.
It was then when she stripped naked, did Kakashi feel his day getting better.
Her body was supple and pale. Because she was short, her body responded to it (along with the food she shoveled down her throat) by carving her body into a form that many tall and skinny women cannot achieve. Water rolled down her well-endowed breasts as she entered the water, passing the dusty colored nipple before going down along her stomach, waxed mound and thick, curvy legs.
Kakashi sat down on the toilet, relaxing when she didn't pose any harm. He watched as she closed her eyes, singing softly beneath her breath as she doused herself with the water.
There was never a time where he found a woman doing her morning ritual as interesting as this.
Her voice would crack from time to time, jumping over notes and dying at the perfect time, but she did not change songs. She continued on with it, sudding a loofa and scrubbing her body as she did so. His eyes lazily follow her hands, watching as the bubbles slid down her form tantalizingly.
When she finished her shower, she wrung her long brown hair and then shook her head from side to side as if she were a dog. The now colored ghost reached over and suddenly there was a fuzzy navy towel in her hand, wrapped around her body comfortably and securely before she stepped out of the shower.
"Why is it so cold?"
She stepped into the room quickly, going to the closet and grabbing another towel to wrap her hair in. Once she dried her legs and arms, she removed the towel wrapped around her and started to dress herself.
As his little ghost bent down to step into her underwear, Kakashi noticed a birthmark smiling at him from her left butt cheek. His head cocked further to the right.
After she dressed, the woman went to one wall of his room that was empty and stared at something that hovered to her right. It was only something she can see, that he couldn't. But when she touched it, his Sharingan would catch a fuzzy outline of the object she held. When she sat down in midair, he caught the image of a chair and table.
Her pink lips pursed. The dainty foot swung up and sat itself on the edge of the table as she neared it with nail polish.
Kakashi stood besides her, taking in the struggle she was battling with her foot.
She had nice feet. They were slender and well groomed. It was nice excluding the fact that she was painting them like a three year old. A groan and grumble came from her as she continued to try and make the end brush along her nails neatly, but only succeeded in creating bumps and painting the cuticle of her fingers.
It was horrid. He had seen Sakura's painted nails and they looked absolutely nothing like this female's.
When she leaned back and looked at her feet, he took a glance along with her and stifled a chuckle.
"Why can't I ever paint my nails right? Well…I guess it looks better than last time."
"Kakashi-sensei?"
The copy nin flinched, turning around in shock when he saw Naruto at the foot of his room with a look of agitation upon his face. "Kakashi-sensei, what the hell are you doing here? You're supposed to be training us, you pervert! You're four hours late! Sasuke and Sakura are waiting at the bridge, and you're in trouble. Sakura's on her period and…"
It was then the dreaming Hokage stopped in his rant when he noticed there was another person in the room. "Eh? Who the hell is this?" Then as if thunder struck him in that very spot, Naruto's confused face broke out in a lecherous grin. "Ohh, I see how it is, Kakashi-sensei."
"Naruto!" Kakashi warned, his arm outstretched helplessly when the blond giggled and held up his pinky with waggling eyebrows.
"Hi, Kakashi-sensei's girlfriend!" Naruto greeted rather loudly and approached her with a friendly smile.
It would be surprising if the ghost heard him.
"Don't touch her!" Kakashi grabbed Naruto by the back of his sweater and yanked him away from the girl who was still fussing about her nails. He held down his student's mouth, moving farther away from her but still in the same room until he was satisfied with the distance. "Why are you here?" Kakashi asked harshly.
Naruto slapped his teacher's hand from his mouth, gagging with his hands wrapped around his throat. "Ugh, gross! I don't even know where your hands have been!"
Kakashi stared at him unamused. "You'd be surprised. Now, why are you here and how did you enter my home?"
"Oh," Naruto blinked, his face turning fox-like. "You see…don't be surprised when you go downstairs. Your living room looks like a battle zone from all the traps you set up. I think a kunai got my ass." And there in all proof was a small tear. "Aww, man!"
Leave it up to Naruto to make a mess of everything.
"Why won't you let me say hi, Kakashi-sensei? And…and why is she just staring at us? Isn't it courteous to greet people?" Naruto grumbled about the woman's ill manners.
"What?"
It was then when he turned around that Kakashi noticed the supposed ghost staring straight at him with huge eyes filled with wary wonderment.
Chinatsu thought she was dreaming.
Here she was about to throw herself into her books for an extra study night despite the long hours at work when she saw the black shadow again. But this time, he wasn't one dark color. His whole body was doused in different colors, showing her the real demon-ghost-thing that has been haunting her since weeks ago.
He wasn't sore to the eye; that was for sure.
But at the same time, he wasn't dressed in what you would call the norm nowadays.
She slowly stared at him, standing up at the pace of the snail as if she were in range of a wild animal. Chinatsu gulped loudly, moving her lips as she thought about how in the world she was going to communicate with this so-called spirit. When she started to say something, he suddenly moved towards her, taking a slow step at a time.
A squeak squeezed out of her and she darted away, running around him and out the bedroom door. She heard a cry of surprise as she threw herself down the stairs. Her naked feet slammed down hard upon the wooden floor, burning from the sharp turns and the occasional trips her clumsy self did. Chinatsu breathed hard, shoving her small self underneath the dining room table.
The darkness shrouded the area, making her blind to the ghost that could possibly see her.
Her teeth gnawed on her lips, fear and anxiousness building with her as she anticipated a sudden movement. There was no telling where this ghost would pop up, and what it would do now that it was not only aware of her presence but also finally modified as a human being. She was a fool to believe that he was scary colored. There was nothing more frightening than seeing a pair of eyes narrow straight at her.
She grabbed the table leg, trying to grasp some strength to calm her rapid beating heart.
"Kakashi-sensei, what the hell is going on?" Naruto yelled, running out of the room and after his teacher. He came to an abrupt stop when he slammed into Kakashi's back.
Though the man felt the full impact of Naruto's run, he didn't move a centimeter. Kakashi threw out his arm, shushing his student's loud questions silently as he studied the woman on the floor. It seemed as if she didn't notice him.
The soft whimpers coming from her were heard.
He didn't know what to make of her. She finally saw him and she ran. Here she was cuddled into a ball in the middle of his dining room like a fool. When her hand touched something, he saw the outline of a table she was hiding underneath. He saw her peek through the table and chair legs, trying to catch a glimpse of him. And when she did, she cowered in fear.
This was no jutsu. This was no haunting ghost.
She was just…just a woman.
"Kakashi-sensei, what is she doing? Why are you so quiet?" Naruto whispered, body tense just in case it needs to spring into some action if necessary.
Kakashi ignored his student. Slowly, he crouched down, keeping his eyes upon hers.
Chinatsu gripped the table leg harder with her hands, feeling the edges bite into her skin painfully. Her eyes widened more, staring at him as he bent down. His hand lifted and he spoke, "Yo."
That one syllable word made her flinch severely that the table leg screeched from her quick movement. She didn't expect that. Actually, she didn't know what to expect from this creature-man-thing. His existence, its existence wasn't supposed to…exist! What the hell was she supposed to predict from it?
Slowly, the silver-haired man sat on the floor, face towards her with a black face.
Well, she couldn't really see his face because of the mask he wore, but she didn't have to. Those mismatched eyes of his were so expressive. And at the moment, they looked like they were studying her.
Kakashi blinked when she spoke.
"What do you want?" She asked hesitantly, gripping what looked like a chair's leg with such grip that he was sure that she was going to break it.
Kakashi hunched forward, placing his elbow on the crook of his thigh and resting his head on the palm of the hand. "Who are you?" He asked. The tone of his voice was bored, but even Naruto can see that his body posture was ready to defend and attack.
Naruto was left confused and ignored, left to study this scene with the brain that never really kicked in unless in strenuous, not to mention dangerous, situations. It wasn't until later did it kicked in (while Kakashi and Chinatsu were talking without any sense of direction) and Naruto screamed in surprised and jumped in place. "Ehhh? Kakashi-sensei, did she rob your place?"
"No, Naruto," Kakashi sighed.
"What do you want? I'm not rich! This house may be extravagantly huge and have very, very, very expensive things, but it all belongs to my mother! Go haunt her, not me!"
"…Then is she crazy?"
He ignored his student and continued questioning the woman slowly as if she were a child. Subtly, Kakashi moved forward by using his fisted hands to scoot forward.
"Hey, I saw that, no coming closer!" She cried out childishly, pointing at him with angry eyes.
The nerve of him! Chinatsu grumbled, not realizing that her hands were slacking from the death grip she had a few minutes ago. Who the hell did he think he was? Did he think she was stupid enough to let him get away with that?
"Where are you from?" He asked.
She wasn't going to lie, but his voice was enchanting. If it was used in the right way and the right situation, she was pretty sure that it would lull her to sleep with sweet nonsense or words that make no complete sense.
But that wasn't the point!
The point was that there was a haunting spirit in here and she was scared shitless. "Please, please, please, can't you just go away?" She groaned. "I'll repent, I'll say a thousand Hail Mary's and ten thousand Our Fathers. Damn, I'll even give you offerings of the most expensive food if you just leave me alone."
"She's not making any sense, Kakashi-sensei. What language is she talking?" Naruto stepped forward, determined to make a solution for this problem and passed his teacher. Before Kakashi even had the chance to stop his student from walking to the woman, Naruto placed his hand on her shoulder.
A scream rented through the air.
"Gah!" Naruto was thrown back a few feet and slammed into the opposite wall when the woman pushed him away by the face.
Kakashi immediately stood up and crouched. He watched as she ran through the house with her hands in the air and a face full of terror. The moment she reached the foot of the stairs, she disappeared.
"Itai!"
Chinatsu continued to run up the stairs with blind fear. Just a moment ago, while she was interrogating and threatening the unmoving spirit that didn't seem as dangerous, something touched her shoulder and another face appeared right in the damn face.
Another spirit, another spirit, oh, god, what the hell was going on here?
Right when she was at the top of the stairs and ready to sprint her ass into her room when she slammed into something.
"Chinatsu, what the fuck?" Akane cursed loudly.
"What's going on?" Their mother rushed out of the bedroom, throwing on a bathroom and wrapping it tight around her waist. When her old eyes took in the squiggling forms of her two daughters, she paused there and stared at them before frowning. The sleep lines deepened, making her angry face more severe than it already was. "Why are you fooling around? It's two in the morning."
"This idiot was screaming, mom. I was gonna go downstairs but she ran into me." Akane groaned, rubbing her reddening shoulder. She kicked at Chinatsu who yelped.
"I saw a ghost!" Chinatsu cried as she struggled to untangle herself from her sister. "I saw it, oh my fucking god, Akane, I swear on my life I saw the ghost!" She started blabbing off about blond hair, blue eyes, floating silver hair that defies gravity, scars and weird clothes, leaving not only her sister, but also her mother blinking at her in concern. Her mother disappeared in her room within a second.
"And then I was hiding under the table, and he was just standing there. He was just standing there like he belonged there, Akane! And he started talking, he started talking in Japanese—mom, what are you doing?" Chinatsu screeched when she saw her mother coming out of her room with two katanas in hand.
A normal person would come out with guns, but her mother, a strict traditional Japanese woman, came out with swords.
"Don't go down there, no!" Chinatsu dove for her mother's feet, holding them down in place when she tried to walk down the stairs. "No, mom, no! He's still there! Don't go down, please!"
Akane reached over and yanked Chinatsu's arms from her mother's feet. "Holy shit, Chinatsu, relax!" She glanced to the side to see her mother already making her way into the living room. The younger sister yanked her hands from Chinatsu and followed her mother as back up.
"No, he's going to get you. There are two of them!"
The mother took her stance, holding the katanas in her hands with accurate posture and precision. She twirled on the balls of her feet, using her sharp eyes to take in every corner of her house, intending to find the supposed perpetrator that invaded her home. When it came to the overturned chairs, she paused there before relaxing. She turned to her youngest daughter and frowned delicately. The old woman than glanced behind Akane to see a heavy breathing, terrified Chinatsu who looked like she was ready to bolt into the streets or explode from terror and anxiety.
"Chinatsu," her mother started, placing the unsheathed katanas on the dining room table. "Are you alright?"
"Mom, you don't understand, they're here!" Chinatsu hissed, wrapping her arms around herself as her eyes darted from corner to corner. "Let's go back upstairs, please. It's not safe here."
Akane frowned. "Jesus, Chinatsu, there's no one here. Mom just checked."
"You don't understand, goddamit. They're ghosts!"
"Ma, ma, settle down. Chinatsu, take the next two weeks off from the hospital; both work and volunteering. I think the stress is making you…crazy." She took the katanas and started up the stairs. "Akane, make some green tea for your sister. After she drinks it, make sure she sleeps right away. I think sleep deprivation has something to do with these 'ghosts'."
Immediately, the younger sister moved, the older one too stunned and fearful to as the mother went back into her room.
What the divorced woman didn't notice was a small dent on the opposite wall of the dining room table.
Just so you're aware, Chinatsu is the one who's talking in Italics. It was going to get confusing, but I managed to merge both Chinatsu and Kakash into one non-split chapter so that it shows they can really see each other. He shows up in her world, and she in his. I included the line thing afterwards when they disappeared D:
BAHAHAHAHAA, I'M SO EXCITED 8D The next chapter, omfg, the next chapter is going to be grand, behehehehe 8D (Is it obvious what's going to happen? 8) )
How embarrassing is it to be noticed that you're gaining weight by a super hot ninja? Not cool, man :c
Meh, not much reviewers :c But then again, I'm writing for my sake. I had to get this out and decided to publish it LOL. xiMenagerie gave me the idea, but then I totally turned it into a different plot than she originally gave me B) So, tricks up on you! XD
xiMenagerie – no spamming! I wanna gain reviews fair and square Dx
Thank you my reviewers xD
xiMenagerie
Verdigurl – I'm glad you like it so far! :D And here's some more XD Enjoy~!