Kagome Kagome,

The bird in the cage,

When, when will you come out?

In the evening of the dawn,

The crane and turtle slipped.

Who stands right behind you now?

…

..

.

Kagome gasped into awareness.

She breathed heavily, her lungs contracting painfully trying to take in as much air as it could. Whipping her head behind her, her eyes frantically searched the darkness for a presence she swore she felt. Finding nothing but a plain white wall, she was about to relax her posture, but the feeling of nausea took that opportunity away. She clawed at her throat and chest feeling the rise of bile. Her chest clenched. Her stomach churned. She couldn't hold it in. She had to let it all out.

Manoeuvring herself over to the side of the bed, Kagome emptied out the fluids in her stomach. The stench of vomit quickly filled the room. She coughed and wheezed, feeling the acidic effects of vomiting inside her chest and throat. Tears trickled down from the corners of her eyes as she continued spewing saliva. She spat aggressively, wanting to take away vile taste.

Finding a jug of water at a nearby table, Kagome reached out for it only to miss the jug and slammed her stretched hand against the table edge instead. She tried again. Her dainty finger wrapped loosely around the handle and she pulled. The table wobbled at the sudden action and toppled over. Kagome flinched at the echoed sound of metal crashing against the floor by she ignored it. She brought the jug to her lips and angrily drowned the water. Some slipped through around the edge, making a trail down her throat and down inside her loose shirt.

Happy to drown the bitter taste away, she dropped the jug to the ground in her haze.

Her head felt heavy just as he limbs did. Her vision blurred between tears and cloudiness. The sudden stiffness of her body constricted her movement. She tried to ease some of the pain by arching her back, only to feel her chest knot painfully. Moving her feet, she felt them tingle with numbness.

"Urgh," she moaned, unaware that she was slipping dangerously off the bed.

Kagome tried to lean back into the bed. She used her arm as leverage, putting down all her weight on it, but it was too much. Her arm wasn't strong enough to support her weight and slipped off the bed first, the rest of her following after. Squeezing her eyes shut, she waited for the hard impact only to find a pair of arms catching her.

"Whoa, easy there, Kagome." Kakashi gave a sigh of relief. He had reached her just in time to save her from the dangerous fall. However, he couldn't say the same of his shoes. Looking past Kagome's curled form in his arms, his face scrunched up in distaste at the vomit he stood on.

What is Hokage thinking putting her under my watch? Tch. They didn't even notice the racket she was making. I question their shinobi skills. Kakashi thought as he looked over to his sleeping students. Sakura comforted herself onto the only couch while Sasuke and Naruto took to the metal chairs. He winced. It looked uncomfortable.

Looking away, Kakashi carefully stepped away from the puddle that ruined his sandals. He settled Kagome by the windowsill where he rested just moments before.

"Sorry," Kakashi heard Kagome softly mutter. "I can clean it up."

He sighed. Again.

"Don't worry." Eyeing her wet shirt, he grabbed the bag Sakura prepared earlier and thrust it into Kagome's hands. "Bathrooms there. Freshen up."

Nodding, Kagome took the bag and staggered towards the direction Kakashi pointed at. Said man watched her retreating figure and sighed.

"Sighing a lot, Kakashi, not a good sign for your age." He mumbled to himself hoping to stall time. He really didn't want to clean up the vomit near the bed, but the hospital cleaners were gone. He could call in a nurse, but he wanted to take advantage of his sleeping students and have an interrogation of his own with Kagome.

From what Tsunade confided in him, Kagome was clearly someone, or something, dangerous. She just didn't know it yet. Or, she did and true to her words, doesn't know anything explaining the memory loss. But, whatever it was, he was not to tell her anything about the interrogation, especially not how they chained and whipped her into unconsciousness. He did take interest in her kekkei genkai though. To think that the unscarred flesh of Kagome was her own handy work and not Tsunade's was a shock. He'd never heard of a kekkei genkai like hers, especially not a pink one.

At that, he looked towards his pink haired student. As if there wasn't enough pink in my life already.

By the time Kagome came back dressed in black tights, a fitting white long sleeve and her hair long and went and dripping down her back and shoulders, Kakashi had finished cleaning and the room smelling like summer breeze. He was sitting patiently by the window. One look at her and he gulped.

No doubt wariness was there, no doubt at all. But the perverse mind of his couldn't help but take in the swell of her breasts shown through the few wet spots of her shirt.

He cleared his throat, trying to shake away the dryness. "Uh, sit, please."

"Thank you." Kagome whispered softly. Taking her position on the hospital bed, she watched Kakashi monitoring her movements. "Uh, thanks again for the clothes, and cleaning up…and for saving me from the fall," she chuckled nervously. "Now that I'm not woozy, I can imagine what a fall that would have been." She said again, trying to make light of the situation.

It was just too awkward. For her, that is.

Kakashi nodded, accepting her gratitude. "It might be too soon to get into this now, but I'd like to take advantage of the sleeping idiots over there."

That's when Kagome noticed that the rest of team seven were in the room as well. They were shadowed in the darkness and with a slight squint of her eyes; she could make out their silhouette.

Kakashi continued. "Well, you passed the interrogation with Ibiki. Hokage-sama has granted you permission into Konoha. You've got a temporary citizenship.

Surprise flittered through Kagome. "Really?" her eyes narrowed for a bit, forehead wrinkled in confusion. "I was so sure that they didn't believe me and had me tortured," she muttered and then looked alarmed. "I mean- I just, it felt like I was physically hurt in there…ha ha…"

Kakashi's eyes betrayed nothing and that made Kagome squirm, She bit her lip under his stoic eye, her hand wrapped nervously around her wrist to ease away some of her frit.

Guess that's the memory pill working. For a second he let himself pity the woman. It seemed no one wanted her to remember. Medic-nins are scary.

Cracking a smile through his mask, his eyes glinted amusement. "It might be exhaustion and you have been sleeping for three days now, no doubt your muscles are stiffed and strained."

"Wow," Kagome breathed with wide eyes. "Three days? Must have been one hell of an interrogation. I mean, all we did was talk, I freaked out of course, I didn't know how to convince Morino-san and then…" she stopped. "And then…?"

"…And then you accepted Yamanaka to use his kekkei genkai on you. Fortunately for you, you were telling the truth. You passed out after."

Lies.

It was too soft, too quiet and too unnatural that she passed it off as a mere after effect of her three days of coma. Instead, she shook her head, careful of the sudden wave of dizziness and accepted Kakashi's words in silence.

"If I may ask," she began softly, her fingers busily twiddling. "What's a kekkei genkai?"

If Kakashi was surprised, he didn't show it. But, his tone was slow and cautioned, and his own visible eye crinkled as if examining her ruefully. "It is power inherited by blood, or a bloodline limit."

"I don't understand…bloodline?"

Kakashi wondered if he should reveal his given kekkei genkai. But then decided against it. "Yes, meaning, certain clans are born with the ability to a certain power that non-members, well, aren't."

She wasn't sure she understood fully, but the slight drop of Kakashi's masked lips gave her enough sense to stop her curiosity right there. Nodding slightly, they both fell into a confortable silence.

Kakashi fought the urge to roll his eyes when Naruto's appalling snores broke through the silence.

A trap. Lies. Lies. All Lies.

Phew! that took a while! Thank you for the reviews and i hope you enjoy this short chapter! :D