Hello! Chapter 4 is up! I had a little trouble writing this one because generally dialogue isn't my strong point. However, practice makes perfect. Let me know your thoughts! Thanks for reading and for the support!
Chapter 4: Past is Present
Sumi exited Kakashi's house, being careful not to let anyone see her, and made her way back to her apartment. She chuckled at the fact that Kakashi's antics never seemed to get old. He was always late, for everything! She became lost in thought and her feet seemed to steer themselves, and before she knew it she was right in front of the old monument honoring those lost defending Konoha.
Sighing, Sumi made her usual rounds visiting Rin, Obito and of course Lord Fourth and Kushina. She stopped longer at Lord Fourth's monument, taking a few deep breaths. She remembered Minato quite fondly, even though he hadn't been her sensei. She reflected and thought that in a way, he had actually been everyone's sensei, and to her, something like a big brother.
It had been eight months since Sumi had been assigned to the mission with Kakashi and it was clear: she still disliked him. The stupid way he always acted aloof, like he was better than everyone else. The stupid way he kept his face almost completely covered so in the end all she could see was one stupid eye. And the stupid way he was always so nice to her, like somehow he knew that she had forgiven him, though she had never said it to his face. She ground her teeth in frustration. The two were currently stationed outside of Lord Forth and Kushina's house. She could hear Kushina humming a sweet song on the other side of the wall as she prepared lunch.
Of course Lord Fourth was at work, he was the Hokage after all, and Kushina had been at home completing domestic chores. Sumi was sitting outside of one of the windows when suddenly she was startled out of her thoughts by the person she was guarding.
"Hey Sumi-chan! Are you hungry?" Kushina smiled good-naturedly at her with her head stuck out of the window.
"Um, no, not—" she was cut off by her stomach growling loudly, oh well, it was lunchtime.
"Come on in and get it while it's hot!" Her head disappeared into the house, but Sumi still caught the fox-like grin as the red head retreated.
Sumi followed Kushina through the window, but froze when she noticed that Kushina, being Kushina, had also invited Kakashi to the meal. He sat at the table, blankly staring at her with his one eye.
The two sized each other up, Kakashi being the first one to break eye-contact as he turned his attention to the steaming bowl of ramen that Kushina had placed in front of him just moments before.
Sumi, bristled and readied herself for a several comebacks should the idiot try to engage her in conversation, decided to join the two of them at their meal. The three ate in silence.
"So how is your mission going you two?" Kushina asked after a while.
"It's been fine." Sumi answered modestly while taking a break from her bowl.
"I haven't had any problems" Kakashi replied at the exact same time as Sumi. They glared at each other while Kushina signed heavily between them.
"Alright, what's the problem, you know?"
"What do you mean?" The two younger Shinobi asked too quickly.
"It's been eight months since Minato assigned you both to this mission, and I barely get you two in the same room without fur flying, you know?" As Kushina continued to talk, Sumi could see she was getting excited, which worried her since she was so close to the due date.
"What is it going to take for you too to get along? I mean, you are going to be a big brother and sister soon, you know?!" She had stood up by this point, red hair flying around, but it was her last statement that threw Sumi for a loop.
Sure, Sumi loved Kushina and Lord Forth, but she had never considered the fact that she might be a big sister figure to their baby.
Kakashi signed deeply, sat back from his meal and pointed one thumb at Sumi as if he were hitchhiking. "I'll get along with her when she gets along with me." He said while managing to look as bored as he sounded.
Sumi frowned at him, "I don't try not to get along with you!"
Kakashi looked at her but didn't respond.
"Hmm…I know! Why don't you two go on a date?" Kushina suggested brightly.
Sumi, so thrown off by the suggestion that she immediately turned red and was quite unable to say anything in response.
Kakashi raised his one visible eyebrow and simply said, "…why?".
"You know, not like a romantic date, just get to know each other. After all you have so much in common!"
"Like what?" Sumi said, warry.
"Well, you are both high-level Shinobi, you have similar taste in food and you both dislike most people, you know?"
"I don't dislike most people." Sumi replied, slightly offended.
"Ha, she has a point." Kakashi smirked to himself.
"I don't dislike most people!" Sumi fumed, the red tinge appearing once more upon Kakashi's last statement.
"Well, why don't you have a boyfriend then?" Kushina asked less than delicately.
Sumi's face, by this point a true blush, turned even redder. She stood up from the table, grabbed her cloak that she had tossed carelessly on the couch and exited the apartment, Kushina's cries of "only teasing you know!" echoing desperately after her.
She made it halfway down the street when a hand caught her wrist.
Surprised, she turned around to see the masked face of the person who annoyed her most in the world: Kakashi.
"What do you want?" She said, her voice breaking a little more than she would have liked.
"Just wanted to ask where you were stationing yourself for the afternoon shift" he replied innocently, withdrawing his hand from her wrist as soon as she has turned.
"The south side, as usual." She turned her face away so that Kakashi couldn't see how uncomfortable the previous conversation had made her. It wasn't that she didn't like people, no; in fact it was quite the opposite. Despite how much Sumi actually tried, it was actually other people who ended up not liking her.
Kushina's question concerning her love life had ended up poking Sumi like a white hot rod through her chest. Sure, Sumi knew that her looks usually ended up attracting men, but they had never attracted anyone she was truly interested in dating.
An excellent example of this was her teammate, Guy. He was a sweet and strong man, as he had been a sweet and strong boy. But he was never someone she could see herself dating. When Rin died he had been a great source of comfort for her, holding her as she cried when she heard the news, but she never wanted more than that. And she never wanted to give him the wrong idea either, so she always kept a respectful distance.
"I'll take the north then." Kakashi said, his voice bringing her out of her thoughts.
"Oh! Okay, sounds good." She turned to walk away before his hand on her wrist stopped her for a second time.
"Or, we could scout together for a few hours, watch the perimeter." He said it so casually that it took a moment for Sumi to get what he was asking. In all the months that they had guarded Kushina, they had never scouted together.
"I'm not going on a date with you." She said with a frown, her arms folded in front of her.
"I'm not asking you to. But you know, Kushina has a point, we really don't know much about each other."
"Yes we do, we went to the academy together, you and one of my teammates are bitter rivals, your old teammate was my cousin." Her voice broke on the last example but she sucked down her feelings and carried on.
"Yeah, but do you know what kind of books I like?"
"…Do I want to know what kind of books you like?" Sumi asked him dubiously. She had seen a few books over the last months that seemed to be his choice reading material, and for a moment she was offended that he seemed to be suggesting that she be interested in written pornography.
"I don't know, but we have been on this mission for months and you don't know that. Seems to me that if something were to happen that a little teamwork might not be a bad idea."
"I guess, but I think it's odd that you bring this up when Kushina is bound to give birth in a few weeks. Why the sudden interest?"
"Well, better late than never." His last statement was so sincere that Sumi had to chuckle. It was getting harder and harder not to totally dislike Kakashi, damn it.
"…Are you sure?" She asked skepticism obvious in her tone.
"Sure. After all, we are almost done with our assignment like you said and the baby will be here in another few weeks. It wouldn't be terrible for us to get to know each other since we ae going to be a big sister and brother soon."
"Alright, makes sense I guess." She said, resigned to her fate.
The two continued their scouting together that day, which turned into scouting together the next day, and the one after that as well. Before either of them realized it, they were scouting and guarding together for a few weeks, and it was actually not terrible. Then finally the day arrived when Kushina went into labor.
Sumi was washing vegetables for lunch in Kushina's kitchen while Kushina herself was taking a nap on the couch, her rounded belly slowly rising and falling in time with her breath. Kakashi was sitting at the kitchen table, leafing through a magazine which Lord Fourth had left there when he left a few hours beforehand.
Sumi finished drying the vegetables and transferred them to the cutting board. She raised a sharp paring knife and was about to begin chopping them for the stew when Kushina's sudden cry of surprise startled her to the point that she sliced into her own fingers.
"Ahh!" She cried both from pain and from alarm.
At once Kakashi was up next to her, wrapping her cut in a paper towel, while at the same time scanning the area, looking for the reason that Kushina had cried out.
"Is everyone alright, what's going on?" He asked calmly, but tense as a wound top.
"I'm fine, just a small cut, Kushina are you alright?" Sumi asked worriedly.
"Yes, I'm f—oww!" She cried again, this time clutching her massive belly.
Kakashi materialized by her side, Sumi on the other, both assessing with their rudimentary medical skills that the reason Kushina was in pain was due to the fact that she was beginning to go into labor.
"Are you sure?" Kushina asked the two, clearly scared and not wanting to jump to conclusions.
"Positive, in fact all that we need to have now is—"he had bent down to examine the floor by Kushina's feet when all of the sudden his left arm from his hand to his shoulder were drenched with fluid.
"—to have your water break." He deadpanned.
Kushina and Sumi, caught somewhere between hilarity and horror met each other's eyes and began to shake with surprised laughter.
Kakashi sent them both a death-glare with his one visible eye, which nevertheless was formidable enough to cause the two women's humor to break open into obvious, breathtaking laughter. Both shaking, tears running down both their faces, ushered a truly pissed Kakashi into the bathroom, assuring him that he had time to 'freshen' up before Kushina needed to meet the birthing team.
As soon as he did, Sumi asked him to send a shadow clone over to Lord Fourth. The three left the house, Sumi and Kakashi supporting Kushina from both sides, and were intercepted by the Fourth Hokage, as well as the wife of the Third Hokage.
"Oh! Kushina, are you alright?" Lord Forth asked his wife anxiously.
"Yes, I'm fine thanks to these two." She beamed at Kakahi and Sumi.
"Thanks so much, both of you for your hard work, as soon as the baby comes we will send for you, okay?" Lord Forth ruffled Kakashi's hair and patted Sumi on the head before running after his pregnant wife and soon-to-be mother of his child.
Sumi and Kakashi stood there for a few minutes, neither saying anything, both too happy for words. Finally, it was Kakashi who chose to break the silence.
"We should take another look at your hand."
"What? Oh, its fine." Sumi said, trying to brush it off.
"It really isn't its bleeding through the paper towel." He said, pointing to the few drops of blood that had collected by her sandaled foot.
"Ah! In all the excitement, I really didn't notice." She unwrapped the hastily bond wound and flinched when she realized that the knife had cut two of her fingers right down to the bone.
"Yeah, that is actually pretty bad. Let's get you to the hospital." Kakashi turned in that direction, giving Sumi very little chance to argue. Little did they know, that wouldn't be the only time they would visit the hospital that day.
Matsumi straightened up and stretched her long arms over her head. She had been reminiscing for far too long, and as a result would be a few minutes late meeting Guy and Aoba for lunch.
She hurried through the busy streets of the village, pausing only to catch her breath before heading into the restaurant. She scanned the booths before spying the members of her old team. She sat down on the right side of the booth, the two men sharing a seat next to one another as was their usual arrangement.
"Hi! So sorry I'm late." Sumi grinned at them.
"No worries, my dear Sumi! We are simply glad to see you!" Was Guy's energetic answer. He stood up to give her a hug which she dodged with as much grace as she could before sitting down.
"Yeah, no big deal, I was just waiting for both of you." Aoba stated jokingly, though Sumi suspected that it was in fact true that he had gotten there first due to the fact that it had been so long since the three of them had gotten together.
Sumi sat back and allowed herself to become entrenched in the familiar scene of dialogue between the three of them. After so many years as genin, chunin and then jounin, the three were very close. In fact, the only odd strain they had ever experienced was Guy's undying love for her, and her consistent refusal of her feelings. The three chatted for several hours, Guy sharing about the constant accomplishments of his team of genin which he had been with for over a year, while Aoba and Sumi exchanged old war stories.
She reflected back during the conversation over what Kushina had stated, so many years ago: that Sumi didn't like people. Well, it was clear that of all the people in the world, very few knew the real Sumi. She tended to be shy and disliked becoming attached to others. This had been true ever since she lost Rin. Choosing instead to devote herself to the art of ninjitsu, so that she wouldn't suffer the same fate. Most considered her to be too serious and too tough for a girl. As a result, she was paired with these two strange boys. Something for which she had always been grateful.
Finally, lunch wrapped up with Guy leaving first in order to catch an afternoon practice with his thee genin, which left Aoba and Sumi to leave together and begin the walk home. The two walked in silence at first, simply enjoying one another's company.
"You seem down, Sumi-chan." Aoba remarked off-handedly. "Something up with Kakashi?"
Sumi jumped slightly, her heart beating uncomfortably at the sound of Kakashi's name. She had told Aoba of their relationship about a year ago, in fact, he was the only one she had told. She suspected that Asuma knew, but wasn't sure if Kakashi had actually told him outright.
Aoba was the one person Sumi trusted besides Kakashi, but it was unlike him to ask such personal questions with no preamble.
"No, everything's fine, same-old-same-old. Why do you ask?"
"No particular reason," he frowned as though he didn't even understand why he had asked, "I suppose I was just wondering if you two were official yet. It's been a few years."
"Why would we be official? Kakashi and I knew going into this that we wouldn't develop into anything serious. Come on, you know as well as I do that the danger for a Shinobi to enter into a serious relationship is too high. No after all of the people we have lost."
"I guess, but the third war is over now. We have peace and you and Kakashi could live a long and happy life together. If it's what you want." He stated this remark as he looked over at Sumi in a pointed sort of way. "Do you want that?"
"Aoba! You ask so many strange questions! Enough about me, how are you doing?" She stated flippantly, trying to laugh off the discomfort she felt by turning it around on him.
Aoba thought knew her tricks and wouldn't let her slip out of his grasp. "Don't avoid the question."
"…I'm not sure." She said lamely while avoiding his eyes.
"What does that even mean?" damn him and his persistence.
"It means I don't know what I want. I mean, I like Kakashi, I like spending time together and doing things together and I get lonely when I don't see him…but those are my feelings. I mean, I have no idea how he feels."
"Why not ask?"
"I can't do that you idiot! What if he doesn't feel the same way? What if I make it awkward and then he won't want to be with me at all in any capacity?"
"Well, then he would be the idiot." Aoba grinned his last response at Sumi. The man could be cute when he wasn't being so headstrong.
"That's for the support. I just don't know if I want to find out the answer just yet."
"Well, no matter the answer, I'll be here." He stated this so simply that Sumi had to choke back the emotion that welled up in her chest. Yes, no matter what, she wouldn't be alone again. She sped up her stride to match Aoba, her friend and teammate. Yes, she wouldn't lose another precious person.