Unedited & Originally Posted: 09/25/2016

Cat's Cradle

Chapter Ten

Ten-Tailed Beast (& The Truth)

Some missions were fun, some were not.

That last one? Not.

Definitely on the 'never wanna do that again' list. Close to the top actually. It wasn't even the least bit funny either—there was no hope to laugh about it later. Only to forget it ever happened and try not to wince when it came back to bite her in her sleep.

Then, she paused.

"Oh, Kakashi-san!" Yugito called out, surprised to see him and even more surprised that she didn't even feel a shred of anger towards him for taking her down so rudely those many years ago. Probably due to that night, six months ago, when he'd tossed her a bell.

"It suits you," he had said, which would have been an insult to her if she thought he actually knew it was her at the time.

The Scarecrow turned at the sound of her voice and his only visible eye squinted at her as if he were trying to place where he'd last seen her...then recognition. He stiffened, his shoulders going tense and that was about when she recalled all the weird things she'd said to him in her 'I'm-going-to-die' mindset. Yup, he didn't recall any such night where he'd given her a bell. It wasn't even that good of a bell—it was slightly dented by now and stuffed at the bottom of the closest with that dress.

Talk about a bad first impression, Yugito muttered inwardly, trying to forget the one he could actually stand a chance in remembering.

You do make a lot of those, it seems to either be a hobby or a skill, Matatabi added unhelpfully.

Whatever.

She straightened out her back, placing a bright smile on her face—one that couldn't be seen since she'd just come off from a mission—and closed the distance. Yugito was cursing her choices but was filled with too much pride to back awkwardly out of the conversation now that she had initiated it.

"You're here for the exams, right? Hokage's Guard?" Yugito asked, bouncing delicately on the balls of her feet—nervous habit, stop—before sliding up to him and meeting his gaze. In her best teasing voice, she asked, "Or are you here for me?"

He lifted a brow, clearly surprised. She'd just been trying to make a joke, goddamn it.

"Hm," Yugito started thoughtfully, trying to think of a way to continue the conversation and not want to jump into the next river afterwards, "or maybe it's Ita-chan you're here for? He was an old teammate, wasn't he?"

"Ita-chan?" Kakashi echoed, tone flat.

Yugito bobbed her head, then, whispering conspiratorially, "Don't tell anyone I told you this but he secretly likes my pet names for him."

"No, I don't," Itachi said, coming up from behind her and poking her between the shoulder blades. "Did you get that cut checked out?"

"Eventually," Yugito said with a pout, even as she was definitely secretly relieved not to be alone with the Copy-nin any longer.

"Eventually as in now, while it's still bothering you, or later, when it's already healed up?" Itachi questioned with a sigh, "It'll leave needless scarring."

Yugito shrugged, "Whatever."

The Uchiha rubbed at his temples, "Sometimes you act like such a kid. What even goes on in your head, I don't want to know."

Grinning widely, she pounced, her arms going around his shoulders before pulling him in for a noogie, crying out, "It's the same thing that gets into your head when you act like such a brat!"

He squirmed in her hold but wasn't really putting much effort into escaping her. Relaxing on her bullying, she dropped a kiss to his forehead before pulling away with a grin that could still not be seen by way of her mask.

Then, noticing how awkward Kakashi was in the way he shifted on his feet, she met his eyes. The message was clear—he wanted a word with Itachi in private.

Used to how Konoha-nin tended to be, she shrugged and pointed towards Itachi accusingly, "Be back for dinner, you hear? It's tekkadon night! Oh, and, Kakashi-san," she winked at him, "you're welcome to join us."

Ten-Tailed Beast (& The Truth)

"She's a character," Kakashi commented as the two Konoha-nin watched her walk away with the sort of bold confidence that was hard to find in shinobi who spent their lives silencing their steps. Her blonde hair swung across her back looking about as beautiful as it tended to be. It made sense—she spent a lot of her time grooming just for that effect.

"Yes," Itachi agreed, unable to help the bemused smile that made its way onto his face, "you could at least have laughed at her joke."

"Was that her invitation or...?"

"No, she was serious then," Itachi assured him, then added, "and you should come. Her hobby is cooking but she doesn't get very many chances to do it for other people."

Kakashi hummed noncommittally before looking over at the Uchiha, his eye narrowed, "You're...okay here."

Itachi didn't answer right away, just smiled before gesturing to the Copy-nin to follow him, before finally, "I don't have nightmares anymore."

Kakashi blinked beside him as the two walked aimlessly in the Raikage's Tower, "None?"

Itachi shook his head, but didn't say anything else.

"So are you really a Kumo-nin now?" Kakashi asked and there was a thin, very subtle layer of distress in his tone. Concern and confusion. Itachi hadn't been prepared for the care his ANBU senpai was showing him but after a moment, he just sort of shrugged.

"I'm a shinobi," he said after a moment, his own tone full of firm finality, "and I don't believe in sides anymore."

Like always when he got the chance to share his thoughts and opinions, there was a rush of feeling in him that was always a mixture of trepidation, expectation, and pleasure. It felt good to speak his mind and be heard.

"A bit naive," Kakashi commented but Itachi just shook his head.

"No, just waiting for everyone else to catch up."

Kakashi was quiet for a moment and they walked in silence until he asked, "Is she good any good at cooking?"

"Very," Itachi said, then, "I think you should come. We live in the Hinoe Apartments, I'm sure you can find us easily after you get there."

His one-time teammate made a noncommittal sound in the back of his throat. It wasn't exactly a refusal, so Itachi took him on an impromptu tour of Kumo. Whether he knew it was a tour at all was up to debate—they weren't speaking—but in the end it didn't matter, because Kakashi ditched him within thirty seconds of it.

It was a shame too—Kumo had lots to offer.

Ten-Tailed Beast (& The Truth)

"He didn't come!" Yugito let out a sound that was a cross between a wail and a frustrated grunt. It was an odd sound and she promised to never do it again. More importantly, she promised to never be friendly or nice to the Copy-nin ever again. No forgiveness for this!

Itachi patted her head and her gazed narrowed in on his height. He was eye to eye with her now and soon he'd tower over her. Things just weren't fair. Now even he could pat her head so nonchalantly—what's next then? An armrest?

"He's not the friendliest person," Itachi told her soothingly, "He doesn't even like to make friends. You can't fault him for not wanting to be friendly towards a Kumo-nin."

"But I wanted to throw the bell at his face," Yugito sniffed delicately before throwing herself at the couch. She laid there for a bit, then, upon her nose twitching, she sat up and looked at her window. She glared at it, "Get in here already! We've been waiting for you to show."

"Maa, maa," Kakashi said as he climbed through the window and narrowly missed pulling the string of a trap, "I have a perfect reason for being late. First there was a cat stuck up a tree, and I couldn't exactly just leave it there while it was crying for help so desperately. After that I needed to find it a home and when I located its owner, she wanted to thank me and was gracious enough to pester me into attending an omiai. Imagine my struggle, I had to turn down quite the illustrious beauty when I was there. But I did and—."

While he'd been blabbering on about whatever excuse he could think of, she'd risen off the couch. Yugito made her way to the kitchen, humming as he continued to talk before grabbing the containers she'd packed away in the fridge. It was late and already chilled, making her cluck her tongue. The first meal she was going to give to Kakashi was going to be a reheated mess.

No, she shook her head. She'd just have to make something new. Tekkadon was, admittedly, her best dish but there was no time to put the real precision that the meal required. Also, she had no fish to debone or descale so the point was moot—saving the tuna she did have was a reward for having to deal with such a late and impolite guest. Matatabi had always taught her to be on her best behavior, she only expected the same out of others.

Yugito made him onigiri instead, and got out three glasses of chilled sun tea. Itachi had used to balk at cold tea, something that had made her laugh, but now he was used to it. She wondered what Kakashi would think of it as she brought out the tray of dog shaped onigiri—some things she could not resist—and set it on the coffee table. Kakashi raised a brow at her when he noticed the cute little ears on the onigiri.

"That one's a cat," she told them seriously when she pointed at the single onigiri she had intended to be hers to eat.

Itachi outright laughed, and it only increased in volume when Kakashi snatched up the cutest onigiri in the bunch. Hers.

She gaped at him while Itachi struggled to breath. As happy as she was that he found something to be amused about, she was honestly miffed. To add injury to the insult, Kakashi let it disappear from sight without even so much as a look to her. She made a disapproving sound in the back of her throat.

"Here," Itachi said, adjusting the size of the ears on a rice ball and shifting the nori strips on the face of it, "it's a cat now."

"Ita-chan!" she crowed in glee as she took the onigiri into her hands. Then she kissed his cheek upon realizing that she couldn't quite reach his forehead. Next thing she knew it, she would be kissing his chin. Don't grow up so fast! —he wouldn't even listen to that demand though. He'd grow faster just to spite her too. Puh.

Kakashi was quirking a brow at them, "Are you two...?"

Yugito honestly didn't know what he was getting at and she looked at Itachi for ideas. He seemed a bit confused too, and when their gazes met, they were both equally put out. Then, as she assessed what had just happened, Yugito blinked—the heat in her face went out as she visibly scooted away from Itachi.

"He's my otōto!" she cried, lobbing a chunk of rice at Kakashi for his impudence. He dodged easily, dark eye shining with humor. Not to mention the fact that her precious child was fourteen. Sure, he'd be turning fifteen sometime next month but that didn't make it any better. It honestly made her feel ill just to think about it.

"What's going on?" Itachi asked and she glared at Kakashi darkly.

"I'll tell you when you're older," she informed him stiffly.

More like never, ahahaa...

"Well, you see, Itachi—" Kakashi started but was abruptly interrupted when she flung herself at him. He hadn't seem to have been expecting a bodily attack and she slapped her hand against his masked mouth and glared at him darkly. She ignored quite profusely the fact that she was now straddling him and was close enough that his scent clogged all others.

He stared at her with a raised brow, and seemed to find immense pleasure at her misfortune of her having moved before she could think. His eye was shining and he was looking at her quite expectantly. His hands were even on her back, curling themselves in her hair and it was making her flush hotly and she was so, so angry—ugh! She glared at him and tried to show him a cool, unamused expression before clambering off of him slowly. Now that she thought of it, she should have squashed a rice ball in his face just for good measure.

She was still probably a little red in the face when she returned to her place beside Itachi, who was looking at her curiously out of the corner of his eye.

"Just drink the damn tea," she grumbled, picking up her own cup and taking a deep swallow. Inwardly she cursed when a bit of it trickled from her mouth and down her throat. It was like she was a child all over again and couldn't even control her limbs the right way. Yugito didn't like any reminder of that time spent as a baby with limited senses and maneuverability. It was all a forced blur in her life but at times she could still recall the cloying confusion and constant struggle not to go insane from boredom and fear, respectively.

She cleaned herself up promptly and pointedly ignored Kakashi's bemused look.

"So did you get that cut checked out?" Kakashi asked with a gleam in his eye. He seemed to have found a new hobby in annoying her.

"Eventually," she echoed from before but honestly, she never would and she'd already bandaged the cut along her back. Hospitals smelled bad enough when you were a visitor, but as a patient there was a whole new layer of discomfort. A different bed, foreign smells, the constantly annoying beep of machines, the chatter and the faked cheerfulness of the doctors and nurses. No, if she wanted to heal, she'd have to do it in the privacy of her home, where she could nag Itachi into babying her if she liked.

Itachi rolled his eyes, "Needless scarring."

She rolled her eyes at him, "It's on my back, no one will see it."

"You're a kunoichi," he insisted, "shouldn't you be against that sort of thing?"

"If I were the type to go on missions where it mattered, yeah," she agreed, "but I don't." With that said, she reclined where she sat and hooked her leg over Itachi's, facing him seriously. When he looked at her with fond exasperation, she tweaked his nose gently and quickly draped herself over the edge of the couch. Her hair pooled on to the floor beneath her and she looked up at Kakashi who was staring at her a bit oddly.

So what, she didn't sit on a couch like a normal person—she ignored his judging stare and instead hummed in thought for what else to say.

"We should tell stories now," she told them with a very pleased smile before tapping her foot against her captive's thigh, "you should go first."

"You're better at it," Itachi deflected and she pouted at him.

"You never tell any stories though," she reminded him, "so how do you even know that?"

He looked away, clearly not rising to her bait. Smart cat.

Yugito sighed, looked at Kakashi's slightly uncomfortable face before deciding that she would have to do a whole lot better as a host if she were going to entertain these guests. She pulled her legs away from Itachi, placed her hands on either side of her face and moved into a handstand. Moving always helped her think, helped her focus. Yet she could already feel her tank top and mesh shirt begin to ride up. Face flaming and hoping she didn't just flash anybody, she decided to test her flexibility by leaning back and bending.

Kakashi made a weird noise in the back of his throat before he asked, "What is she doing now?"

"Stretching," Itachi replied calmly, seeming to have picked up a book and was busy studying it. It looked surprisingly similar to the one Kakashi had been reading and toting around until then...

"I got it!" she announced before she pulled herself back up into a handstand. She let herself fall into the couch before she gathered herself up and reorientated herself on the furniture like a normal person. She held up her hands, "I once killed a man by grabbing his head and doing this." Her nails grew like a weapon unsheathing itself, looking as sharp and deadly as always. "It was messy, I don't recommend it." Silence. "So," she chirped, "what's the worst kill you've ever done?"

"There was a time when my aim wasn't as accurate as it should have been," Itachi admitted, looking a bit ill, "my kunai ended up slicing off a man's ear and, quite literally, feeding it to the shinobi right behind him."

The three of them visibly winced and cringed.

"Kakashi-san?" Yugito prompted and was honestly curious if he'd share at all. He didn't seem to like her very much—probably because of how weird she was, which kind of bummed her out. If she were thinking optimistically though, he just didn't trust Kumo-nin.

She was just so curious. What kind of person was he like right now? What did he hope the future was like? How could she prepare him for Obito, and how could she get him to help them out when the time came? He'd be rather useful to have in the know of things, though she worried he might not be strong enough or was just too stubborn. He'd been hurt a lot by other shinobi countries in too many wars. She wondered, when everything was all said and done in the Naruto story, what happened to him?

He'll be the Rokudaime Hokage, her brain supplied readily though that wasn't really what she had meant by that.

More like...did he struggle with the acceptance of his role in the hat that his own teacher once wore? Had he ever had doubts about the other shinobi countries, moments where he hated them like he seemed to do now? It almost upset her, to know so little about him in the end.

He was a deep person and she was curious about that.

But he had no interest in her and that put a damper on things.

To her surprise, he did answer and with a response she hadn't quite expected.

"Chidori," he said, his eyes a bit dark when he said it and she thought of Rin and how she had died, "tears into the body and it gets very messy."

She tried not to wilt at the serious answer—she hadn't meant to bring up awful memories.

"I once batted a man's head off," she said, just to move the conversation forward, "I was using Matatabi-san's chakra and it kind of seared it right off his body. It was both messy and there was an awful smell that clung to that hand for weeks." She shuddered at the memory.

"Matatabi-san?" Kakashi echoed, looking perplexed, "The Two-Tails? You named it?"

She blinked at him while Matatabi laughed in her head.

"Er, no? The Sage of Six Paths did."

It was his turn to blink as he looked at her owlishly, "What?"

Yugito brightened, "Story time! Oh, I've forgotten how much other people don't know about the world's past. But yeah, The Sage was definitely real, and his name was Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki and his mother was Kaguya, the woman who ate the Chakra Fruit and spread chakra to all living things. So yeah, pretty important topic that was not in my history lessons in school."

"How did you learn this then?" Kakashi asked, seeming honestly curious.

"Matatabi-san," she lied with a smile, "Now, this story starts long before the founding of the hidden villages, long before even the Warring States era. The bijū was created from The Sage's Creation of All Things ability out of the Ten-Tails' chakra, where it was divided into nine living entities. He got the idea from his son, Asura, I think. See, The Sage was originally the jinchūriki of the Ten-Tails, it was how he saved the world from it. He recognized it was still too dangerous intact so the bijū was formed to keep everyone safe. The Sage named the nine and explained to them that a link existed between them despite their separation, and guess what?" Yugito grinned smugly, "I've been inside the link, it's totally awesome." Itachi rolled his eyes but seemed fairly interested in what she had to say. She continued, "He also foretold of a day when they would be brought together again—though not as they were—and that at that time someone would emerge to show them what true power is. That," she told them with a sly smile towards Itachi, "hasn't happened yet."

He blinked but she was already moving on, this time with a small frown, "After the Sage's death, the bijū drifted apart, because the Nine-Tails is an asshole and thought the tails were a sign of how much power they have," she shrugged, "Anyway, the bijū were originally created not only to prevent the Ten-Tails' resurrection, but also to maintain and balance peace. It was a way for The Sage to look after everyone even when he was long gone. However," Yugito let out a long suffering sigh, shaking her head, "unfortunately, the first person who could have come close to helping them do this was Hashirama Senju, who had captured and distributed the beasts amongst the new villages in order to stabilize the balance of power between them. It could have actually worked quite well, but Hashirama forced them into it when he could have earned their cooperation. That," she told them both sternly, "would have saved your Yondaime's life and many others in the Nine-Tail's attack."

Kakashi looked at her sharply but she was already moving on, "See, over the centuries, humanity has failed to recognise the bijū as individuals, seeing them instead only as monsters, demons, or mindless beasts worthy of fear and disdain. Because of their immense power, the bijū were sought out by humans to be used as weapons in times of war, then they were sealed into other humans so that they could control them. Eventually, because the collective mind of the human race is so dumb, the bijū grew to resent this treatment and came to hate us just as much as a lot of people hate them. It's stupidity at it's worst. Admittedly, Kumo is better at the entire process."

She paused to think about it before nodding to herself, "we've never had any major incidents where it's resulted in a bunch of deaths. Power is respected here, and the bijū have plenty of it. Though it wasn't until Kirābī-san and I that the bijū have worked with us so closely. The secret behind that? It's not a dominance, it's a partnership."

"What do you mean by that?" Itachi asked, looking thoughtful, "You've never really talked about it aside from that one time when you told me about the Falls of Truth. Does that have anything to do with it?"

"The Falls of Truth," Kakashi echoed, "what is that?"

Yugito shrugged, "Ay-san and Kirābī-san found it when they were training on a turtle. It's a waterfall where you face the truth, that's the basics of it. If you want to get more superstitious, it's a holy place. Inside there are even murals of Matatabi-san and Gyūki-san, and well, Matatabi-san is sometimes referred to as a living ghost by people that really don't know better. The Falls of Truth serves as a final assessment now," she told them with a sigh, chewing at her lip before she could stop herself, "after the training."

"You mentioned that before too, the training," Itachi blinked at her, "what was it like?"

She didn't want to answer, she didn't even want to think of those times when everything was awful, awful, awful. She hated, hated Kumo for it and she didn't like to be reminded of it. Even now, she woke up with nightmares from it, hating herself and everyone and wishing they would all die.

Yugito almost tried to steer the conversation elsewhere but as she looked at the two of them, both of them having suffered so much...

"In Kumo, well I said they have a better system, but it's not kinder," she told them bluntly and with as blank as face as she could muster before going on, "Jinchūriki are chosen very carefully here. Kirābī-san was just one of many candidates and I was too. There are commonly two prerequisites to being chosen. One, they must be an orphan, and two, they must create a tie to the Raikage. Kirābī-san was Ay-san's adopted brother when Ay-san rose to power. It just so happens that my father was a cousin to him, though he was closer related to the Nīdaime. It has to be this way so that they can install loyalty into us that is focused on the Kage, and thus the village. Then comes the training."

Yugito stood up, and found herself moving instinctively into the twists she'd been trained to do since she was very young, "They said I wasn't naturally as flexible as I should have been so when since I was two, I was being taught to do things like this," she popped her shoulder out of place and let her arm hang for a second before popping it back in, "At first, I couldn't do it, so instead they pulled at my arms until I got used to the pain and could do it myself. My senses were naturally heightened but to make them more acute, I was made blindfolded, masked, or deaf in a maze of traps to locate my reward with only a single sense at a time. No, that was a lie. With two senses. I always had my sense of touch and could always feel when the bombs went off against my toes. I learned to dodge shrapnel and the impact of an explosion by the time I was six and the mazes became too," she lifted her fingers and made bracket signs, "'boring'."

Yugito sighed, "Sometimes, I was made to hang by broken legs to test the healing rate of Matatabi-san's chakra. There were other things too but those," she shuddered upon falling to the floor, splaying herself out, "those I can't talk about," then, just in case they wanted to ask, she shot on ahead, "I was raised by strangers. They were foster families that I was placed with, people that would watch over me and to assess my progress. Every month I would visit the Raikage and he'd inform me of my next family. Finally," she pulled her knees to her chin and looked away from them, "finally, I was put into my last family. A man and his wife, they owned an animal shelter and I was actually liked there. I would feed the animals, play with them, and I learned how to cook and..." Yugito trailed off as the old wound throbbed inside of her, the memories pounding at her skull like a warhammer.

"There comes a day in every jinchūriki's life where they lose control," she met their gazes now, and they were listening raptly—Kakashi didn't have his book anymore, she noted dryly—as she continued, "and Kumo has a way of drawing it out and testing the balance of it, just to see what will happen, to see how well the training holds. It turns out, that final family had been ordered to kill me before I turned ten and," Yugito cringed just saying the words, felt her heart breaking all over again as she recalled the feel of that man's throat in her hands as he smiled at her, petting her hair, "and I killed them instead—without using Matatabi-san's chakra. I was deemed a success and sent to the Falls of Truth, where I faced it..." she trailed off then softly whispered, "the truth."

The moment she had realized she was a monster.

Yugito refused to cry and she didn't. Instead, she sighed and looked at them both, primarily Kakashi.

"So what kills you inside?" she asked blankly.

It was strange. She didn't know whether it was because of what she had shared, if it was more out of pity than anything else, but he told her. He looked into her eyes, and there was no trace of that humor of before. There was an understanding, a current of shared misery that passed between them.

"I got two of my teammates killed," he said bluntly and didn't try to explain himself or the circumstances in which it happened. He was just telling them the facts, or what he thought of as a fact.

She nodded at him and stood before looking at the two of them, "Life has been generally shitty to all of us. Circumstances have been forced onto us where we were given no choice but to do the best for our survival and we've known people and lost them in ways we will never forget. But, there's still the future and we can still affect how it will look like, how the lives of the future generations will be led. Our actions can still save lives."

Itachi nodded sagely while Kakashi just stared at her with an unreadable expression.

With a mischievous grin and a desire to break the serious air, she padded up to him and cupped his chin in hers. While he stared inquisitively up at her, she leaned down and kissed his headband. Pulling back, she flicked it before saying quite seriously, "I dub thee honorary cat friend. It's quite an achievement."

"Do I get a badge?" he asked and she winked at him.

"How about a bell? I think it would suit you," she returned with a coy smile.

He blinked, seemed to frown, then, with a light of recognition, he shifted back, "That was you?"

She just smiled and turned away with a grin, already shouting out, "You should stay the night! I can bring out the futons and we can move the furniture in this room out of the way. Oh, maybe we can build a fort too?"

Neither of them were up for the marvelous idea. Itachi was tired and Kakashi was very similar to a cat in how elusive he could be. He slipped out of the apartment window before she could convince him to at least come for breakfast. On the brightside, when she set out a plate of onigiri on the window sill, they mysteriously vanished with a note of thanks.

Friendship with that one was going to be a struggle to obtain.

Ten-Tailed Beast (& The Truth) - End

Yugito has my skills in conversation—they are not very good.

Also, I'd just like to say that chapters 1-10 were all written in the span of a week. The 11th all the way until the 18th of August. Which is my way of explaining the silliness of these later chapters. Also, a humble brag.

To Be Updated: 10/01/2016

BONUS #1 - Kakashi's POV

Happy Birthday GAteZerO!

I wasn't gonna post this bonus because it was honestly something I wrote for my own amusement but have it as a gift now and let your birthday stand as the only reason other people get to see this idiocy too.

(P.S. I dunno if Kakashi is 100% in character, I wrote this kind of looped out on sleep deprivation and it isn't actually finished because I'm lazy)

Kakashi was there only for Itachi and for the promised good food. He probably should have arrived sooner rather than later though, because instead of receiving a bowl of tekkadon, he got onigiri. Which were, in fact, quite tasty.

More importantly though, Kakashi was concerned for Itachi. Not only had he been behaving oddly before, he was so visibly relaxed that it was just strange seeing him. His usually strictly monitored demeanor seemed to be completely switched out. Like he was a different person entirely—Itachi had never been without tense shoulders or a serious face. Now he was laughing, and his eyes were lighter with a shine he had never seen in the dark eyes. Kakashi didn't know what to think, if he should have been worried that Itachi had been brain-washed or if he should be glad for a teammate to end up so obviously happy. So he'd gone to investigate.

He half-expected to find the base of an evil lair. Instead, it looked like a cat's home if the cat were a human. There was a distinct scent of fish in the air but a hefty layer of strawberries and the scents that were innately theirs. Itachi's was familiar, a woodsy scent that was similar to pine, but hers was a bit harder to place. It was also the most easiest to pick out, cloying most of the other scents if he didn't focus on sifting through them.

The last time he'd met her, this new friend of Itachi's and also subsequent kidnapper, he'd seen her with a mask and then with a layer of blood pouring out from a very broken nose. It hadn't been a pretty sight. But she was—he had to admit it, even to himself, that Yugito Nii was physically beautiful in a way that was rare. With her hair up, she looked mature and fierce, ready to raise some hell. Different from that, she had another face and he was seeing it now. With her long blonde hair down and spread out, she looked like kitten—innocent and sweet.

She was even playing like one, whether she noticed or not as she moved in that fluid, graceful way of hers. Every movement looked purposeful, the tightening of muscles and shifting of her legs as she eventually moved into a handstand, made it feel much more like he was watching a show. Her stomach was showing, taut as it showed off a rather cute outer belly button—then she was bending.

Kakashi couldn't help the noise in his throat as he watched her tip her head all the way to the back of her thighs, her hair casually swinging along with her movements. He'd never honestly seen anyone that flexible, had seen others try and fail in their training. She seemed to do it like it was as natural as breathing. Then her eyes met his and she was smiling.

He glanced at his book, at the scene that was written there and paled when he realized it was also about a very flexible kunoichi. He closed the book and set it down on the coffee table and barely registered that Itachi had picked it up and was reading the book's summary.

"What is she doing now?" Kakashi had asked.

"Stretching," Itachi had replied in a bland tone.

Yes, that's quite obvious.

"Got it!" she'd said when she pulled her legs up as she moved back into a handstand.

Got what? He'd wondered.

Then she told them how she'd killed a man with her bare, erm, claws—it was an instant boner killer, for which he was thankful for. Worse was when Itachi added his confession to the mix. Those were just not ways people preferred to go.