She was in bare feet. Perfect. She could feel every step he was taking. Every move. She just needed to get away. She didn't know what she wanted or what she was doing but she just couldn't be here. With him. It felt wrong to confide in someone.
They were on the Uchiha training ground. Technically off limits, but no one would see them at least. Kakashi body flickered in front of her. Emi reacted nicely digging her foot into the ground and sending the earth below Kakashi upwards, making him jump up and back away from her. Kakashi made an earth clone behind the wall and used his earth jutsu to escape underground. Kakashi was playing with the wrong element.
Emi could feel the earth's vibrations in her feet. A key to earth bending, being able to feel the earth. She could have crushed Kakashi without a second thought with him underground. She ripped apart the earth clone when she felt Kakashi begin to emerge from underneath. She jumped back and stopped Kakashi midway, trapping him in the earth.
Poof. Kakashi turned into a log and Emi rolled her eyes.
Kakashi was breathing heavily on a branch nearby. Holy Fuck. He could have been crushed. No more earth jutsu, she was too strong in that. She had him beat in most nature affinities, but he had never seen her use lightning. Or regular ninjutsu for that fact. But who knows what she could have been hiding. There was no doubt she could feel the earth. There was no other way to explain her pinpoint accuracy of his location. Stay off the ground if he could. He'd have to go with the intent to kill if he was going to stop her.
The tears in her eyes were making her vision blurry. No matter. She focused her chakra and sensed a Kakashi who was desperately trying to conceal his presence. It would work if she wasn't paying attention, but not when she even remotely tried. He couldn't escape. And he wasn't going to just leave her the hell alone. She shot some fire in his direction, hoping he'd jump to the ground. He didn't he went higher into the tree.
He made a shadow clone and quickly set up a trap.
She'd miss. Fuck, she should start getting serious. She stood stiller than still. She began taking in more nature chakra than usual. Her grey eyes were getting darker and darker.
Kakashi watched as she remained still on the battlefield. Her eyes closed and her body unmoving. This was his chance. He flipped up the material covering his scared eye and revealed the sharingan. He started running at full speed with his one arm down, the other wrapped around his wrist. Suddenly the silence was filled with the chirping of a thousand birds. Chidori.
Emi felt him coming but wanted to hold out long enough to gather enough nature energy. He was limiting her time but she could just make it. She felt his steps and the plan was simple.
An earth wall rose right in front of him, trying to get him off balance, he plunged the lightning attack right through the wall and in a flash was pushing his hand towards Emi's hand when he suddenly stopped.
Time stopped. He slowly looked into her eyes. They were glowing white. Her frown turned into a slight smile as he looked at what had happened.
Emi had caught his chidori with her bare left hand. The lightning was being sucked out of his hand and channeling into her body. She tightened the grip around her hand and tossed him to the side like flicking away a gnat. He watched as her right traced her left arm, down around her stomach, up her opposite shoulder and the lightening shot out into the sky through her index and middle fingers on her right hand.
Her left hand was burned, but she didn't even notice. 'She is a monster,' Kakashi thought to himself.
She shot her head towards the trees and glanced back at Kakashi on the ground. She sent an earth spike into his back with one flick of her wrist. His clone disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Kakashi winced when his clone's memories came back to him. He was sweating heavily now. He was using up chakra fast with his sharingan. He closed his eye to save stamina. Not like he could copy her moves anyways.
Emi was running like she was running on wind. Holy shit, she was actually running on wind. She propelled herself into the tree, only to be met with several wires of explosive tags. She couldn't escape the blast but let it consume her instead. She took the few burns like it was nothing. Come to think of it, it barely looked like the fire had touched her skin at all. The fire from the explosion started taking shape and began to spiral around her. With one hand she bended the fire up into the sky. With her other hand, she sent a burst of air through the middle to dispel it. It almost looked like fireworks.
There was no doubt that what Emi could do was big and powerful, but Kakashi analyzed her one weakness. If took time for her to bend. And Kakashi was fast. He had to strike right before she made a move.
He sent shurikens flying and used a shadow clone shuriken jutsu to send a hundred flying her way. She air bended the shuriken away easily without realizing that Kakashi was flying through the air behind her. He used the Uchiha's signature fireball jutsu to propel himself forward and quickly gathered chakra to make a chidori. As she bended the shuriken away, she felt his chakra coming at her but it was too late. She was suspended in the air from the airbending technique, no ground to change her direction. Fuck. She tried to firebend away but was too slow for the jounin. She managed to turn just in time to catch the same jutsu with her left hand, but Kakashi was prepared this time. He grabbed her right hand so she couldn't redirect the lightening. He pushed hard into her left hand, ripped her skin raw as she held back his hand from digging a hole in her chest. Her grip was monstrous though, and he could heal he bones being crushed.
Kakashi surged his lightning chakra into her skin, causing her to lose consciousness for a second. Her hand lost her grip around his just enough for him to wiggle away. He used her body as a stepping stone in the air to jump off of and propel himself to the closest tree branch.
He had kicked Emi down to ground. Her eyes started to flutter open as she realized she was falling. She shot open her eyes and quickly bended the air around her. She was close to the ground but she managed to change the air currents to dampen her fall.
Kakashi thought he had done it and yet she was still standing on the ground. He was almost out of chakra and could barely catch his breath. He closed his sharingan. He could feel himself about to pass out. One more jutsu and he was done.
"Fuck you, Kakashi. Fuck you," Emi was crying. "I didn't ask you to follow me. I didn't need you to. I don't need anybody." The white glow left her eyes and her irises faded back to their usual gray. The wind was still whipping violently around her.
"Just leave me alone!" Her yell was mixed with tears. She shoved her fist into the ground, instantly making the ground around her buckle. By Kakashi's estimate the crater had to be 100ft in diameter, and maybe 10-15ft deep. It shook the trees which threatened to fall.
The wind had been contained in her crater now, it was just a matter of how he would get in there. Of course. She wouldn't be expecting it a second time. Earth release: hiding mole jutsu.
He appeared right next to her. Before she had time to react, he hugged her. She let a gasp leave her mouth and stood there in shock. Kakashi kept holding her there. Inviting her into his embrace.
She let him hold her. She found his breathing and matched his. A little out of breath, but calm. The winds died down beside them. Her hair that had come out of its braid gently fell to her sides like a thousand feathers. Her hair reached just past her waist, daring to reach her knees. It hadn't been cut since the day she was kidnapped.
Her tears were hot as they slid down her face. She wasn't even crying anymore, but she couldn't stop the tears from falling. Kakashi just kept holding her close.
Kakashi didn't know what to do. He wasn't good at this kind of thing. He didn't even like hugs. Then the image of Emi taking care of Naruto popped into his mind. Of course. She had comforted him like she had wanted to be comforted.
He left his hands draw soothing circles into her back. She was breathing again. He whispered into her ear, "Shush, it's ok now. I'm here. It's ok."
That did it. She broke. She gave out a large sob she was holding back and let her knees fall to the ground. Kakashi caught her and drew her in close again. This time she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into his neck. Her hot tears washed away the dirt and sweat that had accumulated throughout the battle. "I'm so sorry. I'm so so so sorry." Her little sobs broke Kakashi's heart.
"Shhhh, It's ok. I'm here. You have nothing to apologize for." Kakashi began to stroke her hair with his hand.
"But I do!" She sobbed into his neck, "I just bombarded your life, made you leave your home, tried not to be a burden but of course I was." She took a few gasps of air, "then I fucked everything up by getting too drunk and kissing you and telling you things I never should have. Then I ran away and I know you were worried, then I made you talk about your loved ones on the stone, and then I ruined lunch by running away again," she took another gasp, "and then I fought you way too hard and I hurt you a lot. I know I did, I could sense your ribs crack and your exhausted and I-" another gasp of air, "and here I am crying while you hold me when everything is my fault in the first place and you would have been better off if I'd never come into your life." She silently let the tears run down her cheeks onto Kakashi's chest. Her breathing was quick and shallow but she tried not to breathe any louder than necessary. She just wanted to shrink away.
"I don't believe that for a second." Kakashi said after a minute. Her head lifted slightly off his shoulder. "This isn't your fault. It wasn't your fault you were kidnapped and subjected to years of torture and worse-" He bit his tongue to keep himself from losing composure. "I am much better off with you in my life than not. At first it was a hassle, moving and keeping you a secret, but I found out you were worth it. You of all people deserve to be happy and I want you to be because I care about you. Not because of a mission. Not because you're a valuable asset. Because after everything you've been through, you are still kind and sweet, smiling and your happiness is contagious. You are so strong Emi. So strong. And not just as a shinobi, as a person."
She lifted her head to meet his eyes. She had stopped crying but her gray eyes were glistening with another type of tear. She gave a half smile and she looked into his eye that she knew wasn't lying.
"And I don't regret kissing you or what we did. Well, I did after knowing your story. But if I didn't, I wouldn't have regretted doing that with you for a second. You're so beautiful. You deserved to be loved."
Emi couldn't stifle her laugh. It just came out. She looked up at him again with raised eyebrows and half a smile. His eye was serious. Her smile lost its crack and she her eyebrows furrowed, "Wait. Are you serious?"
Kakashi pulled down his mask and used his free hand to tug her head into his. His palm ran up the back of her head and support it as he brought it in. When their lips met, Emi's eye grew wide for a second before she realized just how good it felt to kiss Kakashi. She closed her eyes and let him slide his tongue between her lips. He teased, pulling back and her tongue followed furiously after. He smiled and pressed his lips a little harder. He took the hand at the back of her head and gently tugged the hair at the back of her head, exposing her neck. He made quick work down her neck with swirls and sucks, making her eyes roll back into her head. He trailed back up to meet willing lips. She wrapped her arm around his waist and pulled him close.
Crunch. Kakashi gasped and almost lost his stomach contents. He winced and pulled back form the pain. Emi's jaw dropped as she realized she had just crushed Kakashi's cracked ribs. She pulled the mask down over his face and his hitae over his eye.
Although he was much taller than her, she supported him with her shoulder and back. His legs were fine, he was just exhausted. She carried him back to the apartment, it wasn't too far of a walk.
They got to the house and Emi used air bending to propel both of them up to the second story window. To Kakashi, it felt like he was flying for a minute.
They got into the house and Emi laid Kakashi down onto the bed. "Take off your shirt."
"Emi, I don't think this is any time for-"
"Take. Off. Your. Shirt." Emi looked serious.
"Maa, maa, just calm down now." Kakashi realized that's not why she wanted his shirt off, and with a few winces, he obliged. Emi was getting a bucket of water. Kakashi eyed her confused.
When she walked back over with the bucket, Kakashi realized the familiar smell of blood and look down at Emi's left hand. It was bleeding badly; the skin had been burned off and her hand was raw. It was just dripping. His eye drifted to the other hand with bloody knuckles. And yet Emi showed no pain on her face, just determination to finish whatever it is she was doing.
Kakashi was starting to feel a little weaker. "Emi…your hands. Please, tend to your hands before you do anything for me."
"Hmm?" She looked haphazardly at her hands. "Oh, yeah. Sorry I forgot about that."
Kakashi reeled. She forgot? She FORGOT? How do you forget about a hand that was burned to the muscle fibers and nerve endings? You should be screaming your head off in pain. And yet she treated it like it was a cut from a kunai. Maybe she was just in shock and couldn't feel the pain.
He watched as she dipped her hands in the water. It started to turn a light shade of red with the blood. The bucket began to glow a blueish green. Emi closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing.
Her face was so peaceful, Kakashi could have sworn she'd fallen asleep after several still minutes. His ribs still ached and his head was pounding. Not to mention his eye.
The glowing in the bucket stopped and she opened her eyes with a little smile. She brought out her hands to reveal pink skin covering the once bloody hand. It wasn't perfectly healed but, at least it wasn't bleeding anymore. The other hand's cuts had healed completely.
Kakashi was shocked as she looked in the bloody water and decided to dump it for a fresh bucket. 'I forgot about this. Don't tell me she knows medical ninjutsu too?' Kakashi couldn't believe it.
Emi lifted some water out of the bucket and placed the water on Kakashi's cracked ribs. She let her hands settle in the water and the glow resumed. She closed her eyes and focused on her breathing. She was mending bone fragments back together, it took some time and concentration. Kakashi felt Emi's chakra melting throughout his body. That warm sensation that felt like home. It relaxed him and he didn't feel any pain anymore. He wasn't tired anymore. But somehow, he was fast asleep.
Emi checked Kakashi's body for more injuries after healing his ribs. It had taken her a while, much longer than her hand. His shoulder was on the verge of dislocation so she fixed that. Some cuts, some deep bruises. She healed as much as she could. The whole process took about two hours, healing everything and reconstructing some things. She even managed to clean up some old injuries too.
Kakashi had been fast asleep the whole time. Emi got up and felt a little light headed. She hadn't realized just how tired she was. Between her insomnia, fight with Kakashi, and then healing his wounds, she had a right to feel tired. She used the wall as a crutch as she stumbled into the bathroom.
She turned on the shower and slipped in. She let the water hit her back before turning around. She looked down at her hands. Her right was more swollen than before, and the left was bright pink. She gathered the water around her hands and began to waterbend and heal them. After a few minutes she felt drained. She leaned against the shower wall and continued her work.
Her eyes got heavier. Her arms got heavier. Her legs got weaker. She slid down the wall of the shower. The water was so soothing and peaceful. The pressure against her back. The warmth. The noise. It was too loud to hear her own thoughts. It was easy to breathe in the steam.
Even as she kept working on her hands, her eyes closed. She fought back sleep while she continued to work but at some point she lost to it. She was too exhausted to continue.
Kakashi woke up sometime later. "Emi?" He said drowsily. He sat up expected pain but he felt none. He looked around. He heard the shower water but no movements.
He got up and listened at the bathroom door. The water was constant, like a stream. Nothing interfering it. No sounds oh movement. He walked into the bathroom and saw a grey shadow at the bottom to the shower. "Emi?" No response.
"Oi, Emi." He was starting to panic. Did he dare open the shower door? He had to. What if she was drowning?
He grabbed a towel and opened the shower door, letting the steam rush out around him. When it cleared he could see Emi with her back to him, face leaning on the wall, knees tucked into each other, hips bent at one side.
He turned off the water and bent with two fingers to feel her pulse. Of course she was still alive. He wrapped the blanket around her body without taking any peaks.
He lifted her up into her arms. She was still pretty light. She gave a small groan as Kakashi shifted her weight. This was the heaviest he'd seen her slept, well without 4 bottles of sake in her. "Emi? You awake?"
No answer. Her chest went lightly up and down as she breathed quietly.
He carried her into her room and placed her on the bed in her towel. He couldn't help but smile. She was so beautiful.
"Emi." He nudged her check with his finger. Nothing "Emi-chan…" This time he nuzzled his nose into her cheek and kissed it softly through the mask. "Emi-chan I know you're tired but, you fell asleep in the shower. You can't go to bed in a towel." He nudged her check one more time.
Her eyes slid halfway open. They were glazed over. He noticed how deep the grey bags under her eyes were.
"I'm going to take a shower myself," He said softly as to not startle her. "If I come back and you don't have clothes on, I'm going to have to put them on you myself."
He grinned and silently hoped that was the case. Kami he was such a pervert.
He took a quick shower, eager to get back to Emi. He threw on some pants and shook his spiky silver hair. He crept back into the room when he heard tiny breaths away from the bed. His eye flirted to the corner where Emi was sitting with her knees bunched to her chest, back against the wall, and head slumped over on her dresser. She was adorable. At least she was fully dressed.
Kakashi opened up his eye to reveal the sharingan. He wanted to remember this moment forever. "Emi," he said softer than before, "I'm going to pick you up now." He scooped up the limp girl, whose head rocked onto his shoulder. He walked her to the bed and laid her down. Just as he turned to walk away and close his eye, three little fingers caught his wrist. Her eyes were still closed but her grip was firm.
"What is it Emi-chan? Is something wrong?"
"Pwease stay wif me Kaka…shi….pwease. I don wanna be awone anymowe." She slurred her speech in her sleep.
"Can I ask you a question? Why do you want me to stay?" Kakashi rolled onto the other side of the bed.
Emi snuggled into his side. He was warm and strong and safe. She pulled his arm over her body, and he enveloped her with his long arms and legs. He never realized how short she was.
"Cuz I want you here…" were her last words before she drifted off into a peaceful sleep.
"Hmmm," Kakashi hummed. "I want to be here," he whispered back before sleep took him away too.
…
