The sun was reaching its highest point as Kakashi walked over to the Hokage tower to put in a request that would help Kiya be able to have a small break. Many of the senior hospital staff had returned from their missions and he wanted to put in his request before too many were sent out again and hope that he had a valid argument if Tsunade fought his idea. He hadn't been able to sleep since Kiya got summoned to the ANBU facilities and hadn't seen her around either. It had only been half a day since he last saw her and he knew he shouldn't worry so much about the dark-skinned beauty that he was falling for, but he couldn't help it.
Today there was a nagging in his brain in his worry and wished he knew where she was. He saw Sasuke and Sakura sitting outside a cafe, the latter in the hospital uniform meaning she was on break. Wondering if she had seen Kiya, he shuffled over to the two as Sasuke saw him.
"Kakashi, is there a mission?" Sasuke asked.
"Hello Kakashi," Sakura smiled as she turned to look at him.
"Did Kiya show up at the hospital for her shift today?" Kakashi asked calmly.
"No," Sakura frowned. "The nurses were talking about that this morning. Shizune even went over to her apartment and she wasn't there. It wasn't until Shizune went to Tsunade that they seemed to stop worrying. Do you know what that's about? It isn't like her to not even give a notice or warning."
"She has secondary priorities when she's not working."
"Not in the middle of the week."
"An emergency summon. I would have thought that she would have been done by now. I'm headed to check in with Lady Tsunade so I'll ask her about Kiya."
"If you find anything out, would you let me know? I've been worried all day even though Shizune said that she was fine."
"I'll see what I can find out. Enjoy your lunch, you two."
"Bye."
Frowning, Kakashi hurried his pace by jumping across the roofs. As he got closer to the Hokage tower, he saw the windows open and slid inside when he reached the roof. Tsunade was going over files with a glass of Sake in hand. She glanced up and him with a scowl and leaned back in her chair.
"Am I going to regret letting you in here?"
"I merely wanted to put in a team mission request," Kakashi shrugged as he slid his hands in his pocket. "Kiya is going to get burned out at this point with all the senior staff being sent out with teams and being on call for ANBU. She's working every day of the week while possibly being summoned for emergency situations. She isn't sleeping well Tsunade."
"She hasn't mentioned any of this to me."
"I wouldn't expect that she would. She overworks herself because she gets bored easy and still is learning how to distract herself when she isn't working."
"And you know this how?"
"I am her friend and I do my best to give her interaction outside of work and show her some things that she can do in her free time, but she needs time off. Even if it's only a couple days at the onsen a days travel south, sign it off as a team vacation with Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto as well and if you don't want to fund it, I'll use my own. You know she needs this."
"Kakashi, I can't just go signing of on a vacation request right now. There are so many requests from villages around the Leaf, even requests from the other villages. It's the middle of the summer."
"And what happens when she gets burned out before she gets a break? She's been over with ANBU for over half a day already, running off of three, maybe four hours of sleep? Why did they summon her if she isn't supposed to be on call during the week?"
"A two-man team was severely injured and their main doctor needed her skills…" Kiya appeared from a cloud of smoke, almost completely drenched in blood with a scroll in her hand. She had a grimace on her face but her eyes were slightly glazed over. "What on earth?"
"Kiya?" Kakashi blinked in surprise at her current state. The clothes he had seen her in last night were soaked in blood and he could detect two different scents.
"Explain this Kiya," Tsunade got to her feet and walked over to stand in front of her, taking the scroll from her.
"They exploded… So much blood… How could there be so much blood…? Doesn't it vaporize when in contact with so much heat…?" Kiya faded to inaudible mumbling, a hand wrapped around her waist while her other rested on the center of her collarbone.
"Kakashi, get her cleaned up. Permission granted for your request," Tsunade frowned. "One weeks worth of funds will be provided, if time past that is required to get past this, save bill slips and you'll be reimbursed. Did you know something like this would happen?"
"I had a bad feeling, but I've been thinking about this request for several days now," Kakashi frowned as he touched Kiya's arm and she immediately stopped talking and her eyes focused on him. "Let's get you cleaned up, Kiya."
"Kashi…?" Her eyes welled up and tears quickly spilled over.
"Come on," Kakashi sighed.
He picked her up into his arms and used a little chakra to transport them to his apartment where he could feel the blood soaking into his own clothing, still warm. Quickly getting to his bathroom before he had blood to clean up out of the carpet, he kicked the shower mats out of the way before kneeling down and sat Kiya in front of him. He worked on getting her clothes off, leaving her blood soaked underwear and bra on. As soon as he managed to get her pants off with a little help from her, he moved so he could turn on the shower and sighed as she pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
"Today wasn't supposed to go like this… Everything went wrong… I couldn't fix them…"
"Kiya, no one could have known that there were explosive seals within them."
"They were ANBU…"
"Kiya," Kakashi put his hand on her cheeks and made her look at him. "You did the best you could. I'm sure they did the same, but there isn't always a win, no matter how skilled a shinobi is. Now you need to get cleaned up. Team Seven has a mission and Tsunade assigned you to the mission."
"I can't… I can't leave… Everything is so fucked up…"
"Kiya, I requested this mission for your sake. It was initially so you wouldn't get burned out, but after what happened, it was needed for more than just that. Think of it as a team vacation," Kakashi spoke before moving to stand but her hands grabbed his wrists, stopping him. "Kiya."
"Please don't go," she whispered weakly.
"It would not be appropriate for me to stay while you clean up."
"I don't want to be alone, so please stay."
"Kiya…"
"Please…"
"Very well," he sighed, closing his eyes as he pulled off his bloody sweater before sitting down beside the shower.
"I should have been able to handle myself better," she whispered, her voice nearly level with him, making him think she was sitting on the shower floor.
"How could anyone have known? You were doing your job to save lives," Kakashi frowned as he opened his eyes and saw her curled up form through the opaque curtain.
"If only we had done more… we could have found those seals… I should have been able to detect the foreign chakra… that's part of my job when scanning for injuries… I'm still so weak…" her voice broke as she started crying. "No matter how hard I try… I'm not good enough…"
"Kiya," Kakashi felt torn with the current predicament. He wanted to comfort her, but seeing the bloodied underwear beside him, he knew that trying to comfort her in such a compromised way could possibly make it worse.
"I'm sorry… you don't have to stay in here… I know you're uncomfortable…"
"I'm not going anywhere," he whispered, closing his eyes again and rested his head against the wall.
"Did… did you threaten her…? For this mission…?"
"I had a valid argument so thankfully I didn't have to."
"Where to…?" She whispered as she tried to slow her shaky breaths as she tried to calm down.
"For you, that's a surprise. The others don't know yet either so no point in trying to get them to slip up."
"And the lazy teacher comes out," she snorted weakly, making him smile a little.
"More like being preoccupied with a beautiful woman who is crying in a shower, but they don't need to know that."
"You say that and Naruto might think you are starting to pick up Jiraiya's bad habit when he is doing research."
"The best part is that they won't realize that it's actually true. Will you be okay if I go find something for you to wear?"
"Yeah," she whispered and he got to his feet quietly.
Leaving the bathroom door open, he walked to his bedroom and grabbed some clothes for her before changing into a pair of clean pants and a white t-shirt. Keeping focused on the sounds from the shower, he walked to the kitchen to get some water brewing for tea. Hearing a whimper, he grabbed the clothes and hurried back to the bathroom where he studied her form through the curtain. She was standing now but saw her arms out in front of her slightly, moving against each other.
"Kiya?"
"The smell won't go away…" she whimpered.
"Try using the soap in the green bottle," he spoke gently as he set the spare clothes on the counter and stepped closer. "Focus on something, whether in your mind or out loud and remember to breathe."
"I don't know…"
"What's your favorite color?"
"Purple."
"You don't wear it very much."
"I don't want my wardrobe to look like Ino's. Her closet literally is nothing but purple."
"That makes sense," he chuckled as he heard a bottle open and smelt his body wash. He closed his eyes and turned away from the shower so he wasn't tempted to watch her through the opaque curtain. "What's your favorite book? I noticed a decent amount of books when I stopped by last night."
"Icha-Icha Tactics," she mumbled quietly.
"I didn't see any Icha-Icha with your collection."
"They're hidden. If anyone who came over saw them lying about, they'd probably blame you."
"That sealing scroll you had mine in?"
"Yeah."
"What's your favorite part?"
"I'm not discussing explicit books with you."
"They are only books," he chuckled.
"That won't get me to talk about them."
"And here you were teasing me when we were at Katsu's shop."
"You had it coming, asking for a book out in public. What's your favorite color?" She asked, not showing any distress still in her voice.
"Green."
"I have never seen you have green on you. That ugly vest doesn't count either."
"It's easier to wear the uniform than deal with shopping for clothes," Kakashi chuckled and she laughed as the shower turned off. He grabbed a towel off the rack and held it behind him for her as the curtain moved. The towel was taken and he cleared his throat, "I'll go make some tea…"
"Thank you Kashi." Her arms appeared around his waist as she pressed herself against his back. "You are always there for me, even when I don't think I need it."
"I care about you Kiya," he smiled, pulling her gently around him and noticed the towel tucked around her as he pulled her against him so he could wrap his arms around her. "Even if nothing more happens, I will always be there for you. Now why don't you get dressed and join me in the living room."
"Okay," she smiled as she stepped back, holding the towel close and he saw the slight blush of her dark skin.
