A/N: At this point, Naruto has concluded. Well, it was actually done around when I posted Chapter 32, but I didn't really catch up on it until I was writing Chapter 35. Either way, I rather like the way that the canon has turned out, and I wish that this story could follow that a bit closer. However, due to some things that I absolutely have my heart set on, that is rather unlikely to happen. So unfortunately, if you are looking for this story to end somewhere parallel to Chapter 700 of Naruto, that's not going to happen. I can't reveal what will or will not be the same (that would be a massive spoiler, wouldn't it?), but I can say that there will be differences. Nevertheless, I still enjoy continuing with this story and if you're reading this, I hope you are enjoying reading it as well. Enjoy!
Chapter 37: To Care
White fluffy crystals fell from the cloudy sky, collecting in heaps that absorbed the sounds of the waking village. Vendors unwrapped their wares from the heavy burlap that had protected them overnight and began to lay them out under the shadow of awnings, while children tumbled out of their houses to play. Winter break for civilian children had just begun, and they were taking full advantage of their newfound freedom. Shinobi children raced each other towards the Academy, doing their best to use chakra to keep from falling into the snow and beat their peers to the front doors. The Academy's break would take place when the milder temperatures set in, though students would have a couple days to spend the Christmas holiday with their families next week. Cheer was abundant in the streets, with decorations adorning porches, and friendly greetings passing between complete strangers. The gaiety of the village didn't reach the Hokage's office that morning.
"What am I supposed to do with her now?!" Tsunade growled, slamming her palms down on her desk. The wood creaked but stood firm. For the amount of money she'd paid for it, it had better be a little harder to break than the simple one that the Third had used. "I've finally gotten something out of her that's not a wisp of smoke, a connection to Itachi no less, and Hatake stops her execution!" She had expected the silver-haired Jounin to weasel his way into her room to speak with her; everyone seemed to know he was smitten with her, except for Kakashi himself. She hadn't expected him to be able to stop her execution within seconds of it being issued. Perhaps she had forgotten just how intelligent he could be when he wasn't busy playing the lazy sensei or the aloof jaded man. None of it helped dim her rage. At the very least, the ANBU had reported some new bits of information, filling in some gaps in her history. Though when they'd left, she wanted to throttle Kakashi again. He'd seen her multiple times since Team 7's first C-rank mission in the Land of Waves and had never said a thing. "Bring me Hatake," she snapped at Shizune, "Immediately. Don't take any of his crap."
She nodded and vanished promptly, feeling sorry for the man she was sent to find.
"Set a Hyuuga on her," a voice drawled from the corner.
"What did you say?" Her golden eyes looked over at Nara Shikaku, sitting in the corner on a chair balanced on its back legs. She could see that Shizune's summary of Kurotsuki's interrogation was about halfway down the stack of documents that he'd already read that morning. It wasn't surprising though, the man was rumored to be able to retain every bit of information he'd ever come across.
He sighed, as if irritated that he had to clarify himself. "Make a Main Family Hyuuga keep tabs on her. They'll be able to keep her in line with the seal. From the report, she won't even be able to continue running if she tried to leave the village. Same thing if she tries to contact the Uchiha. Not as good for neutralizing the threat as killing her, but pretty close." He began a new pile for the read documents, placing a folder face down on the table next to him. "Pick a Chunnin. No sense in tying up anyone more competent with a mission inside the village. And then we can take those ANBU off guard duty and put them back on the active roster."
"Thank you, Shikaku," she sighed. Shizune was always there for her, but sometimes she wondered how much more difficult her job would be without Shikaku around. She sat down and quickly scrawled the details of the surveillance mission for Kurotsuki on a mission request form.
He sighed, staring at his masked reflection in the mirror. Today just really wasn't his day. Or rather, this week wasn't his week. It was just a series of ups followed immediately by downs. After the Jounin Exam had concluded, all he'd really wanted was to see Kurotsuki. He had gotten what he wanted, only to worry that she'd completely forgotten about him while he went off on the Daimyo's mission. And yesterday, he stopped her execution and finally heard her life story; something he'd been waiting months to find out. Kakashi had gone straight home from her room, stripped off all his shinobi gear, and simply sat in bed on top of his green shuriken blanket. Both his eyes stared blankly at the wall, his brain trying to process everything he'd heard. Some part of him fact-checked everything, looking for a time or location discrepancy that wasn't there. She'd explained everything. It all made sense now. The story was twisted and completely nuts, but it held. He'd looked over at his bedside table and picked up his Genin team picture, then Team 7, and finally Team 7, minus Sasuke, plus Kurotsuki. The people in the pictures smiled back at him, oblivious of his world being turned upside-down by yesterday's turn of events. I don't even know what to think of her now. "What am I supposed to do with you, Kurotsuki?" he asked the ceiling. Unsurprisingly, it didn't have an answer for him.
He wasn't quite sure whether or not he'd managed to fall asleep at all, given how tired he was when two sharp taps sounded at his door. Kotetsu greeted him with a solid punch to his left cheekbone, which Kakashi didn't bother to evade. Right, payback. He blearily listened to the other man's short rant about how he and Anko had nearly had a falling out over his misinformation, inserting apologies and sheepish replies as necessary. Finally, the black-haired man seemed to have gotten all of it out of his system, and Kakashi patted him on the back, asking if he felt better and how things were going with Anko in their new apartment. He hadn't been paying too much attention, but there was something about Jounin and missions in his reply.
The silver-haired Jounin had just shut the door after Kotetsu, only to turn around and discover Shizune standing behind him.
"Tsunade-sama's office. Now," she barked at him.
In the following hour, he was forced to wake up by Tsunade's impressively loud voice, listing all the things she wasn't very pleased that he'd done. Then he had really woken up to dodge a second punch to his face that could possibly have blown his head off entirely. After a string of apologies and swearing a few things he hoped were too ridiculous for Tsunade to actually expect him to uphold, he was let out of her office, now with a large crater decorating the wall.
"Well, that didn't sound very good," a chipper voice commented. "Tsunade-sama really was angry with you, wasn't she?"
"The old hag sounded pretty pissed from all the way downstairs."
He dragged his eyes upward from his blue sandals. "Sakura. Naruto."
"We came to talk to you, Kakashi-sensei," she said, "about Kurotsuki."
He watched their faces, carefully maintaining a lazy look on the small part of his face they could see. "Everyone's been talking about her for the past couple days. Has Ino spread the word to the entire village yet?"
The kunoichi sighed. "Let Pig do what she'll do. There's no real stopping her, and everyone will learn eventually. With something like the Spirit inside her, it'll be hard to keep quiet." She tucked a stray pink lock behind her ear. "We went and talked to Tsunade-sama. She told us everything. It actually explains a lot of all the mysterious stuff that's been happening."
"So you both know now. And what of it?" he asked stoically.
Naruto beamed. "It's kinda cool actually, I haven't met someone like me since Gaara. And now it turns out that Kurotsuki knew him when he was a kid too." He crossed his arms behind his head, looking quite pleased. "We just came to get you before going to visit her."
Sakura nodded in agreement. "After growing up with this one," she dug an elbow into her teammate's ribs, oblivious to (or simply ignoring) the sudden gasp and look of pain on his face, "it doesn't even seem like that big of a deal. And at least we'll know that Kurotsuki will be having a rough time near the full moon and help out. Unlike Mr. Loose Cannon over here."
He looked scandalized as he rubbed his sore ribs. "I can't help it, Sakura. I've got to get my Rasengan working as soon as possible. And sometimes I just use a bit too much of the Kyuubi's chakra."
"Also, you were supposed to send Pakkun when Kurotsuki woke up, remember?" she said sternly, emerald eyes glaring at him.
"I must have forgotten, since I was deeply contemplating-"
Sakura spun on her heel and huffed, starting down the stairs. "I'm sure," she said loudly, cutting him off. "C'mon, Naruto."
"Coming!" He jogged across the landing they had been standing on and followed his teammate towards the hospital.
Kakashi watched them for a moment. Naruto had caught up, chattering excitedly about finally getting to talk to Kurotsuki. The kunoichi smiled fondly at him, her happiness for him apparent on her features. He heard her suggest that Naruto apologize for beating her to a pulp when Gaara had died (temporarily). He reddened and said something about how it wasn't really his fault because he thought, at the time, that she really didn't understand what it meant to be a Jinchuuriki. Sakura punched him and growled that he would be apologizing, unless he wanted to get hit again.
Kakashi was struck by how normal the scene before him was. His two ex-students, arguing, but inseparable in reality. Ordinarily, they would probably be on the way to the hospital to see him, bedridden after overusing the sharingan. But this time, it was Kurotsuki. Another teammate. The dark past had come to light, but still, that was all that mattered to Naruto and Sakura. She was their teammate and they would show her the loyalty that bound Team 7 together. They would fight tooth and nail to convince Tsunade that Kurotsuki could be trusted and have her execution revoked for once and for all. They would do it for her, the same way they had both been training non-stop for the past two years to bring Sasuke home. Team 7 was whole again after Kurotsuki had arrived, and though the whole was a bit of a different shape than it was when Sasuke was around, they would still fight to keep all the pieces of the puzzle.
Kakashi's leisurely stroll slowed to a stop. Some passers-by glared briefly at him before dodging past and carrying on their way. He ignored the fact that he was a rather annoying human pylon in the middle of the road and watched the retreating backs of his past students, contemplating. Kurotsuki was a test subject, a sister to a wanted criminal, and a vessel for a being barely suppressed with old, failing seals. And a teammate. So why was it so hard for him to put that last part first? Naruto and Sakura had done that almost immediately, but he was stuck in place while they moved forward.
"Kakashi-sensei! Hurry up, we know you're not that old," Naruto called, waving in his direction.
He shook his head, pulling out his copy of Icha Icha Tactics and held it up in front of his face. "You two go on ahead. I've... forgotten something." As the blond opened his mouth to protest, the Jounin vanished.
"Come in," a soft voice replied to her knock.
Sakura slid the door open, revealing the occupants of the room: Kurotsuki, a bored-looking Hyuuga sitting in the corner, an ANBU, and a young man with red-streaked hair. "Oh! I didn't know you had someone else visiting. Should we come back later?"
"I was just headed out, actually," the young man replied. He recognized Naruto as he followed Sakura into the room. "Naruto, fancy seeing you here. How did things go with Hinata-chan?"
A broad smile came to his face. "I went to the Jounin Gala with her, but I had to sit in a different section because all of the Hyuuga had their own tables. Anyway, you should have seen the speech she gave to her father. Man, it was fantastic! About tradition, and kimonos, and her ninja way! And she fainted after, but at least she woke up in time to hear that she'd passed the Exam. Which is great for her, but I really need to work hard and catch up to everyone now. Or else someone else in our year is going to beat me to becoming Hokage!"
"Hokage? For someone like you? Hardly." Heads turned towards the Hyuuga who had spoken. "Hinata onee-sama was completely out of line. Frankly, I'm astounded that she hasn't apologized to Hiashi-sama yet."
A frown took the place of Naruto's smile. "You were at the Gala. With Hinata-chan's father. What's your name again? And what are you doing here anyway?"
"Hyuuga Hyzuko," he declared haughtily, looking offended that anyone could have ever forgotten who he was. "I'm on a surveillance mission, keeping an eye on her," he all but pouted, sending a glare in Kurotsuki's direction.
The woman in question was reclined on the raised bed, her hands folded in her lap. "Your mission in no way requires you to be in the room," she said calmly. "I'm sure you could keep your eyes on me from outside the room using your byakugan. Unless your stamina is too poor to do so for an extended period of time."
"As if," he snorted, standing and heading for the door with his nose in the air. After the door shut, people's attention turned again to Kurotsuki.
Sakura shook her head. "I'm glad the first Hyuuga I met was Hinata-chan. I might have avoided them entirely if she was anything like him. Does he actually have issues with his stamina?"
She shrugged. "I don't know, I was just getting irritated at his comments. Good to see you two. And nice to really meet you, Kenji." She extended her hand to him.
He shook her hand and picked up his bag from the floor. "Thanks for... telling me everything, I guess. Maybe we'll cross paths when you're better. I'll leave you to your other visitors." He waved to the others as he left.
"That went surprisingly well," the ANBU piped up. "Glad I didn't need to intervene."
"Yamato, is that you?" Naruto asked. The voice sounded familiar, and so was his height and build.
He nodded. "Kakashi isn't with you?"
"He came by yesterday but he didn't mention coming back," the woman said quietly, running one finger across the blanket in a small intricate pattern.
Naruto huffed. "Will you go find him? He was with us when we were coming here, and then he claimed he forgot something."
Sakura shook her head and pursed her lips. "I know he was here yesterday, but that's no reason to slip out on coming today. He hasn't been busy lately except for helping Naruto train."
He said, "I'll go have a look," before vanishing in a whirlwind of leaves.
"Good to see you're awake," Naruto said cheerily. "How have you been?"
She smiled wanly. "Not on death row, so that's good. I heard I have Kakashi to thank for that."
"He pulled a stunt claiming the rest of Team 7 should be executed for being associated with Sasuke," she confirmed. "Anything I can get you? Tsunade-sama admitted that she had Hiashi-san in here, and I'm not sure what kind of side-effects that seal has."
"I'm fine. I had a horrible headache for a day, but slept for most of that time. My body seems to be regaining its capacity to move, so I'm looking forward to going for a walk tomorrow."
"So... what's She look like? The Spirit." Naruto asked excitedly, eager to find out more. "Sorry. It's been so long since I met another Jinchuuriki. I can't help it," he added sheepishly.
The woman frowned. "How should I know?"
"What do you mean, you don't know?" he burst out. "You've never talked?"
She scratched her temple absently. "We sort of talk. She's always just been a voice in my head, and I just think back at Her. I always assumed some sort of canine, given the wolfish things that happen around the full moon. But a fox or a... coyote could also be possible. Or maybe just a big dog?"
"You can find out, if you want. It happens when I need a lot of chakra, so I uh... dive into myself and demand some. It's sort of like meditating. Or sometimes when I get really angry, the Kyuubi can talk to me."
Sakura smiled as Naruto chattered on about the Kyuubi, describing it as a swirling cloud of red-orange chakra with eyes and huge teeth when he was a kid, but it had taken on a more concrete form of a nine-tailed fox as he'd grown up and learned to converse with it occasionally. It wasn't often that he got to talk about the beast within him to someone who truly understood. She'd let him have his moment, but she reminded herself to make sure Naruto apologized to Kurotsuki for having beat her up.
Kakashi stood in front of the monument for Konoha's fallen, and his onyx eye falling straight to Obito's name. It had been in the same spot in his vision for years, ever since he'd stopped getting taller. He could pinpoint Rin's name the same way, but he was still working on adding Gai's and Asuma's names to his mental map. Using the sharingan to do it just seemed like cheating. Staring at the stone, with its fluffy layer of snow, his argument with Obito flashed through his mind. That was the day he'd learned that completing your missions wasn't the most important part of being a shinobi, like his father's suicide had led him to believe. The day he'd gained a sharingan, at the cost of Obito's life. It was the day he'd learned to value his teammates and started to become the man he was now. Kakashi tucked the orange paperback into his vest pocket. Obito would probably be frowning at him, wondering what his problem was. The Uchiha had always trusted and befriended easily, something Kakashi used to see as a weakness. What if the people you befriended had malicious intentions? What if they betrayed your trust? Then I'm glad I had one more friend for that time, and maybe I'll turn them around one day and get my friend back, his mental images of Obito and Naruto said in unison. "Perhaps you are both better men than I," he said quietly to the cold air, his breath forming tiny clouds in front of him.
"Talking to yourself? That's not a good sign."
Kakashi turned his head to look over his shoulder at the ANBU operative that had just appeared. The oval mask did nothing to hide the identity of his old friend. "What brings you here, Tenzou?"
The man took a few steps forward and stood next to Kakashi, eyes roving over the memorial as he shifted his mask to the side of his face. "Naruto told me to come get you. We crossed paths in Kurotsuki's room."
Kakashi frowned, creasing his brow. "What were you doing there?" he demanded, his voice sounding sharper to his ears than he had intended.
Tenzou blinked in surprise, but decided not to comment on it. "Iruka asked me to escort a visitor to Kurotsuki and oversee their meeting."
"Who was visiting?" he asked, using the most disinterested voice he could manage. Tenzou probably saw right through him. A truly disinterested person wouldn't be asking. He hoped his friend would continue ignoring his somewhat strange behaviour.
"The boy from Kougyoku, Rubimura Kenji. He was applying to the Academy and Iruka found out about his hometown. He thought they should meet, hoping to give Kenji some closure." Kakashi looked at him, finally taking his eyes off the monument. Tenzou chuckled to himself. His friend had given up pretending to be disinterested. "I was asked to be there in case things went sour."
"And?"
He shrugged. "All things considered, it went really well." Of course, their introduction was tense and awkward as all hell, considering the past between them. Kenji settled himself in the visitors' chair, listening quietly while Kurotsuki explained her life story. He punctuated her narrative with the occasional question, some about the mysterious concrete research facility, others about the night Kougyoku was destroyed. Kurotsuki answered as best she could and assured him that though the villagers' deaths had been gruesome, they were swift. After a long pause, she ventured a question about his job as a nurse and slowly, the conversation drifted towards his enrollment in the Academy and more lighthearted topics. "By the time Kenji left, he'd decided to leave that chapter of his life behind him and they were on comfortable speaking terms."
"Mm."
"Why is it that you're not jumping at the chance to see her today? Because you care?"
Taken aback, he stared. "That doesn't make any sense."
"Kurotsuki is a teammate to Naruto and Sakura. Maybe a bit more to Naruto, since they're both Jinchuuriki. In any case, you go to see your teammates when they're in the hospital. It's nothing new. But she's more than that to you. You care for her." Surprisingly, Kakashi wasn't protesting this last statement, so he ploughed on. "I know what it's like, being a living experiment. And I know what happens when people find out about your past. Do you remember that day, Kakashi?"
He nodded. It was one of the few days that Kakashi wasn't out and about with Team Minato, in the short time that he, Tenzou, Asuma, and Kurenai had shared Chunnin status. Upon graduation from the Academy, they'd been split up into different teams, Kurenai and Tenzou to one, Asuma and Kakashi to two others. That summer afternoon, the four of them had gotten together for a spar, for old times' sake. It was all fun and games, each showing off new skills they'd learned, until Tenzou had used a Mokuton skill. Immediately, Asuma had flown into a rage, demanding where he'd learned that type of elemental release and to know his ties with the Senju clan. It had taken both Kakashi and Kurenai to hold him back long enough for Tenzou to explain his gene-spliced history prior their first meeting at the Academy. "Asuma was scared that you'd found the secrets that Hashirama-sama had entrusted to Hiruzen-sama, and by extension himself."
He smiled fondly. "Asuma always understood the value of previous generations' legacy. You went off on a mission with your team after that, so you wouldn't have seen the aftermath."
Kakashi was puzzled. "What aftermath? As far as I was concerned at the time, I didn't care what your history was as long as you were completely dedicated to completing your missions." He shook his head at himself. "I was an idiot for those couple years after my dad died."
"You're a changed man from those days," he agreed. "The aftermath was with Kurenai. Even though Asuma was the one who was upset, he was the first one to come and talk to me afterward. We had drifted apart a bit after graduating, and he felt pretty bad about getting so angry at the time. We actually became better friends after that, and he helped me develop some Mokuton jutsu with his knowledge of the Senju. Kurenai, who I thought wouldn't be too bothered by it being my teammate and all, avoided me for a week." Tenzou paused. "I found out from my Jounin sensei that she'd been conflicted about the whole situation. Torn between feeling overwhelmed about my past and a little hurt that I'd never said anything sooner. Kurenai didn't know what to do with the information. Ignore it and hope that nothing changed? Or should my other teammate be told? What about Tsunade-sama, the last remaining descendent of Hashirama-sama? For Kurenai, I wasn't just a friend from her Academy days like I was for Asuma. I was her teammate, someone she'd suffered and succeeded with. A close friend that she cared about. And it was because she cared that everything was a bigger deal for her than for Asuma. She knew that she could to trust me, had to trust me. But suddenly I wasn't the person that she thought I was."
"But it all worked out," Kakashi said. It wasn't a question. For one, he knew that Tenzou had visited Kurenai after the Jounin Exam. And for another, Tenzou had concisely described all the whirling thoughts in his mind last night. He wanted to know that things between himself and Kurotsuki would be fine. He didn't want Team 7 to fall apart again. He stayed her execution for that very reason, but his absence from her room while Naruto and Sakura went to visit seemed to say otherwise.
He smiled. "It did. To care means to be close. To be close means you can be hurt; because untold pasts and stories matter. Thankfully, she worked through it. Kurenai apologized for being so distant, and we were true teammates again. Of course, she still chose Asuma over me a couple years later." The man chuckled, looking at the name engraved in stone. "He was always a charmer."
"That he was." The silver-haired man clapped his friend on the back and vanished, knowing his silent thank you was heard.
A/N: A rather short one, compared to some other chapters, but I wanted to give everyone a Christmas update. Please leave me a review if you're still reading! I like to hear from you all :) I also hope to be able to post another chapter before my winter break is over. Happy holidays everyone!