CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

Kira Kira Hikaru


~Kakashi~


If he was being honest with himself Kakashi hadn't expected Erisu to succeed, but for it to have turned out so tragically... What had even gone wrong? He could only make out so much from his perch in the branches but from what he could see...
Prodding Yusha in the back to make him move, Kakashi shepherded him down the slope to where Erisu was slumped over the dead body of one of the rogues. As they neared Kakashi saw why she was so distraught. They were mere children, younger than Naruto, and all of them were dead.
Leaving Yusha at the edge of the clearing, he strode quickly over to her. With Tenzō present he was forced to refrain from embracing her but every cell in his body was determined to comfort her all the same.
"O-sama," she said rather dazedly as she looked up at him with wide watery eyes. "I couldn't save them..."
"We weren't prepared for this," Tenzō said to her, his expression very closed. "No one told us that the food was tainted."
"Tainted?" Kakashi repeated as he knelt beside Erisu and gently shifted the corpse of a boy from her lap. "Are you telling me the villagers poisoned these children?"
"Yes, the rice seems to have been mixed with pesticides," Tenzō explained.
"The cause of death in most of these cases seems to have been respiratory failure," Erisu told Kakashi as he helped her to her feet. "Stroke may have killed some of them as well..." She shook her head. "...and when we'd just won them over."
Kakashi looked down at Erisu as she let her head fall against his chest.
"You mean they'd agreed to assist the villagers?" He asked, trying to keep the surprise from his voice.
"They were just kids, Sempai," Tenzō murmured, his eyes drifting over the lifeless forms scattered around the distinguished campfire. "They were just trying to find a way to survive after Orochimaru's death."
Yuma had appeared at Kakashi's elbow and for once didn't look like there was something foul under his nose. He seemed properly upset in fact.
"We should get the bodies ready for transport," the Hyūga said to Tenzō. "Pakkun has agreed to take a message back to the village along with the list of names that boy gave us."
Kakashi was getting an idea as to the identities of the teens now. "They're from the village," he guessed aloud, "the missing children."
Tenzō nodded grimly and Kakashi hung his head. His masked face brushed the top of Erisu's hair and he had an almost overpowering desire to just bury his face in the sugary down. Instead he carefully slipped away from her and turned to Pakkun.
"You're fine with being the messenger?" He asked the hound.
"Yeah." The pugs droopy eyes kept glancing up at Erisu worriedly. "Their village should know what happened."
Kakashi realized in that moment that he couldn't remember the last time he'd slept. When had they gotten drawn into this mess? Why were they even in this clearing? But they'd be out of the country by nightfall if they got this situation under control quickly enough.
Looking around, he noticed that Kiyomi and Sota hadn't emerged from the woods yet and started towards the trees but Erisu brushed her fingers across his making him pause. She was quickly regaining her composure as she looked past him to where Yusha was loitering.
"We need to get everyone on the same page," she murmured conspiratorially. "I can talk to Kiyomi-san about her outburst earlier but I was hoping you would speak to Yuma-sempai."
That was pretty much the last thing Kakashi wanted to do.
"I'm Team Captain not Team Counsellor," he pointed out, casting an eye towards Yuma who was carrying the limp body of a preteen girl. "They should know better than to pick fights with their comrades. Especially Yuma and Kiyomi, considering their ranks."
"You're right of course." She followed his gaze and he noted that her demeanour had altered into that of complete professionalism. "Maybe they'll sort it out on their own."
Despite his disinterest in babysitting a bunch of adults, Kakashi was privately curious as to why Kiyomi had snapped in the first place. Yuma had always been an egotistical bully but Kakashi had expected him to have at least a basic concept of maturity. And though he'd realized Kiyomi was a bit hot-headed from their first meeting he was frankly chagrined that she'd actually drew her sword on Yuma... while they were gearing for a fight with an unknown enemy no less. That kind of behaviour was genuinely embarrassing to him as their superior.
"I'm about to fill Sota and Kiyomi in on what has transpired now," Kakashi said to Erisu, "I'll have a quick word with them about maintaining healthy relationships with their colleagues." He paused. "Well, less antagonistic relations anyways. Teamwork is vital if we are to succeed." And not murdering each other was of course essential if he wanted to get the whole team back to Konoha.
Erisu looked as though there was something she wanted to say but she seemed to have decided not to. He wasn't going to let her keep anything to herself anymore. Honesty was the most important thing now.
"Something else on your mind?" He queried. She could sense that he wasn't going to take no for an answer as she looked up at him almost cautiously.
She glanced over at Tenzō who was shifting the dead boy by the fire. "Is Yamato-sempai going to be alright?"
Kakashi guessed why she was asking. He must have let on about his past and how he came to possess the rare Wood Release.
"He'll be fine," Kakashi assured her. "He's made of sterner stuff than most." He searched her face for a moment then added in a softer tone, "are you going to be alright?"
"Yes." Her gaze drifted past him to the many bodies still laying about. "I'm just concerned about what the fate of the Body will be, the ones leftover after Aya and her husband are dealt with..."
Her solicitous nature could very well be her downfall, he thought to himself. Her humanity was both her greatest strength and her most dangerous weakness.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," he told her sternly. "No amount of worrying will change the future."
Her eyes met his again and he knew she'd understood that he was issuing an indirect order.
"Yes sir," Erisu said formally, "right you are."
Kakashi forced his eye into a reassuring smile but they were both aware that it was superficial. Very discretely, he dared to place his hand on her waist.
"I need to go brief the others," he told her, "you assist Yamato in cleaning up, alright?"
There was blood and what looked like foamy saliva on the front of her dress and her hands were slightly tinged with red as she placed them on his chest.
"Anything you say, O-sama," she said softly.
"Enough with the 'sama'," he told her sternly, "call me Kakashi."
Her eyes sparkled with faint amusement. "As you command, Kakashi, sir."
He scoffed and cuffed her untameable hair playfully. "Whatever, Risu." He released her waist and started towards the trees. "Just help Yamato, okay?"
She offered him a weak smile and joined the others as Kakashi swept away to the east side of the clearing. As long as Erisu didn't let this ordeal break her everything should be alright.
Please don't let it break her.
"Kakashi!" Yusha was striding across the clearing with far more confidence than a prisoner should rightfully convey.
Kakashi halted and closed his eyes to contain his annoyance. What could Yusha possibly want now?
"What are your intentions with my little sister?"
Kakashi stared at him. "What?"
"You heard me!" Yusha was red-faced, but whether from anger or embarrassment Kakashi couldn't tell. "I saw you just now, whispering together, giving each other misty-eyed looks."
Of course he'd been spying on them. It was just sort of the conniving thing he'd do, as was assuming they'd been discussing less wholesome things.
"It may have escaped your notice but thirteen kids just died," Kakashi said with a deliberate lack of tact, "in your little sister's arms no less. But I doubt you'd entertain the possibility that I was comforting her.
"Obviously you were comforting her," Yusha said irritably, "but a guy only takes time to comfort an emotional wreck like her if they think they'll get something out of it."
Kakashi could've collapsed under the weight of Yusha's ignorance.
"I want to know what your angle is. What are you after?"
Kakashi opted for giving him a hard look. "I don't think that's really any of your concern, given the circumstances. Do you?"
"Do you love her?" Yusha's pale green eyes were intense.
The sudden demand struck Kakashi mute. To ask such a personal question, especially now while they were organizing the dead, it was audacious.
Yusha had lost his patience, if he ever had any to start with. "I asked you whether you love my sister or not!"
"She's my student," Kakashi told him stiffly. "My ward."
"Oh is that all?" The telepath folded his arms and narrowed his eyes. "I've never heard of a teacher crossing the continent to save their pupil before."
"She's a... special case."
"I bet she is."
The two men gazed at each other as the tension around them built up steadily.
Yusha broke the uncomfortable silence. "How did you meet her?"
"That's a tricky one," Kakashi said evasively but Yusha wasn't satisfied.
"Tricky?" He echoed. "Tricky how?"
"We met first during the Nine Tail's Attack but weren't acquainted until she returned to the village in the spring of this year." He fixed the younger man with a cold grey eye. "Why?"
"How'd you become acquainted?" Yusha pressed.
"Why?" Kakashi said again with more insistence.
"I want to know how a celebrity murderer like you got his claws in my sweet little sister that's why!"
Kakashi blinked. "'Celebrity Murderer'?"
"C'mon, that's a perfect description," said Yusha with a grin that said he was far too proud of himself for coming up with it. "High Ranked Ninjas like you are famous for how good they are at killing people right? You weren't nicknamed 'Cold-Blooded Kakashi' for your incomparable compassion, were you? So..." He flourished his hands as if presenting a top of the line product. "Celebrity Murderer. It fits you to a T."
After the big deal Yusha had made about Kiyomi's suggestion to kill the test subjects it didn't make sense that he could be so buoyant and unruffled by the sudden deaths of the kids. And now he was demanding to know the specifics of Kakashi and Erisu's relationship... Where had this even come from? Why did Yusha suddenly give a damn at all?
Kakashi held Yusha's gaze until his smile faded and his mouth set into a stubborn line. Obviously the kid wasn't going to leave him alone without some sort of an explanation.
"We met in the forest."
The uncomfortable silence resumed and Yusha raised his brows expectantly.
"And?"
"And Erisu administered a life saving antidote to me after I was poisoned in combat and then performed a Chakra Transference Jutsu which allowed me to call for backup."
Yusha puckered his lips as he thought that over, annoyingly similar to Erisu.
"So you were killing someone and got yourself poisoned. She showed up and healed you." He scratched his stubbly jaw. "Huh. I could've guessed that."
"Are we done now?" Kakashi tried to head back towards the forest but Yusha intercepted him.
"No. We're not 'done'." He scoffed. "God you're impatient. What happened next?"
"Excuse me?"
Yusha leaned in, outlandishly close, with his lip curled like a wild dog.
"How did my sis go from being some random-woodland-healer-lady to being the handpicked student of the famous Hero of the Sharingan?"
Kakashi held his gaze. "I asked the Hokage to make her my student."
"What?" Yusha was genuinely surprised. "Why? Aren't you like the most powerful ninja in the village apart from the Sannin? Why would you be interested in an academy dropout like her?"
Kakashi shrugged. "She intrigued me."
"Intrigued you?" Yusha didn't believe him whatsoever.
"Yeah."
"Really?"
Kakashi's patience had run out. "What do you want, Yusha?"
"I want to figure out what the weird masked dude shadowing my sis everywhere is all about. What do you like about her?"
"Plenty."
"Specifically?"
Kakashi turned around to spot Erisu and Yuma laying out the corpses in a neat row. "I have a mission to captain," he said quietly as Erisu closed the eyes of one of the dead, "so if you'll excuse me..."
"You know it's weird," Yusha said loudly from behind him, "it's been a while since I had to do the 'Scary Big Brother Intimidation Shtick'."
Kakashi didn't even spare him a glance. "Is that what this is supposed to be?"
"Last time it was aimed at a girl not a guy," Yusha told him in an offhand sort of voice, "I guess Erisu's sexual preference is as fickle as her religious beliefs."
Kakashi didn't reply, his eye still on Erisu who was now draping the bodies in their blankets as tenderly as she would if they were her friends.
"Yeah, that's right." He could hear the malicious grin in Yusha's voice. "She was really into that Miwa girl. If you can even call her a girl considering how much of a butch she was. You know the type: short hair, flat chest, temperamental tomboy. She might've been passably cute if she wasn't trying so hard to look like a dude all the time. There were even rumours she was talking about getting a sex change. But I guess Erisu had a liking for that crazy little red-head and her less than effeminate inclinations. I guess you could call it fagnetic attraction? Or maybe the carpets just matched the drapes. Erisu has always been OCD about colour schemes and I'm sure the décor choices downstairs would've made her more keen to eat that ginger's hot pocket."
"If only you'd been so gossipy when I was interrogating you," said Kakashi in boredom. "Goodbye, Yusha."
"Hey!" Yusha slung his arm around Kakashi's shoulders, jerking him to a standstill, and spoke infuriatingly close to his ear. "That's not a problem for you is it? Knowing she's been a bit bicurious and had some lezzy leanings in the past? Cause if you're a homophobe I don't think that would bode well with my lil sis seeing as she's about as left wing and liberal as it gets."
"I don't have any problems with homosexuality and if she-"
Yusha howled with laughter causing the others to glance over reproachfully. Kakashi controlled himself by reasoning that assaulting Yusha would only be a temporary gain and would be more than likely to upset Erisu. But hell, if he wasn't sick of all this childish behaviour.
"Geez!" Yusha hooted. "Someone has issues talking about sex!" He spluttered with more laughter. "I mean look at your face!"
Kakashi merely cast him a withering look.
"Well..." Yusha examined him closely, smile fading slightly. "Your eye, I mean, since your face is-uh-hidden."
"Can I go now?" Kakashi tried to pull away but Yusha's grip only tightened and even though Kakashi could've easily escaped he didn't want to make a scene while Erisu and Tenzō were still rigid with shock and grief only a few metres away.
"Has Erisu ever seen your face?" Yusha asked him conversationally. "I guess she must have in order to get those marks all over her neck and chest."
Kakashi tensed, his eye snapping back over to where Erisu was talking with Tenzō and saw, to his alarm, that hickies were visible on her pale throat from their brief time alone at the inn.
"Huh?" Yusha followed his gaze and his smile broadened wickedly. "Oh yeah. Did you think that scarf would hide them?" He scoffed. "It's like you're completely inexperienced in this whole 'Secret-Romance-Thing'."
Kakashi said nothing but Yusha seemed to read his thoughts.
"Seriously?!" He gaped at the older man in astonishment. "Wow. Just wow. How many sexual relationships have you had before my sister?"
"That's really none of your business," Kakashi replied flatly.
Yusha craned his neck to get close to his ear again. "Are you a virgin?"
Kakashi jerked free of Yusha's hold and faced him with forced composure.
"Are you an immature pest who doesn't know how to respect people's privacy?"
He knew that Yusha was only bold enough to harass him because he knew Kakashi was too wise not to assault him.
"Come on man!" Yusha was grinning again. "How old are*you?"
Kakashi held his gaze and forced an air of disregard into his voice. "Almost thirty."
Yusha's grin vanished and an uncharacteristic seriousness tightened his features.
"You're ten years older than Erisu?" He asked quietly.
Without responding Kakashi returned his attention to where Tenzō was now issuing orders in his stead. He needed to detach himself from Yusha and get back to work.
"I knew you were older but..." Yusha seemed to be struggling to keep anger from his voice. "...an entire decade?"
"That makes the age gap sound a lot more substantial than it really is," Kakashi said edgily.
"It IS a pretty severe gap!" Yusha snapped, his face reddening again.
Kakashi swept his eye over him appraisingly. "Not really."
"Um hello?" Yusha's spine was stiff and his fists clenched. "When she was being born you were already a qualified killer! While she was learning how to read you were a fucking assassin! By the time she was enrolling in the academy for the first time you were probably jerking off to porn!"
Kakashi stifled a sigh. "Can you even go thirty seconds without being vulgar?"
"Why the hell can't you date women your age?" Yusha demanded. "There have to be plenty of hot bitches who want a piece of The Copy Ninja. A badass Jōnin maybe, another teacher, or some sophisticated doctor? I mean-why the hell did you have to target my sister?!"
"I didn't 'target' her," Kakashi said coolly, trying to fathom how Yusha was getting protective about the consensual relationship between himself and Erisu but hadn't cared when Rokurou had preyed on her while she was a child. "You're blowing this completely out of proportion."
But Yusha now had a look of deep thought on his face.
"...Unless..." His pale eyes narrowed to slits. "Unless you're such a perv that no woman your age would be stupid enough to touch you with a ten foot pole. When a thirty-year-old dude is going after his teenaged students there's definitely some fucked up shit in his head."
"She's not a teenager."
"She's nine-TEEN," Yusha snarled, "that is literally a teenager."
Kakashi ran his hand through his hair and supressed another sigh.
"Okay." Yusha planted his hands on his hips and eyed Kakashi in a weirdly paternal manner. "Let me give you the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you genuinely love her and not in the creepy obsessive way that pervy old dudes do. Maybe you realized that Erisu is incredibly mature for her age, what with her moving out at fifteen, designing complex techniques, performing surgeries and shit, and you actually do want to be with her in a serious monogamous relationship with the end goal being marriage."
Kakashi blinked slowly. "Marriage..?" That word carried more responsibility with it than the title of Kage.
"Maybe that's the case," he said in such a way that clearly stated he didn't believe it in the slightest. "But if so, do you realize what that means for her?"
Kakashi hesitated. Where was he going with this?
"She misses out on the free-spirited party phase of her youth and the freedom to date people her own age," Yusha told him darkly. "She won't get the opportunity to do all that crazy shit that people do in their early twenties."
"Like what?" Kakashi asked sardonically. "Bathing in a public fountain?"
"Exactly!" He waved his hands expressively and Kakashi subtly back-stepped to avoid his flailing arms. "She needs to get drunk and live it up a few times before pledging herself to the old Ball-n-Chain of married life."
Kakashi was growing increasingly uncomfortable. "I never said I was going to marry her," he said quietly, "and I certainly wouldn't force her to-"
"So what then?" Yusha interrupted. "You're just going to fuck her while it's convenient?"
"Ugh." This was getting nowhere. "Yusha-"
"Erisu really is a creep magnet."
"I'm not a creep-" He cut himself off and closed his eye to compose himself. "You know what? I'm done with this conversation." He started back towards the others but Yusha wouldn't let it be.
"You're being selfish," he called after him.
Kakashi looked over his shoulder and gave him a cold eye-smile. "If by 'selfish' you mean not having enough patience to be insulted by a criminal then yes, I'm selfish."
"She's already going to have a dangerous life as a ninja without you dragging her into the middle of your war!"
Kakashi stopped mid-step and looked Yusha full in the face. "What are you talking about?"
"Those dudes in the cloaks," Yusha said slyly, knowing he'd struck a cord. "There's rumours all over that they're targeting the jinchūriki."
Kakashi narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "What are you on about?"
"They kidnapped the Kazekage," said Yusha, "everyone was talking about it. And other demons have been going missing all over the place. It's all hushed up but you'd be surprised what shinobi will talk about once they've had a few shots and a couple of my herbs."
"What does that have to do with me?" Kakashi was really irked now. If Yusha had put it together and told The Body...
"I was nine when the Demon Fox attacked," he said owlishly, "and my mother never kept anything from me. She had a brother and father in the Interrogation Task Force. She heard things, things a bit more reliable than rumours and gossip. Things about a certain blond haired boy..."
"The Third made all shinobi vow to secrecy," said Kakashi severely. "You couldn't possibly-"
"The Akatsuki are after Uzamaki Naruto," Yusha stated, "that makes you a target as well, being his sensei. And if it got out that you had a pressure point in the form of a sickly girl with a very trusting nature..."
"Are you threatening me?" Kakashi's whole body was now poised for a fight.
Yusha smiled wanly. "Not at all. In fact I'm beseeching you, so to speak, from a point of shared concern." His sage green eyes flashed with that unpredictable mania. "I don't want my little sis being kidnapped because of you."
"No one knows about Risu and I," Kakashi said coldly, "except for this team."
"Oh? Only this team?" His face hardened. "That's a relief. Only a cowardly Chūnin, a temperamental bitch, a loud-mouthed snob, and an already potential target of the Akatsuki." His lip curled into a nasty sneer. "There's no way they'd possibly find out."
Kakashi didn't reply. Yusha was doing his very best to antagonize him and he wasn't going to buy into it.
"Oh but wait!" He feigned a look of alarm. "There's also that hot medic chick, Shizune-chan was it? She saw how intense you got over my sis during my unlawful confinement. And so did my uncle-which means Ino prolly knows too and man is she a gossiper! Oh yeah, there's also Ibiki, and probably the Hokage, possibly your students and if Erisu has any friends they're bound to know too." He counted everyone off on his fingers. "But it's not as if that's a security risk at all. Nah, it's not as if any of these people might let slip that Cold-Blooded-Kakashi has an easily exploited weakness- AKA a secret lover."
Yusha cocked his head and gave him a horrible twisted smile.
"And sweet lil Erisu would never dare breathe a word about your sordid little affair because she wants to keep it a secret to protect you, right? That must be convenient for you! You can keep playing the bachelor, maybe pick up a side hoe here and there too and Erisu would never know cause she's too busy watching your back."
He gave a short cold laugh. "Pretty genius actually for a guy who wants to avoid commitment."
Kakashi had heard enough and turned to head back towards the forest, though he could no longer remember why he was even going in that direction.
"You're too old for her!" Yusha said loudly.
What he would give to be away from this lot and alone with a book...
"Just think about it!" Yusha stalked over to him and blocked his path. "Even if you guys had a kid when she was twenty and you were thirty-"
"...a kid?"
"-you'd already be in your forties by the time they graduated the academy. Maybe their classmates wouldn't notice that their dad is an old guy since you keep your face hidden all the time and already have naturally grey hair but for Erisu..." He paused dramatically and Kakashi couldn't help wanting to know what he meant.
Yusha leaned in and lowered his voice, "...is it really fair to doom her to a marriage bed where her spouse will become impotent before long?"
Kakashi nettled. "I'm still in my prime-and-that's just-inappropriate."
"It's goddamn statistics!" Yusha said loudly, throwing his hands in the air. "The same facts and figures that Erisu is so obsessed with. The same basic logic that makes her so 'intriguing'."
Kakashi pushed past him and swept towards the tree line.
"Don't walk away from me when I'm talking!" Yusha dashed after him. "Didn't your parents ever teach you common courtesy?"
"I could ask you the same thing but considering your father is dead and your mother is a murderous cult leader I'd say the answer's likely 'no'."
Steam might've issued from Yusha's ears. "Well the same cult leader raised Erisu and I think we can both agree that she's about as polite as it gets."
Kakashi slowed and looked Yusha dead in the eye. "...she sure is. I wonder where she came from?" He turned sharply and strode into the woods but Yusha seemed to have marked him.
"Is your ego bruised now that I pointed out that you might be serving boneless pork in a few years time?" Yusha asked in mock sympathy.
"Well," a cheery voice sounded from the branches above. "Erisu is a vegetarian."
Yusha leapt out of his skin as two figures dropped from the canopy and landed in front of them. They'd walked right under Kiyomi and Sota's hiding place. Kakashi resigned himself to a complete loss of dignity.
Yusha gave him his most annoying smirk. "Looks like your sex life with my sis is the topic of the day, huh Kakashi?"
"Psh." Kiyomi tossed her glossy mane like a temperamental show horse. "Sota, please, everyone knows that vegetarian is just slang for 'won't do oral'."
"Um..." Sota eyed her uncertainly. "Don't you mean slang for someone who can't hunt?"
"It's gay slang, darling."
Sota goggled her incredulously. "...How do you know gay slang?"
She flashed her pearly white teeth at him. "From hanging out with you so much."
"Oh har de har har."
"You and Yuma right, Sota?" She continued with that sadistic gleam in her eyes. "I thought I heard some passionate cries coming from your room the other night." She moaned loudly.
Kakashi glanced around for an escape route.
"There's rumours that he's pretty well endowed," Kiyomi went on, "wouldn't know myself as I personally didn't get that far with him, but you must be well acquainted with his weapon of ass destruction by now, amiright?"
"Kiyomi!" Sota looked as if he had just been sentenced to death.
Was this Kiyomi's way of getting back at Yuma for what he'd said about her temper or was she just trying to make everyone as uncomfortable as possible. Kakashi decided that it was both.
"Do tell darling, cause I love hearing all the dirty details. Were you top or bottom?"
"Kiyomi!" Sota said again rather shrilly, face red.
"Oh god." Yusha looked as though he might be sick. "Don't talk about butt-fucking in front of me please."
Of course, Kakashi rolled his eyes as he realized with no surprise that Yusha was the type that had no problems with girl on girl but would get mortally offended at the mention of two men.
"Well you don't have a girlfriend so it's only reasonable to assume you're a booty bandit, right?" She was smiling like some sort of evil trickster spirit, revelling in his humiliation. "Have you confessed your love to him yet or are you two more like 'reluctant-friends-with-steamy-gay-benefits'?"
"J-just because I'm not currently dating anyone..." Sota seemed to be falling apart. "You don't have a boyfriend, Kiyomi! By your logic you must be into women!"
"Well..." She slid her eyes in Erisu's direction. "I wouldn't say no to a night with Erisu-chan. I mean, she's as lickable as ice cream." She glanced at Yusha and added, "I hope you don't mind me saying so, honey, but your sis is the finest filet of fish I've ever seen and as we bathe together you know I've definitely seen."
"I do mind you saying!" Yusha fumed.
Kiyomi disregarded him. "But she's probably a pillow-queen, so there's that. I'm not down for one-sided sex. In my opinion all parties should get off. Amiright, Sota?"
"Kiyomi..." Sota repeated, sounding desperate now.
"Yuma gets you off right? I mean he'd better. God knows you deserve to bust your load properly!"
"Kiyomi," Sota said yet again, his scarred face perspiring slightly, "I'm not gay and I'm sure as hell not having sex with Yuma!"
"Really?" She raised a brow and gave him a blatant once-over with her burgundy hues. "In that case..." With a swish of her jet black hair she stepped so close to him they were nearly touching. "You, me, handcuffs and whip cream." Her painted nails flicked a dead leaf from Sota's shoulder. "You in?"
Sota looked as though he'd had a heart attack or possibly a stroke by the way he was gaping at her.
Kakashi took advantage of the distraction to make his escape, backing silently into the trees while Yusha watched in interest as Kiyomi made very suggestive gestures and innuendos of such flowery and imaginative language that it was difficult to even understand what she was saying.
Slipping out of sight and doubling back towards the clearing. Kakashi shook his head in wonder. Kiyomi could've given Jiraiya a run for his money where flamboyant over sexualisation was concerned. And though he was coming to the conclusion that Kiyomi's bizarre display had been her own unique way of saving him from his awkward situation he didn't condone her method. He was grateful... but also mentally scarred.

As the team finally turned away from the Land of Rice, the weather became increasingly undecided. Occasional bouts of icy rain assaulted the group of shinobi as they raced unhindered through the branches of the autumn wood. Leading the way through the red and gold leaves that flashed by, Kakashi couldn't help casting his eye back at Erisu repeatedly. She was still very pale and sick in appearance and her eyes had the sort of raw look of someone who'd been secretly crying.
And yet she soldiered on, keeping pace with him. Though he noticed her taking dangerous amounts of food pills and stimulants he chose not to comment; he knew she was determined to make up for their lost time. He had a hunch that the sudden deaths of the young escapees had made her drive to rescue her siblings even more intense. Her brother Rūka was, after all, not much younger than the test subject who'd just died in her arms. Kakashi could only hope that she'd focus the sharp pain of grief into a blade of strength and resolve.
Another hissing shower of painfully cold rain was bleeding through the canopy and stinging Kakashi's bare cheekbone. It would only be a few more kilometres until the rain became sleet, and sleet became snow. They were almost there.
"Sempai!" Tenzō called from the centre of the formation, his voice oddly distant as the wind whipped it away. "We'll be reaching the border in only ten minutes time! We should stop to change into more appropriate gear!"
Kakashi raised his fist and the team obediently slowed and dropped from the branches to the soggy leaves that carpeted the forest floor. Shaking water from his hair, Kakashi turned and inspected his team. As expected, Kiyomi, Yuma, and Tenzō were no worse for wear, as was Sota, but Erisu looked nearly faint and Yusha was a bedraggled mess. Kakashi doubted the delinquent had been this active in years, besides his little skirmish with Ebisu's team. He found himself privately relishing in the look of pained discomfort on Yusha's face as he gripped a stitch in his side, doubled over and panting.
"Alright," Kakashi addressed the troupe briskly, "we'll rest for an hour. Get yourselves hydrated, cleaned up and cloaked. Eat if you need to. I want to be well into the Land of Iron by dawn."
There was a collective reply of ossu and soon the team had dispersed to collect firewood and rummage through their bags. As Tenzō constructed a simplistic wooden house Yuma made his way over to Kakashi with an oddly resigned look on his face.
"Sempai," he drawled in greeting, "I wanted to.." he paused and his jaw worked for a moment as if he was chewing his tongue. "I thought I should apologize for the way I acted earlier."
Kakashi didn't respond. He could only peer at Yuma inquisitively through a narrowed eye.
"I shouldn't have egged Kiyomi on," he continued with obvious difficulty, "and what I said about... Well." He cleared his throat loudly. "Erisu-chan pointed out how unjust I was while we were laying out the dead and I just wanted to say that I'm..." Again he looked as if he was fighting his own mouth to get the words out. "I'm... sorry if I put any strain on you as our captain. It wasn't my intention."
Kakashi was so thankful for his mask at that moment.
"I accept your apology," Kakashi replied carefully, "thank you."
"Right," said Yuma very stiffly and his pupiless eyes flitted nervously towards where Erisu seemed to be expressing zealous acclaim over Tenzo's Shichūka no Jutsu.
"How did she..?" Kakashi began to wonder aloud but Yuma gave him a dangerous look.
"She's persuasive," the Hyūga snapped.
"She is," Kakashi allowed, "but that never kept you from being awful before now, even to her. What did she do to make you so..." he couldn't keep the smile under control any longer as his eye crinkled in amusement. "...docile?"
"Docile?" Yuma inflated with outrage as if Kakashi had just insulted him with the filthiest swears in existence. "I'm not docile!"
"What did she do?" Kakashi pressed.
Yuma glanced over at Erisu again, as if expecting her to be eavesdropping but she was still complimenting Tenzō to the point where he was now flustered and blushing.
"Sh-sllpd-meh." He said in a rush.
"What?"
"She slapped me," his voice was so quiet Kakashi nearly didn't hear him.
"Oh." The image of Erisu slapping Yuma was the most perfect picture Kakashi could imagine but he forced his voice to sound calm when he answered. "Is that all it took?"
Yuma cast him a look of intense loathing. "I've done as she said," he growled, drawing himself up again. "Now If you'll excuse me I could really use a hot drink."

After a good wash to get all the blood and mud off of them, the team settled around a crackling fire and an odd lull fell over them. The campfire sent a flurry of embers into the air and Kakashi watched them dance through the lightly falling leaves like fireflies. Everyone was quiet, huddled in their heavy black cloaks against the cold, and Erisu looked as if she might melt into the fabric entirely.
They were a dismal sight as they all stared blankly into the flames reflecting on the horrendous sight they'd witnessed only hours before. Kiyomi's flirting had been short-lived after she'd joined them all around the row of bodies. She looked horrified that she'd nearly assassinated a group of children. After Pakkun had left with a letter Erisu had penned up containing the names of the deceased, the events that'd lead to their deaths, and the location of their bodies the team had taken on a sort of solemn countenance. Even Yusha had been shaken once he actually saw how young the rogues had been.
Yuma took the kettle off its spit and poured the boiling water through a sieve of tea leaves. Aromatic steam rose into the air but it did nothing to raise spirits. The Hyūga handed out tin camping cups without a word. Kakashi dipped his head in thanks as he accepted the tea but he wasn't too keen to drink in front of this crowd, not if it meant pulling down his mask. The warm metal was soothing on his cold fingers though as he gripped it tightly.
Tenzō was at the edge of the firelight checking Yusha's vitals and refastening his shackles for the night. He declined the hot drink and focussed on his duty; he'd always been very serious about missions. Yusha accepted a cup with a grateful murmur and drank deeply. Kiyomi sipped her beverage, eyes gloomy and bored, while Erisu merely stared at the liquid as if seeing tea for the very first time.
"Hey!" Sota's cheery voice broke the sense of gloom. "Look at that!" He pointed skyward with his cigarette and everyone raised their eyes to a break in the clouds. A swath of stars dappled the velvety black sky beyond the brittle leaves that fell around from the thinning canopy.
"Stars?" Yuma glowered at his teammate, unimpressed. "What of them?"
"You don't see stars like that in Konoha," Sota said with a lopsided grin, "there's too much light pollution! But out here, miles from any villages or outposts, it's like someone splattered the contents of a glow stick all over the sky!"
Erisu's massive silvery eyes were reflecting the stars in their melancholy depths as she examined them carefully. Kakashi remembered how she'd made a constellation of Pakkun at Demon Lake and allowed himself a hidden smile. That festival seemed like a thousand years ago now. How he wished they could be back beneath the fireworks instead of running into danger.
"Oy, Kakashi-sempai!"
The copy ninja looked over at Sota suspiciously. "Hm?"
Those asymmetrical black eyes of his sparkled playfully. "Do you sing?" Everyone's gaze turned in unison as they awaited his answer.
"Eh..." He looked anxiously from face to face. "Not really."
"Not even in the shower?" Sota pried as he tossed the butt end of his cigarette in the fire. "You must've sung with your parents at least."
Kakashi watched the cigarette paper curl away, revealing the blackened filter beneath. "Not really," he repeated as his thoughts strayed briefly to his father's lifeless body.
"What about you, Yamato-san?" Sota queried, "did you sing any nursery rhymes as a kid?"
Tenzō grew disquieted as he reflected on his childhood as a test subject and weapon. "No."
Sota's brows knitted and he looked over at the Hyūga who's pupiless eyes looked yellow in the light of the fire. "Yuma?"
"The Hyūga Clan puts more effort into raising skilled ninja than teaching their kids how to sing," he said snidely.
"Kira Kira Hikaru?" Sota asked and Yuma looked at him as if he'd sprouted a second head.
"What?"
"Y'know!" But Yuma's continued lack of recognition gave Sota pause. "Twinkle Twinkle..?"
Kiyomi shook her head with a laugh that wasn't entirely good humoured. "Your parents never sang to you?" She scoffed. "No wonder you're so cold."
Kakashi glanced at Tenzō who was standing as still as the trees surrounding them, eyes on the stars. The fact that the three out of the group who had become Anbu had also spent their childhoods training and repressing their emotions wasn't lost on Kakashi, though it left a foul taste in his mouth.
"Well anyways!" Sota tried to deter the mood from its negative direction. "I was just thinking we should sing some campfire songs to combat the cold."
"How can singing change the temperature?" Yuma demanded, then, upon realizing it'd been an expression, reduced to a slouch and scowl.
Sota cleared his throat and started to sing in a surprisingly pleasant voice.

"Kira kira hikaru, osora no hoshiyo."
The effect was instantaneous as everyone focused on his soft, melodious song.
"Mabataki shite wa..."
Then Erisu joined him, harmonizing in a sweet soprano that left the others spellbound.
"Minna o miteru. Kira kira hikaru, osora no hoshiyo..."
As the song ended on a calming two point harmony Erisu's face broke into a smile which Sota answered with a grin of his own. Kiyomi started giggling and soon the three of them were laughing aloud. It was contagious.
Tenzō bowed his head, chuckling, and even Yuma smirked in spite of himself. Sota seemed to have the innate ability of spreading cheer. Kakashi's eyes rested thoughtfully on the scarred young man sitting next to Kiyomi and decided that Erisu had good taste in friends.
"I haven't heard you sing in years," Yusha spoke up thoughtfully from beyond the reach of the firelight, "I'd almost forgotten how beautiful your voice is..."
Erisu's smile faded and she lowered her eyes back to her tea. It was unnerving to witness how much of an effect he had on his sister even now, powerless as he was.
"Would you sing that lullaby that mother used to sing to us?" Yusha asked of her. "She doesn't sing it anymore."
"That's because it's secular," Erisu told her brother, a hint of the emotion she'd shown at the shrine seeping into her voice. "She only sings religious rhetoric now, doesn't she?"
"Music is the most pure form of worship," Yusha said, trying to sound reasonable.
When Erisu didn't respond he upped his attempt to persuade her. "Come on, I'll keep a beat for you."
"I doubt the others would care to hear a song so sad," she mumbled.
"Actually..." It was Kiyomi who spoke now. "I'd love to hear more of your voice." Sota nodded in agreement.
Erisu turned her pallid face to her brother and studied his features for a few minutes before coming to a decision. "Fine," she said simply, "set the beat."
He extended a shackled hand to her expectantly and with a stifled sigh Erisu untied the headband from her obi and tossed it to him. Rattling his chains into his hands he shivered the metal links across the forehead protector making an eerie metallic sigh. It was evident that him and Erisu had used a headband in this manner many times before. It was a slow melancholy sound reminiscent of a musical saw.
When Erisu started to sing it was the most haunting and despairing song Kakashi had ever heard and it chilled him to the bone. Her lilting voice told of a swan who flew from the river-lands in search of a distant shore where the wood was lush and undying. Her voice quavered slightly as she described its flight over the sea to the promised land through storms and danger. Gazing skyward Erisu's face was lit by the starlight and was as pale as the moon, white as a swan. Then she hushed and the sound of her mournful melody was but a whisper as the swan's wings had faded away as it landed, only to realize the distant shore which it'd so longed to reach was arid and lifeless.
She sounded as eerie and sorrowful as a lone loon as she sang of the swan's lament that it should die in a foreign land, never to be buried with its ancestors. As the lyrics came to an end, she vocalized softly on a slowly descending scale that could very well have been a curse of despair until her voice faded entirely and her eyes dropped back to her tea.
As her voice was lost Yusha withdrew his chain from the headband and Kakashi realized, to his astonishment, that there were tears glistening in his silvery, green eyes. Erisu really was his weakness it seemed, but how and why was still a mystery to Kakashi.
"Imōto," Yusha murmured breathlessly, "your voice rivals Mother's for sure..."
She gave him an even look. "I'll try to consider that a compliment."
Yusha's look of misty-eyed reverence cleared and his expression closed. "I don't know why you hate her so much," he said dangerously, "everything she did was for us."
"Yusha," began Erisu warningly, "this isn't the time; we've been here before. Don't bring up family baggage in front of the team, please."
"Well I think they should know the truth!" He said defiantly. "If they're going to kill her they should at least know how she got this way!"
"No one said we're going to kill you mother," Sota slipped in nervously. "We're just trying to get Emi-chan and Rūka-kun to safety before Hakuchō-san enacts another life threatening curse."
"Her name is Akaiuma Aya!" Yusha was trembling with anger. "She's a married woman! Stop calling her by her maiden name like she's a common whore!"
Sota looked as if he'd been slapped. "I never meant to imply-"
"She only sold herself so we could eat!" Yusha shouted. "Everything she did was for us! She stayed with a drunk who beat her because it kept a roof over our heads! She put him under her jutsu because he had nearly killed her! She married Rokurou because he could provide for us! He could be the father we never had and get rid of our terrible reputation!"
"Yusha, calm down," Erisu said quietly, "you're embarrassing yourself."
"I'm not embarrassed!" He hollered. "I'm proud to have a mother who'd give up her own dreams so that I could go to school, so we could have a proper family! You were too young to remember what it was like to be the bastard child of a drunkard and a whore!"
"Maybe not," Erisu replied with unmatchable calm, "but I know what it is to be the 'abused delinquent child of a madwoman who chose a paedophile over her own daughter'. 'The girl who's own mother cursed her with death'."
Everyone was silent, staring at Erisu in shock, even Yusha.
"You..." his voice was barely more than a whisper but ever vowel and consonant was shaking with fury. "...you are so selfish."
"I'm selfish?" Her eyes flashed with cold fury but her body was quite still as she remained at the fire side.
"You'd let one mistake from years ago ruin our family?"
"I wasn't the one who made the mistake," she answered with a voice so icy it was nearly unrecognizable. "Rokurou was the adult. He was in a position of power. I trusted him, loved him even. And he made the choice. Not me."
Yusha was staring into her eyes unblinkingly, his pale irises trying to see right into her mind.
"You're right."
Erisu blinked and for a moment Kakashi wasn't sure who'd spoken until he realized Yusha was shaking again but no longer from anger.
"What he did was wrong," Yusha told his sister fervently, "I've said it before and I'll say it again: it was wrong."
Erisu's cup slipped from her hands but she didn't notice as her pink gaze searched her brother's intently.
"But you have to rise above it!" He took a step towards her and both Kakashi and Tenzō tensed. "If you live your life in bitterness, believing yourself to be broken, that's all you'll ever be! You're not a victim, Imōto!"
Erisu was frozen, staring at her brother as he edged towards her with Kakashi's eye following him closely.
"Forgiveness doesn't excuse what he did," Yusha said fiercely, "but forgiveness does save your own heart from destruction."
"He doesn't deserve her forgiveness!" Kiyomi said sharply, getting to her feet.
"No." Yusha didn't take his eyes off his sister. "He doesn't. But you, Imōto, deserve to forgive."
"Why are you saying this?" she asked him in a whisper. "What changed in the course of one day?"
"Thirteen kids died at the unknowing hands of their own people," said Yusha soberly, "you wanted to try and save them even though everything you knew about them told you they were evil. You still believed they had a chance to do good, and you were right. Had they not died they'd be rebuilding the village, righting the wrongs of those before them. That chance was taken from them but you still managed to make them turn from darkness before the end, didn't you?"
Kakashi assessed Erisu wordlessly, trying to read what she was thinking, what she was feeling, by the rigid lines of her form. But he couldn't get anything from her.
"That's what you do, Erisu," Yusha went on and the anger was completely gone from his voice now, "You bring out the good in others. Why can't you do the same for Mother and Rokurou?"
"Because," Erisu's words were almost drowned out by the crackling of the fire, "the good has to already be in them. I can't create something from nothing and they are too far gone."
"No one is ever too far gone," he said with certainty, "I'm not, you're not, Mother isn't either. I bet even Orochimaru could've changed his ways if he'd heard the right words."
"Enough," Erisu dragged her eyes away from him.
"You don't want to listen cause you know I speak the truth!"
"I already know the truth," she answered him, her face turned to the flames where amber lights danced across her irises. "My little brother and sister are in danger and I swore to protect them."
"They're not in danger!" He said almost pleadingly, "they're serving God!"
"I know only one god," Erisu said softly, still not looking at him, "and my god is a vow." Finally she raised her eyes to Yusha's and they burned with a cold fire that Kakashi had never seen before. "I will uphold my promise, no matter what that costs me."