Notes:

Hello lovelies!
Chapter 24 is here, yay!

I apologise beforehand for any and all spelling or grammar mistakes. I'm not sure if I mentioned it earlier, but English isn't my native language.

That being said, I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 24: All Actions Have Consequences

Kakashi woke up with a jolt, eyes wide as the nightmare evaporated from his mind. Groaning, he grabbed his head as the major headache made itself known to him. Fuck, what the hell had happened? The nightmare was… Had he gone drinking? He wasn't sure if he had. His mind was all fuzzy. Kakashi groaned again, he never thought thinking could hurt this bad.

"Ahem," the sound of someone clearing his throat, sent him into action, reaching for the kunai hidden under his pillow, only to find none there. What the-

"Yeah, we took that one, Boss."

Kakashi let out a groan again, did he really have to talk this loud? Couldn't he see his head was killing him? He slightly opened his right eye, looking at Genma who was leaning against his bedroom wall.

"What the fuck are you doing in my house, Genma?"

"Oh, it's not just me, boss." The grin was evident in his voice. "The whole team is here."

He did not like the gleeful sound of the senbon-user's voice. Sighing, he dropped back onto the bed, eyes closed. "Any particular reason why?"

"You got drunk and attacked Hermione-san."

That got his attention, sitting back up right away, eyes open. "What?!" he hissed angrily.

"Don't get angry at me, boss. I wasn't the one who held a kunai at her throat." Genma replied, unimpressed with Kakashi's actions.

While getting scolded by his subordinate was not something he appreciated, he did get the information he needed. How did he not know about this? Was he really that far gone? If he thought real hard about it, he remembered running from the house and ending up at Tenzou's place. Tenzou, did he know what had happened between that time and apparently attacking Hermione?

If he thought about it though, he remembered vaguely getting dumped on a bed and then, a rush of adrenaline as his instincts kicked in. Someone who he hadn't sensed had tried to grab him, right? No, wait. The surge of intense fear he had felt in his nightmare, wasn't a nightmare at all, was it? Suddenly he could see her eyes, pupils wide as she stared at him. Shit. Fuck.

Speaking of, he struggled to broaden his senses with the headache, but managed to check the wards of the house. Genma had been right, the entire team was here. He wasn't sure he was happy for allowing them inside the wards at the moment, but that didn't matter. What mattered was... Where was Hermione? He hadn't… had he?

Before he could ask just that, the door opened, revealing Tenzou. "Ah, senpai, you're up."

"Yeah, what the hell happened, Tenzou?"

"What's the last thing you remember?"

Oh, for fucks sake, really? "I remember being at your place, having sake and- us talking." He answered, getting annoyed. He struggled to get the next words out, which Tenzou took as him not knowing, apparently.

"Right, so you don-"

"Damn it Tenzou, just tell me."

Tenzou in turn sighed, moving a hand through his short hair. "You drank 'til the point you got knocked out. I brought you home. While doing so, I apparently woke Hermione up. I told her to just leave you be, but-"

"But, what?"

This time Genma cut in, "We think she tried to touch you, maybe make sure you didn't fall off the bed or something? We're not sure. In any case, you responded poorly to that. Shisui and I felt your chakra spike, followed by a rapid increase of your killing intent. We managed to drag you off of her, but the damage was already done."

Damage was already done? Dread filled Kakashi. Had he hurt her? Was she hurt? Had he- No, he hadn't actually killed her, had he? He turned to look at his bed. No. The sheets were the same and there was no blood there, not that he could smell anyways. So, then.. What?

"She tried to leave," Genma continued, seemingly oblivious to Kakashi's internal struggle, "but I stopped her from going. I took her to Yamanaka Inoichi, sooner than planned. I figured that was the best course of action, since he knows of her as well. And she was supposed to meet with him anyways."

"So, she's not hurt? I didn't hurt her?" He asked softly. Please, please say he hadn't done anything like that.

"You didn't hurt her physically, no. Psychologically? She was absolutely terrified of you. You should've seen her."

Hearing that made his stomach drop. Shit. He sagged his shoulders, feeling defeated. Kakashi knew they weren't getting along great and him throwing her against the wall was already really bad. But this- this was so much worse. He rubbed his face with his hands and then moved them up to grab his hair as he let out a long sigh, looking at his feet. He was so stupid. He should've never drank that much to begin with. This kept getting worse and worse and he felt like he was losing any and all control over this situation.

"Senpai?"

He couldn't do this. How could he even look his team in the eye now? They had to drag him off of her? Fuck. He had violated any trust she had given him. Right now, he needed to be alone, though. He needed- he needed to think.

"Leave." He said quietly.

"Boss, I don't think-"

"I said, leave." He said again, his voice calm, the anger was still easily heard. He didn't look up at them, keeping his gaze on the floor.

The pair hesitated for a few seconds before moving towards the door. Without a word, they left the room and closed the door behind them. As the door clicked shut, he sat back down. Face once again buried in his hands. This was so fucked up. What was he going to do now? He needed to think. And he knew there was only one place he was going to be able to properly think. He got dressed and left the house, making his way to the Memorial Stone. Time to pay his old friend a visit.

Hermione slowly woke up to the sound of childish giggles and small feet stomping around. She frowned at that, not remembering ever hearing this since she stayed at Kakashi's home. Kakashi… She sat up straight, suddenly, remembering the night before. Placing a hand on her chest, she tried to calm herself down as she felt her heart beat like crazy under her palm. Calm down, Hermione, she thought. You're alright. Just calm down, she thought as she remembered exactly where she was.

"Mamai," Teddy cutely rubbed his eyes as her movement had woken him up.

"Hello sweetheart, did you sleep alright?"

She smiled a big smile as he sleepily nodded in response. "You're such a bright boy, aren't you?" She cooed. A soft knock was heard, making her head snap up. "Yes?" She called out.

The door opened slowly, followed by Inoichi poking his head in, "Ah, good. You're awake. How're you feeling?"

"Um, alright, I think."

"I'm glad. If you're hungry, I made some breakfast for you and the little man." He offered with a kind smile.

"Thank you, I'm famished and I'm sure Teddy is too."

She got up, feeling embarrassed of the state of her clothes as she slept in the same clothes she arrived in, and followed Inoichi downstairs. As Inoichi led her into the kitchen she saw a glimpse of a brown-haired woman carrying a young girl in her arms as they left through a different door.

"Please, sit," he said, pointing at one of the chairs. He moved to the counter and started grabbing stuff from different cupboards as she placed Teddy in a high chair before sitting down herself.

Inoichi sat down across from her after placing a plate of food in front of her. Before she could move to feed Teddy, he had taken the spoon and turned his attention to Teddy. He stayed silent as he fed the boy, giving her time to eat as well. She wasn't sure if she should say something so she didn't, instead focusing on eating.

Hermione must've zoned out a little, because the next thing she knew, a steaming cup of tea was placed in front of her, replacing her plate. Looking towards Teddy, she noticed he wasn't there anymore. She didn't even get the chance to panic as a comforting hand was placed on her shoulder. She glanced at Inoichi, who smiled down at her.

"My wife took the liberty of watching him while we talked."

"Oh, right. I'm sorry, Inoichi-san, I must've zoned out."

He took his seat across from her again, taking his own cup of tea into his hands. She noticed he had a notebook next to his hands, with a pen on top. Noticing her glance, he explained, "The Hokage has asked me to talk with you, regarding the events that have happened. To check if you're alright. This was decided before you were brought to my house, but I figured we might as well hit two birds with one stone."

She frowned at that. "So, this is a psych evaluation?"

Inoichi hummed at that, "well, yes and no. We want to make sure you're alright and see how you're dealing with all of this. And, if possible we want to give you the tools to learn how to process this."

Hermione looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "I'm fine, I don't need-"

"Being tortured isn't not something you can just brush off, Hermione-san.' Inoichi interrupted. "It can change you, change the way you think, the way you act. You have to take this seriously."

"I know that, thanks." She responded, feeling herself become angry

"You know? How would you know? You can't just compare torture to something else."

"This wasn't-" she started angrily. Taking a breath she tried to calm herself down. She knew he didn't know, so it wasn't fair to talk to him like that. "This wasn't the first time," she said softly.

"This wasn't your first time?" Inoichi repeated slowly. "You've been tortured before?"

Hermione nodded in reply, not trusting her voice. While Dolohov had used the Cruciatus Curse on her, she didn't need that experience to remember the feeling. She didn't think she would ever forget how it felt. It's always in the back of her mind and if she ever forgot, she had a nice memento to help her remember, she thought bitterly.

She heard him pick up his pen and write something down. "May I ask how you dealt with that?"

Hermione frowned at that. How did she deal with it? Well, there wasn't really time, was there. When they escaped the Malfoy Manor, they had to bury Dobby and after that went about planning on how to get into Gringotts. They kept going after that, all up until the war. Even after that, they had been too busy mourning the losses, she just tried her best to forget.

"There was no time. There were other things that were more important, so I- I guess I just didn't think about it. Kept myself busy."

"I would like to know more about that. If you're willing to tell me, Hermione-san. I don't need specifics, I just want to understand more about what has happened before you came here. So that we can help you."

Hermione hesitated. Should she tell him? Like he said, she wouldn't have to say anything specific. She would have to explain certain aspects, of course, but it wouldn't be as emotionally taxing. She hoped.

Slowly nodding, she said. "I suppose I could tell you a little bit."

Inoichi smiled encouragingly at her. He got up to prepare another cup of tea and flipped to a new page of his notebook. "Okay, whenever you're ready."

Kakashi was annoyed and frustrated. Extremely so. Really, he had been feeling like this for the past two weeks. He didn't want to admit to it, but he had been feeling like this ever since the incident with Hermione took place. Incident. He shook his head at his thoughts, it wasn't just an incident. He could've killed her. He probably would've if Shisui hadn't been fast enough. He knew he hadn't been in his right mind. Alcohol and his always positive thoughts didn't mix, that much was clear. Combine that with a weary shinobi that barely had any rest… Yeah, that doesn't work at all.

After speaking to his old team at the Memorial, he knew he had to seek her out to at least apologise, with her fear still in the back of his mind. He needed to explain to her that it hadn't been her fault. It was his. He shouldn't have left, shouldn't have gotten drunk. He looked up at the night sky, at the stars. It was all his fault, wasn't it? All of it. Obito dying. Rin dying. Hell, even Minato-sensei. Sure, he didn't cause the Kyuubi to attack, but he didn't help either. And yes, okay, he was forbidden to go and help, but still. He could've done something.

And then Hermione. He had treated her like trash, really. While she did have a way of getting under his skin, that didn't mean he could treat her the way that he did. He could easily brush it off to the fact that he was tired since he was taking back-to-back missions, but he knew that was just an excuse. Up until now he just refused to accept her behaviour towards him. But now he knew that wasn't fair at all.

It had taken the past few weeks to come to terms with their situation as well. He wasn't saying that he accepted their predicament, but he realised there was nothing they could do about it. They just needed to communicate. Talk about what they were going to do now, how they were going to deal with it, if they were going to deal with it. Which is what he wanted to talk to her about, if he was given the chance. He wasn't given that chance though.

He had tried. Right after spending time at the Memorial Stone, he made his way towards the Yamanaka residence. That's where he hit a bit of a snag. Because Inoichi wouldn't let him see her. Told him that she was in no condition to see him and that it would be best to leave it alone. Shortly after that visit, he was called into the Hokage's office. Now, that was an interesting meeting.

Flashback two weeks ago

He entered the office, fully prepared to take a verbal beating. Not that it would have mattered, even the Hokage couldn't have given him a worse beating than he himself had already done. Not in his opinion, at least.

It had been quite a big lecture he had gotten, the Hokage even felt like he needed to be reminded that something like this could land him in prison. Attacking a civilian, with a kunai no less? That usually was a one-way ticket to prison. He knew that, of course.

Then the fun part of the conversation started. Which meant he had to explain his point of view of what had happened. He knew none of his team had informed the Hokage of the bond. At least, he didn't think Tenzou had briefed the Hokage just yet, seeing as he was a bit drunk himself too.

"Kakashi? I asked you a question. Don't make me repeat myself." Right. It was probably best not to anger his leader any further by not paying attention.

"I'm- I apologise, Hokage-sama."

He figured the best possible way was to tell the Hokage what he and Hermione had talked about up until now. Which is exactly what he did. "Remember when I talked to you about the weird things going on with Hermione-san? When we touched?"

At the nod of the Sandaime, he continued. "Well, as it turns out, Hermione-san and I are… Well, bonded."

"Bonded? How?"

"We don't know. The bond itself was something that just happened. And anything other than that, we don't know. We don't know what this will mean for us." He said, shrugging his shoulders. "As for what happened last night," he continued, clearing his throat. "I didn't deal with the news that well."

Kakashi explained for the second time what the bond entailed, or at least what he knew of it. After that he went on about what had happened and how he ended up attacking Hermione. He explained he remembered vaguely what had happened that night, but only after he had woken up. That during the incident itself he had acted purely on instinct.

"I haven't seen her yet and-"

"You won't."

Kakashi's head shot up at that. "I won't?"

"No, you won't. For now, she will be staying with Inoichi. I have spoken to him about this and from what he has seen he feels that it would be better if she would stay with him for a while."

"Wh- He can't just-"

"She's been through a lot in a short period of time, Kakashi. She will need time to work through that, to figure everything out. And so do you, by the sound of it."

Kakashi looked at his leader in disbelief. He couldn't believe this was what had been decided. Didn't he get a say in this? The Sandaime once again shuffled his papers around, this time producing a mission scroll from a stack.

"I also have a mission for you, just you. It's simple enough, but I want you to take your time for this one. Use that time to gather your own thoughts."

Kakashi bit back the rude remark that threatened to spill out, wanting to tell him that he didn't need time to 'gather his thoughts' and instead said, "yes sir. Understood."

End of flashback

So here he was, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, collecting his thoughts. He would make his way back to the village tomorrow. Kakashi hated to admit that it had been a smart idea. He had needed this. He did still have a lot of questions, which only made sense in his opinion. In order to get answers, however, he would need to speak with Hermione. He just didn't know if he would get that chance anytime soon.

Hermione made her way from the market back to the Yamanaka-residence, carrying two grocery bags. She hummed a song she had heard on the radio a few years ago as she walked past the different vendors, smiling and nodding as they greeted her. It had become a regular occurrence for them. Hermione had been going to the market almost every day for the past week.

Inoichi had been a huge help these past two weeks. His wife had helped take care of Teddy as she had her daily sessions with Inoichi, to talk about her past. Besides their daily talks of her vaguely talking about what had happened to her, he spent another few hours helping her with the language. She was proud to say she had picked up quite a bit in a short amount of time. Inoichi sure as hell was surprised by it. She just figured it was best to keep busy, learning as much as she could, especially now she had help with Teddy. It had given her a lot more time to do so.

Arriving back at the Yamanaka's family home, she called out to them, announcing her arrival.

"Ah, welcome back Hermione-san.

Did you manage to get everything you needed?" Inoichi said in greeting. He had been working from home for the duration of her stay. He had offered to go with her to the market, but she had insisted on doing it herself.

"Yes, I did." She said while smiling. Hermione tried to speak as much of their language as possible, only switching back to English when she couldn't find another way to say it.

"Very good." He helped her put away the groceries. "Oh, I've been meaning to ask. How did your meeting with Hokage-sama go?"

She looked up when he asked that, brows furrowed, but continued to take the groceries out of the bag, placing them on the counter. "My meeting? I thought you already knew that?"

"Ah, well, yes. But I'd like to get your point of view."

It didn't make sense for him to ask this, she thought as she stopped taking out the groceries. She turned around and leaned against the counter, looking at Inoichi. The movement made Inoichi pause as well, looking at her in question.

Hermione didn't ask what she wanted to right away, looking for the right words. "What is it, exactly, what you're looking for?"

Inoichi stopped as well, looking at Hermione. "Well, while we appreciate you explaining to us what you've been through, we haven't discussed what happened with Kakashi-san."

Of course, she knew this was coming. She had been able to steer away from this subject for the past two weeks. Not seeing him had helped as well. But she knew they still wanted to know more about what had happened between them. Hermione was aware the Hokage knew they were bonded, but both her and Kakashi hadn't known anything other than that.

Hermione still didn't know. She hadn't dared to look further into it. Did she want to know? Of course she did. If this was forever, she would absolutely want to know everything she possibly could. What she wasn't sure about was if Kakashi would want to know. He didn't seem too keen on the idea of being bonded to her and wasn't that the biggest understatement of the year?

"I already told him what had happened from my point of view, Inoichi-san."

"Yes, you have. But you haven't talked about what it has done to you, remember? I don't mind you being vague on your past, but we need to talk about this Hermione-san." He stressed. "We both know you're not alright."

Hermione let out a huff and turned back around to finish unpacking the groceries, staying silent. She wasn't ready to talk about that. She didn't even know how to describe it. The last time she saw Kakashi had been… Terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. She knew he hadn't been himself when that had happened but that didn't make it less scary. And what she had felt from him, she didn't even know how to describe it. She'd never felt anything like that. It felt so primal, she had no other way to explain it.

"I know." She finally said. It was quite a bit different from the "I'm fine" she had uttered at the beginning of her stay.

"Alright." Inoichi said with a sigh. "Alright. We'll talk about it later, Hermione-san. How about you tell me more about your school, the last conversation we had was about a man who had broken into your school?"

Hermione smiled at the thought. That had been an interesting year. One where Voldemort wasn't the one trying to kill Harry, for once. In retrospect, it had been one of the busiest years for her. Following so many extra classes was extremely tiring. On top of that, having to help Harry save Buckbeak and Sirius had been quite rewarding in a way. Yeah, she'll enjoy talking more about that year.

"Yes. He actually turned out to be a very kind man," she started, thinking back. She prepared a cup of tea for the both of them as she continued talking about her third year. If it would stop her from thinking about her feelings and thoughts some more, she was all for it.

End of chapter notes:

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