He had been investigating non-stop. He barely slept and it was fine with him. Anyways, every time he closed his eyes the same nightmarish images kept on repeating over and over again. No, this new task, his chosen objective, was able to keep his mind off it during his waking hours. It did consume his time, for he had forgotten to meet with Sumi since he last saw her quickly on an anonymous balcony. He guessed she was okay; she had friends to keep her company and care for her. She surely had not seen the days pass without him...
And now he was so close... The Hokage had been right - he had not doubt about it -, those disappearances... someone was stealing villagers for dark purposes and he had been methodically tracking down the little clues, meeting with witnesses, checking places, connecting dots. Yet it looked like he missed an important piece to his puzzle.
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The picture of a young boy hugging happily a teddy bear looked back at him from the table that wore his work's papers as a tablecloth. Maybe he should go out and take a bit of fresh air, get his ideas straight. Maybe even check on Sumi...
Suddenly, he heard the water falling from the kitchen tap and he frowned. Did he have plumbing problems now? He turned the water off and went back to the table, but before he could finish sitting, the tap ran on again. He looked around and walked to the kitchen, but when he was about switch the tap knob, a breeze of wind made his papers fly off the table. Weird, his windows were closed. His training put him on alert, but he could feel no chakra readings in his apartment, apart from...
"Boy, I don't like this..."
He snorted. "Pakkun, don't be a chicken."
The dog put back down his head over its chubby paws as he lay in the middle of Kakashi's futon.
The teenager kneeled to pick up his papers after closing with a bit too much strength the tap. He gathered most of the research in his arms and threw it carelessly on the table. He noticed he missed a piece, the little kid's picture and found it under the table, but as his hand reached out to take it, the photo moved further away. He raised his head. That was definitely weird.
Pakkun was up on his feet - or paws - by then. "I saw that, I saw that. That's not normal, Kakashi."
"I agree," Kakashi said, taking off his headband and squinting his eyes. He trusted his sharingan to uncover whoever was playing tricks in his own home. But as much as he looked right and left, he found nothing.
"What is it? What it is, Kakashi?" Pakkun kept on repeating, and he even turned on himself once. "Is a ghost, isn't it? We have been haunted, right?"
"Don't speak non-sense," Kakashi said, picking up the photo and staring at it. The water sound from the kitchen made him gulp.
"For all...! I am out of here!" Pakkun exclaimed.
"No, wait!" Kakashi ordered, as he closed the water. "Who goes there?" he asked to no one in particular.
"We are sorry if we killed you," Pakkun said.
Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Who is there?"
With a sharp thud a book fell from a shelf.
"Are you a writer? I don't remember hurting any writer, Kakashi," Pakkun rambled.
Kakashi picked up the book and read its cover 'A new hope'.
"Sumi," Kakashi whispered and then replaced his headband and got dressed to leave.
"Wait. Wait Kakashi! Don't leave me alone!" Pakkun complained as he ran after him out of the house.
Sumi sighed as she followed after them. She had felt so bashful when she had entered his apartment, so shy to violate such a private space uninvited. But her father had been clear: she had not much time left. If she did not want to end up trapped in this ghost reality, she had to be able to return to her body before 24 hours.
And it was already afternoon when she had reached the village after roaming Orochimaru's dungeon of horrors and the forest. Scared out of her mind, she almost ran to her district, but realized nobody could see her, so she sat and cried on the steps to her family's shrine. Now that she was 'dead' she had decided to visit home once more before to... well, she did not know yet what came after death.
"My dear, what are you doing here?" a familiar voice spoke to her left and she threw herself to her father's arms. He laughed. "I have missed you too, my summer child."
"Dad, I wanted to see you, but... mother-" She tried to dry her tears with the back of her palm.
"Sssh, it's ok. I know... But you should not be here, Sumi, it's dangerous for the living..." he said with a comforting smile.
"Father, it was a trap. I was so stupid..." she started to sob again. "If I had known..."
"You played with fire and you got burned, I understand, but now you should go back."
She looked up at him. He was so perfect in his simplicity. Like a soothing lullaby or the precise strokes of calligraphy in a parchment. "I don't know how. I have tried, but I cannot."
"You just need a candle to guide your way."
"They were blown off..."
"Then you need to reignite them," he said.
"I cannot. I tried, but there is nothing I can touch," Sumi complained.
Hachiro laughed. "Even ghosts need some training." He kicked a pebble with his sandaled foot and it fell down the remaining step. "I will teach you how, but you must know, you won't be able to light that candle."
"But then..."
"Only the living can open the door to their world. I see you misunderstood the most important part of the ritual, my dear. I told you that you could call me when you needed me..."
She frowned. "What does that mean?"
Hachiro laughed. His daughter was so obtuse about life sometimes; she still had so much to learn... "It means that the person performing the ritual must have a need for those he or she calls. Or if not, it simply won't work. The candles are just the keyhole, the will is the key." Sumi's eyes widened as she absorbed his words. "Now come, my daughter, for once your father is going to be your sensei. And there is much you need to learn."
It had been a few hours since she had bid her farewells with her father. He, himself, could not stay in this plane for long or he would not be able to return to the Pure Land, the true afterlife. But now Sumi could move certain small objects and with no specific plan in mind, she decided to place her bet on Kakashi. And the prize was high...
She walked by his side. It was so frustrating to not be able to communicate with him. She wanted to scream at him - she might have had when he did not understand her ghostly signals. She had squeezed her brain to point him to her direction. And when he had looked straight through her under the table... if she had not been a ghost she would have blushed fifty shades of red.
She wondered where they were headed until she saw her family's house and she wanted again to yell at him. She tried to push him, but every time she fell as she passed through him. He felt a soft breeze brush his face, but nothing more before he knocked on the big wooden doors. Those doors he had not crossed since he was a kid, before his father... well, when life was easier, he thought bitterly.
Ikoma Hina answered the door, a silken gown over her pajama. Was it really that late? He thought. She looked at him from up, with distaste, like he expected her to. With a tiny satisfaction he saw how the wrinkles started to steal away her breathtaking beauty and the first white hairs ruined the jet black of her mane.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Can Sumi come down?"
"No."
"Is she okay?"
She scoffed. "What would I know? She didn't tell you?" A laugh meant to be haughty but with a spice of sadness. "She does not live here anymore. If you look for her, go ask the Matsu clan. That's where she lives now."
Kakashi nodded slowly. "Thank you."
The door smashed in his face.
"What a bit-"
"We need to go, come," he interrupted Pakkun.
"Where now? What is going on? Is Sumi in danger?" the dog asked.
Kakashi frowned. "I don't know."
"I am," Sumi spoke to his side. "Please, Kakashi. Hurry up."
He knocked on the even bigger door of the clan leader residence. He could see that still a big area was in reparation, but heard steps and was reassured that someone would answer his call. The two massive doors, with their brass lion head doorknobs, opened a crack and he saw a golden eye, so warm in comparison to the white pupils of Hina, which studied his face. Then the doors were thrown open and Matsu Kiba ushered him inside before he could even utter a word. She was disheveled, clearly pulled out of sleep and she wore cute cat slippers that did not match with the seriousness of her kimono outfit.
"Oh, I must have fallen asleep over those reports again," she rubbed her eyes. Despite her age she held a wild beauty. "Those rebuilding budgets are hard to fit in. Do you want something warm to drink? A tea? A coffee?" He shook his head and opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him in again. "I do. I will be back." And she left to the kitchen, where he heard the kettle boil water.
"How are you?" Kibo asked over a coffee.
Sumi had taken a place around the table and held her breath since they entered the manor. This was not how she expected Kakashi and Kibo meeting and now she feared for what one or the other could speak.
"Good. I was wondering if I could see Sumi?" he asked. He wondered now why he had not just sneaked into her room, but this house had too many empty rooms and he felt like that would be an unnecessary invasion of her privacy. Right?
"Yes, of course. I will call her." Kibo placed carefully the coffee mug on the table and walked to the stairs, then she screamed the girl's name. Once, twice, until five times, until it was clear that she was not there. She frowned but shrugged. "I don't remember her telling me she was out on a mission."
"When did you last see her?"
"Yesterday. But I know this morning she was meeting her team early. I guess they did go on a mission." She sat and crossed her legs. "Or is there something else?"
Kakashi hesitated. "No, I guess that's all." Why did he suddenly feel he was reporting to a superior?
When he said that, as Kibo reached for her mug, it flew away. Sumi bowed to clean the carpet personally if she ever got out of this.
Kibo laughed. "I am so clumsy. Do not worry, Kakashi, I will clean it myself," she stopped him. "I think it's time for me to go to bed."
"No, no, no," Sumi repeated, but in her nervousness she did not manage to move the table. She had barely learned how to do these tricks and she panicked when she saw Kakashi give his thanks and leave. Before she could notice Kibo's worried frown, she ran after Kakashi, passing straight through the doors.
"What do you think?" Pakkun asked, serious.
Kakashi paused. "Are you sure you don't catch her scent?"
Pakkun focused. "I can smell places she has been to recently, like the house we just visited, but they all feel like cold chase."
"There is something wrong, Kakashi. You need to find me," Sumi told him.
"I think there is something wrong," he said. "And I am afraid it has to do with the disappearances we have been investigating."
"It does feel a bit similar," Pakkun agreed. "I could not track those people neither. Maybe there is some kind of seal over the place where they are taken."
Kakashi nodded. "Let's go back and rethink. There is something I am overlooking."
Kakashi poured his energy that night trying to find that something, that elusive snake that wriggled between his fingers every time he thought he had the answer. The papers were now not restricted to his table, instead now they covered almost all his living area. They surrounded him in the futon where he had fallen asleep reading about old investigation bases around Konoha. They were so numerous that with little effort, he could have used them as a blanket. Sumi wanted to wake him up, to explain him that she had not much time left, but she knew that it would be futile.
So instead, she stared at him, thinking about how far they got and how much it would sadden her to not accompany him the rest of the long trip that was life. Then, feeling the unshakable coldness of the dead, she sheepishly sought comfort on his warmth. How lucky the living! She understood now that she experienced a dimmed version of reality and she vowed to cherish that heat, that brightness, that fullness, if she ever came back.
Hoping stupidly to be hidden by her state, she lay down next to him and realized as a ghost she could not sleep. So she envisioned how she could end this torture, and what she would tell him, and what he would tell her, and in the middle of these tribulations she came to a scary realization. That maybe somewhere along the travel, she had started feeling something for him. And that scared her more than any nightmare.