After finishing the current chapter he was on, Kakashi decided to head to the bath, unbeknownst to a distracted Harata who was busy cleaning.
"A nice shower, then I'll get some shut eye I guess..." he pondered on his way to the bathroom, but upon entering noticed Harata left fresh towels sitting on the sink.
"Did she do laundry too while I was gone? That was considerate." he said to himself as he got undressed, thinking of how strange it was to have someone else in his house.
He was so used to being alone, that Harata's presence was a nice change of pace. She certainly was lively enough to keep him on his toes.
"Never a dull moment with that one." he thought as the water hit his face.
Back out in the living room, Harata finally noticed that Kakashi was no longer out there with her.
"Huh...guess I was making too much noise for him. Must've went to his room. I'll apologize if he comes back out of hibernation later on." she joked, snickering sheepishly.
"Dammit...now I'm picturing him as a bear...wait he clearly likes salmon a lot...maybe..." she broke off as her wild imagination took over, turning Kakashi into a bear-man hybrid in her head.
"He would have that same blank expression too...Ka-kuma San...or Ha-kuma San...either one works.." she continued as she burst into a mad fit of laughter, picturing Kakashi as a bear cooking salmon.
"I...can never tell him about this..." she managed through labored breaths from laughing so hard, as she collapsed onto the futon he was lounging on earlier.
"I gotta stop picturing that...if I keep suddenly laughing, he's gonna grill me about it." she finished, her eyes catching sight of his headband sitting on the table.
"Doesn't this thing ever hurt his head from wearing it all day?" she wondered aloud, inspecting the leaf village symbol on it carefully.
"Probably not...especially with the way he wears it..." she deduced, as she subconsciously started tracing the engraved symbol on Kakashi's headband with her finger.
Hold on...I'm not gonna be staying here from now on will I? No, of course not. Besides I'd most likely drive him nuts. I'm already getting antsy from not being able to train regularly. she mulled over in her head, failing to notice Kakashi walk back into the room.
"I really need to start training daily. I've neglected that for way too long. Master Yun Chang would be pissed at me if he knew." she continued talking to herself.
"I wonder if Hatake San ever had a mentor like Master. Wait...of course he did. That guy in the picture with him...I'm such a dumbass sometimes..." Harata scolded, as her gaze moved to Kakashi's vest.
"So she saw that...no harm done I suppose." he thought as he leaned in the doorway observing her.
"What're all these pockets for? Toshi doesn't wear half as much stuff as Hatake San does. He makes Kenji, Hikari, and Sakumi wear it though. Man if their students ever met..." she mindlessly droned on.
Much to Kakashi's dismay, she eventually picked up his beloved Icha paradise. Sweating bullets, he watched with an extreme amount of angst building up.
"Please don't open it...just put it back down..." he willed in his head, as she placed it neatly beside his headband again.
Sighing in relief, he decided to watch her a bit further, before making his presence known.
"Did he fall asleep? I could see how tired he was. Maybe if I let him rest on my lap again it'll help him sleep better!" she said excitedly.
"She actually wants to do that again? Definitely an odd one." he questioned in his head.
"Nevermind, he doesn't really like that kind of stuff. Only kids like Setsuna would enjoy it." Harata switched up.
"Well...I wouldn't mind to be honest...her lap's quite comfortable. I nearly did fall- " his thoughts were interrupted by Harata talking again.
"Maybe I should still ask him. He did seem to like it...but he isn't a puppy or a kid. I'm sure all he needs is that book of his." she concluded, leaving Kakashi feeling somewhat shafted.
"Is she doing that on purpose? I really feel like she is..." he said quietly, as he cleared his throat, causing Harata to look up quickly.
Damn it... she mentally kicked herself.
"I'm sorry, did I wake you up?" she asked in an apologetic manner, as she sat up.
"No. I wasn't sleeping. Just taking a shower." he corrected, eyeing his gear and book on the table.
"Were we enjoying ourselves?" he inquired.
"Huh? Enjoying- oh...wait...did you hear me laughing?" she asked suspiciously.
"Laughing? No. However, I did see you playing around with my headband and vest." he said smugly.
Looking as if she'd been caught in a lie, Harata pressed both hands together in a pleading motion.
"I swear I was only looking at it. My brother, he's a shinobi too, but he doesn't wear all the stuff you do." she admitted.
"Your brother? Oh that's right. You did mention something about that back when we first met. He has students as well?" Kakashi asked, genuinely intrigued now.
"Yeah, his name's Toshi Hashimoto. And that sword you paid for, is supposed to be a gift for his adopted son Kenji, who's also one of his students." Harata explained.
"I see. Can't say I've ever heard of him before." Kakashi replied, his hand on his chin.
"That's no surprise to me. He was born in a completely different era, and dimension. So I guess technically, he doesn't exist here." she said calmly.
"Different era and...dimension? Exactly what do you mean by that?" he shot back curiously.
"Well to put it simply...Toshi was originally born in the Sengoku era only in the dimension I'm from. In short, me being here, is messing up a lot of important shi- things right now." she replied hesitantly.
"Is it now? How exactly will this negatively affect these important things you mentioned?" he interrogated.
"Well...most likely my ruler or her ally will have to fix it. That's how bad it is. Like the balance of yin and yang in the universe being thrown off." she answered.
"Yin and yang? I suppose I understand how detrimental that could be. But exactly how would that be corrected?" he asked with a serious look on his face now.
Not responding immediately, Harata too got serious, and took a deep breath.
"By erasing everyone's memory of me and possibly my unit members ever existing here, then sealing off the gateway between our dimensions." she said bluntly.
"It wouldn't hurt anyone here, so don't worry about tha- "
"What if that's not what we want?" he cut her off immediately, making her look up at him in confusion.
"Well, if you all didn't want that, my ruler would respect your decision, and just leave you in peace. She's extremely reasonable. But...she'd be doing it for your village's sake. We have a lot of enemies too...
And we don't allow humans to be dragged into inhuman affairs. If it was found out by any of our enemies that you all aided us in any way, they'd come after you..." she finally finished.
"That certainly is a lot to consider. And the repercussions appear to be very heavy. Though if that did happen...?" the crafty shinobi inquired.
"If it did, I'd be the first one here with my unit members and army to aid you all. And I'm not the only help you'd receive. Hell, you'd honestly get damn near the entire military here as reinforcements." she said with a slight chuckle.
Caught off guard by her response, Kakashi stood there speechless for a moment.
"Really? Your ruler would do all of that to aid us?" he said in a surprised manner.
"Oh hell yeah! Your village gave me a place to stay, and treated me with nothing but respect. My ruler values attributes like that greatly. Especially when it's shown towards one of her warriors." Harata said excitedly with a mischievous grin.
"I see...honestly it seems like Konoha could benefit somewhat from a deal like that." Kakashi countered, staring the young commander in her eyes.
"Trust me, if someone aids anyone from the Celestial Empire, that's enough to forge a lifelong alliance as far as my ruler's concerned." she retorted happily.
"I'm sorry...did you say an Empire?" Kakashi repeated in disbelief.
Blinking innocently for a second, Harata eventually shook her head eagerly, upon hearing Kakashi's question.
"Did I never mention that? The empire I serve in rules over most of the dimension I come from." she added nervously.
In shock, Kakashi looked at Harata at a loss for words.
"Hey, you're not mad are you? Remember I said before I'm not really supposed to be talking about this to anyone else." she reminded shyly.
"Oh, no...I'm not angry...just quite impressed. I've never heard something of this nature before. But it's all beginning to make sense now." he replied, still trying to take in everything Harata told him.
"That's why I said no one would believe me if I revealed everything at first. It's a bit much for humans to comprehend." she continued.
"I get what you meant by 'it's complicated' now. But this will definitely need to be discussed further with Lady Tsunade at some point." Kakashi said in a tone that left no room for debate.
"Yes Sir!" Harata agreed instantly with a small salute, and a carefree grin.
Still in disbelief, Kakashi put his hand to his head and massaged his temple gently, sighed, then walked over to the futon to sit down.
"Is there anything else major I should be aware of?" he said slowly, as Harata observed him intently, then got up and went into the kitchen.
Unsure if she wasn't listening to him, he was ready to repeat what he just said, until she reappeared beside him with a hot cup of tea.
Giving him a worried look, she set the cup of tea down in front of him on the table, a beautifully embroidered handkerchief lined with gold, and decorated with what appeared like lilies that were on fire underneath the tea cup.
Not expecting such treatment, Kakashi shifted his gaze to the cup, then up to Harata.
"Sorry if I made your head hurt." she said apologetically, as she kneeled on the floor in front of the table, and bowed gracefully with her hands placed gently in front of her.
"Oh dear...thank you. But I think you misunderstood my line of questioning. And you didn't do anything to aggravate me, I promise.
"Really?" she said, not lifting her head until she was certain he wasn't upset.
"Yes, I'm positive." he confirmed, knowing that's what she was waiting for.
"Still so formal after all this time?" he let his mind wander, as he blew on the tea, and took a sip.
"If you're sure, then alright... Oh yeah! And please sleep in your bed from now on. It's not right for me to monopolize it. I can rest out here." she assured.
"Are you sure? I'm fine to sleep on the sofa." he double checked.
Keeping her eyes to the floor, Harata nodded her head in agreement.
"Yes. It'd honestly ease my conscious too...heh heh.." she added sheepishly, making Kakashi give her a look of skepticism.
"Ulterior motives...thought so...but sure, so long as you'll be fine sleeping on that." Kakashi finished, pointing to the futon.
"Perfectly fine." she replied cheerfully, intentionally ignoring the first part of Kakashi's statement.
"Suit yourself then." was all he said through a muffled yawn, as he reached down for his novel.
"The tea was nice by the way. I appreciate it." he suddenly mentioned.
"O-oh sure, it's no problem at all!" Harata stumbled over her words, not expecting him to say anything further.
I really hope he doesn't think I'm insane after what I said before. I mean, I can't blame him if he does though...she thought to herself anxiously, visibly revealing what she was thinking.
Peering over the rim of his book, Kakashi noticed the angst ridden expression on Harata's face, but said nothing.
"I'm sure she'll say whatever's on her mind when she's ready." he silently assumed.
Standing up after a long period of him enjoying himself quietly, Kakashi yawned once more, stretched, then started walking off to his room.
"I'm heading to bed now. No wild parties while I'm sleeping understood?" he tried, hoping that would make her laugh a little.
Harata only looked up at him and nodded, then hung her head again, making him sigh and continue on his way.
"Goodnight then." he said softly, before closing his door, and going to sleep.