Chapter 14
The group left the next day after an early breakfast and headed back to the city. While this detour has been an amazing experience, Hinata was more than ready to get back and see how Kakashi was doing. Plus the impending countdown to tomorrow left her stomach in knots of anxiety.
Around 2 P.M they were dropped off at the compound and Hinata said goodbye to her new friends with a promise to see Rukia once more before she left for Konoha.
She walked in eagerly to their suite in hopes of seeing Kakashi, but was disappointed to find an empty room. There was no note to be found indicating where he was so she put away her belongings and made herself a cup of coffee. After relaxing for about 30 minutes she left a note and went to explore the city.
Hinata made her way to a nearby botanical garden she had been meaning to visit. Out of all the major five nations Kirigakure had the most famous gardens and she had wanted to see them all her life.
As she explored the grounds and the greenhouses she was stunned by the beauty of the plants they could grow here. There were many tropical plants and flowers mixed along with cacti, herbs, succulents and water plants. She spent an especially long time observing the lotus varieties. Some of them had enchanting scents.
After wrapping up at the garden Hinata was unsure what to do but found herself heading in the direction of the slums. Zima had been on her mind all weekend and she was anxious to see if the girl was okay. After picking up some supplies Hinata walked into the run down territory and was surprised to find even more mercenaries teeming the area today than there had been a few days ago. They looked her up and down in interest, but kept their distance probably due to the Konoha hatai-ate she had on.
Before long she made her way to the hospital where she had seen Zima last. The same older woman was there again tending to a patient and upon noticing her the woman turned in exasperation. "What are you doing back here… like I said you shouldn't be here".
"A-ano I wanted to see if I might be able to help you, I brought some supplies with me" she held up the bag she was carrying.
"Well… I can't turn away supplies. What did you bring?" With a smile Hinta walked over to a nearby table and opened the bag. She had stopped by at a nearby pharmacy and bought some over-the -counter medicine, vitamins, first aid-supplies, pain killers, disinfectants, condoms etc.
"Oh kami…. if they know I have all that here they are going to rob me. Come on let's hide that" the woman whispered nervously as she looked around and led Hinata to a back room.
After a few minutes of unpacking the supplies together the bluster of the woman died down and Hinata came to learn her name was Mauri.
"I will be going back to my country soon but before I leave I wanted to try and understand what is happening here in these slums and offer some assistance to you if I could. I am trained in basic medical care".
"Well… there isn't much to understand about the slums." Mauri started with a grimace in her face. "Long ago people in this country were labelled as belonging to three castes. The people who originally incepted the country are the noblemen or the highest class, and then followed those that had supported the noble families such as the warriors and farmers and then followed the lowest class. That was the people who had revolted against those in power in the past. My... ancestors I guess, unfortunately being in the lowest class means that most of our people doesn't have many options to make a living, so most join crime rings or become mercenaries. It is a revolving circle."
"I'm sorry to hear that Mauri-san. Have you lived here all your life?" she asked softly.
"Oh I come and go… there isn't much incentive for me to stay in Kiri. So I spend a lot of time in the deep mountains and in other countries."
"Ah I see, w-where is Zima, do you know if she is okay?"
"The children don't stay here all day long... they come and go as they please. This is a place for them to sleep when they need and they can eat when I have food to spare. But god knows where they go in between." Hinata was not thrilled to hear that but wasn't surprised now that she knew more about the slums. The people here seemed to be disowned by the country. It was very unfortunate and unfair.
Hinata rolled up her sleeves and joined to help Mauri. The least she could do was try to teach the woman as much medical skills as she could. Within the next few hours Hinata had been able to help a few patients with her healing chakra. Most of the people came here because of physical injuries and that was easy for Hinata to patch up (as long as no Chakra surgeries were required). After teaching Mauri what she could about first aid and modern medicine, Hinata started to pack up for the day surprised to find that it was getting dark out.
"I bought some food with me… If you could please give that to the children as well and say hello to Zima for me that would be great".
Mauri smiled gratefully, but before she could reply a commanding voice Hinata knew rang out making her heart jump. "What are you doing here?".
Hinata turned with guilt despite not having anything to be guilty for and found Kakashi standing at the threshold of the hospital entrance frowning at her.
"Hello K-kakashi" she bowed, her nerves making her overly formal.
He raised an eyebrow at her behaviour and she felt a soft blush wash over her.
"Come on Hinata… let's go" he said a bit more gently this time.
She released a sigh and looked over her shoulder at Mauri one last time with a wave before leaving the shanty.
"You can't just drop in here Hinata" Kakashi whispered forcefully under his breath as they walked out. "The caste system here is very backwards… and yes it is deplorable but we are diplomatic guests in this country. We can't flaunt the rules and do whatever we want".
"Are you going to speak to the Mizukage about this, does she have a plan to address this?" Hinata asked not wanting to stray from her point.
"I already have…" He whispered as he reached down and grabbed her hand leading her out of this district back into the glittering town.
She looked down at their intertwined hands in surprise feeling her heartbeat pick up at the feel of his skin. She had missed him a lot. That realization effectively made it difficult for her to breath and silenced Hinata for the remainder of their walk.
"What did the Mizukage say?" she asked Kakashi as they closed the doors to their suite behind him.
He crossed his arms and leaned into the door as if he was tired.
"Hinata… problems like this, issues of inequity can't be solved overnight. I talked to her about the slums when she brought up the unrest brewing in Kirigakure. She wants to bring stability and leadership to this country before tackling socio-economic issues like this... and rightfully so. Without getting the coup under control she won't be able to make any lasting changes for the betterment of the people here. From what I can gather she isn't aware that her family is involved in this. So I can only deduce that her family itself is trying to remove her as the Mizukage. Perhaps it is linked to the progressive views she has… Most people in power don't want change when the current situation already suits them so well" Kakashi muttered bitterly.
She was quiet afterwards realizing that he was right, this was a large and complex issue. "Did… did you mention to her what we overheard at the gala?".
"No… because… I'm still not sure who we can trust. We will have to be on top form tomorrow, if the right opportunity presents itself I will mention this to her but I don't want anyone getting tipped off before the events for tomorrow are underway. There was an unusual number of mercenaries in the slums today…." he trailed off almost as if adding this new information to a bigger puzzle.
"It sounds like you've been to the slums before…?" she looked at him curiously.
"Yeah, I've gone a few times when I was hunting missing nin, and sometimes I've gone intentionally seeking certain people out" he trailed off cryptically. "So how was it that you found yourself there?".
"Um… well a few days ago I ran into a little girl that was lost, her name is Zima. I helped her get to the slums after realizing that the guards in the city wouldn't help her... and she made quite an impression on me. She is orphaned and has no one to look out for her".
Kakashi nodded and murmured sympathetically. "You have a soft heart Hinata... The reality is that there are quite a lot of orphaned children in the slums. That is true to Kirigakure as well as most of the other major nations. Some countries happen to have better social support available than others. Anyway, how was your trip? Did you find anything useful?".
"Um...yes I did actually". She turned and walked over to her travel bag where she had stuffed the red book. Hinata briefed Kakashi on her uneventful adventure ending with this important find.
"I found this in Ryoko's grandfather's study. It's a book with some sort of ancient strategy that all of the five major families of Kirigakure had signed onto. It goes over a detailed plan on how to create an internal coup and leverage the resulting chaos to take down the other shinobi nations. Kakashi… I… I think there might already be spies planted in every other major country to carry out this work".
Kakashi was instantly alert and came towards her, "And you just found this laying around?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.
"I found it when I investigated the compound at night. It wasn't in the most obvious place… but it wasn't hidden either".
"… Interesting" he said, taking the book and turning it in his hands. "I sent one of the Anbu ahead of us back to Konoha, the Dove. She is tasked with sending a message to the Hokage immediately once she gets into safer territory. Afterwards she will travel at top speed to get to Konoha in order to personally brief the Hokage on what is happening here and what we know so far. This would have been a good piece of information to send with her… but oh well… at least we have it now. Good work Hinata."
Hinata nodded with a smile. That made sense to send someone ahead of them, they never knew how tomorrow would go.
Kakashi looked at her carefully, "You look tired, you should rest, I will review this, you should go get some sleep… and oh, there is dinner in the kitchen".
With that he sat at the desk in the common room, only pausing when realizing she hasn't moved. He looked over his shoulder, "Are you okay?".
She didn't answer right away. Instead she looked at him, finding it surreal that their adventure was about to end. Her heart hiccuped and her throat constricted as if she wanted to cry, but she couldn't speak, so she simply nodded her head and smiled at him.
Kakashi looked at her for a few more seconds with a frown seeming confused before he nodded and turned his attention back to his work.
.
.
The next day Kakashi woke up around 5 AM. He put the coffee on and took out the book he had reviewed last night.
It was very convenient that Hinata had found essentially the master plan they had been seeking out all this time while she had been away on her trip… very convenient but also it was a bit too coincidental.
He had finished reading the book last night. The best he could deduce was that this had been a plan laid into place years ago by ancestors of the five original families of the Hidden Mist. Back then it wasn't so much an internal coup, it was merely an effort to secure more power and land outside of Kirigakure. Over the years various attempts at starting up this work had taken place, but other distractions seemed to have come up. There had been major worldwide events along the way like the various world wars that had put things in pause. But it seemed that now the Kirigakure families are gearing up to take another stab at this.
If all goes well, they would be able to stop this at its roots tomorrow. But if things go south the Hokage needed to be appraised of what was happening. He just needed to find a way to ensure this book gets passed along to the Hokage.
Kakashi spent the next few hours copying down some of the key concepts from the book into parchment using an internal code he himself had devised. Then he put the original book in a secret hiding spot he had created in this room and sealed it. He didn't want to keep it on his person in case something went wrong.
When Hinata came out of their room at 7 AM freshly showered and dressed he was ready to go as well. Their breakfast today had been delivered to the suite as there wasn't a banquet to attend.
"Good morning" he said looking at Hinata appreciatively.
She smiled and came up to give him a quick kiss on the cheek (this had become a sort of habit for them even when no one was observing). This was probably their last day of acting like a couple, he thought looking at her as she went over to sit at the breakfast table.
"Wow… this looks lovely".
"Mhm, dig in".
Hinata poured herself coffee and put a chocolate croissant onto her plate along with some fruit. "Busy day ahead for you?" she asked.
"Well… we have to go meet with the Mizukage and get the treaties signed. And then afterwards we will see...".
"Hmm… I suppose we will see where the day takes us". She smiled, understanding perfectly what he was getting at. "Did you miss me?" she asked, suddenly changing the course of their conversation completely taking Kakashi by surprise.
"What?"
"You know, when I was gone over the weekend. Did you miss me at all?" she asked nervously while biting her toast.
He stared at her for a few seconds silently not understanding why she was asking him this question.
"Well… yeah of course I missed you", he finally said with a lighthearted smile. "But I'm sure you and the Anbu had a good time exploring these mountains, that is a unique opportunity."
She smiled at him oddly and went back to eating. Kakashi wasn't sure what that look meant.
"Did Ryoko make any advances on you?" he asked after a period of silence.
"What do you mean?" she sipped her coffee.
"Come on… don't tell me that you haven't guessed it".
"Guessed what?".
"The only reason he invited you out there over the weekend was so that he could have you alone to himself. If I was not in the way I am sure he would have pursued you romantically by now."
Hinata straightened her spine indignantly, "Nothing inappropriate happened between us and he hasn't done anything other than be a perfect gentleman with me. In fact he invited you to come along!" She frowned at him, "his sister came with us too on this trip and they both asked a lot about you and about our engagement".
"Really?".
"What?" she looked uncertain.
Kakashi simply looked at her with a raised eyebrow. He couldn't believe that she hadn't pieced it together by now.
"What's that look for?" she probed.
In the end he chose not to answer and instead put his napkin down getting up to walk around the table, bending down and leaning next to her face. Hinata felt her stomach flutter at the look in his eyes and she held her breath overwhelmed by his sudden closeness.
He bent even closer to her ear whispering, "I just can't figure out how you stumbled upon this book so easily. We know that Ryoko's dad is part of the rebellion... it could be possible that this was planted for you to find. I just can't figure out why".
"Oh…" she muttered. Based on the look in his eyes she had thought he was going to say something different.
"Hinata, I copied some of the text from this book in a coded message. It's stored in my bag. If anything happens to me, I need you to make sure it gets to the Hokage. I will brief the Anbu of the same when we meet later as a group".
She nodded at him firmly, but her pulse was still in overdrive due to his nearness.
Kakashi continued to watch her so she turned her head back to the last bite of croissant left on her hand. His attention was making her antsy. After a few more seconds his hand reached out to turn her face gently back to him. Her eyes connected with his and she noticed that he was looking at her lips.
He used his thumb to lightly trace her lips and she felt warmth wash over her unexpectedly. Her nerves tingled. "So soft…" he whispered. And then before she knew it he was bending down connecting his lips to hers.
As their lips touched, a spark of electricity charged and sizzled. She felt that spark all the way down to her core in a warm pulse. Her breath hitched and her eyes drifted shut as he slanted his lips over hers kissing her deeper as her mouth opened up to him. She didn't notice the croissant dropping from her hand as their lips parted and then clung again as she felt a fresh wave of heat wash over her. Her hands curled into the arms of her chair but she wished that she was touching him instead.
After another second or two he elegantly drew the interlude to a close dropping one last soft kiss on to her lips. She stared at him stunned and dazed as he stood up and finished the rest of his coffee in one gulp.
His color was slightly heightened across the bridge of his nose but other than that he looked calm. "We should get going soon" was all he said before walking back to their room.
After a few minutes she heard the sounds of the Anbu knocking on their door and she automatically got up to answer in a trance. He had rendered her speechless, so she didn't get to ask what this meant.