(A/N) Angst? Kinda? Not Sasuke yet, he's next chapter, but still vague angst. Ino this time. She's important. I love my child I swear.
While Ino had been mostly blessed with good days recently, for the last few weeks she'd only had maybe one or two bad days, which had mostly been spent in her bed trying to block out the world. It hadn't ever worked, and those days always passed slowly and miserably.
Unfortunately, now was one of those days. Her head was pounding, and bright light seemed like it was trying to stab through her eyes and into her skull. The soft noises of someone moving around in the kitchen seemed deafening to her, putting her in a lot of pain.
"Ino?" One of the other girls, Ino wasn't able to tell who when her skull felt like it was exploding into starbursts of pain. "A bad day?"
Ino nodded ever so slightly, even that small motion sending a lance through her skull. Ow, she regretted everything.
"We'll leave you alone then," A slightly higher voice, which meant the first one had probably been Tenten, and that one was probably Sakura. Urgh, maybe thinking wasn't a great idea for now.
Ino felt only marginally better by the afternoon, using the empty apartment to take care of the plants with all the windows drawn and barely any light in the apartment. Luckily, it wasn't a school day, but all of them had decided to leave the apartment to Ino anyway.
She was grateful of course, it meant her headache had receded enough for her to be at least semi functional. Semi functional was good.
She noticed it out of the corner of her eye, a heavy dark red cloud of depression alongside a healthy dose of lightning sharp guilt and the confused rolling of thunder. It looked like a storm cloud had taken up residence in the person's head. Other than the cloud that looked like it was dripping blood. Ino felt her headache recede as the painkillers finally kicked in, and decided to pull open the curtains, open the window, and drag the person into the kitchen, closing the window behind them, then closing the blinds.
"So," she said to the now extremely confused shinobi sitting on the kitchen floor. This confusion was a lighter sort, dogs running around in odd circles and some flashes of green and orange. Better than the storm cloud that had been there previously. "Any particular reason you're hanging out in our tree while feeling bad for yourself?"
The shinobi, with silver hair, a mask, and one eye completely covered by his headband, blinked in utter confusion. "You saw me."
"I see everyone, now are you going to explain why your depression clouds drip blood and your guilt takes the form of lightning?" Ino didn't usually just outright imply she could see emotion, but she felt it was warranted this time. Plus she was like, twenty percent sure this was the 'Hatake brat' her dad kept going on about when he was alive, since silver colors and masks always flashed around his head whenever he had thought of him.
"How did you see me?" The shinobi stressed.
"You cannot hide your emotions from me, no matter how well you hide your body," Ino informed him matter of factly. "Trust me, everyone's tried. Yamanaka Ino. Who're you?"
"Hatake Kakashi."
"Oh so you are the Hatake brat." Ino mused, turning to the stove to prepare hot water. She was pretty sure they didn't have any tea, but she could offer that at least. After all, she'd so rudely dragged him in here.
Sharp flashes of surprise and more confused dogs running around his head, and she laughed. "It's what my dad called you before he died! He always got so annoyed about you dodging psych evals."
She turned around just in time to see Kakashi pale dramatically. "Ah, wonderful! You worked it out! So, you are going to sit down at the table and have hot water with me before the others get back!"
So they sat down at the table with a cup of hot water each, mostly just using it to warm their hands instead of actually drinking it.
"What did you mean by your first statement?" Kakashi asked awkwardly after a long moment. "About the clouds and lightning."
"I see emotions," Ino replied simply, adjusting her hold on the cup and swinging her legs a bit. "Yours were red clouds dripping blood that I could tell were the sort of bone deep sadness that settles in and never really leaves, and bright flashes of sharp lightning guilt."
He simply hummed in response.
"I assume it has some sort of personal connection, specific feeling images like that always do." Ino swirled her water slightly. "Naruto's happiness is connected to ramen, and memories of Teuchi and Ayame feeding him when he was a bit younger. Shikamaru's happiness is more subtle, with white floating clouds that veer more towards contentment then true happiness. Sakura's tends towards blooming cherry blossoms. All have personal connections to their past."
"Oh," Kakashi said noncommittally.
"I assume the dogs running around in confused circles you have for the lighter kind of confusion you had when I pulled you in also has a connection to something. And the green and orange, which aren't usually colors associated with confusion."
Kakashi's face screwed up slightly, which was amusing to watch with 3/4ths of it covered. "Something like that."
Ino just laughed. "The rest will be back soon. Either meet them or leave. I don't care which. And you need to take better care of yourself. I can see the slow onset of exhaustion and hunger dogging at your heels." Literally, now that she thought about it, a dark fog tugging at Kakashi's shoes and pants.
And so, if in the coming days vegetables and occasionally other groceries appeared on their window sill while Ino was the only one around, and she left out an extra portion of food on said window sill, only to find the dish washed clean and back in the cupboard an hour later, then no one mentioned it.
(A/N) And we see a wild Kakashi! I'm trying very very hard to convince myself out of keeping Shisui alive. Either encourage me or try and dissuade me. Check Toothless' Guide on Ao3 under Flux Uchiha, or come see my discord server for the link to the new poll! The code is pnQAF39