A/N: Thank you for the splendid reviews :D Absolutely, makes my day & for the kind words about my boy. Hope you enjoy this one. Buckle up she's about to get a whole lot busier :D Happy reading x
Chapter 35
Reasons for Kakashi to be found in bed this late into the morning were few and far between. Three came to mind. One: an inconsequential morning romp with a female he hadn't even bothered to recall her name. Two: he was bedridden with an ailment or illness. If he was under the influence of either of these, he was more likely to be spending his time at the hospital and not in the comfort of his own home. And three: he'd lost track of time reading.
This morning fell into none of those realms. Luck prevailed and Nina remained sound asleep, unaffected by whatever monstrosities had been savaging her back in her own bed. Having witnessed her suffrage, Kakashi was in no rush to wake the sleeping kunoichi.
That was until his groin reminded him that he was still just a man.
Kakashi discreetly retreated from the bed; from Nina. She had him seriously contemplating his choice when she rolled away and onto the flat of her back. Nina's movement partially stripped away the covers exposing every exquisite part of her top half. The friction of the sheet shifting against their bareness caused her nipples to harden to which captivated his attention. Their erectness providing the perfect pointed visual targets that had both his member twitching and his mouth salivating in response.
Shit. A cold shower was the only answer but with a slumbering Nina, Kakashi opted to splash his face instead in order to redirect his attention to the report that was overdue.
Splashing his face a second time for good measure, the incessant buzzing of his alarm rang out from where it sat on the wooden bedhead beside the two framed photos of his teams.
"Ngmm."
Jamming his fingers down onto the silver button had the clock back to sounding its usual rhythmic ticking.
"What's the time?"
"It's just gone seven."
Groggily Nina sat up as her body slowly began to wake up, rolling and spanning out where needed.
"I think… I think I actually slept."
A prick of guilt climbed into her mind. She was equally thankful to him, as she was almost disgusted with herself.
"Did you?"
Kakashi had his sharingan eye closed and the other looked over Nina. She regressed into herself somewhat and her voice was laced with a tone that gave away the fact it was more than a general inquisition.
"Yes. And it's nothing you ought to be ashamed of."
Damn his intuition. Then again, it shouldn't have come as a surprise, really. He was one of the few, maybe the only one who truly understood her turmoil.
With her bottom lip rolling inwards, her teeth sunk ruthlessly into it. And what had she given him in return for his empathy?
Half-truths.
The day Kakashi had been called back to Konoha she'd not given him the decency of the full truth. Since then, as if it were a punishment of sorts, she'd been bombarded with the reoccurring nightmares that had continue to mutate into something more insufferable each time she closed her eyes.
"Maybe not, but I do owe you an apology and-"
"I told you."
Kakashi brushed the pieces of hair that had fallen across her eyes. "To let go. Let go of that guilt, Nina. It's already eating you alive."
Pulling the covers over herself and drawing her knees to chest, Nina dropped her chin on top of them.
"Asuma's death wasn't-"
"Orochimaru."
Nina swallowed, dropping her knees, changing to a position with her legs crossed and her hands twiddling idly in her lap.
"It wasn't nothing. That morning when your summons arrived I was overpowered by that chakra. I'd not been able to place it until then. It was his."
Orochimaru.
He'd taken receivership of the letter and the person who had handed it to him was definitely not him.
"Nina, it wasn't him. Perhaps it was…"
"No. I don't know how to explain it."
Trauma could manifest in a multitude of ways. It had the uncanny knack of being able to distort the most impervious of minds.
"I couldn't breathe. It was like the chakra wrapped around me starting from my feet and worked its way upwards."
And here he had thought it may have been morning sickness. Nonetheless, he empathised. He'd been gripped by the recurrent visions of blood stained hands following Rin's death.
"Pakkun mentioned …"
"That place, Kakashi. Each time it alters marginally. Sometimes, extending further."
He knew what place she was referring to. His one eye was firmly fixed on Nina's face. She had managed to lift her head but was seemingly staring right through him and transported to the setting she was describing.
"It starts with Orochimaru facing away. Laughing. The screams. The blood-chilling agonising screams of children and adults. Sometimes just children and other times just adults. The walls are lined with slates of steel that have chains and shackles accompanying them. Some of them are empty whilst many have a mixture of barely alive and dead victims that he's harvested whatever he needs from them."
Kakashi watches her head drop down to her feet that are hanging over the edge of the bed. Her knuckles turn white as she cinches the sheet that lay over her legs.
"I'm just an observer. Between Orochimaru and I is a medical bed. The same steel tray medical styled ones you see in the hospital, except there's no mattress. When they first started it was bare. And there was a table on castor wheels that held an array of surgical utensils. I can't remember when exactly, but at some point, Asuma appeared on it."
His bloodied hands looked like child's play in comparison.
"After that, it morphed into times where Asuma was still alive and Orochimaru was cutting into him. And when that stopped happening, Orochimaru would simply ignore him and advance to where I was. I'd be standing there… naked. Unable to move or speak. Just standing there while he-"
Suddenly, Nina's eyes bore into his. He didn't need or want for her to finish her sentence. He highly doubted she would anyway.
"I'm a medic-nin, Kakashi. I understand what trauma can do. And I could have maybe considered it more of a possibility, but you felt it yesterday afternoon. You detected that chakra. His chakra signature."
"No. I detected a chakra signature."
He took a seat beside Nina, the mattress bowing with the extra weight. Kakashi smoothed his hands over both of Nina's, gripping them together and glossing his thumbs over the lengths of Nina's.
He could suggest her to converse with Lady Tsunade. Perhaps she could offer a medical solution? However, Kakashi already knew Nina wouldn't agree to it, let alone follow through. It was astounding that she'd divulged what she had to him. But then again, this was them. This is what they did well. What they hadn't, didn't and couldn't do with anyone else.
The nightmares and terrors never went away, at least his didn't, and not fully. Triggered by certain things. Some old and some new. The only healer was time, and as of recently, understanding.
Kakashi's tactician cogs were whirring to life. Formulating a plan for Nina. For them both.
A request he never thought he'd ask or have need to, funnelled from the part of him that Nina had unexpectedly tunnelled into.
"Stay with me?"
Nina's eyes found his one. A look of bewilderment etched into her face before it softened and her eyes searched his one.
"Please."
Kakashi's face wasn't its usual emotionless canvas. Scrutinising him for any sign of doubt, sarcasm, deceptiveness; she came up empty. There was only a genuine gentleness.
Despite the lack of talking he could see her apprehension growing. It'd been proven time and time again, how they were so alike it was easy to draw conclusions as to where her apprehension was stemming from.
Help was not something a shinobi sought, unless they were in a team or it was done so on their behalf for medical reasons.
This wasn't just help.
Truthfully, Nina fit here; as she had done so in all the parts of his life thus far. If she wasn't here then he would be at her place. Or so he had come to believe it would be. That part he'd planned on discussing with the talk they were yet to have.
Kimi's words resounded inside Nina's head.
"If it is true love you should find yourself wanting to share everything with that person."
Kakashi Hatake, the elusive copy-nin, had just made a very bold request of her and she had given him silence.
Nina purged herself of it all. All the doubts, what-ifs, maybes… anything that negated her from accepting, she vanquished.
"Okay."
"Nina, about the-"
He stopped and it was now Kakashi searching her face for the smallest measure of doubt.
"Okay."
No, he'd heard right.
Judging by his half-finished sentence and hand rubbing down the back of his neck, it appeared she'd caught him off guard momentarily.
"What about what?"
"Oh, um. You said Lady Tsunade asked about us."
"Yeah. About that…"
Out of the corner of her eyes Nina spied the time. Shit.
"I'm going to be late."
She felt a little woozy, but that was probably because she'd stood too fast. She bolted over to the cupboard where Kakashi had hung her outfit to get changed.
"What time do you start?"
He was mildly amused watching Nina hop around on one leg while stuffing her other leg into her pants and trying to keep her hair out of the way.
"Eight."
Six minutes. "Cutting it fine."
"I know. At this rate my plan will never work."
"What plan?"
Nina stood in front of him, with her hair over one shoulder snaking it into a plait.
"Zip please?"
Was Nina blushing?
"I was thinking that maybe…"
Having zipped the back of her shirt up and she'd finished her hair, Nina turned to face him. He'd seen that look before.
Three minutes.
"I believe we're even, as it stands."
"Oh?"
The clock was ticking down. Two minutes.
Nina toyed with the seam of Kakashi's mask.
"They'll find out… eventually."
Using his chest to balance, Nina pushed up onto her tip toes so that she could whisper the next part into his ear.
"In the mean time I thought we could have some fun."
And with that she skipped backwards, gave Kakashi a wink and disappeared out of his bedroom window.
Fun huh?
It was one way to keep her mind off the other stuff.
He had to agree with her choice to hold off announcing anything regarding them. By all means, they were still working it out themselves.
Kakashi picked up his hitai-ate, the metal scraping loudly along the wooden desk, before he affixed it to his head, covering his sharingan and pulling the ties tight at the back of his head.
He scratched a quick summary down on a piece of paper and stuffed it into the mission file. Then bounded out the window that Nina had exited a few minutes earlier and dropped down to the ground below.
For the time being and reading between the lines, her only terms were simply don't get caught. Well, well, Nina Sarutobi.
He may just have to pay her a visit. After all, he was going to be in the neighbourhood submitting his report.
