The next moments are a blur, right until Kakashi reaches the Hospital and all hell breaks loose.
"Sir?"
The triage nurse at the entrance asks before noticing Sachi hanging limply in his arms, blood dripping on the shiny floor.
"I… I—" he stammers, his mind fogged by panic. "...she… needs help."
The nurse is running down the hallway, Kakashi doesn't know what to do with himself. Sachi doesn't wake up, and there's blood, and she's turning so, so pale—
"Kakashi, what happened?" he looks up to see Kasui coming towards him.
Kasui is the Chief Medic, a hardworking genius that had rewritten medicine by himself. He ruled his hospital like a king with his kingdom, and his hands were miraculous. Half the village, if not the whole thing, owed their lives to him and his prowess, Kakashi included.
And he was Sachi's teammate.
Time slowed down as Kasui saw what, who, he was carrying. Kakashi was keeping Sachi awkwardly in his arms, cradling her head to his chest and leaving a stain of blood on it. She wasn't moving, and she wasn't breathing. Kasui also saw Kakashi, trembling in the entrance, and barely holding onto Sachi, terrified of what he had done.
Kasui, who had been praying for a quiet night, felt his heart sink.
The medic goes to Sachi immediately, saying "Sachi, Sachi! Do you hear me?"
Kakashi doesn't know how to tell Kasui that she isn't answering, and why she doesn't want to speak to him? Why is she so quiet? Why is she bleeding…?
"Bring the carrier!" he yells over his shoulder, taking in the damage with unseeing eyes. "Oh no, no, no, no—"
If Kasui was begging, then it was bad.
He takes out a small flashlight from his breast pocket, opening Sachi's eyelids and flashing the light repeatedly, her pupils remaining dilated regardless of his curses. A snail, two, three are stuck to her skin while behind him several nurses come to help him.
"Come on, Sachi, answer me, come on."
Kakashi should have been more scared, for Kasui rarely lost composure. He had manned a war by himself, both support and offensive, and he took it all without complaint. But right in front of him, Kasui was all but crumbling, his ever present eyebags darkening as his eyes widened at Sachi's lack of response.
"Kakashi— What happened, look at me! What. Happened?"
"... I don't know…" he says, baffled at his fleeting memories. "We were sparring… she was on the ground… she isn't breathing—"
Kasui's eyes go even wider, his glasses slipping on his nose till they are askew. His usually sunkissed skin turns grey.
"Stretcher!" the nurses call after him.
Kasui takes Sachi from his arms, Kakashi holding on before he practically rips her body from his. He feels cold, because Sachi is very warm, and he watches as Kasui puts Sachi on a stretcher, taking her away. Her hand is hanging from the side, and there's blood there too.
Someone, a nurse, takes him gently but forcely to the waiting room, putting him on a seat before asking questions that he tunes out.
Sachi wasn't breathing. He… he had hit her, didn't he? Right when Obito was laughing, he had hit her in the head as hard as he could. She was supposed to dodge it and kick his shin, but she didn't duck she—
There was a crack. Kakashi had broken her skull, and she had fallen to the ground. She wasn't breathing, there was blood, her blood.
Kakashi had killed her.
Again.
Bile rising up his throat, he hasn't eaten anything but he feels his stomach lurch nonetheless. His heart is hammering in his chest, a primal fear that spoke of something that he was going to regret, a feeling that he knew from leaving Obito behind, from putting his hand through Rin's chest.
Kakashi killed Sachi.
And the only thing Kakashi can think about is how Sachi will fix it, because she always does, she always has the answer.
But she is dead.
He killed her.
He doesn't hear the nurses coming and going, the curious patients well enough to peek from their rooms; he doesn't notice the woman in the waiting room, and how she was pitying his hollow eyes. Nor does he realize how time passes, and the hospital falls on a dead silence that those who are waiting for bad news know all too well.
Kasui emerges from the depths of the hospital Sage knows how many hours later, his hair a mess and a snail on his shoulder that was telling him to not do nothing harsh—
Kasui punches Kakashi square in the face, the strength enough to make his head recoil back and hit the wall behind his seat. The medic is beyond furious, and Kakashi has seen that face filled with ire before, moments away from demolishing an entire battalion by himself. He is seething, and he grabs him by the neck and dragged him across the hospital. Kakashi doesn't see the nurses trying to stop Kasui, or the medic's summons advising him to step down.
Instead, Kakashi is thrown onto the garden behind the hospital, and he doesn't bother to get up before Kasui is hitting him.
"—imbecile!" he yells, shrieks until his voice is hoarse. "You did this to her, you! How could you, how?!"
Kakashi doesn't react, doesn't do anything to stop him breaking his bones until he turns them to dust. "Why. Why?!" he demands, throwing him away until his back was against a tree. "Always had something against her, didn't you? Since the fucking start you wanted her gone—" he rambles, crackling his bloodstained knuckles as he approaches slowly and menacingly. "After everything she's done for you… after everything— that's how you repay her, Kakashi? You broke her fucking skull, you son of a bitch, cracked her like an egg and you—" he gets to him, Kasuis hands taking Kakashi's head and pressing with all his might. "You bring her to me…" he hisses. "just so she can die on me? That's what you want, Kakashi? You want her gone so badly?"
Kasui bangs Kakashi's head into the bark, the sting of the hit enough to break through his haze and wrap a hand around his. Kasui hits him harder, the windows illuminating as people watch Kasui attempt to murder him in his hospital. No one goes to help him, and why would they? He deserves this, doesn't he?
He feels Kasui's shivers through his hands, his shoulders shaking as he takes deep breaths. His glasses have fallen on the grass, and his dark eyes are shadowed by the killer intent looming behind them.
"You are a fucking bastard, Kakashi—" voices rise, warning and pleads that neither man hear. "Why do you hate her so much? Why?" there's tears in his eyes, and Kakashi's mouth is too dry to answer, despite the blood at the back of his tongue.
Anko appears in a rush, slithering a hand across Kasui's chest and hauling him back. Kasui doesn't fight it, recognizing Anko's presence and letting her put distance between them.
Shizune is at his side too, putting a soothing touch to his shoulder but Kasui is still glaring at Kakashi, heaving for breath. "What do you have to say for yourself, Kakashi? Tell me, asshole, tell me! Why did you do it?! Why?!"
"Come on, Kasui, let's go back…" Anko tells him, trying to distract him.
"Kasui… please." Shizune begs his boyfriend. It almost works.
"You have a dead wish Kakashi!"
"Shizune, take him away, I'll take care of this."
"Just because you killed your teammates doesn't mean you can kill mine!" he spats venomously.
"Kasui!"
Kakashi's strength had left him the moment he had brought Sachi's body to the Hospital, and between his injuries and his own drowning thoughts, he asks "Did I… kill her?"
The women look at him with horror, Anko not fast enough to stop Kasui before he is making hand seals. A massive water dragon rips the quietness of the morning with a roar that echoes Kasui's screams.
Kakashi is gone before it hits him.
.
Waking up is a painful ordeal. The light is too bright for his eyes, Kakashi lifting an arm to shield his eyes before the pain is too great to achieve it.
"You are awake. Good."
He squints until his vision clears, seeing his sensei leaning against the wall opposite of his bed, arms crossed. Minato was cheery, animated no matter how much paperwork he had to file for the day; this time, he was serious, the Sharingan allowing him to see the concerned wrinkles around his eyes and his terse lips.
"How are you feeling, Kakashi?"
He was going to be grateful if he ended up walking out after this.
"... I deserve it."
"Not what I asked." he comes closer, surveying the damage with a disapproving look. "Kakashi…"
He sighs, his ribs protesting immediately. "Is she…?"
He shakes his head. "Alive, not awake yet." the grip on Kakashi's throat eases, but not entirely. "I don't want to interrogate you in your state, but you'll need to tell me what happened."
"We… sparring, something went wrong—"
He had hit her, broke her skull, and he didn't even notice.
"I understand, Kakashi, it'll be okay. A spar went wrong…" he muses, more to himself. "Are you hungry? I'll get the nurse."
The worry came from being the last one of their team. Minato favored him, trusting him to do good with the little help he gave him for being his student; it angered him sometimes, feeling hopeless as his sensei continued to care for him even thought their team didn't last two years together.
Minato is out of the door and Kakashi considers leaving now that he can. He tries moving his legs, but it pulls out a groan out of him. Not a chance.
Kakashi hates hospitals, because nothing good comes from going there, much less staying. If he ignores the problems, like that stiff shoulder or the weird pangs of pain in his knee, then they don't exist. He shouldn't be in that bed, hooked up to an IV when he was awake and breathing for himself. The scents were strange and sterile, very much like the room he was in.
Midday light poured in, anyone guess if it was the same day or Kasui had knocked him out into the next decade. Kakashi pulls the blanket down gingerly, his chest was bandaged tightly, bruises blooming underneath. His neck was also smothered in gauze, some sort of antiseptic rubbed into his skin. His entire body was stiff, Kasui's hits carrying a medic's touch that could interfere with his target's chakra. Kasui had killed more than healed with that technique, and he wasn't fooled to belive that he had good intentions.
Kakashi didn't blame him, not after what he did.
Shizune enters in the following minutes, delivering Minato's apology at having to go back to the office. "He'll come back when he can." she reassures.
"Thank you." he says, taking the plate with some nondescript porridge in it. "When can I leave?"
Her smile falls. "Kakashi-san, you are injured. You need at least two days of recovery, and we need to run some tests, make sure nothing is broken." she seemed guilty, adding. "Please don't force me to call the watch."
Meaning suicide watch.
"No… I'll stay."
"Perfect. I'll come with your meds later today, and do make an effort to eat. No throwing it out the window, flushing down the toilet and," and then she points a finger at him "no summons. I'll know if you do."
Shizune doesn't need to add any threats, as the Head Nurse —that sometimes acted as a medic— she didn't need to reinforce her power in the hospital. Shizune might be the kinder out of the leaders of the Hospital, but she had an allergy to bullshit that she treated with a rough kind of love. Kakashi, the few times he had been trapped in a hospital room, was well acquainted with it.
She leaves, Kakashi alone with his mind. He couldn't fully remember what happened, only knowing that he had a bad night and he needed to get out of his apartment, do something. Sachi was… there, like she always was and then…
Crack.
Thump.
Kakashi recognized the sound of bone breaking, and the following body crumbling to the ground. He had went for the head, a backfist to the temple with the clear intention of killing his target. He had done it countless times, but this time he was sickened by it. Flashes of Sachi's body, twisted at his feet and her blood stained his clothes…
Alive, not awake.
Putting the tray aside, Kakashi sits on the bed. The anxiety comes back, his heart not allowing a moment of respite, not when there was a real possibility of Sachi never waking up hanging from his neck.
Sachi was supposed to duck, god fucking dammit.
The day passes quickly, Shizune fulfilling her promise to bring meds that Kakashi absolutely hates. He sleeps, or rather struggles with nightmares until he wakes up sweating and gasping for air.
("Is something wrong?" she asked him. Sachi had known something was wrong, she knew, knew, knew—)
Anko is waiting for him when he opens his eyes.
Hound and Viper are partners in ANBU, Viper second in command and the only one able to keep up with him when in the field. Few people Hound trusts as much as Viper, but when they do not have their masks on, Anko's loyalty resides with her team.
Teams were closer than family. Genin were encouraged to keep the bonds they made during their apprenticeship, most of them carrying well over the disbanding of their team. Orochimaru's team was a prime example of it, all of its members settled in different roles in the village but remaining as close as they were in the beginning. There was no doubt that any of them would die for the other, and Kakashi had heard the stories about the lengths they would go for each other.
("Sachi ended the war because she wouldn't allow her family to die." he heard Shikaku once say to him, his dark eyes baring into his. "Remember that.")
Meaning, if you hurt one of them, you had at least two more problems coming your way.
"When I told you I didn't want a call from you for two weeks…" she starts, and Kakashi notices her gruff voice. "It included hospital alarms at three in the morning."
"Are you here to beat me up?"
She gives him a humorless smile. "Kasui did that by himself. Been a while since I saw him like that."
Kakashi lets her snap from the memories of those times, not cheerful in the least. "I deserved it."
"'course you did, but you didn't fight back, so it was more of an ass whooping than a honor duel." she shrugs, her hair out of her usual ponytail. "And you got your ass whooped pretty bad."
"I—"
"Don't, Kakashi." she warns, putting a hand through her hair. "I'm not here to finish you off, if that's what you're thinkin'. I know you didn't do it on purpose, and the Hokage says it was a spar gone wrong."
"Do you believe him?"
"I believe you, asshole." she bits. "I don't have a damn clue what your fights with Sachi are, but if you wanted her gone you would have killed her long ago."
"That's… not reassuring."
"Not my intention. Look, I don't want to pussyfoot around this, I know you didn't want to hurt her… like that, okay? Doesn't mean I'm not pissed 'bout it, you scared the shit out of me because Kasui almost murdered you for almost murdering Sachi—"
She sighs, clearly tired. "Why are you here?"
"You're so nice to me, Kakashi." she makes a rude gesture at him. "I'm here to tell you that you have a court hearing tomorrow, and to warn you to not get near Kasui in the next ten years."
"... oh."
"You have to understand this, Kakashi, and I'm telling you because I trust you. Kasui is out to get your ass, and I mean it. He… I would tell you to run, but it'll make it worse. Whatever you do, don't piss him off more than you did or I won't be able to stop him."
"Do you want to?"
"Try me and see. Kasui doesn't like you, Kakashi."
"... wonder why." he says dryly.
"Yeah, you don't know half of it. You scared him and Kasui holds grudges like nobody's business."
Kakashi falls silent, not at the potential threat of Kasui coming in the night to murder him, but at the sober tone Anko was using. She rarely looked as serious in that moment, and it was true that they were closer because of they ANBU work, but Anko loved Sachi as a sister just as much as Kasui.
"He had to revive her, Kakashi." she tells him, not bothering to hide how upset she was. "Brain injuries are bad and… you know what? I don't need to scold you. Kasui beat you enough for both of us, and I'm not here to hold morality over your head. Sachi's bad, and Kasui is honest to the Sage scared for her, and even though this might have been an accident everyone knows that you two hate each other."
She shakes her head. "I'm warning you, Kakashi. I won't apologize for what Kasui said to you, but he's right. You've had a death wish for some time, and if word gets around that you've gotten lost to the point of putting comrades in the hospital…"
What do you do when a dog bites its master?
"I… understand."
"Do you?" she frowns, her chakra tightly bound around her. "I won't testify tomorrow against you, but Kasui will. He wants to take you out of service."
"What?"
Medics had the power to put a ninja career on hold. If they had enough proof that they were too deranged to function, or too injured to serve, they had the right, or the responsibility, to report them to the Hokage for indefinite leave. This was one of the reasons why you didn't fuck with medics, not when they had the power to take you out of the corps. Kasui was the Chief Medic, and he loathed Kakashi; now that he had almost killed his teammate, he was going for him.
"Anko—"
"Don't waste your breath arguing with me, Kakashi, you'll need it tomorrow at court. Also, so I'm fair, he's got like boxes full of medical reports from your previous fights, so better prepare yourself."
He watches her straighten her back from the wall, going to the door. As an afterthought, she stops, without looking at him and says. "Sachi's awake."
.
Court is a clusterfuck.
Kakashi is still recovering, Kasui hadn't held up and that water dragon had bruised his ribcage; had the medic not been out of his mind he would have carved his heart out with a chakra scalpel.
The courtroom is a private affair, probably rushed. Kakashi didn't know if word got out, most likely it had, and his sensei was trying to control the aftermath as best as he could. Kakashi felt a pang of guilt for putting his old teacher in that position, when he was fully responsible for his actions.
The stupor and numbness he had carried ever since Anko told him that Sachi woke up finally made him realize that something was wrong, very, very wrong. The thought of killing Sachi kept him up at night, and doing that to a comrade more so. Maybe he needed a break, set his head straight for once.
Kasui believed execution was the best option.
"Kasui-san, I understand your concerns…"
"Pardon me, Hokage-sama, but have you read any of the files I've procured?" he asks, mild as milk while he grips the bar with white knuckles. "I had to perform an emergency resuscitation for a contusion. Her temporal lobe split in three places, and the subsequent epidural hematoma can produce side effects that might compromise Sachi's life completely." he recalls, his nails digging into the wood "You are aware of Sachi's health condition, Hokage-sama."
A silent conversation passes between them, Kakashi missing all of it as Minato turns to him.
"Can you tell us what happened?"
"We were sparring…"
"At three in the morning?"
Kakashi nods to Kasui, whose eyes are blazing behind his glasses. "Yes. We crossed paths and I asked her if she wanted to spart."
"Did she agree to it?"
"Yes."
"Explicitly?"
"Kasui-san, let him speak."
"Making sure, Hokage-sama. I don't want there to be any doubt."
"She… agreed to it and we moved to a training ground. And then I… hit her, in the head."
Kasui bristles, Minato squinting at the killer intent in the room. "Was it your intention to hit her?"
"I… don't know."
"You don't know?"
"No, Hokage-sama."
"Mental confusion, violent tendencies, a history of unhinged behaviour…" Kasui lists ruthlessly. "Do you want me to go on, Hokage-sama? Or will you be continuing to favoritize your former student over the threat that he poses?"
Ouch.
"Will be addressing the assault of a patient on hospital ground too, Kasui-san?"
He doesn't back down. "Demote me then, Hokage-sama, for doing exactly what Hatake did to her. I have the records, all of them. Hatake and Sachi have been engaging in not spars but fights that end with the latter in my hospital: bruises, sprains, concussions, fractures… you name it."
"She did agree to it." Shikaku points out, seemingly bored by the ordeal. "It's not as if Sachi didn't engage in just as many fights, as you say, with Hatake here."
Shikaku better not get injured in the next decade or he was going to regret going against Kasui.
"Be that as it might, but the records speak for themselves. Hatake is missing his mental examinations, and I've asked you to take them, but we know that you won't because they won't be able to let him work."
Minato steels himself. "Careful, Kasui-san."
"Do not kid me, Hokage-sama. Hatake is not in his right mind, and what happened with Sachi is only the worst from a series of assaults. Will you keep ignoring the signs or will you finally put an end to this?"
"What you are asking…"
"Is completely reasonable. Shinobi with less issues have been let go from the force, regardless of how much they have served the village. You can only do so much before you break, and I won't stand for collateral."
Kakashi didn't argue. Kasui had all great points, not that they hurt any less. The panic of being stripped of his duty was sour in his mouth, because he knew there was nothing left for him if not missions and assassinations.
He had it coming, didn't he?
Minato couldn't stand against Kasui, because Hokage he was, but Kasui had leverage. Kasui was another pillar of Leaf, manning the Hospital and making sure the soldiers as well as civilians were well taken care off. Kasui was a neutral party, with no outside influence but his own. He could go against the Hokage and he would be heard not as a subordinate, but an equal.
Kasui said no, no it was.
Minato knew that, vexed as he was. Kakashi understood the tricky position he was in, and he had no wish to worsen it.
"Kakashi…"
Better to get it over with.
Sachi disagreed.
"Sorry for being late." she says, entering the room with a bang. "It's rude to begin before all parties involved are present."
The room is silent, Kasui having an aneurysm as she sees Sachi, who hours before had been bedridden and with nasty prospects, barrel down the stands like she owns the place. Minato doesn't seem surprised, sensor as he was, but he wasn't happy to see her. Shikaku waved a hand at her, as if he had been expecting her to come, while Kakashi was rendered mute.
Sachi was wearing a nurse uniform, paired with a lab coat that had Kasui's initials on it. She was limping a bit, tripping on the last step of the wooden stairs. Her hair was a mess, the top of her head bandaged heavily, and stray strands of charcoal slipping between. She must have rushed here, Kakashi thought with odd relief.
"Sachi—!"
"Morning to you too, Kasui, thanks for this." she points to the gauze helmet. "Better luck with the sedatives next time. Now," she turns to face the Hokage and his advisor "all you've decided is overruled."
"Sachi, you're heavily injured—"
"Thank you for your concern, Hokage-sama, but I've been through worse." she glances at Kakashi and winks, her smile strained but honest.
Kakashi is overwhelmed by an emotion he can't quite comprehend, nor put a name to. He's glad that Sachi is alive, but there's also frustration, because she has been haunting him with images of her funeral and there she is, smiling as if nothing is wrong.
"Let's end this quick, 'kay? We got into a spar, I slipped and I got my brain bruised a bit. That's it."
"You… slipped." Shikaku states, hiding a smile that says 'you're full of shit, Sachi'.
"Happens to the best of us. In my defence, it was dark and I might have been working overtime, not that I'm confessing to anything." she leans on the wooden rail, too rushed to be believed as casual.
"Hokage-sama, she's delirious."
"I'm not." she counters "I'm here to avoid this blowing out of proportion."
"He attacked you."
"I slipped!" she cradles her head, hissing a curse. Kasui is ready to jump from his seat to go over to her, either to heal her or kill her on the spot. "I slipped, and Kakashi did take me to the hospital, would a crazy person do that? Or rather let me to be eaten by ants until a genin stumbled upon my corpse and be savagely traumatized, hmm?"
Shikaku, used to Sachi's rambles, shrugs. "I doubt ants will eat you, flies get there faster."
"Can you take this seriously?" Kasui belows, and the wood is cracking now. "She's defending him."
"Who, me?" she points at herself with exaggerated flair "Nu-uh, I hate Kakashi very much, I would never do that." Kasui turns sharply to her, sending daggers through his eyes that she deflects with a smirk, daring him to argue back.
Kasui might have leverage, but Sachi was queen in her own domain. Debates were her specialty. "What happened is a very serious matter, I could've died if Kakashi didn't take me to Kasui to get healed, but—!" he turns serious. "Might I remind you that I, too, am a ninja. Accidents happen, and between shinobi the potential danger of a fatal blow increase exponentially. Kakashi might hate me, likewise to be honest, but he would never kill me on purpose."
Minato's hard stare softens, noticing something that Kakashi misses yet again. "You seem sure about your observation."
"Obviously. Kasui is my teammate, so his judgement is biased."
"Excuse me?!"
"But I won't deny that whatever we have going on has started to get out of hand." Minato and Shikaku lean over, listening intently. "I have a deal."
"Of course you do."
She ignores Kasui's snarky remarks and adds. "Kakashi fucked up, let him fix it."
"... how?"
"Glad you asked. You might have noticed, but I have my skull a little bit broken at the moment and there's a slight possibility that I might have a seizure and die…"
"Sachi."
"Right. My point is, let Kakashi take care of me until I'm better."
"... what?" Kakashi asks, bewildered, having found his voice. "What?"
"Are you serious?! He punched you like a walnut and you want him to take care of you? Hokage-sama, this is delirious rambling, she's not sane of mind."
"You want Kakashi to take care of you?"
"That's what I said, Hokage-sama. Might change our dynamic for a bit, see if Kakashi does not kill me before this week ends."
"So… we test if you two can exist in proximity without sending the other to the hospital?" Shikaku summarizes.
"Yep."
"Wonderful idea, approved."
"What? No! This is not—you bitch!"
Sachi lets herself be hauled by Kasui, gently, because he was not going to step on his healing work. Kakashi follows their discussion, curses and threats until their figures disappear out of the courtroom, Minato and Shikaku raising from their seats.
"What happened?"
"You've been appointed as a nurse, congratulations." Shikaku says with mirth behind his careful blank expression.
"Hokage-sama… this is not…"
"Kakashi, your other options is a demotion to genin or house arrest in the psychiatric ward. Kasui-san has enough records to execute you, and I don't take this lightly. I understand it's… unorthodox, but don't force my hand."
"Unorthodox, sounds like Sachi." the Nara pats his shoulder, saying. "She's just gotten you out of a lot of trouble, might want to thank her. Also, you should get started now, before Kasui comes back and brings the Council with him."
"But… how can I…?" How can I take care of someone else when I can't take care of myself? he wants to say but chokes.
"Try, Kakashi." his sensei pleads. "Sachi isn't that bad when you… get to know her."
He gives him a flat look.
"Good luck."
They both leave, and Kakashi feels even more lost than before.
What the fuck is he supposed to do now?
.
His life changing journey begins in the hospital.
Shizune is expecting him, ushering him into a room where Sachi, Kasui and Anko are using as a torture chamber. Kasui isn't happy in the slightest, seen in the pulsating vein in his neck that threatened to burst, Sachi's unimpressed pout and Anko rubbing her temples in the background.
Kakashi had the impression that this was commonplace for them.
"There you are." Sachi, the sly shit, says. Kasui glares at him, his hand clenching into a fist on reflex. "Ready to go home?"
He blinks slowly. "Home?"
"Oh for fucks sake." Anko grits out. "Kakashi, take Sachi to her place and make sure she doesn't get out until her skull is in one piece again."
"Technically—"
"Don't." Anko and Kasui say at the same time.
"Sachi can be discharged now." Shizune clarifies, used to team two's arguments. "But she's far from fit for work. She needs plenty of rest, food and not work for a week. You have to ensure she doesn't, hard as that might be." she mutters the last part.
"It's safe for her to…"
"Absolutely not." Kasui says, minding his tone for his contused teammate. "But there's little more I can do, and she's going to bitch in her room and scare my nurses."
Sachi grins. "They're cute though."
"I hope that's not a derogatory comment, Sachi-san" Shizune warns, fussing with a cupboard before taking out rolls of gauze, bandages and iodine.
"Of course not, Shizune-san." she gets up from the bed, still in the nurse uniform and Kasui's coat. "Can we go now, before Kasui snaps?"
Said man was moments away from it, taking a deep breath and steeling himself. He slapped one of his summons to her face, saying "You keep her at all times, if you do something to her, I'll know. No work, no caffeine, no seals," Kasui glares back at Kakashi, "and no spars."
"Not my first concussion."
"Contusion, you mean. Your brain is already fucked up, Sachi, I don't want it get any worse. Don't strain yourself for a week, understood?"
"Yes, yes." she kisses Kasui's forehead, right in the middle of his seal. "Thanks for healing me, darling."
"Don't bribe me with kisses, Sachi. Your slobber won't get you any favours."
"I know, I just like to make Shizune-san jealous."
"Not working, Sachi-san." the nurse tells her, good-naturedly. "I stand with him, don't overwork yourself. We don't like you around here."
Sachi takes the bag with whatever care package Shizune prepared for her. Kakashi was standing in the doorway awkwardly, Anko deciding to spare his pain by saying. "Your time to prove the world you know something else than crackin' skulls, Kakashi. Take the lady's bag and get her home, will you?"
"I can carry my bag just fine."
"Oh, so you admit that you don't need Kakashi?"
Sachi reconsiders, casting Kakashi a look before shoving the bag into his hands. "Don't put words in my mouth, darling. See you next time."
"There's not going to be—"
Sachi closes the door. "Let's get moving or Kasui is going to sic Shizune on us."
"Sachi… what are you doing?"
"Going to my house." she answers simply, waving at the triage nurses before getting out of the hospital.
Kakashi follows her, not taking his eyes from the bandages around her head. "Not that. What are you trying to do? I almost killed you."
"Kasui is coming from you." Sachi says in an ominous tone. "I know him, he won't stop. If you want to keep living you're going to play nice for a few days until he calms down."
"Why are you helping me? I—"
"Almost killed me, yes, I know." she points to her head. "Just, look, I'll explain it when we get to my house."
Kakashi picked on Sachi's wince, having doubts on how much she was truly fit from being away from the hospital. However, it was useless to argue with her, demonstrated with how Kasui failed to keep her in his domain and how she managed to get him out of Kasui's wrath with a few words.
"Um…" a thought strikes him. "Where… do you live?"
Until then, Kakashi hadn't had the need to know that. Sachi was a presence in his life that was just… there, like a very annoying fly. Somedays you could ignore it, doing whatever flies do, and the next you were trying to smash them with a magazine. It wasn't Kakashi's fault that Sachi was very good at keeping secrets in a village full of ninjas.
"Wow, Kakashi, do you ask that to every woman you try to kill?"
Kakashi glowers, Sachi chuckling at his side before entering the Hokage Tower. "No work, medic's orders."
"Just follow me."
They get into the entrance hall, various corridors spreading throughout the ground floor. The Hokage's office was on the top, while the Admin was on the first.
The usual crowd of the Hokage Tower, from paper ninjas to whatever poor soul needed to be there, stared at them, obviously on edge. Kakashi saw their eyes dart between them, seeing an uncomfortable-but-not-deranged Kakashi and a injured-more-than-usual Sachi. Then, they blanched, realizing that perhaps the rumours about a certain assassination attempt hadn't been full of shit like they usually were.
Sachi ignores them, only nodding to those that bow to her —why? — and going into a straight hallway that gave way to a door that Kakashi hasn't crossed before. Sachi pushes it, a glow spreading for a second before it opens.
"Seals?"
"No lockpicking that way."
Sachi raises a hand to shield her eyes, the sun blinding her. Beyond that door is a garden, protected with a wall of Hashirama Trees with twisting branches, leaving a spot in the canopies for the sun to bask on the shiny grass beneath.
At the far end of the clearing there's a giant house, old but well taken care of, with several floors that gives the impression of a temple rather than a house.
"Not that one." Sachi tells him, diverting his gaze to the side.
On the side there's a smaller house, grown from the ground like the neighbouring mausoleum. They're connected by a wooden platform, acting as a bridge for the stream that flowed underneath.
A beautiful, old, two story building that ends with pointy roofs with red tiles. It doesn't take long to realize where Kakashi was.
"I didn't know that you lived in the Hokage Residence."
"Not many do. You'll want to put a hand here," she takes his hand, Kakashi fighting a flinch, as she puts it on a shiny surface near the doorframe. "can't take care of me if you're dead."
Sachi fumbles with the seals, Kakashi tuning that part out but keeping an eye out in case Sachi dropped dead or had a seizure. Who knows what could happen.
"There, you won't be zapped to death. Mind your shoes."
They enter, Kakashi reminded of his old home. Sliding wooden doors, the scent of the tatami, the earthy tones of the home broken by the old paintings decorating the walls…
And Sachi's presence. Kakashi's senses go haywire, surrounded by so much… of her. Her scent, clean with irony notes permeates every surface, Sachi directing him through a long corridor, ending in a living room of sorts connected to the kitchen.
"Welcome to my humble abode, you can leave the bag on the couch."
Kakashi does, not really sure what to do with himself. The living room is spacious, big windows letting the sunlight filter through, illuminating the soft browns of the room. There was a big table to the side, and a smaller one in the center of the big couches.
The impression he got from seeing Sachi's home was… empty. Not because of the amount of items, because Kakashi could see books on every inch of the room, but… the house had been built with a large family in mind, or receiving many guests at once. Too large for one person.
"Are you hungry? I can make you something."
"Sachi."
"Okay, drink?"
"Sachi."
She sighs, taking a seat on the stool near the kitchen island. "You want to talk, fine. Let's talk."
Kakashi doesn't move from his spot in the middle of the room, not trusting anything. He had no doubt that there were many nasty traps set around the house, and he wasn't particularly inclined to try them out.
"Is something wrong, Kakashi?"
"Well, for starters I was just trialed for caving your head with my fist."
"I'm not referring to that. Is something bothering you, Kakashi? I know you don't like me, but I stand for what I've said."
"That I won't kill you?"
"Hmm, more like can't. Whatever our issues are, we are on the same side. Comrades and what you have it, and I know your hobbies don't include killing fellow Leaf ninja. So, let me rephrase it." she pins him with a neutral glance, a little bit off to the side. "Did something happen that made you flee at three in the morning to fight me?"
"Not any of your business."
"I think it is, actually. Do you want to talk about it?"
"No."
"Very well. Then make sure it doesn't happen again, not to me, but anyone. It's good to relieve tension, don't look at me like that, I mean sparring. Whatever is going on, it spooked you enough to deliver a killing blow."
"... you were supposed to duck."
"Not nice to blame the victim." she says, not meaning anything by it. "I'm just saying, Kakashi, that if there's something that you need help with…"
"What, are you going to help me?"
Her face is schooled down. "Maybe."
"For what price? It's not that easy with you, Sachi, it never is."
Kakashi feels the aggression rise up again, his blood strangely heating up at being near her, enduring her interrogation. Instead of that wall of indifference, laced with a challenge, he finds exhaustion in her features.
"You really believe that." Kakashi doesn't have time to ask what she means before she says. "I understand that you don't trust me, yeah, scoff all you want, but we're together for the time being."
"Why?"
"Because you were nearly sent to the gutters today by my teammate, that's why. Contrary to what you think of me, Kakashi, I don't think you're that incompetent to be pulled off. A little bit touched in the head, yes, but who wouldn't after everything you went through?"
Kakashi's throat constricts. "You don't know nothing about me."
"I don't want to fight you Kakashi, and I'm not patronizing you. What I am saying is that you're going through a rough patch, and it's not fair that you're taking a harsh punishment for a human mistake."
"Fair?" he asks, incredulous. "Since when you are fair?"
"You'll be surprised. Anyway, you only need to pretend for a few days that you don't want to kill me and then we can pretend this never happened."
"That's your plan? Hang out together so people see that I don't kill you when I've got the chance?"
"Pretty much, yeah. And before you say anything, I am contused, so give me a break. It's the first thing that came to mind when I heard you were in court."
That makes Kakashi pause. "But why help me? I thought you hated me."
"Who knows? Maybe I care about you, maybe I like to see you suffer at my hand instead of Kasui, think what you want." she gets up slowly. "The thing is, we have a week to spend together, so you can go and bring a change of clothes or something while I take a nap."
"What if I don't want to? Have you even asked what part I want to have in whatever you're planning?"
Sachi's expression is unreadable before it falls in the usual scowl she has reserved just for him. "I'm not keeping you hostage, darling. You can go, but Kasui is going to know, and he will demote you right to the Academy, if not pumping you full of sedatives and lock you up in Psych with the Yamanaka. You can choose whatever you want, hell, maybe you come up with a better idea. Don't like my plan, go ahead and do something else."
She turns away, going deeper into the house. "I'm going to take a nap, you know where the door is.