Inuzuka Sachi and Hatake Kakashi hate each other.
That was the general consensus. You could ask the ramen vendor or the ANBU Commander, and they would all say that they absolutely loathe the other's guts, and that if you saw them together, better get out of their way before they are pulling kunais; and that wasn't a joke. It was undeniable that those two couldn't stand the other, and they had no qualms about reminding the world why they were on such bad terms. There had been instances in which rookies went crying to the Hokage because an Inuzuka woman and a weird dude with grey hair where trying to murder each other in the middle of the street.
Ninjas were murderers, killers and liars, but they had at least one grain of morality in them; Sachi and Kakashi didn't.
The relationship between them was psychiatric material, observed in the Yamanaka that carefully studied their behaviour and scratched their heads. Hatake Kakashi was known all across the Continent and the Islands, his features hard to forget unless you were his target, then you were dead. Kakashi always finished his missions, even if it killed him; especially then. ANBU Captain, his record was enough to put shivers down your spine and mind your tongue before speaking to him. He was an exemplary ninja, unhinged but leashed, he was the Hound of Leaf; admired by his peers, avoided by his enemies, feared by both.
Inuzuka Sachi was the example of a highly motivated Nara with a bastard streak to it. Genius cut it short, prodigy a gross understatement, she was known not for her strength or her body count, but for her mind. Her name was addressed with awe and a twinge of suspicion, for she knew too much and said too little. The Watchtower of Leaf, she was responsible for the Barbican that kept the village as an impenetrable fortress, the very same that ended a war by winning the dick measuring contest between the Elemental Countries.
Two respected people, pillars of Leaf in their own right, their achievements had brought much more than individual fame, cementing the notion that Leaf was not to be trifled with. Titans, a man that could take down any target regardless of the circumstances and a woman that was unmatched in terms of intelligence.
From those descriptions, one would believe that Sachi and Kakashi behaved themselves, maintained their reputation by acting as the legends they were and certainly not engaged in petty fights.
" —shrivelled dick!" Sachi shrieked, pulling the kunai beside her head with more curses. "Insufferable puckered asshole, why don't you crawl back from the fuckin' gutters of Water where you slithered your way—" she threw it back at him, yelling at the top of her lungs. "OUT!"
Or maybe not.
Kakashi jumps to the rooftops, mocking a salute to Sachi with a smug expression behind his mask. "My, my, Sachi-chan, why are you so mean to me?"
The street was filled with promises of what mean meant to Sachi and how she was going to demonstrate with painfully creative methods. The usual crowd had grown accustomed to the dramatic showdowns of the idiots of the village. They knew better than to intervene, letting them get it out of their system or risk them taking out their frustration on the mortal population.
As it seemed, Kakashi had the lead today. Their fights, or spars, as they liked to call them when they excused themselves in front of the Hokage, was a tie in most cases. One or the other coming on top by the random blessings of lady luck. Leaf had normalized Sachi and Kakashi's fits to the point that they instigated them just so they could see them go at each other's throats, for the fun of it or in search of fortune. Sachi and Kakashi were responsible for the bankruptcy of many of Leaf's people, having put their money on the wrong one during the weekly bets.
Today was no different, in the sense that Kakashi had a bone to pick and Sachi was only glad to beat him with it.
"Why so angry, Sachi-chan? Didn't get my joke?"
Oh, how Kakashi loved to push Sachi's buttons. The Inuzuka bastard, for all her greatness, had a very serious problem: no one was allowed to question her intelligence.
"Just like you didn't get my gift last year?" Sachi says in retribution.
But she delivered just the same.
Last year, during Kakashi's birthday that Kurenai had organized for him, Sachi decided it was only fitting for her to give Kakashi a glass eyeball.
"To replace your old one, might as well go for the red look," Sachi told him, just before Kakashi flipped the table over and started choking her.
By Kakashi's silence, he remembered. Where Sachi's insecurities lay in hard earned wisdom, Kakashi's was around the teammates he had lost in the war and the fault he had in them.
Not that Sachi gave a fuck.
"Here we go again," one tired soul murmured. Sachi and Kakashi take their fight to a training ground to officially beat the crap out of the other until they either die or pass out. Whatever came first.
The Hokage himself could do nothing about it, not when his secretary and his student were involved, and most importantly not when their fights moved the village's money like a river did with a paper boat.
Although they had grown used to associating violence whenever Sachi and Kakashi were in the same room, sometimes in the same district; what they didn't understand is, why? What happened between those two that made them hate the other so much that they couldn't stand being near without breaking into a brawl?
The answer was very simple.
.
The mission went fine, or as good as it goes with Hound in it. He looked over the brand new ceramic, their wearers suppressing the trembles of adrenaline, fear and disgust, failing miserably, and following his lead through the tunnels back home.
Hound-S1 was rumoured to be the best captain the ANBU Battalion had ever seen, but his work was not easier because of it. Of S rank and first of his mask, Hound was an expert in tracking and assasination. Aspirants to the same kind of role, or just unlucky bastards that pissed off the Commander enough to send them to his team, were put through a trial by fire, accompanying Hound on his assignments.
Hound should be bothered by it, how the sight of blood and gore had stopped twisting his guts, or how numb his ears have grown to the screams, begs and cries for help. He knew it was bad, because when you stopped caring, you became a monster good for nothing else.
But Hound had long stopped knowing what being human was like.
"Dismissed," Hound orders, watching them wobble their way to the showers and try to get the memory of blood out of their hands. It never worked, but they were still young enough to keep trying.
At his side, Viper's mask caught the glint of the fluorescent light of the tunnels, somehow appearing darkly amused despite the impersonal smooth surface. "Who you think is gonna quit?"
"Isn't it fucked up to joke about it?" Hound questions.
"Sure is," Viper agrees cheerfully. "Who?"
"Wolf and Lizard," he says after a moment. They had frozen while killing their targets, a grave error beacause they hadn't been able to cut through the vocal cords to stop their targets from wailing.
"Not Racoon? She puked when it was her turn."
"If she gets over it she might make it. We'll see next time."
She snorts. "Not five minutes home and you're already going for the next one. Careful there, soldier, or you might find yourself with a Yamanaka at your doorstep."
Damned shrinks. "Been there, done that. Do you want something?"
Viper shrugs. "Many things, but you aren't going to give 'em to me. You might be a suicidal bastard, but I'm not there yet. I don't want a call in no less than two weeks, or I'm sending the mind fuckers over."
"Thanks," Hound deadpans.
She flips him the bird as she leaves, Viper following the team to the showers. Hound was reluctant to end his work for the day, the month-long mission not enough to relieve the itch at the back of his head.
Viper might have been joking, but he wasn't fooled enough to not believe that she wouldn't follow through on it. Yamanakas had been on his case since he was a genin, but they were getting more persuasive in their threats to have him discharged from ANBU if he didn't follow up on his psychiatric evaluations. On that same line, the hospital was due two decades worth of check ups, but Hound knew that Kasui would not oppose the idea of him dying outside of his hospital as a result.
Still, Hound was starting to get worried about not being worried at all.
He decides to end his day, take it easy. Good he was, but also expendable. The Hokage was a signature away from taking the mask, and displaying even more unhinged behaviour was dangerous.
How would he cope, if not with killing? How could he live with himself if he wasn't a ninja?
That terrified him more than the withered emotions in his chest. Hound needed to be a ninja, because there wasn't anything left for him besides that. Showering quickly, he discards the mask and the uniform, the latter going to laundry and the former into his personal retaining scroll. The scroll is a little bit singed, but well taken care of. Such an item would have taken years of wages to buy, but he hadn't spent a single ryo on it.
("Here," Sachi puts a silver scroll with black edging in his hand. "Put your hand on the first page and channel some chakra, I need to tweak it."
"Did you steal this?" he asked, bewildered. Then, "Why are you giving me this?"
She huffs, her golden eyes rolling for a second. "I made it for you, idiot. Put your hand, yeah, and some chakra." She takes his hand, skin to skin and he swears sparks fly from the contact. "There. It's tuned to your chakra, be careful who you're giving it to. Also, charge it from time to time."
"But why?"
Because nothing came free to Kakashi, nothing was kind or honest. Sachi quirked an eyebrow, looking exasperated and fond at the same time. Kakashi knew solitude, he knew pain. He had taken the eye of his best friend and he put a hand through the other one. What could he have but not suffering? They were at war, he wasn't expecting nothing but death.
"Because I want to, Kakashi." Sachi curls his hands around the scroll, pushing it gently to his chest. "Don't lose it, or you'll have to come back to get another one.")
Kakashi puts the scroll in the pocket of his vest. The war had ended before he met his end, and he hadn't lost the scroll. Climbing the tunnels to the surface, he squints against the sun filtering through the canopies. He could have taken the tunnels directly underneath his apartment, but he was restless.
Restlessness happened often to him, the anxiety of not being on the field making him pace the village until his mandatory resting period was over or he could bribe the Commander to let him go out early. He didn't enjoy killing as much as having something to do, a task that required all his attention. A slip in focus would mean death or a great deal of pain, Kakashi forced to forget everything but his mission.
And, when the mission was over and his duty fulfilled, he came back to a tranquil village that gritted his nerves raw. Ever since the war ended, Leaf had changed. Before, a hidden village was filled with barely controlled chaos. There weren't as many timetables or squared schedules, every shinobi coming and going in a whirlwind of spontaneity. If you wanted to go on a mission, you just had to slip by Admin and that was it. They didn't sneer at you when you passed by too often, and more importantly, they didn't turn you away if you desired to spend as much time out of the walls as possible.
Now, it was all neatly organized and categorized. The cracks that allowed you to bypass the mandatory resting periods had been mended and fused together. Any attempt at bribery gets you a month extra of leave and a warning sent to the Yamanaka. If you pissed the Admin clerks enough, they would put you on suicide watch.
Not that Kakashi would know about it.
In the end, he goes to the Jōnin HQ, a street down the Hokage Tower. The ruckus is familiar, the ever present yells and threats coming from those playing cards, the thump, thump, thump of kunais meeting wood, thrown by bored jōnin catching a break. Kakashi throws a hand up, muttering a greeting as the others salute him lazily.
Asuma is smoking by the window, leaning on the still while Kurenai is sitting on the table that Genma, Raidō and Gekkō were losing their money to Inuzuka Obu. There were others, occupying the ever dusty and oddly stained loveseats, all with their backs to the wall, of course. There was a coffee pot somewhere, the smell unmistakable along with the iron they all carried and the usual stench of Asuma's tobacco that permeated every surface he was ever near.
"Lazy day, Hatake?" Asuma welcomes him.
Kurenai smiles at Kakashi as he gets close. "Don't mind him, Kakashi. Welcome back."
"Good to be back," he lied, leaning on the wall by Asuma's side. "Anything interesting these days?"
"Guy beat his record," Kurenai notes.
"Which one?"
"The running-laps-all-day, he's going for two thousand."
Ah, that explained why Guy hadn't tracked Kakashi down. Guy had a sixth sense when it came to Kakashi's return to the village. It didn't matter what time it was, Guy always found him anywhere and welcomed him with a challenge until he was sure Kakashi wasn't going to hang himself. It spoke more of Gai's willpower than Kakashi's will to live.
"Ah-ha! Suck it up, asshole!" Genma exclaimed, throwing his hand on the table.
"Not so fast—" Raidō chips in, his cards ending on top of the pile. "I've got you."
"Um, how about this?" Gekkō says, showing his cards timidly, although his smile was anything but.
The Inuzuka in the room breaks out into a grin, a vicious thing full of teeth as he lets his cards fall. "Read 'em and weep, boys."
Full house. Ouch.
Obu takes the pot, laughing as the others groan and sputter about another round. "Sorry boys. Good luck next time," he winks at them, getting up. Chaiiro, his ninken, raises as well, yawning and shaking her fur.
"Come on! That was my lunch money for the whole week!" Genma curses.
Obu shrugs. "Should've thought twice before gettin' on the pool."
"You cheated—"
"Be nice, Genma," Kurenai admonished. It was a given that ninjas would cheat. "Obu-san is right, you should have been careful."
Obu bows, pocketing the money. "Thanks, darlin'." Asuma's mood darkens by Kakashi's side, the Inuzuka noticing instantly and smiling cheerfully. "Gotta go, let's play another day."
"Yeah sure. I'll take that back!"
The Inuzuka leaves, only getting to the door before someone else appears.
"Ah, Obu. Done bullying the jōnin?"
Her voice is smooth, and goes straight through Kakashi's skull like a well aimed kunai. A tall woman, her hair tied into a ponytail comes into view by the door frame, having exited the Jōnin Commander's office from the upper floor. She's dressed in a dark tunic, her obi red as the brassard around her left arm.
She turns, her eyes meeting his directly. They're the shade of molten gold, impossibly bright and filled with malice. Kakashi's body tenses, reflexes making his hand go to the pouch on his thigh. The room falls silent, the constant murmur dying as tension rises.
Like the moments before lightning strikes, Sachi's smile is ozone and thunder.
"You're late, Kakashi," Sachi accuses, her voice dropping lower as she tilts her chin up. Kakashi wants nothing more than to wipe that smug smile off her face with his fist.
It begins like that. A comment, an offhanded remark that somehow turns all his inhibitions to mush while his violent instincts roar in his veins. He can't get enough, not until he finishes her. Sachi is the bane of Kakashi's existence, proof of his faulty self-control and the darkest parts of his soul that he ignores in favour of pretending to be human.
But Sachi's eyes see through his bullshit like a crystal ball, the fucking witch. She knows exactly what kind of disaster he is, and he doesn't like that Sachi knows. It's judgement and mockery, Sachi's tongue strikes true anytime she uses it, and his hackles rise up to make her shut up, to make her look away, to fucking stop—
Asuma puts a hand on Kakashi's shoulder.
"Atta pup," Obu says, reacting to the crackling of chakra in the room. "Too early lookin' for a fight. Place to be, 'member?"
Not even the Inuzuka were immune to the catastrophic aftermath of Sachi's and Kakashi's fights. Today the former is in a merciful mood as she shakes her head, breaking eye contact. Just like that, the lightning never comes, dissolving into harmless sparks as Sachi remembers whatever she was there for. "Yes, yes. See you around, kids."
Kakashi doesn't relax until her presence fades from the hallway, the lingering chakra tickling his senses and driving him mad.
"Sage's balls, that was close," Raidō mutters, unclenching his hands from the hand seal of a body flicker.
"Do you need to do that every damn time you two cross paths?" Genma complains, craning his neck from his seat to glare halfheartedly at Kakashi. "Can't you fuck it out like the rest of us sane people?"
Kurenai slapped Genma up the head, gently, because she was kind like that. "Genma!"
"Not all of us resolve our problems with sex, man."
"Or booze."
"Or drugs."
"That's uncalled for," Genma hisses, kicking Raidō under the table.
"Um… what happened?"
The room zeroes on Gekkō, not a rookie but young still. Kakashi shrugs Asuma's hand off his shoulder; he wasn't a dog in need of a muzzle. "Nothing."
"And now he's in a bad mood," Genma throws his hands in the air. "Man, you've to get your head sorted. Hayate, my amazing and naive friend, what you saw is what happens when those two idiots see each other. It's a miracle they haven't started blasting kunais."
Gekkō looked confused, frowning but not meeting Kakashi's eyes. "... Is… Has something happened?"
"I don't know, has something happened, Kakashi?" The room is now regarding the grey haired man, silently fuming in his place. "It's your chance to come clean, you know?"
"There's nothing," Kakashi repeats, no less biting.
Kakashi hated the fact that everyone assumed that something had happened between him and Sachi. It wasn't as if they had a nasty breakup or had unfinished business. Kakashi and Sachi knew, from the first moment they met, that they hated each other.
("Who are you?" The girl whispers, and it's full of desperation and hope, her eyes reflecting the sun directly into his. "Who are you?"
Something breaks in her tone, so fragile and delicate, too soft for the hard edges of his broken soul. She has no right to look at him like that, to slither her way through his walls— There's much more in her words, Kakashi not coming near to deciphering them. They hurt, a special kind of pain that comes from longing and recognition.
Kakashi looks back at the girl with golden eyes, charcoal hair and red fangs, whose voice carries a story that resembles his own. Hate. Fear. Aversion pops up in his mind, just as a thought crosses through it. 'Who is her?')
"Bullshit, Kakashi. I saw your fight in the Chūnin Exams," Genma whistles. "That was a fight to remember. Are you telling me nothing happened for you two to literally go for the throat?"
Asuma chuckles. "Right, I forgot about that!"
Gekkō seemed lost, Genma patting his head saying. "Sorry, forgot there are people who don't know about that fight in the Chūnin Exams. Basically, Kakashi and that freaky Inuzuka shook the entire stadium to its hinges."
"Dad was so pissed," Asuma says, recalling the heavy smoking and sighs of his father when going over the budget for repairs. "Sachi blew a hole to the basement, and took down two pillars."
Kakashi remembered all too well. That was the first and last time they fought with more than two kunais. The Third was very adamant when he made them chūnin that they weren't allowed to engage in spars with anything but regular weapons. After they collapsed the blacksmith's weapon reserves, the Third had changed his previous deal to only two kunai.
Sachi could blow Kakashi up to bits without moving from her pretty tower, and Kakashi could probably blast said tower with a fire jutsu the size of the Hokage Monument. He repressed a sigh. Those kinds of thoughts were why the Third took measures.
"Who won?"
"Kakashi, I believe," Kurenai answered.
The village hadn't seen that kind of destruction in a friendly spar. Sachi had used all manner of tricks and Kakashi had powered through them with sheer spite and dexterity. They were powerful even then, young as they were, and they had found their match in the stadium. Nevertheless, it served them well enough, as they were both promoted to chūnin; if not to avoid another tournament with them in it.
"It was a draw," Kakashi states.
"Nah, man. You put Sachi through a wall, knocked her out so badly that they hauled her directly to Tsunade-sama," Genma teased him, taking great satisfaction in his glare. "Thought you killed her, you know?"
Kakashi does know. He had been struck with a sickening feeling until they told him she was alive. He had put every drop of chakra on that kick, and he resisted enough to see the medics peel Sachi off the wall.
(The girl, Sachi, was hanging lifeless from the arms of the medics. Blood was dripping from her mouth, and he could see half her face turning worrying shades of purple.
'I killed her,' Kakashi thought, and the satisfaction of winning died down suddenly after he realized what he had done.
Somehow, thinking, 'I killed Sachi, I killed her,' made it even worse.)
"I did not," Kakashi defends himself. "I went down too, it was a draw."
And he was still bitter about it. Sachi had played him right until the end, and it took a possibly deathly kick to avoid that crazy mind of hers browbeat him at his own game.
"Whatever you say, man. What I'm saying, though, is that if you see this dumbass." Genma points a finger at Kakashi, "and that freak, you better run."
"Sachi-san isn't a freak, Genma." Trust Kurenai to have a heart of gold. "She might be strange sometimes, but she's loyal to this village. The Hokage wouldn't have chosen her as his advisor if he didn't trust her."
"I agree to disagree," Raidō piped in. "Creeps me out, damn. She probably has dirt on everyone, who knows what she knows—"
"Something we should know, Raidō?"
Raidō stuck his tongue at Asuma. "I'm just saying… Isn't it a little weird? I mean, she's smart. Whatever. I can probably beat her any day. But! What does she do, exactly? Isn't she too young to be the Hokage's advisor?"
"I hear envy there, Raidō," Kurenai says, propping herself up from the table. "Sachi-san ended the war."
He rolled his eyes. "She never set foot on the field. And everyone could've done it! It's not our fault that we don't know seals. Which, by the way, where did she learn them from?"
"Don't trash talk your comrades, Raidō, you might get yourself into trouble." Kurenai gives another smile to Kakashi, although more serious this time. "Don't let her get to you, Kakashi."
"I would never."
.
Kakashi lasts a week.
Guy had entertained him enough for a lifetime, Kakashi indulging him in a challenge to see who could climb the Hokage Monument the fastest starting from the lower level. And if Guy knew Kakashi had used a shortcut, Guy didn't acknowledge it and made punishment laps for the following day.
Leaving Kakashi awfully alone.
His apartment, devoid of any personality other than the dog beds and Mr. Ukki, is closing in on him. His heart is beating fast in his chest, the sweat of his last nightmare cooling uncomfortably on his skin and making his shirt stick grossly to his body. Those are his ghosts. No matter what he tries. What he does. They always come back to haunt him.
Rin calls to him, in that wretched whisper that were her last words, and without fail, Kakashi's left eye — that is not even his to begin with— starts throbbing in his skull.
He needs to get out, because if he doesn't, he is going to start screaming. Kakashi doesn't bother using the door, taking the window and jumping into a branch. He doesn't know where he is going, the chill of buttfuck AM going straight to his clenched muscles; but Kakashi doesn't need to.
The ANBU Commander wouldn't let Kakashi take a mission so early and not in the state he was in, his presence all but vetoed until his break was over. Yet, Kakashi was willing to try, even if it was just to use the reinforced training grounds of the HQ to get the uneasiness out of his system before he went insane.
("I'll… b-become your eye…" followed by, "...Ka—ka...shi…")
Kakashi flickers through the branches, climbing to the upper level until he sees the Hokage Monument. He can hear the voices of his teammates loud and clear, reproaching him how he let them die, how he killed them, and then didn't dare to die in the war. Kakashi was a coward, he was a spineless coward that doesn't even deserve death—
Deep in his self loathing, Kakashi senses a familiar chakra signature. It's so sudden that makes him stop in his tracks, squidding to a halt on a roof.
There she is. Without a care in the world. Kakashi doesn't wonder why she is up so late, what she is doing in the main plaza, or where she is headed. It's mindless. A reflex. A cry for help—
Kakashi takes a kunai and throws it at her. Sachi sidesteps it easily, but doesn't move to retaliate. Her eyes are still bright in the night.
"Isn't it too early for a spar, Kakashi?" Sachi asks, twirling the kunai in her hand. "Is something wrong?"
"Do you want to spar or not?" Kakashi demands with more force than usual.
Sachi ponders for a moment, and Kakashi hates how her disgusting yellow eyes see right through him. She can see all his problems. All his sins. All his faults. He can't endure it, he can't accept it, because—
"Make it quick, I want to sleep tonight too," Sachi reluctantly accepts.
That's how it starts. They move their spar to a training ground nearby, because it wasn't wise to wake the entire upper level in one of their fits during an ungodly hour in the morning. Kakashi doesn't wait for Sachi to prepare, the woman deflecting his swipe with strained grace before she punches him.
Kakashi feels alive in those moments; almost at peace. There isn't space for anything else but slaps, punches and kicks. Sachi isn't good at being a ninja, that Kakashi knows, but she is damn good at using tricks.
They fight until Kakashi loses track of time and, for that matter, the incesant cries inside his brain that accuse him. Curse him. Belittle him for what he has done, what he has become— Kakashi kicks harder, going for the sensitive places with the kunais that they trade between the two of them. Were Sachi any lesser the kunoichi that she was, she would be long dead.
And that's the unspoken truce they have. Kakashi and Sachi understood that they were equals, someone that they could go against with all they had and know that the other wouldn't budge, wouldn't lose. A perfect opponent. Kakashi made up for Sachi's lack of shinobi skills and Sachi for the outrageous combat strategies. Keeping them sharp, it was a privilege to have someone who would beat you to the ground but not kill you, unlike out in the field.
Sachi was a bastard. Her tricks and twists gave Kakashi tunnel vision on his best days, where the world faded at the edges until Sachi was all he saw, all he felt. There weren't nightmares, comments or sneers in his head, or the clawing pull of death that promised to silence his ghosts.
But that morning, when Kakashi was so close to getting lost, he forgot their deal. The night and the shadows wrap around the training field, and in the brief moment that Sachi falters, Kakashi is already delivering a finishing blow.
Crack.
Thump.
"Wha…?"
Kakashi's rage dissipates as he recovers his breath, an unsettling realization dawning on him. Sachi never gave him a break, not a second to pull himself together because she had anticipated his following twenty moves and came up with her own to counter them.
But—
They never came.
"Sachi?" Kakashi calls, the light of the moon barely seeping through the leaves to help him see where his partner had gone. "Sachi?" Was it one of her tricks? Was she going to drop down from the heavens? Had she run away?
And then, Kakashi looks down. At his feet, there's a body, crumpled so badly that he struggles to recognize the form.
"... S-Sachi…?"
Sachi doesn't answer because she isn't breathing.
.