Kagome felt tired.
It was a familiar feeling.
But in her reclined seat, Kagome was made more aware of how bone achingly exhausted she truly felt.
She couldn't remember the last time she'd sat down, or slept for that matter.
A chubby man in a lab coat covering his regular shinobi gear opened the door, he was carrying a clipboard and a pen. He wore a jovial smile, she knew it was forced, or well, it was something he had clearly practiced.
"Ah Kagome-San! Nice to meet you, officially. I'm Genba Akimichi." The apparent Doctor introduced himself.
Kagome frowned. "You're too blonde to be an Akimichi." Kagome stated, plainly.
Genba laughed kindheartedly, scratching the back of his head.
"My mom was an Akimichi, but my dad was a Yamanaka. I took my mom's name when she died." Genba explained, in a manner that made it clear he didn't mind answering her.
" 'Must've been awkward to change names like that." Kagome commented.
Genba chuckled again, taking his own seat opposite her. Kagome lazily scanned his movements, everything he did seemed to be with the purpose of seeming harmless. That took a lot of practice, Kagome pinned him at a mid-range Chunin level.
He was either working in the hospital temporarily or maybe he'd taken permanent leave of duty, assuming he wasn't faking the limp in his left leg. Kagome didn't care to figure out which.
"Let's not open that can of worms today. Long story short, neither clan particularly like me for choosing one name over the other, either at birth, or now." Genba surmised, waving his pen in her general direction.
The simple act made Kagome tense subtly, it wasn't a weapon, but she wasn't under the illusion that she couldn't be killed by a pen, if someone pushed it hard enough through her skull.
"Anyway, this meeting's about you, Kagome, not me. So, I have a few questions here, but you don't need to really answer anything you're uncomfortable with. These sessions are mandatory, but your participation is as optional as you want." Genbu said, in a professional manner.
Kagome raised an eyebrow after hearing the latter half of Genba's sentence.
"Are you supposed to tell me I don't need to talk?" Kagome asked incredulously.
Genba smiled. "It's best to let you know ahead of time, you're not under any obligation to answer me." He explained.
Kagome nodded gently, it went without saying that she didn't really care whether she was or wasn't expected to answer the man in front of her. Her chair was comfy though, and she was in a good mood.
"Well… Let's get started then." Genba said, tapping his pen against the clipboard.
The noise of a page flicking over was the only thing that Kagome heard as she closed her eyes and exhaled, fully reclining into her chair.
"So, do you remember the first time you were brought to Konoha?" Genba asked.
Kagome internally winced.
Smoke filled the air.
It was everywhere, she couldn't breath.
For the longest time all she could do was cough and choke, on the air she needed so badly.
Screams and cries filled the sky too.
Between the smoke and the roaring flames it was hard to make out anything. From context she could tell, obviously, the village was on fire. Everyone was running and screaming, and the roof was currently pinning her to the floor.
Kagome's only concern was finding her sister, but that wasn't really going well for her at the moment. She hadn't made much progress with the thatch roof squashing her to the floor.
She didn't want to think about what had happened to her parents, they slept downstairs, and right now she could see the dirt floor in front of her, she could touch it with her hand from where she lay. The house had completely collapsed.
"Kagomi!? Kagomi!" She cried out, calling desperately.
Someone heard her cries, but unfortunately it wasn't her sister.
Sandalled feet stepped by, kicking up dust near her face. She couldn't look up, but even she could tell it was an adult in front of her.
"Poor kid. Don't worry, it's over now." The gravelly, male voice said above her, whoever the man was, his tone wasn't reassuring.
She could see his legs change stance and the man grunted, as if he put his weight into a downward swing. A swishing noise sounded.
Followed by a heavy thunk.
"Ack!"
A kunai knife fell to the floor, just out of her small arms reach, and then the man himself fell to his knees, folding over the top of her.
Kagome screeched and screamed, thrashing as hard as she could but she couldn't shift the vested man's body off of her. Slowly however, he tipped to the side, but not by her own strength. A feminine voice groaned as the unconscious body flipped off of her.
The other person crouched down.
Amber eyes met amber eyes.
"Hey sis." The crouched figure spoke gently, the screams and the fire were far away now, Kagome could only see Kagomi, her big sister. Nothing else really mattered when Kagomi was with her.
"Let's get this roof off you." Kagomi said, like it was the simplest thing on the planet to do. She got to work as quickly as she could. Kagome didn't know how long she lay there, pinned down by the roof, but the whole time all she could think about was how much she loved her sister.
Kagomi tossed the rubble aside, bit by bit until finally there was only a large panel directly on top of Kagome.
"Alright, 'Mei, this bit's the heaviest, I'm gonna lift it and I need you to crawl as fast as you can out of there, can you do that for me?" Kagomi asked the question, as if there weren't any problems if she couldn't do it. Kagome nodded with a toothy smile.
"' Atta girl, alright, on three ok?" Kagomi asked.
Again, Kagome nodded.
"Ok, one, two… Three!-" Kagomi heaved with all her strength and the panel of thatch pressed against Kagome's back was lifted, Kagome gasped in pain. Having something so heavy lifted off her body hurt more than she was prepared for. Disregarding the pain, Kagome crawled forward as fast as she could, escaping the rubble of their home.
Kagomi dropped the piece of roof immediately, breathing heavily as she fell backward, their amber eyes met again as they both rested. Kagomi grinned at Kagome and Kagome tried to imitate her big sister, she always did.
It didn't do much to lessen the situation they were currently in, but Kagomi hated to see her sister panic.
"Well, we have to go, 'Mei. We can't really stay here anymore, can we?" Kagomi said with a laugh, gesturing to the collapsed building behind them.
"W-what about mom and dad?" Kagome asked, her bottom lip trembled.
Kagomi's face went dark and she turned away for a moment to compose herself. She got up and walked over to her sister slowly, she reached down and cupped her face gently.
"They… They didn't make it out in time, they wouldn't want us to die here too." Kagome paused for a moment, sucking in a breath.
"The village is still under attack, we need to go 'Mei. We're in serious danger the longer we stay here." Kagomi explained as curtly and calmly as she could, but she still couldn't stop her own voice from wavering as she said it.
"B-but there's ninja in the leaf village… They'll come to help soon!" Kagome retorted.
Kagomi sighed.
"I don't see any leaf ninja here, do you?" Kagomi asked, waving her arms, almost exasperated.
"There's no need to worry though, 'Mei, I knocked out whoever that asshole was, so I can with anyone else too!" Kagomi said, pumping her arm and placing her other hand on her bicep.
Kagomi walked over to the slumped over man from earlier, picking up the small timber post she'd used to club the back of his head, as well as picking up the kunai he had dropped.
Kagomi pointed at the body with the post in her hand. A headband tied to his shoulder indicated he was from the village hidden in the rocks.
"See, even if they're ninja, I can keep us safe." Kagomi said with pseudo confidence.
In reality she had no idea how the man hadn't heard her approach from behind, let alone how she'd put enough force into the strike to knock him out.
Kagomi handed Kagome the kunai and helped the younger girl to her feet. For a moment it looked like she was fine, but after a second of no support, Kagome's legs collapsed from under her. She tried to get up again, but to no avail.
Kagome whimpered.
"Don't worry, 'Mei-" Kagomi started as she struggled to lift her younger sister. She eventually got the girl onto her back, arms wrapped underneath the little girl's legs as support.
"-Say bye to mom and dad, we're leaving." Kagomi said, again, her voice wavered a little.
Kagome tried not to cry, she really did. "B-bye." Kagome whimpered out, it wasn't the most powerful send off but she couldn't manage to do any better, crying as much as she was.
Kagomi carried her all the way. All the way to their new, far too welcoming home. Of course it took days of pain, exhaustion and hunger, but not once did Kagomi waver or halt.
She collapsed the moment she saw the gates.
The two shinobi stationed at the gate ushered them in quickly. Two orphans of the third shinobi war were brought into Konoha.
Kagome shuffled in her chair a little, remembering the events. She masked her discomfort well, she imagined.
"We used to live in a village on the outskirts of Konoha's border, apparently it was a big supply line or something like that. It got attacked. I don't remember what happened, I was five at the time." She lied. The memory was so powerful and vivid in her mind that she couldn't let go of it, no matter how hard she tried.
There was silence in the room as Genba wrote something down on the clipboard.
"We?" He asked.
Kagome frowned. "Yeah, me and my sister, Kagomi. We arrived at Konoha together." Kagome answered.
"What about your parents?" Genba asked.
"I don't remember them at all. They were probably nice." Kagome answered honestly, she could barely remember their faces anymore. Of course, she couldn't forget Kagomi.
Her sister entered the room without making a sound and stood behind Genba's chair, smirking with her arms folded.
"You look comfy over there, budge up." Kagomi said, her grin growing wider.
Genba took no heed of her those words and Kagome didn't shift to make room. Genba frowned looking at the next question on his clipboard.
"Oh boy, this feels like a loaded question." Genba muttered under his breath, Kagome heard it of course.
"How did you cope with your induction into Root?" Genba asked, almost tentatively, as he made eye contact with her, he winced.
Blood splattered on the floor.
"Again." A voice commanded.
"But she's bleeding sir-" A more cautious voice tried to warn.
"I said again! I've never seen a more worthless shinobi in my life." The masked senior shinobi spat the words out.
Kagome was heaving, reeling from the palm strike she failed to block correctly. Her stomach ached and a rib felt out of place.
"You heard him, kid. C'mon, your sister finished this taijutsu crash course yesterday, you're falling behind." The kinder man spoke. Of course the kindness didn't take away the stings of his punches or the agony of a sharp kick.
Kagome rose from the floor spitting the blood that had pooled in her mouth. She took her stance without another word. She'd kill the man in front of her before she failed to see her sister again.
Before any worse memories could surface Kagome blurted out an answer. "It was fine." Kagome said blankly, but the pause had taken far too long.
Genba tapped his clipboard with his pen rhythmically. Kagome listened in passively, to see if the taps were in any sequence or message. There wasn't any, he was just tapping, but Kagome felt on edge.
"That's it? Just, fine?" Genba asked in blatant disbelief.
Memories of every kind of injury possible flooded the back of her mind. The psychological torture crashcourse came in handy, she repressed all of the grim thoughts from her mind easily. Well, not all of them.
Kagomi had resorted to waving her arms above her head to try and get her attention.
Genba whistled, scrawling more down on his clipboard. "Well, that answers that." Genba concluded, seeing the clear signs of a shinobi suppressing their discomfort.
"Honestly, this has already been a fantastic first session. I think I've got some planning to do for the rest of your mandatory attendance." Genba said, with a smile.
Kagomi stared at Genba incredulously.
"The fuck does he mean? That was barely ten minutes!" Kagomi yelled.
Kagome turned to look at him. "You asked me two questions." She stated.
Genba nodded and smiled politely.
"And we struck gold on our very first try, we'll be focusing on whatever childhood trauma you got there, and while I'm at it, we'll be trying to focus on how to vent any residual frustration we have in a productive manner." Genba explained.
Kagome bit her bottom lip, it was hard to not take that as an insult.
Kagomi on the other hand, voiced her own opinion.
"Fucking asshole! That chair's comfy as FUCK, why are you ending it so soon!? You want trauma!? I'll show you trauma when I shove this boot right up your fuckin-"
Kagome, exhaled gently. Blocking out the noise and focusing entirely on Genba's smile.
"-Thank you, Genba-san. I look forward to our future sessions." Kagome said, keeping her voice level.
With great reluctance Kagome slinked off of the chair, she walked to the door, ignoring Kagomi's furious ranting. She exited the room and kept the door open for Genba. He exited with the same warm smile plastered on his face.
He waved as they left down different ends of the corridor, Kagome and Kagomi headed towards the exit, Genba headed deeper into the hospital building.
"I'm just saying, it's so hurtful to see my own, sweet lil' sister, ignoring me so much." Kagomi said, arms raised and shrugging nonchalantly as she walked alongside Kagome.
Outside, the sun was shining, the courtyard was filled with visitors, in varying moods and appearances. Obviously, some of the people here weren't in the best shape, arms or legs in casts or injuries far worse.
"You're not really here though." Kagome muttered quietly, hoping no one was paying her any attention.
Kagomi scoffed and folded her arms.
"And whose fault is that?" Kagomi accused her.
Kagome's throat tightened. She closed her eyes tight. And exhaled again, heavily.
When she opened her eyes again, Kagomi was gone, vanished, and across the courtyard, stood an Uchiha she recognised.
She couldn't normally stand them and their arrogant glares, but he was the sweetest Uchiha she knew. Obito Uchiha, stood a good distance away with his arm in a cast. He puffed his cheeks and pumped his other fist in an apparent attempt to build his confidence.
"Kagomeeeee! Oiii!" Obito shouted, unnecessarily loudly, as he jogged over to her waving his only free arm.
Kagome leaned back against a low lying wall to the side of the hospital courtyard, waiting for him to get to her.
"Hey!" Obito said, sticking out a thumbs up.
Kagome blinked.
"Hi, Obito, what brings you here?" Kagome asked, staring at his arm cast.
Obito scratched the back of his head. "Hehehe, actually, I was looking for you!" Obito said, pointing his finger at her.
Kagome frowned. "Why?" She asked.
"Hehe, Minato-Sensei told me to fetch you, we're having dango! Join us!" Obito demanded, grabbing her arm and pulling her towards the direction of the nearest food stalls. Kagome was reluctant but followed him compliantly when he let go of her arm.
Konoha was a busy place, it went without saying, but Kagome always took note of the people around her. Shinobi or civilian, they got catalogued and forgotten moments later but it helped her find something to focus on. Other shinobi passing by did the same thing, always on high alert.
They reached the outdoor tables where three others were seated, Minato waved cheerfully as he got up from his chair and dragged another to the table, positioned between himself and Obito's already empty seat.
Minato greeted them both cheerfully, patting Kagome on the back as she took her seat.
"Kagome-chan, I'm so glad you could join us." Minato said.
"You asked Obito to get me." Kagome stated, looking down at the skewer of dango in front of her.
Minato nodded with a smile.
"How'd you know I would be at the hospital?" Kagome asked.
Minato's eyes darted to the rest of participants at the table. "Call it an educated guess." He said, conveying more with his eyes than anything else, that there was a different, more plausible reason.
Kagome looked at the rest of the people at the table, there was only one person at the table she didn't recognise.
"What's your name?" Kagome asked the shinobi that she could only assume, was her age as well. The silver hair seemed familiar but she couldn't really pin down a clan or name.
"None of your bus-" The masked teen started, but Rin Nohara, the fifth and final person at the table, butted in.
"This is Kakashi Hatake, Kagome. He's our new teammate. Sensei was taking us out for dinner to celebrate our first training session without… Incident." Rin explained, at the latter half of her sentence she glared daggers at Obito.
Obito balked under her gaze, blushing. "It's his fault too! Don't just blame me Rin-chan!" He cried out, digging into his own skewer of dango.
Interestingly enough, Kagome could see that everyone's food besides hers and Kakashi, had been almost finished. She started eating hers, watching as Kakashi very blatantly didn't eat his own.
"So, Kagome, I was actually hoping you'd be able to help my favourite students here with their taijutsu drills, if that's alright. It's just, I have a mission in the next few days and I'd hate for them to miss out on proper training." Minato said, looking at her hopefully.
Kagome took a moment to finish her food before turning back to face him.
"If I don't have missions myself, sure." Kagome agreed easily.
Kakashi scoffed. "I don't need training from a Genin." He said.
Minato looked uncomfortable but Obito was the person to speak in her defence.
"Kagome could kick your ass! She's awesome!" Obito yelled emphatically.
Rin suppressed a giggle as the two devolved into a full on argument. It seemed like it was common practice at this point.
Using their fight as a distraction Minato leaned over to Kagome and whispered in her ear.
"I hope those sessions are doing you some good." Minato said gently.
Kagome nodded subtly. "The office chair was really comfy. Genba seems nice too." Kagome replied softly.
Minato squeezed her shoulder gently. "I'm glad to hear it." Minato said, pulling away.
The squabble between Obito and Kakashi had almost become physical, had Rin not been holding Kakashi back.
Kagome reached over and pulled the strap on Obito's goggles, letting go and watching it snap back, hitting the skin above his ear. He yelped in surprise but it was enough to turn his attention away from Kakashi. At that moment Minato clapped his hands together, drawing everyone at the table's attention at once.
"I know this is planning a little far in advance, but Kushina wants to see you all. I've told her all about you guys and I think it'd great if you all came for dinner." Minato said, emphasising the part where he said 'you guys', staring at Kagome.
Kagome had actually seen Kushina once, outside of Minato knowing, by complete coincidence. Due to her lack of presence in the village, groceries weren't in high supply whenever she returned to her apartment. It wasn't like she intentionally struck up a conversation with the red haired woman, quite the contrary, but Kushina had seemed almost dead set on talking to her when she bumped into her in the store. She was so talkative and aggressive that when she asked Kagome for her name, Kagome couldn't help but give a fake name.
Consequences were coming her way, Kagome could sense it.
"I can be there, probably." Kagome answered blandly.
She finished the last of her dango, making quick work of it. "Thanks for the food sensei, I've got places to be though." Kagome said, getting up from the table.
Three fifths of the table politely said their goodbyes to her as she left, but Kakashi simply glared at her as she walked away. Kagome completely understood though, she'd probably be in a foul mood too, if her father was the white fang. The great, deceased, White Fang. The moment Rin had said the name Hatake, Kagome had connected the dots.
It mattered little in the grand scheme of things, it was unlikely she'd be available due to her workload. There was a war going on after all. Kagome walked away, towards the Hogake's office, or more specifically, the Hokage's Advisor's office. They were on the same floor so that's where she'd say she was going if anyone asked, not that anyone really did, unless she bumped into Minato-sensei again.
As she made her way to the building itself, Kagome took a moment to appreciate the cliffside view, those stone faces looking down on her. It was kind of condescending in a way, the blank faces looking across the expanse of the village. Their work was done, well, the first and second Hokage were done with their job. They could sit comfortably in a cliff face watching whatever happened to the village, it didn't really matter to them anymore.
"Lazy butts." Kagome muttered, giving the cliff faces a weary side eye as they disappeared from view.
Entering the building, she got a couple looks her way, she always did. A Genin walking in with the explicit intent of receiving a mission wasn't new or anything, but without a sensei or teammates? That brought questions. Questions that fell on deaf ears when those with authority see exactly who Kagome goes to speak to.
Danzo Shimura, Elder of Konoha.
Kagome knocked on the door carefully.
"Enter."
Kagome complied.
"Danzo-sama." Kagome said, kneeling on the floor upon entry.
The elderly man was sat at his desk, writing on a scroll of some kind. He didn't look up until he was finished. An anbu was stationed in the corner of the room, completely motionless, but Kagome knew damn well that any guard of Danzo would be faster to action than any other shinobi in the whole village.
"Rise, formality must be forgone in times of strife." Danzo said, tossing the quill he was using to the side.
Kagome once again complied with his demand, rising to her feet once more.
"Your appointments with the Yamanaka started today, it was not problematic, I hope." Danzo spoke, rhetorically. Kagome nodded in response, not at all willing to mention that Genba was officially an Akimichi.
Danzo picked up the scroll he had just finished writing on, the ink having only just dried.
"The details of the mission must be entirely confidential. You will accompany the Jounin Commander listed in this brief, and follow out any instructions he gives. Once the mission is complete, follow out the instructions here. Should the mission be a failure you may not need to do anything at all. For the sake of the village however, I pray the mission is a success." Danzo said, in a commanding tone that indicated that he didn't expect his empty wishes to be the only thing that led the group of Jounin to success.
Kagome nodded again in acknowledgement.
"When am I meeting this Jounin Commander?" Kagome asked, after making certain Danzo had finished speaking.
"An hour from now, you are expected to be at the west gate, fully masked and prepared." Danzo answered, making a shoo-ing motion with his hand, the scroll still in his grip.
Kagome didn't have any more questions anyway, so she took the scroll from his extended arm and left the office swiftly. An hour to prepare… She really didn't appreciate that, but of course, a dutiful shinobi had no reason to complain.
"It's my duty, after all…" Kagome muttered, jogging to her decrepit apartment to get her gear.
The journey was short but she didn't like how little time remained, since she not only needed her shinobi gear but also, to get her Root uniform and mask from beneath a tree on some training grounds, almost directly on the opposite side of the village, as to not arouse suspicion. All in all the trip cost her forty minutes and she arrived ten minutes early to the west gate, fully clothed in her Root uniform. Of course, that didn't mean she wasn't the last to arrive for the mission.
She was definitely the last person to arrive for the mission.
"My apologies, I was only informed of my mission very recently." Kagome explained, her voice somewhat muffled by the mask. The Jounin Commander stared at her for a moment, one hand on his hip and the other scratching his chin.
"No worries, we're still early. Glad to have a Root-nin accompany us either way." The Commander said, securing his long, black hair into a tight, high ponytail. To Kagome's internal mirth, she noted that it somewhat resembled a pineapple. From that trait alone she recognised the man in front of her.
"It's my duty, Nara-sama." Kagome stated, bowing slightly.
Some of the other Jounin whistled and chuckled at the display.
"Mahh, that's too formal. Call me Shikaku, please." Shikaku Nara, the Jounin Commander requested, scratching the back of his head.
Kagome frowned beneath her mask, but of course none of the shinobi before her could see that.
"I… Will try to keep that in mind, Shikaku-sama." Kagome said, compromising only slightly.
Shikaku tutted, but let the formal title slide. With everyone assembled, Shikaku gave a short briefing on what they were expected to do on their mission.
"In short, we're cracking a stronghold the rock has taken between the land of fire and the hidden grass village, casualties may be high if we don't execute the plan perfectly, and even then, there's no guarantee that we'll succeed." Shikaku declared, sobering those shinobi that were in high spirits moments ago.
Kagome felt the pressure on both sides, the first being these Jounin's mission, but next to that her own mission may be more difficult to achieve were she to prioritise it above Shikaku's.
This balancing act was something she was used to though, and this wasn't exactly the first time she'd been in this kind of situation. With a solemn march, the shinobi of the leaf departed through the west gate.
They knew their mission.
They'd complete it, or die trying.