Drowning in Freedom

Chapter 21: Thorns of a Threat

moonlight46: Yeah I really liked the whole conversation between her and Sakumo in a writing perspective. I always like to give characters in Naruto that didn't have as much screen time more personality. There is always another side to the same coin. Speaking about advice, not only did Amaya receive it, but I know that with all my stories I always try to have characters and arcs that really speak to people and maybe help them with something that they are going through. You never know, and I just hope that sometimes, if someone reads this and needs to hear that it is okay to move on, that they take the advice, that it eases their pain.

LadyAmazon: Hahahahahha just in time for Easter :P

eunoiapaint: Hehee I am so happy that I made you so hype! I think you will like this next chapter a lot :)

PrismRootStarlight: Yeah I really like the conversation aspect of last chapter, like honestly for me that was bigger than Amaya waking up. It just shows that she finally is able to start healing. Oh yeah, Kakashi is like this lost puppy right now, but don't worry, in future chapters, you will see that he will also start the whole healing process as well. Oh dude, if it is any consolation, i cried writing the outline for their whole heart-to-heart chapter. I CRIED WITH THE OUTLINE THAT LITERALLY HAS NO DETAILS, so just think about when those are added in :P

AragakiYuki: I'm happy to hear that you are excited for the next chapter, and hopefully I can deliver. Oh yeah, i loved writing that scene between her and Sakumo, like not only is it advice that she needs to take but i think that some of my readers can also benefit from that as well. Heheh and don't worry, that conversation is in a few chapters... be prepared to have the tissues ready!

Kakashi's heart feels like it stops as he sees Amaya's soft, sleepy smile looking up at him. His eyes widened as tears streamed down his face. He was in shock. Amaya was here… she was here, awake, and alive. However, the trace was broken when Amaya's soft features distorted into ones of pain. She started to cough violently. This made Kakashi spring into action, helping Amaya sit up. He propped up her pillows and furthermore, he went to the sink that was in a room, found a disposable cup and filled it with cool water.

He wanted to make sure it was as close to room temperature as possible not knowing if cold water would be detrimental to her. The man still couldn't believe what was transpiring in front of him, even as he tipped the glass to Amaya's lips, so she could take short sips of the water. The two didn't talk, the only action besides Amaya taking sips of water, finishing off the glass was Kakashi pushing back Amaya's messy bedhead. Eventually, after the glass of water, Amaya's cough started to dissipate. Kakashi got up and refilled the glass, but he placed it on the end table after Amaya nodded her head that she didn't want any more.

The kunoichi looked around, trying to make sense of her surroundings, still feeling discombobulated with everything. Kakashi placed his hand on top of hers once again, rubbing soothing patterns on hers using his thumb. Amaya blinked a few times and she turned her head from looking out into her hospital room, back to the face of the man that was next to her. She first thing that she noticed wasn't the fact that his appearance was unkept, the first thing she noticed was the fact that the man looked tired. The kind of tired that made you age a few years beyond what one really was.

"Kakashi—"

Amaya tried to croak out a few words with her tired, unused voice, but just saying his name, that was as much as the kunoichi could get out before Kakashi launched forward from his chair and pulled her into a tight, crushing hug. If she didn't know how it felt to have her ribs crack, she would have said that this would be a hug that would squish the life out of her. Nevertheless, she didn't mind it. If she could feel the air getting squeezed out of her lungs, that meant that she was here in this reality… alive. Sakumo was right. For whatever reason, her time here wasn't finished yet and she had a feeling that she was hugging her reason right now. She didn't know if she actually met Kakashi's father, or if it was her own head trying to make sense of everything that had happened to her. She liked to think that she met the man, and she knew that that conversation would always be something she would keep close to her heart. Real or not, it had an impact into her life that would forever change how she would approach things.

Slowly, with the little strength she had in her body, Amaya found herself wrapping her arms around Kakashi's waist, burying her face in the crook of her neck. He responded to the action by burying his own face into her hair. Amaya knew that it was clean from the hospital staff, but it probably didn't smell good. Granted, at this moment, neither of them cared about things like that. It was just good to hold the other in their arms. It had been a long time since they had been like this, and they both were going to enjoy this moment for as long as possible knowing that it could easily be shattered at any moment.

"I thought I lost you," Kakashi choked, trying to talk through his tears.

Amaya just snuggled closer to the man, not trusting her voice in this emotional moment. Each breath she took, her nostrils filled with nothing but the mucky scent of Kakashi. It was both a sensual and comforting feeling, all at the same time.

"Thank you for coming back to me, Amaya," Kakashi's voice cracking as she could feel his hot tears drop down onto her hair, causing her own tears to fall down her face.

Silently, both thanked whatever was around to listen for bringing the two of them back together again.

"Thank you for believing in me," Amaya whispered, her voice rusty without the use of it for a month.

If possible, Kakashi shifted to hold Amaya just a little bit closer, and the two stayed like that for a long while until Kakashi felt pressure on his waist, alerting him to the fact that Amaya wanted to retreat from the hug. He slowly broke it off, but when the two broke apart, Amaya took this chance and placed her forehead against Kakashi's, letting him know that she just needed some air to breath, not that she wanted the moment to end between the two of them. Kakashi moved his hand up to Amaya's cheek, moving around to where her head and neck were joined, as he started to massage her skin there. Eventually, he stopped and moved his hand so it rested on her cheek, causing Amaya to look up at him.

The two were a sight for sore eyes, but as they both breathed the same air with tear filled eyes, the two of them leaned forward. The whisper of a touch of their lips on the other, but before they could cement the deal with a kiss, the sliding door to Amaya's hospital room was shoved opened, snapping the moment Kakashi and Amaya were sharing as if it was a brittle, dry twig. Kakashi was the first to back away and Amaya just fell back onto her pillows, still too groggy to complain about it, but knowing that if she didn't feel as tired as she was, she would have made a small quip to Kakashi saying that people loved to try and catch them in their sweetest moments that they seem to have together.

Kakashi moved from the bed and from Amaya's view it was almost like he took a fighting stance in front of her, ready to fight whoever came into her room. However, he seemed to relax when the person who entered made their presence known. He moved out of the way and the person who visited Amaya in the middle of the night came into view. Her mind, even as fuzzy and cloudy as it was with drugs still pumping through her, registered with the fact that she was going to have another emotional reunion. Tsunade didn't care much about appearances in that moment. Hokage or not, she was going to hug her friend and be an emotional mess.

Without saying anything, just like Kakashi, Tsunade launched herself forward and embraced Amaya into a hug, Shizune being close behind, hugging Amaya as well. Amaya had always been closer to Tsunade, but her and Shizune did have their moments. She hugged the two women, and Shizune was the one to break off from the hug first, going to check Amaya's charts, trying to compose herself. Tsunade on the other hand, was a completely different story. With how much love she was receiving from Tsunade, Amaya didn't really mind as much that her moment with Kakashi had been ruined, because frankly, without even having to be told, Amaya knew that it was the blonde women hugging her that did the surgery to bring her back to life. To keep her on this earth just a little bit longer.

Amaya wrapped her hands around Tsunade, as Tsunade gripped Amaya's waist. Amaya rubbed her friends back and brushed her hands through her hair, letting Tsunade have her moment with her friend. Tsuande didn't cry like Kakashi did, there were a few silent tears but nothing that couldn't be concealed. No one pointed out the fact that the hokage was sniffling when she finally backed out of the hug. Tsunade broke the hug first, and she got off the bed, quickly wiping under her eyes with her fingers. Walking over to Shizune, Tsunade looked over Amaya's charts and composed herself. A beat later, Tsunade caught Amaya's eyes.

"Welcome back to Konoha, Amaya."

"Really, I will be okay, Naruto. Really," Amaya laughed as Naruto asked her for the fifth time that morning if she was okay in the middle of telling her stories about all that she had missed.

She didn't know what it was, but there seemed to be a tonal shift between that of her friends and some of the people who worked in Konoha. More so the nurses than anyone else, since Amaya had yet to venture outside the hospital in the week that she had been awake. Tsunade would barely allow the kunoichi to get up and use the restroom by herself, let alone actually take a walk outside. It seemed that in the little over the month she was in a coma, word had spread over the fact that she protected the village from the Akatsuki, that she fought for Asuma's life and tried to avenge him, among the fact that she left the village to protect it in the first place. She wasn't naïve enough to think that everyone's opinion of her had changed, but it seemed as if the mood around her had shifted, that people could now tolerate her being in the village.

Many people that morning had come to visit her, granted, it was the first day that Tsunade had allowed her to have visitors. She had seen Kurenai and Anko, the two of them giving her big hugs. Kurenai was able to compose herself but Anko sobbed and made a whole ordeal out of it, which fit her character. She always acted like the tomboy of the three, but Amaya and Kurenai knew that she had the biggest heart out of all of them. Gai had also visited them with his students, Lee, TenTen, and Neji. Both Gai and his disciple Lee told her that the energy of youth would heal her but she had to et stronger so that they could train together. Amaya just laughed it off and she could see that Kakashi was a bit angered by it, telling Gai that she didn't need his youthful energy to get better, she needed rest.

Amaya didn't really know TenTen and Neji, but they paid their respects to her, and out of everyone in the room, she noticed that the two seemed to like each other. She didn't know if it was just puppy love, or something more, but it seemed as if the two were trying to keep the fact that they liked each other a secret. It remined Amaya of the love that Asuma and Kurenai shared. Both liked each other but wanted to keep their relationship out of prying eyes, almost muted. The kunoichi could appreciate that, and thought that their blossoming love was cute.

When Gai and his students left, Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji came, and they all thanked her for trying to protect them and their late sensei. Amaya felt it hard to talk wishing that she could have done more from Asuma but knew that his students didn't blame her. They thanked her for being there, for trying her best, for allowing them time to say goodbye, which is more than many others can get. Amaya had changed the conversation to thanking Ino for the flower, and she had told her it was the least that she could do. Choji and Ino left, leaving Shikamaru in the room with her. Amaya didn't count Kakashi with them, seeing that he was in the corner reading his book. She knew that he wasn't reading but paying attention to everyone else in the room that came and went as they visited her.

He had been with her this whole time, and nothing had transpired between them again within that week, almost as if the two didn't want to break the fragile peace that they shared, even if they were walking on eggshells refusing to speak about the elephant in the room. Shikamaru opened his mouth to say something just to Amaya, but it seemed as if he couldn't. So he just told Amaya to get better soon and then he departed the room, trying to catch up with his teammates. Amaya knew that Shikamaru would tell her when he was ready.

That brought her to now with Sakura, Naruto, Yamato, and their new member, Sai. Amaya didn't know how she felt about Sai, especially since she had seen him around the foundation when he was a little boy. They didn't speak much and Kakashi and Yamato had their eyes trained on him the entire time that he was in the room. Trust was clearly lacking, even if not spoken outright. Amaya had thanked Sakura for the other beautiful white flower and Sakura gave her a hug, telling her to get better soon. That she would be back to help her in any way that she could. Naruto also gave her a hug and spung into conversation, which is how she got to the point where she was. Finally, it seemed as if Yamato had enough of listening to the blonde speak.

"Okay Naruto, I think you can talk Amaya's ears off later, let her rest."

"Yeah you idiot, can't you see that she doesn't need you talking her ear off, baka!" Sakura shouted and slapped Naruto across the face.

The antics caused Amaya to laugh, happy to see that team seven, even with its changes was still up to its usual chaos. Yamato gave Amaya a brief hug and told her that they would catch up later, and Amaya told him that she would hold him to that. With a wink, Yamato had ushered out the rambunctious students, leaving her and Kakashi alone for the first time in a week. However, it wasn't as pleasant as one may have thought. Kakashi got up from his chair scratching the back of his neck.

"Are you hungry, would you like something to eat?"

Amaya knew that it was going to take some time between the two of them, but it was as if they were dating again for the first time, both as awkward as if they were teenagers.

"Even if you say no, I am going to go get you something, you need to keep up your strength."

"Thank you," Amaya spoke easily, smiling as she did so.

Kakashi gave her a small smile back through his mask, and Amaya watched as he crossed the room, sliding the door open, and then closed as he left to go down to the cafeteria. Amaya wanted to spend more time with Kakashi, but she knew that the two of them needed to move at their own pace. She knew that she wasn't ready to jump back into a full-time relationship with the man just yet, she was just thankful of the time that they were spending time together now. Letting her head gaze off through the window, she saw that it was a nice sunny day in Konoha. Sakura was nice enough to open the window, letting out some of the stuffiness that the room had seemed to accumulate. It was a beautiful, sunny, spring day in Konoha where everything seemed to have fallen into place. However, it was almost as if she had spoken too soon, as if she knew that the happy moments were bound to end, and here she was now.

Hearing the door slide open and then close just as quickly with a body stepping into her room, Amaya knew it wasn't Kakashi. It would have been too soon for him to be back. Instead, without moving her gaze from the window, she spoke to the person who had just entered her room.

"I am honestly surprised it took you so long to visit me, I thought you would have tried to kill me while I was in that coma… Danzo."

"I'm surprised too."

"Why? Because I made it back alive?"

"That people still care enough about you to visit you, let alone try and save you. I guess I just never realized how far you spread that plague that you had."

Amaya turned her head and looked at the elder, smirking.

"It seems as if that wasn't the only thing you underestimated."

Danzo started to chuckle, and it erupted into a full blown out laughter.

"Are you suggesting that I underestimated you?"

"I wasn't going to go there since I know how much your ego meant to you, but I was going to bring up the fact that you simply underestimated the people of Konoha."

"Ahhh, and how exactly did I do that?"

"That their heart, the will of fire each and every single one of them carries, broke through your destructive lies."

Danzo started to pace around the room, never coming close to Amaya but making sure that she was always in the corner of his eye. He was sure that even with a heart that was ripped to shreds and sown back together and even in the weakened state that she was in, she wouldn't hesitate to try and fight him if it came down to that. Plus, if the two did fight, he didn't want to have to play his cards right now in this hospital, knowing that there were onlookers not to far from the room he was in right now.

"I guess I am just going to have to find some other way to kill you now. Once in the foundation, always in the foundation. Just like marriage, until death due you part."

Now, it was Amaya's turn to laugh. She looked out the window again and smiled, turning it back onto Danzo, which unnerved him.

"I'm not under your thumb anymore."

"You are still under my control. You were apart of the foundation, and then the Anbu. I ordered you to do something and you came back emptyhanded."

Danzo daringly took a step forward so he was directly at the end of the bed. He placed his hand on the bar there, right where Amaya was.

"That is another thing that you are wrong about."

Creepily, the elder leaned forward and eerily ran a hand up Amaya's foot and up her shin, leaning over, resting his hand on her knee, just before moving back, keeping his hand on her ankle, all over the covers. His body returned upright and looked at Amaya seeing if his display of weird affection did anything to the kunoichi. Amaya didn't flinch away and she acted like she didn't care about the touch, her heart rate never once increasing. Her ice blue eyes never looked away from Danzo's which made his blood feel like it was as clod as ice. He realized that his sickening movements had no affect on the kunoichi, and instead, he was the one with the increased heart rate, as if it was starting to fill with fear over the realization that hey may really not have control over the woman in front of him any longer.

"You keep thinking that I am the one that is constantly in the wrong here, I will laugh when you finally realize that you actually are the one in the wrong." Danzo said, clearly trying to bluff his way out.

However, Amaya saw right through it, and called him out on it.

"I don't think I am. You're wrong if you think that you still have control over me."

"Again, of course I have control over you, you damn bitch."

"The only people that need to say that they have control over something, clearly don't."

"You damn woman, don't you make me raise my hand to you. You know if you make me do that I won't hesitate to kill you right here, right now."

"Empty threats from a man who can't even do his own bidding. I'm simply not afraid of you anymore Danzo. You even were the cause of the realization I had when I was fighting the immortal duo."

"What the hell are you even talking about?"

Without pause or fear, Amaya spoke to the man who had abused her all these years as if she was a part of a team containing hundreds of cavalry men, instead of one small woman.

"I realized that no one has control over my life but me. It is my choice to be afraid and it is my choice to do what is right or wrong—and I choose to do the right thing and to have faith in myself, no longer be afraid of things that I can't control."

"You don't get to choose what you do with your life. You gave that option away when you became a shinobi, when you became a part of the black ops. That is something you will be for the rest of your life. You talk about doing the right thing, but here you are shirking your responsibilities."

"I am not shirking my responsibilities."

"I'm dying to hear your made-up reason for this…" Danzo said sarcastically.

"Like you said, until death due you part. I already gave one life to the black ops, to the foundation, and the village. I died fighting for this village, trying to protect it, and my heart was punched through, tattered in pieces. I died on my way here to Konoha, the only thing that kept me alive was the work of Ino breathing for me and pumping my blood, giving me no say about the matter, and when I arrived here at the hospital, Tsunade fought long and hard, keeping me on machines for the small chance of hope that I would ever wake up again. So, through all of that, do you know what that means?"

Danzo licked his lips, clearly backed up into a corner without a retort. It seemed as if Amaya's gaze on him intensified and he was rooted in the spot, just from her look.

"I want you to answer my question. Do you know what that means?"

For probably the first time in his life, Danzo's silver tongue started to stutter, "I—uhh, I don't—"

"It simply means, Danzo, that I'm not your bitch anymore. I'm not a dog that you can just order around. I have freedom now, and I'll be damned if anyone tries to take if from me again. I gave one life to Konoha, now, with my second chance, I am going to find a life worth living—on my terms."

"Is that a threat?" Danzo asked, after a beat, placing more pressure on Amaya's ankle, trying to assert his dominance on the kunoichi.

"It damn well is a threat," Amaya spoke with an air of confidence around her.

Silence filled the room between them as if it felt as if the sudden about of shade thrown heated up the temperature around them, causing the back of Danzo's neck to start collecting beads of sweat on his skin there, same with the palms of his hands causing them to get clammy.

Breaking the silence, Amaya spoke again with the same confidence she held before, "Now, if I were you, I recommend that you remove your hand from my ankle and get the hell out of this room."

Danzo lifted his hand, following Amaya's instructions, but his ego wouldn't allow him to leave without saying a few things first.

He snorted, "You are just one more piece of shit that is in the way, one that needs to be removed in order of Konoha to become great again."

The elder walked towards the door, and slid it open seeing that there was no one that seemed to even realize that he had been in Amaya's room for so long. He took a step out of the room, thinking that he had the last words of the conversation, but before he slide the door closed behind him, he heard Amaya say the final words of the conversation.

"That may be true. In your thoughts, I may be a pile of shit. However, Danzo, someone that I just met recently told me that karma always comes due. Therefore, I don't know when it will happen, but there is one thing that I am certain about, karma will come for you. I just hope that she gives me the gift of watching when your time finally catches up with you. I don't seek out revenge for the shit you put me through because I don't need that on my conscious, because, and only for the fact that everyone gets what is coming for them—and I know that hell is in store for you."