CHAPTER 10: EMBRACE FOR IMPACT

The wind had started to pick up ruffling the tree he had been sitting in, stray leaves brushing up against his flap jacket as he sat reading from one of the tree's many limbs.

"The weather's quite nice, although the sun's awfully bright today, eh."

Had he been anyone else, he probably would have fallen out of the tree from the surprise.

He had been hiding a few miles near the village's main entry gate, away from anyone's view for the past hour, or so he had thought.

It was now clear Kintsugi had also found his hiding spot. Her eyes were glossy and unblinking as she stared at him from where she sat in the adjacent tree, the leaves only moving with the wind and the slight breath she produced as she spoke.

It had been the sixth time Kakashi had seen her that day.

He knew it was no coincidence the moment he saw her "helping" out at each of the food stalls he had visited throughout the day.

First the stolen bowl of cereal in the morning. Now, his peace of mind.

He was busy enough helping the village elders function while the village was without a Hokage, he wasn't about to start taking care of someone else. Jiraiya had yet to return with Naruto from his search for Lady Tsunade.

It didn't help to have the added pressure of having another person like Guy, stalk him around town.

"What's the first thing you notice when someone approaches you?" Kintsugi continued as she tilted her head.

"The audacity."

He jumped to the ground and started to walk away, sighing as he heard her footsteps mimic his own as he walked back to the entry gates. She carried no memorable or recognizable scent, her footsteps only an echo to her presence next to him.

Walking side by side, he recalled the note she had left him.

Thanks for the cereal.

She'd left an empty bowl and dirty spoon in his kitchen sink that morning, he supposed, to let him know she had been there. He wasn't sure if he should take it as a threat that she had been able to break into his house without his knowledge or her way of saying she had ways of getting what she wanted and she would get what she wanted eventually whether he liked it or not.

Though, he thought, someone willing to leave a thank you note after having sedated him the first time they met and then proceeded to commit blatant breaking and entry, thievery even, the second time didn't seem like a very threatening person.

Maybe.

Putting his book in his back pocket, he lifted his arms, hands stretching to rest behind his head as they walked.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing more than what I already told you," she spoke tonelessly, her cloak hiding her right hand as she instinctively gripped the handle of her long blade anxiously waiting for his response.

Ignorant of her action, he raised a brow in her direction, his nose crinkled in thought.

"Surety, huh?"

"Good for the economy," she hummed back.

More stray leaves seemed to blow across their path, Kakashi expertly dodging those that headed towards his face aware that in contrast, Kintsugi seemed to let them roughly brush against her face.

She would have swatted at them if he had not been standing next to her, but she feigned nonchalance.

"Well, this is where we part," she said suddenly, lifting two fingers in salute as she seemed to speedwalk past Izumo and Kotetsu towards the village square, placing the mask she had instantly created over her face.

"Weren't the sensory ninja looking for her?" Commented Izumo to Kakashi as he grabbed a rag to wipe the dirt that the wind had somehow managed to lift towards his counter.

"The Hyuga and Inuzuka Clan's are having a heyday with her. There are even rumors of bets going around on which one will find her first and bring her in for 'questioning'," added Kotetsu as he walked up to the counter.

"Specifically the Huygaa Clan," continued Izumo, eyes turning in the direction Kintsugi had gone.

"Huh," the corner of Kakashi's mouth quirked up in amusement.

"So she found you?"

"Yup."

"Are you going to do what she wants?"

"Not yet. I'll see how it plays out."

Kotetsu's eyes narrowed, mouth twitching, seeming to remember something they had forgotten.

"Hmm. Did anybody actually bother to ask her what her name was?"

All heads simultaneously turned this time. No. They had never really bothered to ask.


After a brief conversation on the state of the village with Izumo and Kotetsu, Kakashi had started to head back home the long way, passing the Konoha Memorial.

Would you give her a chance? He thought out as he paused for a moment, eyes closed as he felt the familiar indescribable emotion of pain in his heart.

His breathing had become labored as he looked heavenward, his face contorted as he waited for it to pass as he had done so many other times, alone.

She's selfish, he thought.

Slow steps guided him to the village square, repeating that same phrase in his mind, trying to convince himself.

She had been staring at his protruding ribs, his thin, dull skin hanging in folds from malnourishment.

And he had been staring at her well-done yakitori skewers.

Coming back to one of the stalls she had helped out earlier in the day, the kind middle-aged owner had given her a free plate of stacked skewers for her to eat on one of the outside tables as a thank you and as a way of telling Kintsugi to never come back again.

She sat there, chewing the tough meat, the small, fragile burnt pieces falling on the dirt street, watching him as he tried to reach out in hopes a tiny piece would fall on his hand.

His dry tongue licking the meager flakes that happened into his grip producing a rather grating sound to Kintsugi's ears.

She'd lost her appetite.

Standing to leave, and intercepting his path to a fallen crumb, she left the almost full plate on the man's hand.

The old man blushed as he avoided eye contact, cradling the plate from where he crouched as he delighted in his own passionate struggle with the meat.

Had she been more aware at that moment against him, perhaps she would have noticed a certain pineapple head who had melded into the crowd, watching her.

From where he lingered, he saw her turn to look around for someone, her eyes eventually catching sight of what he supposed had grabbed her attention.

A cabbage stand.

He had bought a few in order to make some Okonomiyaki, cabbage pancake. This was another one of the stands she had "helped" out in the day he recalled, but from the looks of it, this was not her first visit.

"You again! Bad things always happen to my poor cabbages when you're around."

Despite being quite displeased at her presence, the stand owner shoved a cabbage in her hand, sniffing as he turned from her to shout 'Cabbages' towards the late-night crowd.

The bustling of late shoppers and drunkards jostled an irritated Kintsugi around, even to her horror, being lifted at one point by a pair of strange arms only to be dropped again.

She gripped the cabbage tightly as she started to cross into another road.

She could feel the vibrations beneath her feet of all the people, walking to something, towards someone, or simply walking to be able to walk.

It was as she paused to let someone by that she noticed the old woman, hunched over lying down on the dirt path, crawling on all fours, a steady stream of people splitting into two groups as they walked around her.

"Can somebody help me?" The raspy and yet frail voice of the woman called out to anyone who would care to listen.

I could leave her here, someone else will help, she thought.

She moved forward, each step leading her further away from where the woman lay.

"Can you help me up?" The old woman had turned, her voice seeming to call out to her as she squinted her eyes.

Kintsugi looked back and then around as she sensed the area again, sighing as she started to slowly walk back towards her, unaware that guilty faces turned away as she approached her.

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes," the old woman quickly responded, her eyes wet from incoming tears.

"Then you know enough."

Moving the cabbage she had been holding onto her other arm, she lifted the woman up by the elbow with her free hand, slightly airbending the air around her to make it easier for her to rise.

"Thank you, my dear. My knees are not very strong anymore. But at least yours are," she said with a smile, patting the cold hand that had helped her with her own warm wrinkled, rough hands.

"Smiles are contagious you know," the old woman said, her eyes crinkled as she looked towards Kintsugi.

"So don't do that," she replied as the corners of her own mouth turned up as well.

With a nod from the woman, they walked, arms linked as they helped each other to cross yet another road, the old woman taking the lead as she then guided Kintsugi to a small closed toy shop.

"Your hands...were warm," Kintsugi commented uncomfortably.

Noticing Kintsugi's subtle surprise, she softly said, "Two is better than one. Even in the cold, you can always be warm with someone by your side."

"Don't worry, I'm vaccinated," she said seriously.

The old lady laughed, the sound enjoyably ringing in Kintsugi's ears.

"In this village, people can do worse things than kill you, my dear. But there's nothing that compares in remedy like that of a loved one's company, present company included."

The lady reached in her pocket as she unhooked from Kintsugi's elbow presenting a small, rusty key as she opened the front door to the shop.

The smell of wood and metal filled both their nostrils.

"Thank you for helping me... for not turning away." She reached out her hands in her direction, combing with her fingers the sloppily cut hair that had fallen in front of Kintsugi's face to reveal her glassy, unblinking eyes.

Never get attached to something that isn't yours, she reminded herself as the old woman's fingers brushed against her forehead.

She had followed and hidden from shinobi most of the day and she was tired, dirt tired so it wasn't a big deal, she thought, if she let the woman do this much.

She hadn't asked any questions, no what's your name? or where are you going? of any kind. And she was at least grateful.

Kintsugi let out a slow breath, nodding to the smiling woman as she mouthed a goodbye, turning, to Kintsugi's relief, to finally enter her shop.

Watching a distance away, Kintsugi was not the only one who walked away smiling a faint smile.

Even as Kintsugi, bristling all of a sudden as she paused a short distance away when the crowd thinned out, even as her smile seemed to fade away as she turned in his direction, even as she suddenly disappeared from his view, even then, he knew, he would give her a chance.


A/N: The thought had crossed my mind that the previous chapter was too short. Only when you guy's commented that it actually was, it dawned on me. I wanted to get Chapter 9 out despite the length since I hadn't published anything in a while. Here's Chapter 10, definitely longer for your delight. Enjoy.