Taisetsuna "Precious" - Version Two
by Aoikami Sarah
Chapter Twelve
Oururi dozed on the dilapidated orange couch in her living room. The radio played twangy ethnic music lightly in the background. Yami peeked over the back of the couch and made hand signals to Yume who was hiding in the doorway to the bathroom. She then signaled to Hikari, who snuck in under the blind spot next to the coffee table. A single, worn, white envelope lay on the table. Hikari's eyes fixed on nothing but the prize. Oururi turned in her semi-sleep and all three girls froze. Yume closed the bathroom door and ran the tap as a distraction. Yami coughed and Hikari lunged for the envelope.
In a flash the girl was dangling in her mother's grip. Oururi's eyes were glowing with evil. "You thought you could out-sneak your Kaasan?" she bellowed. Hikari screamed.
"Aw, come on, Kaasan! Read the letter!" Yami shouted.
"Please!" Yume begged.
"Kaasan… I can't… breathe…" Hikari struggled.
Oururi let her drop onto the couch, which puffed out a light cloud of dust as she hit. "Ugh." Oururi rolled her eyes and picked up the letter. "I don't want to!"
"Why not? We want to hear what Tousan has to say."
"I miss Tousan."
"Me too."
Oururi sat down. "So do I." She bit her lip and finally opened the envelope, which she had found in the bag with the phony scroll. It was addressed simply to 'Oururi and Kids'. She took the letter out and another piece of paper fluttered down into her lap. She looked at it casually, but her eyes grew wide with disbelief.
"What is it, Kaasan?" all three girls asked, worriedly.
Her hands now trembling slightly, Oururi read the letter aloud. "Ore no Taisetsuna hito-tachi. My Precious people. I hope you made it back to the village safely and that this letter finds you well. I miss you already, but I am sure that we will meet again at the end of Oururi's tenure. Enclosed please find a little something to help until then. Love to you all, Hatake Kakashi.'"
"A little something?" Hikari asked. "Is it that paper, Kaasan?"
"It's… It's a check," she stammered. "For 600,000 ryou!"
"Waaaa!" They all screamed and jumped up and down on the couch. "Kaasan, can we get a TV!" "Kaasan, can I get a nice dress?" "Can we eat at a restaurant, see a movie, go shopping?"
"Yes, yes, yes!" Oururi laughed and hugged her daughters. 'I had forgotten how much Jounin in Konoha make,' she thought and reread the letter quickly. Her happy smile fell as she remembered why she didn't want to read it in the first place.
"Kaasan, you ok?"
"Yeah, yeah." She waved her hand. "Go on and get ready to go out. First stop is the bank!"
"Yay!"
Oururi stared at the first words of the letter: 'taisetsuna hito': 'precious people'. "I can't fall in love with you, Kakashi,' she thought. 'As long as the girls are bound to the Sand, we can't be together. I can't fall… I won't fall…"
.X.X.Flashback.X.X.
A younger Kakashi darted over the Konoha rooftops in pursuit of his quarry. Dark clouds swept in overhead. He looked up and furrowed his brows. Three kunai flew at him, striking not his body, but a cardboard box he had swapped himself with.
"Damnit," Oururi hissed from her secluded position and bounded off, following a flash of black. She came to an alley and spun around, startled that she had been so easily trapped.
"Saa," Kakashi's voice bounced off the walls. "Now, how's about that kiss?"
"Baka!" she shouted back. "You think you got me?" Thunder rumbled as the storm came into town. Oururi held her hands up as if to make a seal. Quickly, she sliced her cheek with her left thumbnail, wiped some blood on her index and middle fingers and pointed them at the sky. 'Aono Ichizoku…!"
Kakashi's eyes went wide. "No! Please don't do that!" he shouted, cutting her off.
"What?"
"Don't. I know how much that jutsu hurts. This isn't worth that pain." He put his hands out. "I give up."
"What?" she asked again and dropped her hands. "What's wrong with you?"
"I… I don't care to win or lose if it means you'll get hurt."
She blinked and for a moment it seemed that she understood him. This was only temporary. "Sucker!" She stuck out her tongue and approached him. "You gotta toughen up, Kakashi. That sensei of yours put some pretty soft ideas in your head..."
Her comment struck a sour note. "That sensei of mine also happened to be Yondaime. He didn't get that position by being weak." In a flash Kakashi vanished. Oururi scoffed, thinking he had gone home, defeated. Kakashi re-appeared at her side, grasped the back of her head with one hand, pulled down his facemask with the other and kissed her, roughly. "I am the same way." He wiped the blood still oozing from the self-inflicted wound on her cheek with his thumb. "Like Yondaime, I will protect those who are precious to me, win or lose."
.X.X.End Flashback.X.X.
Oururi sighed and looked out the window at the tan, treeless landscape. "How could you love me, Kakashi?" she asked no one. "I was such an asshole. I didn't deserve you at all…"
