Azure: Kakashi
"Here." The decorative, paper umbrella tilted back, revealing dazzling shades of azure, as the raven haired beauty held out her hand for him to take. Undeterred by his suspicious glare and the way he smacked her hand to the side without remorse, she only smiled softly. Reaching for him again, she said, "Let me help you."
"I don't need your help," he spat. He stiffened instinctively as the sound of her soft, bell-like laughter filled the stillness of the wood surrounding them. The gentle sound was entirely wrong somehow—distorted and unnatural.
A genjutsu?
"No." Shadowed beneath her umbrella once more, she took a single step away from him and sighed. "I suppose you don't, do you… Kakashi?"
Concealed by his ANBU mask, Kakashi's eyes widened with the sound of his name falling from her satin lips. "...what?"
"But," her twinkling laughter filled the silence once more, "maybe someday… you will."
His fingers dug into the soft soil beneath him, as his breath caught in his throat.
...what… was this?
"Because I doubt that even that Sharingan of yours can protect you forever." Seemingly illuminated in the night, those brilliant shades of azure darkened considerably. A subtle shift of the wrist then, and they were gone, hidden beneath the edge of a paper umbrella littered with dark splotches. Only the faint curve of her mouth remained visible underneath the vanishing moon, as she whispered, "And when you do…"
Only able to stare at the eerie silhouette, the young ANBU operative felt his stomach twist when a shimmering, blood red droplet fell from the edge of that umbrella to splatter on the earth below.
"...you only need to call my name."
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
His eyes shaking, Kakashi felt his mouth fall open in silent shock.
…who… was this woman?
"Kakashi, never forget that my name is…"
"Boy."
A groan escaped him.
"Wake up, boy!"
The kunai spinning on his finger buried itself into the wall nearby instinctively, as the sharp pain in his cheek brought him back to reality and caused his mismatched eyes to snap open.
"Ah, dammit," a nearby voice grumbled, "these old bones aren't what they used to be."
Another weapon within his grasp in an instant, Kakashi turned his narrowed gaze upon the old man sitting on the opposite side of the small hut. The familiar weight of his ANBU mask absent, he tightened his grip around the cold steel, before flickering his eyes around the cramped space for any means of escape.
"Brats these days are so ungrateful," the old man huffed. Rolling his shoulder, he attempted to hammer out a knot there with his opposite hand. "If I hadn't gone to fill my bath water when I did, you might have been a goner. What with that silver hair of yours you've got."
Kakashi wrinkled his nose.
"Bah!" Waving one hand through the air, the old man scratched at his cheek with the other. His large eyes slanted at an angle, before he picked himself up to fetch the kunai embedded in the wall of his hut. "You can't tell me that you've never heard the legends surrounding this mountain, boy. Whatever mission brought you here can't have filled your ears with cotton, especially since there's always whispers to take heed whenever a silver haired young man comes into town."
The edge of his mouth twisting downward, Kakashi eyed the gleaming edge of the kunai that the old man now held. His stance shifted, prepared to defend himself, as the Sharingan in his left eye began to spin.
"None of that now." Scratching at his back with the handle, the old man shook his head. He tossed the weapon to the ground then, lightly nudging it with his foot, before moving in the opposite direction with a huff. "Brat puts a hole in my wall after I saved him from the Azure Maiden," he grumbled to himself, "and then has the audacity to act as if…"
Azure Maiden…?
Kakashi felt himself tense, as a vague memory came to mind.
A decorative, paper umbrella tilted back, revealing dazzling shades of azure, as a raven haired beauty held out her hand for him. "...help you…"
He hissed between his teeth.
"...Kakashi."
The faint whisper had him on his feet.
"Boy!"
The sharp snap bringing him back to reality, Kakashi met the narrowed gaze of the old man across from him in the small hut. His voice was low, harsh, as he hissed, "Who is she? The Azure Maiden? Who is she?"
"She's not someone you can fight, boy." The old man's mouth fell into a grimace in an instant. "All you can do is run, especially with hair like that."
"Who is she?"
"She's a ghost."
"Tsk."
"Don't believe me?" the old man laughed. "When you were the one to see her?"
"There's no such thing as ghosts," Kakashi scoffed.
"Believe what you will, boy." Shaking his head, the old man turned to the window nearby. "But that woman has haunted this mountain for nearly five hundred years in search of her silver haired lover. The very same lover who was said to have betrayed her on the night of their wedding by striking her down during her wedding march to meet him." He sighed lightly. "Her vengeance runs deep, and no silver haired young man is safe here. If she came to you; if she told you her name… you may never be seen again if you call it."
"What ridiculous nonsense." Kakashi shook his head. Allowing his eyes to flicker in search of his missing ANBU mask, he slowly shifted the weight of the kunai in his hand and turned his full attention to the old man that had "saved" him.
"Heh," the old man clicked his tongue. "Is that the thanks I'm going to get, boy? For saving your life? And for what, hm? Because an ANBU shouldn't ever have their face revealed?"
An icy mask overcoming him at the harsh reprimand, Kakashi took a step forward without hesitation.
Only a faint whisper echoed within his ear, as the blade swept through the air between them.
"...Kagome."
Fin
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