The Anatomy of Love
Written By: Banana007
Chapter 14: The Angel from Hell (Side Story)
About 14 years ago….
Summer in Sound country was utter shit.
Fire country had its droughts for sure during this season, and more often than not the trees would catch fire just from the mere glare of the sun on a dried leaf. But at least the trees also offered plenty of protection from the heat so long as the Firewatch was making sure those trees weren't burning first.
Sound country, on the other hand, had nothing but empty golden plains that seemed to stretch on for eternity. If it didn't look like a sort of heaven, Kakashi would've thought he was in hell what with the sun burning through his clothes and the scorched patches of earth peppered throughout the fields—a telltale sign of the bombs that had rained down on the area not too long ago.
A summer thunderstorm last week had given them a brief reprieve from the intense heatwave, but it had still left them uncomfortably soaked in their own clothes. A week later, the sun was back with a fiery vengeance, and they were back to soaking through their tactical gear in their own stink and sweat again, but this time with the muck of the marshlands clinging to their boots.
It had taken almost the whole day to sludge through the marshes and find shelter at a farmhouse that seemed to have been completely abandoned days ago. They'd cleared the house and finished in disappointment upon finding that all of the livestock were either gone or already getting feasted on by the maggots. Most of the food in the pantry had also long been raided save for a single jar of strawberry jam and a cracked egg left to spoil on a shelf. It wasn't that everyone was starving—although they were certainly hungry after a day out trudging through a war zone—but a jar of sweet strawberry jam was practically bliss compared to their MRE rations. Even Kakashi himself was getting wearier and wearier over every pound of rice he had to eat with the bland curry packed in his ration meal.
So the moment Anzu had spotted the bright red jar, there had immediately been a scuffle over who got to eat it. Being the fifth in command (and with the first four already dead), Kakashi had asserted the order that each person would get their fair share of strawberry jam: one scoop and only after they'd finished their MREs for tonight. Everyone except Obito had glanced warily at each other, reluctant to follow the command of a 17-year-old boy despite him outranking them all. But, not wanting to throw a tantrum over strawberry fucking jam of all things, they'd each grunted in answer.
And now that last bit of the jelly was getting scraped out of its jar by Obito after Kakashi had passed his share over to him. Sweets weren't his thing anyway even if he would kill for something homemade rather than a meal full of preservatives.
The leftover spicy powder clung to the base of Kakashi's back teeth no matter how many times he swigged down some water from his canteen. It was like chewing on sediment, and judging by the faces of everyone else, he was willing to bet none of them were intent on eating curry anytime soon after the end of this tour. He didn't blame them.
"Piece of shit!" Tsutomu suddenly snarled, unsheathing his kukri to swipe at the fly that had been assaulting his face for the last half hour. The fat insect buzzed around him before disappearing into the man's beard that was still coated with the blood from when a Sound soldier had tried to bash his face in back at the marshes. With a growl, Tsutomu swatted at his beard, prompting two flies to crawl out and give him double the work.
Sitting closest to him, Yori ducked when his blade nearly chopped her ear off. "Watch it!" she barked at him, flicking her chocolate brown braid aside to pick up some of the cards she'd dropped. She was the only woman among the twelve of them here, and she was also the only one besides Kakashi who had the guts to speak up against Tsutomu whenever his bitching got too loud or too obnoxious. Usually both.
The rest of the unit was in the middle of a very intense game of Spoons, using a beat-up deck of playing cards someone had the smarts to bring. Considering it was his first tour though, Kakashi initially could not fathom who would want to play a card game in the middle of a war zone, and especially deep in the trenches of enemy territory. But he'd soon discovered that a card game was the best way to pass the time when there wasn't much else to do but scout, kill, and sit on their asses to do it all over again. As it was now, they were on their thirty-fourth round of Spoons, and he just needed an Ace of Hearts to complete the set in his hand.
Passing another card to Obito, Kakashi wiped away a bead of sweat from his brow. Tucked beneath his shirt, the hot metal of his dog tags rubbed uncomfortably against his slick chest. Summer nights in Sound country were almost as bad as during the day. The good thing about it was that the humidity dropped, leaving the air so dry that his tongue felt like paper every time he opened his mouth. The bad thing was that, with the place so arid, they couldn't risk lighting a fire lest they burn down their only shelter for the night (or attract the wrong kind of attention). So they'd turned on their flashlights, thankful that the equipment had somehow survived the trip through the marshes but not so happy that they couldn't even light a cigarette.
Even without a fire, the summer heat had become far more unbearable than the mosquitoes that assaulted them every hour of the day. By midnight, everyone had resorted to stripping their tops off and leaving only their tactical vests on, filling the small space with their stinky sweat. It went against protocol, but nobody—not even Obito—listened to him when he offhandedly commented that they were sooner to die from a mosquito bite than a bullet wound if they dawdled around half-naked like that. Even Yori had given up, leaving Kakashi as the only one fully clothed in his combat fatigues.
"Bet you we could cook an egg on the ground with this heat," Obito rasped out, pressing the cool, flat edge of his kukri against his cheek. Not the smartest move unless he wanted to risk stabbing his eye out, but he was far too desperate to care at this point. "Fuck, man, what I wouldn't give for a sunny-side-up egg."
"There's one on the pantry shelf downstairs if the flies haven't got to it yet," Kakashi replied dismissively, passing a Queen of Hearts card to him and then picking up—ah-ha!
Holding his fourth and final Ace, Kakashi surreptitiously slid a hand out to grab one of the eight bullets that sat on the stool they were all sitting around. It took twenty seconds for anyone to notice that there were now only seven bullets remaining, and then chaos ensued as the rest of the unit members wrestled for the last bullets.
Once the dust had cleared and the knocked-over flashlights were propped back up, they each opened their hands to show who had a bullet and who didn't. Tsutomu didn't, and he did not look pleased about it.
"All right, who won it this time?" Midori sighed even as everyone looked expectantly to Kakashi who'd already flipped his deck around to show them his complete set of Aces.
"Fuck this!" Tsutomu threw his cards down and jabbed his kukri in Kakashi's direction. "He's always winning!"
"And you're always too slow," Yori said with a roll of her eyes. "You don't hear me bitchin' about it."
"Maybe because I would've made you shut the fuck up!"
Before the two could begin snapping at each other's throats again, Midori was already nudging his glasses up as he said aloud, "He's a Hatake. They don't call him the prodigal White Fang for nothing, so of course he'd win. He's one of those freakin' geniuses who excel at everything."
One of the Aces in Kakashi's hand folded slightly under his grip, but he said nothing as Obito glanced his way.
"Sounds like a freak to me," someone mumbled.
With Anzu collecting all the playing cards to reshuffle, everyone had time to listen in on the conversation now.
"Ah, yeah, your old man was one of the hotshots in the military, right?" Genki sneered at him. His face looked like a weasel's what with his long, sharp nose, narrow jaw, and beady eyes that twinkled as if he was constantly thinking of an insulting joke for anyone who caught his attention. But he was also the kind of weasel that shrunk back when a predator stared him down, and he did just that when Kakashi calmly turned his sights onto him. "B-Bet he has plenty of medals to show for it."
Kakashi quickly looked away in disinterest. Fuck if he cared about his father's medals. They were probably collecting dust and cobwebs somewhere in the back of a closet.
"Heard his Pops always carried a lil' sword around in battle," Tsutomu nodded to the hilt jutting out from behind Kakashi's lower back. "Just like that one."
"Who the fuck brings a sword to a gunfight?" Genki sniggered but just as soon stopped when he saw nobody else was laughing.
"It's a tantō, you nitwit," Obito said, slamming down the empty jar of jam with more force than necessary. Genki jolted in his seat from the harsh sound. "And it's really no different from the standard-issued kukris we all carry."
Tsutomu frowned at the knife in his hand that was almost double the length of Kakashi's shortsword. He met Kakashi's gaze over the curved blade, tawny eyes squinting at him for a second as if they were having a dick-measuring contest. Pleased with the extra inches he had over the younger man, Tsutomu lowered the knife to give Kakashi a smug grin. His shit-eating grin instantly flipped into a scowl, however, when the two flies from earlier suddenly appeared to attack his lips.
His breath must be that rancid, Kakashi thought with faint bemusement. While he could stand the pompous ass and his snide remarks, he couldn't stand to watch Yori have to consistently dodge Tsutomu's knife as he returned to stabbing at the flies with a vengeance.
Kakashi nodded towards the staircase that led to the bedrooms upstairs. "Tsutomu, Genki, switch off with Haya and Jun. It's your turn to be on lookout."
They clicked their tongues in unison but obeyed without question, grabbing their flashlights to head upstairs and keep watch for the next hour. As soon as they left the cramped room, the stink seemed to follow after them (although that wasn't much of a surprise). Haya and Jun came in, propping their sniper rifles against a cabinet that held nothing but smashed plates within. As they searched for a decent seat where they could put their feet up and relax as well as they could in a warzone, Kakashi pulled out a map from his pack and spread it out on the floor. With the beckon of his hand, he urged everyone to pay attention.
"Amegakure is fifty miles from here," he explained, tapping a finger on the northeast quadrant of the map. "The package is reported to be held within an underground bunker disguised on the topside as a water tower. At 0600, we'll be leaving to cut through the Dead Marshes to reach Ame by 1800."
"Why is it called the Dead Marshes again?" Anzu asked before slapping a fly off his sweaty face.
"Because a hundred of our men died there just last month. Cut down in an ambush after the enemy got ahold of our intel. Everyone's been calling it the Dead Marshes since then."
"So why the fuck are we going there?" Yori demanded. "I'm betting those corpses are still floating around for all the fishies to nibble on."
"Then that just means we have even more cover," Kakashi said.
Jun snorted and leaned over to snatch the map off the ground. Like most of the other survivors here, Jun liked to question Kakashi's leadership at every chance. In fact, he was the kind of guy whom teachers would rip their hair out over had he chosen to stay in high school rather than head straight into the military academy. Running a hand through his greasy blonde hair, he snorted at the map before tossing it back to Kakashi. "There's a river that we can follow for a few miles. It'll lead us straight to Amegakure much faster than the marshes."
"No."
"Why not?"
Because it's too tiresome to explain to a numbskull like you. "Because I said so."
"A fucking kid said so."
"At least I have a high school diploma."
"And a Bachelor's and a Master's," Midori coughed out. When Jun glared at him, he took off his glasses and pretended to get busy cleaning them.
With a sneer, Jun pointed his flashlight directly into Kakashi's face. "I don't care if you're a Hatake. I don't care if you're some genius with a dozen degrees. And I definitely don't give a flying fuck if our superiors kiss your ass and call you the White Flash—"
'Fang', Kakashi almost corrected him, but even he found the nickname distasteful.
"—I'm not going to put my life in the hands of some kid who cares more about the mission than his own comrades," Jun spat out.
"Look," Obito sat forward, prying the map from Kakashi's grip and smoothing it back down on the floor. "The obvious choice is the river, right?"
Jun nodded and then stepped on the foot of Haya who'd been too busy staring at Yori's cleavage. "Y-Yeah, duh!" Haya nodded vigorously until the heel digging onto his toes relented.
Obito spread open his palms in gesture. "Then you would think they'd have an ambush set up for us there too since it's the 'obvious choice'. The river will be guarded, but Sound won't expect more Fire soldiers to try the marshes after the first group failed."
"Ah, so reverse psychology?" Yori still didn't look so convinced, but she was already eyeing the marshes on the map again with renewed interest. She frowned and then looked to Kakashi. "You said you want to use the dead bodies for cover?"
"The marshes are our best bet if we want to get to the package on time. And without getting butchered," Kakashi added firmly. "We're the only ones left of our unit, so we need to play it safe but right. But I also wouldn't expect Sound to turn a blind eye, so we need to move with stealth."
Yori smiled wryly. "Tsutomu is the opposite of stealth, but I guess we could always use his bitch ass for cover if needed. I just fucking hate the marshes," she said with a sigh, sagging in her rickety chair, still exhausted from slugging through the marshes all day. "But Hatake's idea makes more sense."
"The fuck it does not!" Jun snapped at her. "I say we take the river—"
"And I say we're taking the marshes," Kakashi said, his voice low but harsh enough to make the fresh graduate stiffen. When Jun fell silent, Kakashi swept his gaze around all the others sitting and staring at him. He took turns challenging each and every one of them silently for a moment, daring them to question his orders anymore. "I don't care what you think of me. I don't care if you don't like swimming with the fishes and corpses. I don't care if any of you live or die. I care about completing the mission—and that is securing the package. That is our duty as a soldier and if you disagree then you are free to take off your vests and dog tags, put down your guns, and walk out that door and all the way back home."
Everyone shut up at that, and for the first time in six months, Kakashi was finally afforded the peace of silence without someone bitching about the insects, the commercial taste of their rations, or a stone that had found its way inside their boot. Satisfied with the room's consensus, Kakashi leaned back in his chair, unsheathing his tantō to wipe off today's coat of blood and mud that stained the edges.
It was Yori who broke the begrudging silence first when she suddenly withdrew her pistol from its holster. "You keep staring at my tits, Haya, and I'll blow you a new eye. Right in the center of your fucking forehead."
"Chill, darlin'!" Haya raised his hands placatingly. "I was just checking out your tags." As if to prove his point, he leaned closer to her, training his eyes on the cleavage that could be seen just above the collar of her vest. Still under the pretense of reading her tags, he hummed and stroked his chin. "Impressive."
Yori cocked her gun in warning.
"Hey, I got a place where you can blow me," Jun snickered at her, prompting Haya to do the same.
"That's it—"
"Enough," Kakashi leaned across to grab Yori's hand that was reaching for the kukri at her hip. Something then slipped out of his front pocket, fluttering down until it landed atop of the map to reveal little Rin shyly hugging onto a scrawny boy with silver hair and a dead gaze.
Jun swooped down in the blink of an eye, snatching up the photo with his blood-stained fingers. He whistled low, angling the photo for Haya to see. "Damn, Hatake! You like your girls really young, huh? But I didn't take you as a guy who likes four-year-old pussy! Or is she three?"
Over the men's cackles, Kakashi resisted the urge to skewer the Private 1st Class with the tip of his tantō. Especially not when he had just finished wiping the blade clean of today's muck. "The only pussy here is the one in front of me," he replied coolly.
Midori choked on the water he'd been sipping from his canteen, letting it splash all over the glasses he'd just finished cleaning.
While Jun was still sputtering from the retort, Obito stole the photo away from him. He peeked at it for just a split second before handing the picture back to Kakashi who immediately tucked it back into the safety of his pocket. He wiped his sword down one last time and then sheathed it loudly enough for both Jun and Haya to flinch.
A grim silence fell over the group as everyone else seemed to recall all the beloved people they themselves carried in their pockets. Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, and lovers. They were all waiting for their soldiers to return home—even if it meant in body bags or as dog tags.
"Is she your girlfriend?" Obito quietly asked as Anzu started to deal cards for the others to play a round of Thirteen with.
It was a sincere question, but it was still a personal one that had Kakashi scrubbing a hand over his jaw. His hand came away tinged with the thin film of blood that had yet to finish congealing on his mask. He could smell the sharp notes of copper with every intake of breath, so he made a mental note to retreat to the bathroom later and wash off the grime. It was pointless, he knew that. By tomorrow noon, his mask would be dyed in splotches of red again, but tonight he wanted to sleep without inhaling the stench of a dead man.
Sensing Obito still waiting for an answer, Kakashi wiped his hand on his trousers and then sighed.
"She's a girl. And she's my friend…." And he had kissed Rin before, but that was more out of curiosity than desire. Besides, he didn't count it as an actual kiss since he'd just been seven years old at the time. "She's… special to me," was all Kakashi gave in answer. "What about you? You got anyone back home?"
This time, it was Obito's turn to shift in discomfort. He rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged. "Nah, I was... disowned by my family. I was always the black sheep, but one day, I fucked up and..." He paused to scratch his cheek for a moment. "And it cost my twin brother's life. I mean, he's not dead," he added quickly. "But he got fucked up pretty badly from the accident to the point that... he's like a shadow of himself. So I got kicked out of the family after that, got put in a group home, then joined the academy as soon as I could. I haven't talked to my family or my twin brother ever since, so if I die... guess that's it for me."
"I wouldn't say it's the end for you. I mean, you're free to haunt me if you'd like."
Obito's mouth quirked into a grin. "You don't mind me pulling all that poltergeist shit on you?"
Kakashi snorted. "With your butterfingers, you'd be dropping shit rather than throwing it."
"Oh, fuck you!" Obito shoved at his shoulder with a laugh.
His laughter was cut short, however, when the heavy tread of boots stampeding down the staircase followed by the most unholy screeching interrupted everyone. Genki and Tsutomu appeared at the threshold, faces flushed with angry scratched lines marking their cheeks as if a cat had gotten the jump on them. But it wasn't a cat that was making that screeching noise; it was a girl. Slung between them with her wrists bound in ripped sheets, she thrashed around wildly in search of an opportunity to—not escape but to bite at the men holding her captive.
White teeth flashed between long tresses of ebony hair as she tried to snap her jaws at Tsutomu's thick neck. The man responded with a harsh slap that sent her face whipping towards Genki who was forced to reel back to avoid her bites.
"Lookie what I caught!" Tsutomu announced, grinning proudly as he grabbed the girl by the base of her head and yanked it back. She winced but made no sound that she was in pain. Even though her whole face was streaked with filth, it was obvious that she couldn't be any older than fifteen years old. Only two years younger than Kakashi himself, but already looking as if she'd lived through an entire war. "Caught this lil' bitch skulking around in one of the bedrooms. Probably was finding a spot to hide in so that she could slit our throats while we slept."
There was no way she could've taken on twelve armed soldiers even with the element of surprise, but Kakashi didn't doubt that she would've tried it anyway.
"I would've shat on your corpses too afterward!" she sneered at Tsutomu, earning a second slap to the cheek and making Genki flinch when specks of blood from her mouth landed all over his face.
"How the hell did we miss her?" Jun asked, stopping Tsutomu from slapping the girl again. "I thought we cleared this house from top to bottom."
Apparently, you guys were sloppy about it, Kakashi was half-tempted to say. Instead, he stood up and yanked the girl out of Genki and Tsutomu's clutches by her bound hands. She struggled against him but just as soon froze when she felt the sharp tip of his tantō dig into the small of her back. Don't move, Kakashi told her with a mere prod of his sword.
"Hey! Finders keepers," Tsutomu growled, displeased that his catch was being taken away from him. His grubby hands reached for the girl, but Kakashi pulled her away from him and towards the staircase.
"We're guests of this house," Kakashi said aloud despite knowing that there wasn't much of this house or its occupants left anymore. "This girl will be locked up in the master bedroom where no one is to touch her. Is that understood?"
Tsutomu took a heavy step forward to protest but stopped when the young Hatake turned his steely gaze onto him.
"Is that understood?" Kakashi spoke low, the lethal edge in his voice cutting through the tension like the blade in his hand. When Tsutomu bowed his head in answer, Kakashi glanced over at Obito who was looking at him strangely. "Relay to Tsutomu and Genki the plan for tomorrow."
With a sharp nudge of the sword against the girl's back, Kakashi prompted her to continue up the stairs. She remained silent on the way to the bedroom, but she didn't stop trying to squirm out of the sheets roped tightly around her wrists. Kakashi took the moment to observe her calloused hands, deducing that she was a surviving member of this household. Probably the daughter of the farmer who'd lived here.
He didn't ask where her parents were or why she was still here. Even though there hadn't been any bloodstains found while clearing the house, he guessed that the rest of the girl's family was already dead in a ditch somewhere.
"If you're going to kill me then just do it already," she finally said the moment she stumbled into the bedroom.
Kakashi closed the door first, watching her flinch at the sound of the latch clicking in place. "Turn around."
She hesitated for a moment before obeying with a slow, reluctant pivot. Under the sharp beam of his flashlight, Kakashi could see the tear tracks that left a clean streak through the cake of dirt and dried blood on her cheeks. He raised his sword and she bunched her shoulders up despite the defiant tilt of her chin. The tantō flashed under the moonlight for a split second as he swung it down upon the girl.
She squeezed her eyes shut but then opened them when she found herself still alive... and with her hands free now.
Kakashi jut his chin towards the bed. Its sheets were still made as if nobody had ever slept in them at all. "Lay down there."
She stiffened at this order, her body locking up more notably than the last time she'd hesitated. She took one step forward, and Kakashi caught the way her whole frame seemed to tremble before she hurriedly crossed the room and laid down on the bed, stiff as a board. The springs of the mattress creaked harshly, and her eyes widened as if the sound was a threat itself.
Grabbing a chair by the vanity mirror, Kakashi dragged it to the side of the bed before plopping down. His sudden close proximity to her had her sitting up rigidly, slim hands squeezing into fists on her lap. He would've preferred for her to remain lying down, but it seemed she was more comfortable sitting up, so he let her.
Leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, he took the moment to study the girl. She had a split lip, a small cut above her brow, the red mark of a building bruise on her cheek (no doubt courtesy of Tsutomu and Genki), and dark bags of exhaustion weighed heavy beneath her eyes—eyes so black that they seemed to pierce right into Kakashi's soul the longer he held her sharp gaze.
He looked away to reach for something in his pocket, pausing only when he sensed the girl stiffen again. Slowly, he withdrew the white handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to the girl. "Wipe your face."
She scowled at the implication but snatched the cloth from him. Glimpsing the little sunflower design Rin had sewn into the corner of the cloth, the girl stared at it first before remembering to wipe the dirt off her face.
"My name is Hatake Kakashi," he said as she cleaned herself. "What's yours?"
When she refused to answer, he reached into another pocket, slowly again like last time. He watched as her wary eyes flicked down from his to the orange thing in his hand.
"Are you hungry?" he asked, peeling the fruit for her. "It's a mandarin orange."
A rare delicacy among their rations, but he was never one for sweets anyway.
The girl watched him peel the skin of the orange off like a hawk would with its prey. As soon as he offered her a slice, she seized the small piece from his fingers and stuffed it into her mouth. Her lashes fluttered slightly as she took that first bite of tangy sweetness.
"Good?"
She froze at the question as if she was a thief who'd been caught stealing the mandarin he'd offered her. Without warning, she spat the mashed bits of orange to his face, her frown deepening when she saw Kakashi didn't even flinch from the attack.
"You're a bastard!" she said as he casually brushed off the pieces of orange clinging to his mask. In an effort to add insult to the non-existent injury, she flung the now dirty handkerchief back at him. Kakashi merely plucked it off his chest, folded it two times into a small square, and then tucked it into one of his pockets before placing the rest of the orange in front of her.
He stood up and she shrunk back from him after clutching the orange to her chest.
"We'll be gone in the morning," Kakashi said as he scanned the room for any dangerous objects she might try to use in retaliation. "You can rest easy tonight. I'll make sure no one touches you."
Although he was kind of late for that.
"But if you try anything, we will have to use force."
The warning was vague, but it left her shivering and glaring at him with enough spite to make any man give pause. He gave her one final look of caution before leaving to make his way to the bathroom. The farmhouse was old, and every floorboard creaked under his boots, but he preferred it that way. It kept him on edge—kept him alert for any signs of danger that may be lurking around the corner.
Even upon entering the bathroom, he swept aside the shower curtain just to make sure no other stray kid was waiting in the tub to ambush him with a butter knife or whatever these civilians resorted to.
Seeing the coast was clear, he stripped off his tactical vest and then the black sleeveless shirt underneath. The water ran lukewarm as he turned the knob of the faucet, and he splashed a handful down his chest for a brief respite from the blistering heat. Taking his shirt, he detached his mask and held it beneath the stream. Black, brown, and red tainted the pool of water along with loose sediment of dried mud. He grabbed the soap bar from the corner and scrubbed his mask inside and out, letting the bubbles froth.
After rinsing his mask, he wrung out the excess water before hanging the cloth on the edge of the sink to let it finish drying.
A shout could be heard from downstairs—either Tsutomu or Jun since those two loved to butt heads with everyone—but Kakashi didn't care so long as heads weren't rolling. Scrubbing a hand down his face, he shrugged on his shirt and vest but paused upon hearing a sharp creak just outside his door.
Creak...
There it was again, but further this time.
Kakashi heaved a sigh and then yanked his mask back on, unsurprised to find it already dry. Tugging the door open, he stepped out of the hallway and was met with the hulking figure of Tsutomu. His burly back was hunched over as if the guy was in the middle of sneaking... towards the girl's room.
"No," Kakashi said.
"Why not?"
"She's a civilian."
With a scoff, Tsutomu turned around, his flashlight gone but not the kukri in his hand. Kakashi didn't have to peer down to know that the man's trousers were already unbuttoned too. "Look, you can have a piece of her right after me, yeah? But for now? Fuck off, kid, and let the grownups play now." He shooed him with a wave of his blade.
Kakashi took a step forward down the dark hallway. "I said she's a civilian."
"And I said fuck off. You ever heard about the guy from Delta unit? Last tour, he lost his fucking eye to an eight-year-old girl with a fork. A fucking fork!" he hissed out, jabbing his kukri towards the closed door of the girl's room. "Civilians aren't as defenseless as you think. And little girls like her aren't so innocent in times like these. Bet you her hands are as filthy as her pussy."
"Maybe these people are forced to defend themselves when ugly men try to force themselves on them," replied Kakashi. He took another step closer and picked up a light whiff of alcohol and something fruity from the man. He didn't know where Tsutomu had gotten the liquor from, but he didn't need the dumb oaf falling on his own knife, so he tilted his head towards the stairs between them. "Go downstairs and stay down."
Hardheaded as ever, Tsutomu remained rooted in place. If he hoped Kakashi would back down first, he was wrong, and Kakashi proved himself the winner when he nonchalantly reached for the hilt of his tantō, prompting Tsutomu to click his tongue and finally move away from the girl's door.
"You just want that bitch for yourself."
The comment hardly fazed Kakashi, but he did have to hold back from gagging over the sour stench of the man's breath.
After Tsutomu disappeared down the stairs, Kakashi knocked on the girl's door before slipping back inside. She was still sitting on the bed, hugging her knees to her chest. Under her wary gaze, he raised his hands in a gesture of peace before nodding to her blouse. "You'll hurt yourself with those scissors before even landing a scratch on me."
She stilled and narrowed those fierce eyes at him. Slowly, she reached into her blouse to pull out the pair of scissors she'd tried to conceal in her cleavage. He had to commend her for her efforts although he also hated to think what would have happened had Tsutomu and her gotten into a tussle. A twenty-inch blade versus a five-inch pair of scissors would not have been much of a fight.
"Why did you do that?" she demanded when he returned to the chair beside her bed.
"Do what?" He noted the orange was gone.
"Protect me from him," she said with disgust as if she abhorred the chivalrous notion.
"You're a civilian."
"And if I was a soldier?"
"Then I would have killed you myself."
Whether it was because of the offhanded way he'd delivered that answer or the impassiveness of his stare, the girl reeled back more from surprise rather than fear.
"You're a strange one," she muttered, frowning down at her hands. "I cannot tell if you are a demon from hell or my guardian angel in disguise."
This time, it was Kakashi who'd jerked back in surprise. It wouldn't be the first time someone had called him a demon, but an angel? The White Fang, bastard, jerk, son of a bitch, and even pretty boy—he'd been called many things before but never an angel.
He tilted his head to study the girl's face. There was a certain kind of despair in her gaze concealed mostly by anger and spite, but it was there nonetheless. It was the kind of despair he'd witnessed on the faces of the many Sound soldiers who'd found themselves at the end of his tantō as they prepared to take their last breath. It was the despair of a person who knew they were going to die but didn't want to.
Kakashi stood up once more, muttering that he'd be back in a moment. When he returned with a plastic bag in hand and steam rising out of it, the girl sat forward on the bed. He could see her throat bob sharply as she inhaled the spicy notes of the curry heating inside the MRE bag. Withdrawing the contents of the bag, he opened the rice pack first, setting the plate at the foot of the bed.
"It's not much, but it's better than nothing," he said, pouring the sauce of the second pack at the side of the rice. Chunks of tenderized pork spilled out, coated in the bright orange color of the curry sauce. He set the heavy-duty spork beside the plate and sat back, waiting for the girl to grab a bite so that she could spit it in his face again. "Go ahead."
She gripped the spork tightly in her hand but didn't make a move to eat. "Why are you giving me your rations?"
Kakashi hummed and leaned back in the chair, tilting his head back to peer up at the boards of the ceiling. The boards creaked and a curtain of dust fell to the floor.
"Because I know you're still hungry after giving the orange to your little brother," he murmured. Her eyes widened and she jerked her gaze back onto him. Before she could make any excuses, Kakashi was already shaking his head. "I'm not going to hurt him, but like I said earlier: if he tries anything, we will be forced to act."
He tore his eyes away from the ceiling where he knew the little boy was watching them through the gaps of the boards, and met the girl's livid face. The despair was bright in her eyes now, and Kakashi wasn't surprised when she lunged for him again. But instead of trying to jam the spork in his eye, the girl threw it aside to grab Kakashi by the vest and yank him towards her.
He'd expected for her to do something to hurt him—bite his ear off, choke him to death, slap him as vengeance, or even just scream out her hate for him right in his face. He did not expect her to kiss him hard over his masked lips.
"Ana," she breathed against his mouth. "My name is Ana."
Swallowing lightly, Kakashi was about to ask her what that was for when she cut him off with another kiss just as hard and desperate as the first one. He pushed her away by the shoulder to put some distance between them, effectively breaking the kiss. Gently, he pried her hands off his vest but she suddenly tugged open her blouse and grabbed his hand to guide it to her breast.
At fifteen years old, the swell of her breast already fit perfectly in the curve of his palm, but terrified fifteen-year-old girls weren't his taste.
"Stop," Kakashi said firmly. He ripped his hand out of her blouse but she just as soon grabbed his other hand to guide it underneath her skirt. He quickly realized she wasn't wearing any underwear.
There was an awkward fumble as he tried to pull away from her while she tried to pull him in, and their struggle ended up with him on top of her anyway.
"I said stop!" Kakashi growled at her, wresting her hands and pinning them down on the bed.
She peered up at him with tears in her eyes but at this point they may have been crocodile tears for all he knew. Tsutomu's words chose that moment to echo in his head: 'little girls like her aren't so innocent in times like these.'
True to those words, he could feel a bare leg glide up his thigh to hook onto his hip, nudging him closer to the place between her legs. He could already feel the heat of her core against him.
All right, she was good; he'd give her credit for that. But Kakashi had run into his fair share of seedy alleys and bumped into all sorts of people who hid ulterior motives behind bright smiles. So he knew what this girl was trying to do and he inwardly commended her for the effort, but this had to stop right here and right now. Besides, while he was normally enthusiastic about having sex with a pretty lady, he wasn't so enthusiastic about impregnating a young girl from another country in the middle of a war.
"Ana," he spoke softly. "I'm not going to hurt you."
Slowly, he released her hands and drew back to sit on the edge of the bed. Confusion filled her gaze, replacing the fear as she sat up and pulled her blouse close with a hand.
"I... I know you won't," Ana whispered. "You're a strange one… strange but different."
Then she looked to the door and he could see the fear return in full force before she dropped her eyes down to her skirt and smoothed it back down her legs.
It's not me she's afraid of, Kakashi realized. It's everyone else.
And she was trying to win him onto her side for protection. She believed that he would not let his men kill her so long as she could offer something to them. To him—their leader. And while she had no food or money to give, she could at least offer her body in exchange for mercy.
The thought had him pressing his lips to hold back a sigh. He stood up and returned to his chair, making sure his mask was securely in place. "You don't have to seduce me to ensure your safety. I will personally see to it that no harm comes to you so long as we're here and as long as you don't cause any trouble. By dawn, we'll be gone long before you wake up."
"You're a liar," Ana responded with a shake of her head. "You're a soldier from Fire country. Why would you care for a Sound girl like me?"
"Because you're not part of my mission."
Apparently, that was the wrong answer because it only had her glaring at him once more, her bottom lip trembling with renewed fury. "I wasn't part of any of their mission when they took turns with me."
"… I'm sorry."
She leaned over and promptly slapped him across the face—hard. "I don't want your fucking pity! I want you to go away and just die already!" When his gaze remained as apathetic as before, she struck him again, and again, and again. "Just die! Die! Die! Die!"
Each hit was weaker than the last one, and soon she was sobbing against him, beating her small fists against his vest that could withstand a good range of bullets and even the intense lick of flames. Kakashi sat there, silently taking the hits and listening to her cry. And the fact that she was crying in front of the enemy only made her sob harder, more so out of bitter enmity rather than sadness. But it wasn't like she had anyone else to cry in the arms of. Her little brother hidden away in the attic upstairs was probably too young to offer her much consolation. And even then, the risk was too great with twelve armed soldiers, so she'd turned to Kakashi instead. The only one who'd shown her anything close to sympathy.
There wasn't much he could give Ana, however, so he didn't stop her when she pressed her lips back over his. He could taste the salt of her tears and the wrath of her fury as she kissed him hard enough to bruise both their lips. It was only when he felt shaky fingers curl around the edges of his mask did he grab her frail wrists to stop her.
"No," Kakashi said. A plain, hard no that drew a scowl from her face.
"No?" Ana laughed dryly. "When I said no, they didn't listen. So why should I listen to you?"
Ah, so it wasn't just about seeking mercy. She sought vengeance too.
"I know this isn't what you want," he said. She wanted vengeance, but not this way even though it was probably the only way. "This will hurt you more than me, Ana."
She looked at him as if he'd finally slapped her back. "You don't know me! You don't know what I want!"
Just like with the kiss, Kakashi didn't stop her when she reached around him to unsheathe his sword. He even allowed her to jerk him by the collar of his vest to press the blade against his throat. The thin length of his mask was cut, but he steadily held her heated stare even as he felt a drop of blood well up at the base of his throat.
"It must be so easy to do whatever you want to other people just because you have more power than them," Ana seethed, baring her teeth at him as if she would like nothing more than to rip his throat out. "But now I have power! Now I can do whatever the fuck I want!"
"If you kill me, my men will kill you. It's not a threat—it's a fact," Kakashi added quickly when her glower darkened. "Those guys would love nothing more than to have an excuse to have their way with you. Don't give them the chance."
It wasn't that he was trying to save his own skin. He could take the sword from her right now if he attempted to, and even break her wrist if he wanted for good measure. But right now, he was her only protector whether they liked it or not.
Scornful of the idea of having to rely on him for protection, Ana's upper lip curled but she lifted the blade away from the Adam's apple of his throat. Just enough so that it didn't hurt to swallow. With her still gripping the sword, Kakashi knew she hadn't quite made her decision to trust him yet. He could see her inner turmoil just in the way she darted her tongue out to lick at the dried blood of her split lip. Probably remembering all the instances in which she'd had no one to protect her and had to suffer the consequences for it.
"I don't trust you," Ana muttered.
"You don't need to."
She licked her split lip again in contemplation. It was only when they heard the heavy thud of boots climbing up the stairs did she press the sword back into Kakashi's hands in answer of the decision she'd come to.
Just as he sheathed his tantō, the door burst open to reveal a frenzied-looking Obito now with his shirt back on despite the heat.
"We heard some sort of noise from the barn!"
"Stay here," Kakashi ordered Ana before locking the door to her room.
The barn wasn't too far away from the farmhouse, but Kakashi didn't like sticking their necks out in the open in the middle of the night. Taking Obito, Tsutomu, and Anzu with him, Kakashi entrusted Yori to keep an eye on the girl in his absence as his half of the team slinked down the dirt road and towards the barn. They'd already cleared the barn first thing before even stepping foot in the house, and all they'd found was the carcass of a horse and a steaming pile of dung.
But now that night had fallen, they approached the doors with caution and their carbines in hand.
Pressing his shoulder to the wall just outside the threshold, Kakashi met Obito's gaze on the opposite side. Behind him, Tsutomu breathed down heavily at his neck, waiting for the signal to charge in. Tipping his head back, Kakashi took a deep whiff of the torrid air but all he could smell was hot, stinking shit and he honestly couldn't tell if it was their body odor or the shit inside the barn. Probably both, and it was screwing up his sense of smell.
Choosing to breathe through his mouth instead, Kakashi propped the butt of the carbine rifle against his shoulder before nodding to Obito.
They kicked through the barn doors with Tsutomu spilling in, scoping the area in a wide sweep as Kakashi and Obito followed after him with Anzu covering the rear. Their flashlights cut through the darkness, revealing that nothing had changed since the last time they'd cleared the area. Piles of hay still littered the floor, the wheelbarrow tipped on its side in the second stall, and a pitchfork left discarded by the pile of shit that was now dry and shrunk down. The only difference he noticed was that the cloud of flies buzzing around the horse carcass seemed to have swelled in size. But other than that...
"It's clear," Anzu announced from the end of the barn after peering into the last stall.
"Clear!" Obito shouted from the loft above.
But Kakashi didn't lower his rifle down just yet. While waiting for Obito to climb down from the loft, he turned to Tsutomu who was squinting at every dark corner as if he expected a monster to pop out. "What did you guys hear?"
"Uh, some kind of bang noise."
A bang?
Catching the look of skepticism Kakashi cast his way, Tsutomu scowled at him. "I know I heard—"
Bang!
Everyone spun on their heels in the direction of the pile of hay strewn across the entrance of the stall next door to the horse carcass. Something had bumped a shovel that had been leaning against a post, and now that shovel was on the floor. The beams of their flashlights strayed all over the dried straws of the haystack as the men prowled closer and closer, the barrels of their rifles raised to meet their line of sight.
Glancing over to Obito and Anzu, Kakashi jerked his head to silently direct them to surround the haystack. Once they stood in position, Kakashi lowered his rifle and switched it to his other hand to reach for the tantō at his back. The blade slid out with a quiet, slow 'sshhh' before he held it before the haystack. The men licked the salty sweat off their lips as they waited for Kakashi to make his move.
Sshrk!
The sword dug all the way into the hay, and yet Kakashi felt no weight struggling against the blade. He pulled it back and studied the tip. Not a hint of blood stained the polished steel.
"There!" Anzu shouted, pointing towards the bits of straws suddenly shaking and quivering at the border of the pile.
The men aimed their weapons but Kakashi raised a fist to stop them from shooting. A moment later, something small and beige in color rolled out with bits of hay still clinging to its body. It wriggled and whimpered as they all leaned in to squint at...
"It's... a dog," Obito declared. "A lil' pug."
Tsutomu lowered his rifle and cackled in relief. "It's just a fuckin' lil' runt!"
"It's a boy. Looks only a few weeks old."
Tsutomu prodded the pup with the barrel of his rifle, eliciting a squeal from it. "Hey, we can cook this lil' guy, huh? Isn't the meat of baby animals usually tender and juicy? Could find some spices from the kitchen and make some soup."
He rubbed his hands eagerly, drawing appalled stares from Obito and Anzu. Ignoring the men bickering over whether to cook the puppy or not, Kakashi studied the way the little pug stumbled around before tripping over his boot. The pup yelped, blinking up at Kakashi before rolling itself upright. His floppy black ears twitched as he took to sniffing at the tan cattlehide leather of his boot.
Kakashi took a step back and grabbed the pup by the scruff of his neck. Ugh, the lil' guy stank.
"Hey, there's a hatch here under the hay," Obito pointed out just as Kakashi was trying to figure out why the hell this dog reeked of excrements and strawberries.
Wait... strawberries?
Tsutomu fumbled with the latch of the hatch while Kakashi studied the pug's muzzle. There was no sign of any jam around his mouth, and there was still nothing when Kakashi peeled back the pup's lips to check his teeth.
Then why was he smelling strawberry jam here when he hadn't before?
"Hey!" Tsutomu waved for their attention as he peered into the dark depths the hatch led into. "There's a ladder—"
"Get away from there!" Kakashi shouted at the same time Tsutomu's head jerked back at the sound of another 'bang!'.
It lasted for only one second, but it seemed to drag on for too long before Tsutomu crashed onto his back, gazing blankly up at the roof. The bullet had dug deep into his forehead, leaving only a hole oozing blood.
Kakashi grabbed Obito by the strap of his vest and threw themselves into the nearest stall just as a spray of gunfire tore up the floorboards they had been standing on. Bullets whizzed by, and straws of hay as well as wooden splinters flew into the air as the two men pressed themselves into the haystack they'd landed on (thankfully avoiding the stall with the horse carcass).
Once the gunfire died down, Kakashi raised his head and glanced at Obito to check for any injuries. As soon as he saw that he was fine, Kakashi squeezed the gun in his hand in preparation to return fire. But his weapon yelped in protest, and he peered down at the pug he'd somehow managed to keep his grip on. The pup squirmed in his hand and Kakashi thought nothing of it when he shoved the lil' guy underneath his vest so that only his dark snout could be seen above the collar.
He blindly pat the ground for his rifle and silently cursed when he realized he'd dropped it by the hatch to haul Obito away. As if sharing the same idea, Obito sat up and twisted around, pointing his own carbine rifle to their stall door that had swung close in anticipation of the enemy crashing through.
The stall door remained shut.
A tense silence filled the space of the barn as both groups of soldiers waited for the other to make the next move. But Kakashi remembered that Tsutomu had mentioned there was a ladder, so if anyone had the advantage here, it was his team with the high ground. Sure, if they poked their heads into the opening of the hatch then they'd definitely get their brains blown out. But maybe they wouldn't have to do that...
Nodding to Obito, he carefully nudged the stall door aside as they crawled across the floor on their bellies. The pug poked his head from beneath the safety of the bulletproof vest, but Kakashi was thankful that the little guy busied himself with licking his chin rather than yelp and howl for help.
Patting the pockets of his vest down, Kakashi inwardly groaned at his lack of grenades before spotting Tsutomu's body. He signaled for Obito to stay back as he crawled over to Tsutomu's body and checked his pockets for—yes!
Pulling the pin of the grenade, he tossed it down the hatch and then quickly grabbed Tsutomu's body to roll it over himself for cover.
The soldiers hiding in the space below shouted in alarm before their cries were cut off with the sudden explosion of the grenade going off. When the smoke cleared and the dust settled, Kakashi threw Tsutomu's corpse off himself and checked Obito who was already carefully approaching the hatch to aim a light as well as his gun in.
"Clear!"
Anzu revealed himself to be alive when he poked his head out from the stall with the horse carcass. Flies crawled through his red mane of hair but he seemed more concerned with the open hatch than the bugs. "We're still alive?"
"Still alive," Kakashi muttered as he plucked out the last of the hay from his hair and then checked the pug under his vest. He was greeted with little licks to his mouth and he winced at the putrid hot breath that accompanied those licks.
There was no way anyone could survive a direct blast in the face from a grenade, so Kakashi wasn't so concerned when he led Anzu and Obito down the ladder of the hatch and directed his flashlight all across the fallen bodies that littered the floor. Lumps of what looked like flesh were splattered on the walls. There was so much bloody pulp everywhere that Kakashi almost missed the jars of strawberry jam—or what was left of them. One of the Sound soldiers had a whole chunk of his leg blown off below the hip and Kakashi nudged his remaining leg to be sure he was down for good.
"How long have they been down here?" Anzu asked, counting the bodies to a total of six. "It stinks like hell."
"Seems they've been here for two weeks. Maybe more," Kakashi answered as he stared down at a corpse that was clearly at a more advanced stage of decomposition than the other soldiers who'd died mere minutes ago. The body was already liquefying so that the face of the man wasn't even recognizable. Kakashi guessed the process had been sped up by the summer heat, but these soldiers should not have been holed up here for this long. Not when there was a war to be fought and orders to be taken. Turning away from the corpse, he unsheathed his sword once more. "Double-tap the bodies."
Obito and Anzu nodded, unsheathing their own kukris to follow after Kakashi's example.
For the next few seconds, nothing could be heard except for the wet squelch of blades sliding deep into the guts of the fallen men.
"Take their weapons," Kakashi reminded them as he turned over the body of the third soldier.
The flash of a blade was his only warning, and Kakashi instinctively threw his hand up to protect his face while he drove forth his sword with his free hand. The Sound soldier at his feet rasped out a curse for him before submitting to the sword Kakashi had stabbed into his chest.
"Shit! You okay?!" Obito ran over to check Kakashi's hand that was already bleeding from the fresh cut.
"It's just a cut," Kakashi said, sheathing his sword and ignoring the dull heat of pain that was held at bay only thanks to the adrenaline still pumping in his veins. He gave the cramped space one final sweep before deciding that they were done here.
Nobody knew what to do with Tsutomu's body except loot him for any spare weapons and his dog tags. It wasn't like they could risk lighting a fire to cremate him, and the soil was too dry and tough to bother digging in the middle of the night. So after checking his pockets for any photos (there was one of an elderly lady—his mother, perhaps), they draped a blanket over his body and bowed their heads for a moment of silence.
"The fuck happened out there?" Genki asked as soon as they returned to the farmhouse.
Kakashi ignored him and trudged upstairs, bursting into Ana's room so quickly that Yori stood up with her rifle aimed at him. When she saw it was just him, she sagged in relief but gave him a bewildered look when Kakashi ordered her out.
Ana said nothing even as he stared at her long and hard, his jaw clenching and unclenching. She glanced at the plastic spork still sitting by the untouched plate of curry as if contemplating if she might be able to use it for self-defense. But then a small whimper from beneath his vest broke the charged quietude, and Ana blinked in confusion when Kakashi sighed and pulled out the dog to set him down on the floor.
"Do you have any milk?"
She gaped at him as if he'd grown two heads.
"He's starving," Kakashi pressed her as they watch the pup begin his expedition towards the chair by the bed so that he could gnaw at its wooden leg. "He needs milk or something to eat."
"He's a dog," Ana said with a pointed look. "A stray dog."
Kakashi propped his rifle against the closest wall and crossed his arms. "So you don't think he deserves to live just because he's a stray dog?"
"He's going to die in this war anyway," she replied vehemently as if it was his fault for that. "So why bother?"
Kakashi was beginning to lose count of how many times he'd sighed today, so he opted to scrub a hand down his face instead. Ana smirked at that, seemingly pleased by his silent frustration, but her smile just as soon dropped when he grabbed the plate of curry that'd been meant for her and scraped off all the rice onto the floor.
"Hey!"
"It's not like you were eating it," he told her as the pup trotted over to nibble on the fallen rice. He tossed the plate back onto the bed, leaving her with just the bits of pork coated in spicy sauce.
Ana frowned at the pitiful leftovers on the plate. "I hate you."
"Duly noted."
Yanking a spare pillow from behind her, Kakashi threw it onto the floor for the dog before collapsing onto the chair. He grabbed at the exposed sheets of the bed and ripped at the hem until he had several strips of cloth. He tossed the strips onto Ana's lap and held out his bleeding hand to her. "Clean my wound and wrap it."
She glared at him but eventually obliged, taking a strip to dip into the basin of water that sat on the bedside table. Kakashi watched her wipe at his hand, her touch rough and unforgiving as expected.
"You should've told me you were hiding Sound soldiers in your barn."
Her hand slowed against his momentarily before she proceeded to start bandaging him. "Why? So that you could kill them?"
"I did kill them." This time, her hand did freeze halfway with the wrapping. Kakashi shrugged. "They were deserters. They were going to die either way."
Ana finished tying his bandage but had fallen silent now.
"There are countless ways to die during war," he explained. "If you don't die by gunfire or blade, you'll die from disease, infection, starvation, betrayal, torture, or even suicide. A bullet to the head is a sweet mercy."
"And me? Will I die too?" she asked quietly.
It was a rhetorical question probably everyone here had asked since day one of the war. Will I die today? Tomorrow? By gun? By bomb? By sword? Or even by suicide? He could see the questions filling those piercing eyes of hers—no, they were tears. She was already crying over her inevitable fate, and Kakashi could not understand why. Everyone died at some point in their lives, some earlier than others. Of course she would want to live for as long as possible, but that was why he'd assured her of her safety.
"Aren't you afraid of dying?"
It was a simple yes or no question, but his father's gutted body flashed through Kakashi's mind and he wrenched his hand away from Ana's. "People die every day," he answered darkly. "It's wartime. What do you expect?"
She looked on in disappointment, probably having expected him to show her a glimpse of sympathy like he'd done so earlier. "You don't feel sad? Or... Or scared? Don't you feel anything?"
"Emotions tend to get in the way of the mission."
He'd expected more anger in response, but he certainly hadn't expected her to give him pity. Before Ana could criticize him any further, Kakashi grabbed the spork and pressed it insistently in her hand while tugging the plate to her. "Eat and get some rest. I'll—"
Chunks of the pork flung across the room, eliciting a startled squeak from the pug as the plate soon followed after. "Don't order me around!" Ana snarled at him. "Why do you have so much power that you can just command everyone? Why are you the one in control of my life and I'm not?!"
Kakashi considered her for a moment and then reached back to withdraw his tantō. He handed it to her, guiding her to press the blade to his throat once again. "Well? Do you feel in control now?"
He could feel the blade tremble against him as the tears finally ran down her cheeks. She dropped the sword to wipe those tears away. "Why... Why aren't you afraid?"
Maybe it was because he knew she was going to die sooner or later. Or maybe it was because she, in some way, reminded Kakashi of himself many years ago when he'd been alone and calling the police to come quick because his father wasn't breathing and there was so much blood. So much damn blood that it was then he'd learned how much the human body needed to stay alive. Maybe it was both.
"Because I know exactly what it's like to not be in control of your own life," Kakashi answered quietly. "That's why I'm here now. To find the one thing I need to take full control of my life. But I won't blame you if you want to try and do the same for yourself," he added, gesturing to the sword still laying at the foot of the bed.
Ana picked it up, studying the blood of the soldiers coating the tip of the sword. He wasn't surprised at this point when she let it clatter onto the floor and grabbed him by the back of his neck to pull him in for another kiss. It was gentle this time but only because of her hesitation.
"We have a saying, my people," she whispered in between kisses that gradually deepened. "A man who chases death is already a dead man walking."
In that case, he was surely a dead man just as much as she was a dead woman. Or… girl? No… She was no longer a girl anyway—the same way he'd no longer been a boy after the night of his father's death. Time may have shown mercy on them from the outside, but beneath their youthful faces, their souls were practically withering.
So Kakashi didn't stop her this time when she kissed him again while gingerly guiding his hand beneath her skirt. She flinched slightly when his fingers pressed to her entrance, so he started with circling her clit to coax her body into arousal. It was clear she lacked the experience to know what she wanted or even liked, so he made sure to be gentle and slow with his fingers, allowing her to guide him however way she desired but also adding his own touch whenever she seemed uncertain. This was her chance to finally take matters into her own hands (literally)—and take control of her miserable life for once. And although she'd flinch or gasp at every strange sensation that ran through her, Ana only rocked her hips harder.
Kakashi watched her brow begin to furrow as a blush deepened on her normally pale cheeks. She was dripping down his wrist now, so he could tell she was enjoying it just as much as she loathed it. And him? Well, he'd hoped to feel a spark of life somewhere in that dark abyss inside him when he slipped his fingers into her tight warmth. He'd hoped he could feel alive and just as desperate as Ana as she rode his hand with such urgency that her movements seemed more natural than clumsy. But he didn't.
Kakashi felt nothing inside him just as he'd felt nothing when Tsutomu had died right before his eyes.
And why should he feel anything? They were all going to die anyway—some earlier than others.
And when Ana began to sob out her moans, crying out Kakashi's name and cursing it at the same time, he merely responded with the experienced curl of his fingers. A command for her to come for him.
She did so with a silent cry, squeezing her eyes shut and the last of her tears out.
When Kakashi withdrew his hand, he realized it was the one he'd injured. The bandages were soaked through with his blood now as well as the evidence of her orgasm, but he couldn't be bothered to change them.
"Let me see your face," Ana panted out, reaching for the edge of his mask. There was a light flush that colored her wan face, and the flush deepened as she peeled his mask down and gazed upon the face of her would-be protector and grim reaper. "You're... so handsome."
He let her cup his face, slim thumbs sweep across the lips she'd kissed over his mask.
"You have a mole," she pointed out, stroking the mark just below the bottom left corner of his mouth.
"It's a beauty mark," he corrected her with a frown. People were always confusing the two with each other which was just another reason for him to keep the mask on so that he didn't have to explain all the time. "Moles protrude above the skin. Beauty marks are just flat, pigmented areas."
Ana laughed softly, seemingly pleased by the sudden mundane topic in conversation. It was the first sincere laugh he'd heard from her. It reminded Kakashi that she was still just a fifteen-year-old girl who probably would've preferred to spend her summer kissing cute boys rather than trained killers.
"If we had met under different circumstances, I'm sure I would've fallen in love with you," she smiled sadly. "Handsome men are hard to hate."
He grunted at that before pulling away to draw his mask back up. Her fingers lingered over his clothed lips as if she had only just now realized that there was a man beneath the mask and not a killing machine.
"You must be an angel from hell," Ana murmured as her eyelids began to fall in exhaustion. "Then it's all right for me to hate you."
"Yes," Kakashi simply replied. He took her by her slim shoulders and laid her down on the bed, guiding her head onto the pillow.
"I hate you... I hate you so much," Ana sighed out before a restless sleep took her captive.
She would find no sanctuary in her dreams. Only a bottomless void that threatened to swallow her whole. And were it not for her little brother still hidden above and waiting for her, she would've gladly thrown herself into that void in the hopes of never waking again. Alas, she did wake hours later when the first golden rays of dawn pierced the room and warmed her face.
But when Ana awoke, she would find the room empty of any handsome angel from hell. The only evidence he'd ever existed lay beside her in the form of a kukri knife. It gleamed dangerously under the morning light; a beacon that called her attention to the note pinned beneath it. Gripping the kukri in her hand, Ana found that the note bore no greeting or even mentioned a name let alone his. The note simply read two words that would change the girl's life forever.
'Take control.'
.
.
.
"So do you think that girl will survive?"
Kakashi glanced over to Obito who had his sniper rifle propped on the ledge of the window. The village they'd stumbled upon was seemingly abandoned, but he'd sent the others to scope out the other buildings just like Obito was doing right now. There honestly wasn't much to look at since half of the town had been blown to smithereens in an earlier air raid, but the bell tower they'd taken shelter in for the moment was a great respite from the heat sizzling outside the stone walls.
"I mean, she's all alone in the middle of a war, so..." Obito's mouth quirked down. "So I kinda feel bad for her, you know?"
Kakashi shrugged, and his vest yapped aloud. "Quiet now, Pakkun."
Obito peered back at him with a raised brow. "You named the dog?"
A dark snout popped out from the top of the vest to lick at Kakashi's chin. "I can't just keep calling him 'dog'."
Obito rolled his eyes but returned his attention to his sniper rifle. He was quiet for a moment as he observed through the scope, but then he stilled and reached to quickly adjust his scope onto something.
"It's burning."
"What is?" Kakashi approached his side to peer into the distance. With his naked eye, he saw nothing but empty fields stretching for miles. But there on the horizon, he could see a black trail of smoke curling into the cloudless sky. "What's burning?"
"The farmhouse."
A/N: Because these side stories are just written for fun with no planning whatsoever, some things (such as Ana's fate) are intentionally left vague because I don't know yet if I'll play with these plot points more in future chapters. The main purpose of these side stories is just to give you insight into Kakashi's character when he was young. I only write these side stories when I cannot update the main story but also because I love writing young Kakashi since his war days is a tumultuous period in his life and I don't have to hold back with the mature themes. I originally began writing fanfiction as an action/angst writer anyway, so these side stories will be full of action/angst.
I will update the main story next Saturday, so just sit tight :)
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