Hello readers! This story is set a few months after Kakashi and Michiko's fallout. Shisui is a vital part of her storyline, but for purposes not yet disclosed, we will skip how she builds a relationship with him and focus on her and Kakashi!
Reviews are always welcome.
Enjoy!
Something is amiss.
Michiko is crouching behind a tree, her monkey mask covered in dark stains- ash. Their team has been ambushed. Already outnumbered, Michiko has spent ten minutes disposing of three attackers. The last one is harder to catch- a big brute with too much chakra to waste.
So, she bides her time.
Behind her, a fire is burning.
'Where are the others?'
Despite being a sensory type, she detects nothing except the enemy. She isn't very panicked, adrenaline is coursing cleanly through her veins and she is pleased to use her newly developed fighting style.
Having watched Shisui carefully, she has improved her shunshin, and she has improved her arsenal of Futon techniques.
The mission which was a simple extraction task has revealed itself to be far more troublesome for the rest of the team- Tenzo and Itachi aren't close enough for her to see or detect. She needs to regroup.
'Time to go.'
Sheathing her blades, she takes a fraction of a second to lunge forwards, rolling across the grass and seemingly vanishing as a swords cuts through the tree she was hiding behind.
The sound of wood ripping is grating and loud. The swordsman, a tall brunt with a head full of dark hair, cackles cruelly.
"You Konoha shinobi are nothing more than bug splats."
Irritated by his loud voice, Michiko reappears right before him, lithely kicking down on his wrist until she hears a snap. His sword-wielding arm is immobile. Before he can swipe her down with his free hand, she disappears. Having left the enemy disoriented, from a few feet behind him, she releases a jutsu.
"Futon: Senpuken!"
The wind that follows should slice through him, but he throws himself out of the way, swapping his sword to his uninjured hand and attacks her again. Michiko unsheathes her blades in a flash, locking his heavy one between both of her own. Head to head, she is grateful for the mask protecting her face.
Before he can throw her away, a fireball erupts between them.
"How did you-!" Burning, he growls a shrill, pained scream. Somewhere, she senses Tenzo fighting his own battle. The enemy has underestimated her.
As he twitches, she pulls his head back by his hair and cleanly cuts his throat.
Dropping his bleeding body, she turns in Tenzo's direction and vanishes.
"There's four here." Itachi calls, as Tenzo and Michiko appear together.
"Eleven bodies in total." The mokuton user calculates, hands on his hips as he pushes a body onto its back with his foot. The three of them peer over the face of the dead man, staring at his scratched fore-head protector.
"Kirigakure. Should have known." Michiko is frowning as she speaks, and then pulls out the scroll she has sealed the other bodies in. The body count irks her. "Let's get this guy and then track taichou down."
For once, she sounds more concerned for Kakashi than annoyed. Itachi has noticed the change in their relationship since Michiko's short break. They still aren't friends, but they are comrades.
He has also noticed her improved, albeit more ruthless, fighting style. He wonders who she has been training with.
"Here." Hatake Kakashi calls. The three turn, surprised that they haven't sensed him.
"Kakashi-san!" Tenzo rushes to him, Michiko takes a moment to realise he is injured. His head is bleeding, and Obito's sharingan whirls at her. She tenses, distracted by Itachi walking past her.
Sealing the body, she joins them.
"I got something." Kakashi says. His eyes meet Michiko's and a second later, he has pulled his mask up to cover his eye. "We should go back to Konoha. Hokage-sama will want to see this."
They return as twilight settles over the village.
'I only seem to see this place in the dark.' Michiko thinks, following her teammates over the roof tops, to HQ. Kakashi calls her to attention.
"Michiko, come with me to Hokage-sama. Tenzo, Itachi- good work today. Dismissed."
The other two disappear in a dash. Now Kakashi and Michiko are sprinting over the roof tops, masks pulled over their faces.
"What happened taichou?"
Kakashi wishes she wouldn't always call him that. She rarely addresses him by his real name.
"They had summoning scrolls. For the Nine-tails."
Alarmed, Michiko shot Kakashi a concerned look that remained hidden under the mask. Kakashi was perceptive to her change in mood, "I'm concerned too. Minato-sensei will handle this."
Minato-sensei.
'Of course,' It dawns on Michiko, 'He was their sensei…' She feels uncomfortable, but goes with Kakashi anyway, remaining silent as he explains their findings and hands over the scrolls.
"This is alarming." Minato has a grim expression. "You have brought the bodies?"
"Yes Hokage-sama." Michiko replies, holding out the two scrolls to another Anbu member.
"I want id's on these men." The hokage orders, tapping his fingers on the desk as he walks around it. Michiko volunteers some information she has kept to herself.
"One of them was one of the seven swordsmen of the Mist."
A tense silence falls in the room.
"How do you know this?"
Clearing her throat, Michiko finds herself confused on how to explain her findings. "The one who ordered the attack and followed Kakashi-taichou. He's well-known- his sword can eat chakra."
"And you saw him clearly?" Of course, Minato questions further. He forgets for a moment, that Michiko Sarutobi knows more about Kirigakure than the average citizen of Konoha.
"Hai. He looks like a shark, very easy to recognize."
Kakashi is peering at her, when he lets a question slip. "He didn't come after me, Michiko."
"He was there when Tenzo, Itachi and I were coming to you. Then he went in your direction, he must have decided to skip the fight…"
Uncertainly, Michiko shakes her head at him and at Minato. "Forgive me Hokage-sama, I am very sure that I saw him."
"We will look into it. Keep this mission to yourselves, no one should get wind of this."
"Hai." Affirming his orders in unison, Kakashi and Michiko are dismissed.
They take separate routes to Anbu HQ but run into each other again in the changing room.
"That was one hell of a mission." She says to him as she lets the door drop shut behind her.
"Yeah." He replies, pulling off his vest and gloves.
Looking away from him, Michiko undoes her sandals and drops her weapons on the bench. Sound is always muffled here, and neither of the two mind the noise.
"You've improved on your wind techniques." Kakashi states.
On opposite sides of the locker-room, with their backs to one another, Michiko smiles. "Yes, I am trying to improve."
"Hm. Good." Kakashi takes the hem of his shirt and pulls it over his head.
Michiko turns to look over her shoulder, and although she has seen this view plenty of times, there is always enough skin and bare upper-bodies in the room for his to not warrant as much attention.
His Anbu tattoo peaks boldly over the pale skin of his shoulder blade. His back is littered with little, nearly imperceptible cuts. The muscles of his back are defined, almost cruelly, sharply cut into his body.
Kakashi sees her staring at his back through the little mirror fitted into his locker door. He pushes it open a little more, so she can see him watching her. When their eyes meet, she's a little alarmed and is visibly embarrassed. She looks away, ruffling her short hair in the process. Mildly amused, Kakashi wonders if he can make feel flustered.
"Are you seeing someone?"
The question catches her off guard and her mouth parts a little.
"No, not really." She's lying, and instead of embarrassed, she sounds annoyed. Michiko wonders how many people have gossiped about her and her recent boyfriend.
In her opinion, it's much easier to change when the room is full. Being in Kakashi's presence alone feels a little odd, and coupled with his curiosity, it feels dubious.
Michiko is digging through her rucksack for her clothing, when Kakashi voices his thoughts in a laid-back and amused voice.
"You know you're a terrible liar, Sarutobi."
Snapping her head, she narrows her eyes and raises her eyebrows at her taichou, "Yes. I know."
His single eye blinks lazily at her, and she feels more annoyed. She reminds herself that they have made significant progress in putting up with one another and she decides to try and turn the joke around on him.
"Are you seeing someone?"
Kakashi recognizes the scathing tease in her voice and raises his eyebrow at her reflection again.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" He retorts calmly. Not expecting such a response, Michiko snorts an uncontrolled laugh and covers her face as she laughs, mumbling coherently so that he does hear her,
"Kami you are just as annoying as Asuma-nii."
She misses the little shift of his lips beneath the mask because she is busy pulling out a towel and unwrapping the bandages around her palms. They're bruised from all the training she has been doing. Kakashi notices that her arms look fitter.
Distracted by the pale-yellow marks on her palms, she heads into one of the shower cabins with her towel tossed over her shoulder, on the ladies' side of the locker-room.
Sometime after she's undressed and under the warming water, she hears Kakashi on the other side, in the shower. Decidedly, she calls out to him.
"You should get that gash on your forehead patched up."
She assumes that he has heard her, and she continues to wash the soap from her body, scrubbing at blood stains until her skin is fresh and pink. Her muscles feel slightly sore.
"I nearly forgot about that." She hears his reply as he showers. She can hear the tap squeaking as he turns it.
He has showered quicker and now she can hear him walking around, wet feet on the tiles, and the rustle of cloth as he begins dressing himself.
Wondering if he walks around the locker-rooms naked, Michiko butterflies pool in her belly. Kakashi finishes dressing and kicks his locker shut, out of habit. Tossing his dirty towel onto the drying rack in the corner, he pulls the door open to go, and then considers yelling farewell to his teammate.
"I'm off, Michiko. I'll see you tomorrow."
The sound of Kakashi exiting leaves Michiko standing very still under the shower.
'That was fast.'
Taking her time to dry herself and change, Michiko hums gently and enjoys the freedom of an empty locker-room.
She dresses in a long, navy jumper and trousers, pulling on her sandals and towelling her hair with her free hand. Collecting her bag with her weapons deposited safely into it, she leaves.
The Anbu HQ is almost always empty, because people come and go at the strangest times. Sometimes you'll see someone you've never seen before, and sometimes you'll see the same face five times in a row during the week. She finds the unpredictable atmosphere comforting.
Outside, the streetlights have painted warm blobs of orange light on the roads. It's slightly damp now, but the sky is clear.
'It must have rained earlier…'
As she strolls leisurely through the cool night, she spots two men having a conversation just on the corner of the main road. She is heading to Ichiraku's, already tasting the hot, delicious ramen she'll be having in the next 20 minutes.
"Michiko!" A familiar voice calls, one of the men is waving at her. He moves into the light of the streetlamp.
"Shisui!" Surprised, pleased and keen, Michiko approaches him, just as he approaches her. Unexpectedly, he giver her a peck on her forehead and grins. She blushes intensely, but not without appreciating the gesture.
"What are you doing out here?" She asks softly, letting her hand rest on his arm. He takes her hand into his own, "I was on duty today. Was walking home just now and ran into Kakashi." He glances over his shoulder at the Hatake, who's still standing there, squinting with his one eye at the pair.
Michiko stiffens, "Ah…" She takes her hand from Shisui's, but her taichou has already seen them. Shisui doesn't miss this, equating her discomfort to her dislike of Kakashi. Steering the conversation, Shisui is quick to distract her.
"I was just off to get dinner, do you want to come with me? Kakashi?" Shisui turns to repeat the question at the Hatake, who looks anything but eager.
"I would hate to interrupt your date. Go on, I'll head home." Kakashi's voice is already faint.
Michiko and Shisui catch sight of him just as he turns onto a dark street. "Goodnight." His voice calls from somewhere far.
"Goodnight, Kakashi!"
"Goodnight, taichou!"
In unison, they reply, but Kakashi has already disappeared out of earshot.
Shisui puts an arm around Michiko's shoulder as they walk together to Ichiraku's. They have been dating for three months now, and he is familiar with her ramen-cravings.
'Michiko and Shisui… I wonder what you would have made of the pair.' Kakashi muses, looking down at the dark stone of the memorial.
'I'm not surprised though, she seems to have a thing for the Uchiha.' If there is a bitterness in his thoughts, he doesn't realise it until much later, when he wonders how things would be had Obito still been alive.
'Rin would be too.'