As Rem walked down towards her house she could only wonder at how the village managed to change and stay the same, obtaining yin and yang at once; keeping the old and renewing its' self where necessary. She stood outside her door looking at it like she did when she gazed a Tsunade. 'Home sweet home.'
She walked in and noticed the newer coat of paint in the part of the kitchen she could see compared with her living room. As she wandered her home, ignoring the three boxes in the middle of her living room, she looked into the two other rooms in her small house. The bathroom and bedroom looked exactly the way she left it, besides the dust. She went back into the bathroom and picked up a towel and ran it under the faucet, wrung it out, and proceeded to dust off everything in her room. As her cleaning neared done she heard a knock at the door. She opened the door and saw a face she hoped to avoid until at least tomorrow.
"So that was you I saw earlier. I wasn't sure and seeing as the situation was what it was, well, I was busy." He said smiling under his mask and waving his hand at the woman behind the door.
"What do you want Kakashi? If you're just dropping by to say hi I'm busy cleaning." She curtly replied to him and made to close the door.
"Then I'm here to help." He looked at her with a bit of a serious tone in his voice and took a small step forward. "Just tell me what I need to clean and it will be."
"What do you want for doing the cleaning?" she said holding her hand up and stopping him.
"Who said I wanted anything at all? I have to want something to help?" he gazed at her with a questioning eye.
"I suppose not but if you ask me for anything then I'm kicking you out right there and not talking to you for the rest of the day." She stepped to the side and allowed him to pass through. The faint smell of sandalwood and fresh rain wafted up to her nose.
"Wow, they did a good job on your kitchen. It's seamless to the untrained eye." He said taking a look around the fairly clean room; boxes still untouched and slightly dirty. Fresh air floated through the window and the dark red curtains fluttered lightly in the air. As Kakashi watched it with a glazed over look, a sponge hit him in the back of the head and landed behind him.
"Oh sorry ha-ha." He rubbed the back of his head and turned to face Rem. "Ok where do you want me?"
"Bathroom." Came her curt response and she turned on her heal back towards her bedroom to finish her cleaning. The copy ninja followed her down the small hallway to the bathroom and turned to close the door.
"No cheating! Meaning no jutsu's! Every inch must be clean and dry and I don't part of my house missing again!" she called behind her and heard a faint snap of the fingers. She returned to cleaning the floor and heard a lot of water flowing through her bathroom. 'Idiot, I told him not to do anything extreme and what does he do? It better still be there.' As the water stopped she had already brought the three boxes into her room and had opened one. She heard a huge gust of wind and then quiet and a door opening and closing.
"All done!" Kakashi called and ventured to her room. "The whole room's clean and dry like you asked." He wiped his hands off on one of her black towels. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"
"First of all I have to see the bathroom, make sure it's still there. Second, it depends on how well you did the bathroom. And thirdly, no more jutsus in my home unless absolutely necessary." She squeezed past him in the doorway and headed turned down into the bathroom.
"Everything looks in order." She took a step inside. "And it seems dry." She continued to touch and check every major thing to see if it works and if it was just a replacement of what it used to be. "Alright, I suppose you did an acceptable job. All I have left right now is to unpack and go get some food for the kitchen."
As they both returned to the bedroom, Kakashi took a look around. He noticed the small photo she kept right at the end of the hallway on the way and stopped in front of it. "What's this picture of?"
"Oh that was one from my youth. I took the picture and I'm not quiet sure how I got it but I like the way it looked."
The photo was either taken at sunrise or sunset and there we're shadows on the ground. One looked like a wolf's form or maybe a dog or fox. Either way it was canine and it looked like it was fighting some type bird or winged creature. Both sides had part of the shadow that looked like something was being splashed off each other like they were really wet.
"It looks like an epic battle." He said turning away and looking at Rem, who had already started putting items from the first box away.
"Just open up the second box, nothing private should be in any of the boxes." Rem said in a kind of strained voice as she tried putting something up on a very high shelf.
"Here, if you can't reach it let me know and I'll help you; since I'm here." He took the item and placed it upon the shelf then turned to open the box. "This is just pots and pans. Shall I go and put the box in the kitchen or do you want me to put them away?"
"No, I have a particular order for it so just leave it in the kitchen. You know I can unpack by myself just fine. Thanks for the help though." Rem replied finally smiling at him.
"Well since I'm done I want to ask you something. This isn't a favor." He cut her off from her retort. When she just continued putting things away he continued. "Well, I was wondering. Could you let me know whenever you're cooking? I remember when you'd make food for Saina and she'd give me some and I haven't had a good home cooked meal in a real long time so how bout it?" he asked, eye full of hope. The next thing he knew he was outside and heard a door slamming. "So I'll be by around sunset!" he said and disappeared before she could protest.
'Who does he think he is? Doing all of that just so I would cook him dinner, the nerve. Whatever you may be here around seven but I won't. I'm going out tonight; I haven't seen my home in a very long time. Plus I haven't seen a sunset in a very long time.' With that she hurried to put her things away as the day light was burning.
Right as Rem finished putting the last of her items away and breaking down the boxes the sun was just about to set. 'Finally! All afternoon, I suppose some shops will be open after night. I'll just have to go right after the sun goes down.' She put on her shoes that were sitting by the door and ventured out. She ran down the streets and hopped upon the buildings as it was much faster then the crowds below. As she neared the entrance gates she jumped towards the wall. She looked around to make sure no one was following her and ran up the wall and all the way up to the highest point atop the Konoha gates.
'Perfect, my old spot. I guess no ones found it, or no one wants it. Either way I get to enjoy something I've wanted for a very long time.' As she settled down and watched the sun slowly set she leaned back on her hands and closed her eyes as a warm breeze pushed strands of her hair back. The colors before her eyes were a beautiful meld of purple, orange, red, and yellow. As the sun went lower the colors went from hot tones to cooler and darker ones. She closed her eyes and breathed in deep, completely submerged in total bliss of the body. The kind you get when your body feels like it's one and the whole world is perfect. When, suddenly, her nose picked up a faint scent of sandalwood and fresh rain. Her eyes popped open and she turned around to find the same ninja that annoyed her earlier.
"So here you are. I came by but it seemed no one was home. I asked around and someone said they saw you run towards this direction. I don't know why I didn't bother looking here first." He added thoughtfully to himself and sat next to her. "It figures that you'd be here. You loved it here before you left."
"Yea, well, some things don't change and some do. Is there any particular reason why you're here bothering me?" she asked looking over at him, eyeing how the orange light shown over his body creating shadows that showed his physic.
"Like I said, I went to your house for dinner and you weren't there. So I went looking for you and here we are. What? Is there something on my face?" he saw her staring with a far away look in her eye and reached towards his face.
"Huh? Oh, no, there's nothing on your face." She looked back at the sun that was almost lost to the horizon. They continued to gaze in a quiet awe of the beauty before them. As the light diminished both went into their own worlds, thinking back to times they enjoyed or problems they had.
'I'm finally home again. It's been so long since I've been here too. I wonder how Asuma and Kurenai are, and Gai and Ikura. I'm sure I'll run into everyone tomorrow, if not someone's going to plan something. I wonder if Gai's still mad at me about that day. It was only a harmless joke I mean he can't have held it for this long right?' As Rem's thoughts took her around the faces of her old friends, Kakashi seemed to come out of his recollections and looked over at his present company.
"Hey, are you ok?" he touched her shoulder lightly.
Her eye's widened and looked up at him. She was at a lost for words at first then came to her senses. "Yes, I'm fine." She looked back at the line where the sky touched the earth and sighed. She stood and stretched getting ready to go back home.
"Hey wait!" Kakashi called to her. She turned and he went right up to her and looked her in the eye. "Rem…I…." he continued gazing at her and she stared blankly at him. 'What in the world's going on? I need to get food and get home.' She continued to look back at him and he brought his face a little closer. 'What the hell! Ok too close!' just as she was going to pull away and slap him he asked her a question.
"Are you making me dinner?"