Well then people. I present the next chapter.
-Midori Fujiwara
Kakashi passed by a popular bar while he was on the way home. It was pitch black outside and the bar was the brightest building on the street.
He looked up at the moon and a few wispy gray clouds.
Where would Rin be staying now?
A sudden smell of perfume overloaded his thinking and the sound of breathing in his ear ticked the hairs on the back of his neck, as if something was crawling up on him from behind. Feeling two cold hands take the sides his neck, his mind was at first confused but then enlightened with a sudden realization. Meanwhile, someone, he assumed the same person, pressed up against the side of him and hot breath warmed the side of his face that this person was on.
He felt uncomfortable.
"You look lonely," a voice said. "Do you need company?"
Kakashi tried walking away, but the seducer blocked his way, hands now on his chest.
"Really now, don't lie to yourself."
He felt like pushing her out of the way, but a sudden light from a nearby building did that, the lamp's light glaring through the window, escaping past the drapes and providing just enough to reveal the faces of both the seducer and Kakashi to each other.
What the…
Kakashi recognized the face of Rin's mother. Was it really her, or was it only a resemblance? What…?
His question was answered when Rin's mother pushed him away, acknowledging that she had seen him before as well.
Rin's mother was a prostitute?
No wonder she wouldn't have cared for Rin…
Just an accidental unintended child, Kakashi thought.
The mother pushed Kakashi away disgustedly.
"You pervert," she said.
Kakashi was just about to walk away, denying the fact that anything at all ever happened when a thought about Rin suddenly popped up in his head.
"Hey," Kakashi called, turning around quickly. But the mother was already a couple of steps away from him.
However, she had heard him and actually turned to look back at him, pausing a moment.
He took the opportunity and asked, quickly, "Can I talk to you about Rin?"
Rin's mother turned back around and quickly began to walk away, at an extremely fast pace, eventually breaking into a half-run. Kakashi felt a surge of energy, following up right after her, and then taking hold of the mother's arm. Rin's mother slipped away and now, feeling threatened, ran off.
Kakashi was a bit more violent than he expected himself to be, and, after catching up to her once again with his shinobi-trained speed, he caught her arm again, and pulled her to a wall, almost slamming her back against it.
"I'm asking you a question," he said calmly.
She looked defiantly at him a second before screaming.
And of course, people came looking out their windows, or stepping out of the doors to see what was going on. Some running out in utter fright or confusion.
"He touched me!" she yelled.
The bitch, Kakashi thought as he was pulled away.
"Kakashi," Lady Tsunade said angrily. She wasn't the person to mess with when not on an efficient amount of sleep, awoken in the middle of the night to settle the whole mess. "you have to leave them alone. You are not part of their family."
Kakashi didn't say anything.
"The mother seems well," Lady Tsunade said simply, leaving out a few details that Kakashi knew she knew.
"She really isn't."
Lady Tsunade took a deep breath and sighed. "Listen, I don't want to hear anything from or about you again regarding this matter."
Kakashi guessed this was her way of saying 'good night' and left into the night.
Outside, winter was marked by the first light snowfall. But this year seemed colder than ever to Kakashi, thinking about Rin out here again.
He had given her winter clothes, hadn't he?
She hadn't taken them, most likely. Most likely, left back at his apartment or something.
As another reminder of another loss.
A sharp gust of wind picked up loose snow off the ground and hurled it at his face.
He would have missed her as well, if that wind hadn't forced him to look to the side in trying to avoid getting snowflakes into his eye.
"Rin," he said.
She looked up and her face brightened when she saw him. But then that brightness was suddenly turned down.
"Oh…" she said. "Dad."
Kakashi observed the snow around her. The only side of her not surrounded by snow was her back, leaned against the wall.
"How long have you been out here?" he asked worriedly.
Rin took her eyes off him and stared at the snow on the ground, about an inch deep. She didn't say anything, but Kakashi knew for himself that answer.
She'd been there long before the snow began to fall…
Was Rin a toy that the mother and Kakashi were passing back and forth?
Probably.
He wasn't taking her home this time.
He turned and stepped away, and Rin's face was flooded with unmistakable emotion of fear, and hurt.
He closed his eyes for a brief second and forced himself not to look back, dragging one foot in front of the other. Walking away from someone that already felt like part of him. Like another section of him being pulled, being ripped completely away from the rest of him. Just another part of him.
One of the reasons why he disapproved of himself letting Rin into his life was because of the so many other losses he had. Each loss was another something taken away from him. At times like this Kakashi felt as though he had lost so much, there was really nothing more of him left. He proved that wrong when… he guessed there was just enough of him left to incorporate Rin in, though all the same, the sewing was soon ripped out.
And he stopped walking, and looked back at the small crouched figure, balled up against the snow.
He silently, without crunching any snow under his feet, walked back over to Rin. He studied Rin almost indifferently. She was…tucking her head into her knees and wrapping her arms around her lifted knees, keeping in as much warmth as she could, probably her only comfort in the world at the moment.
Then a sudden sympathy overtook him. He wasn't the only person to have walked out of her life every so often. He couldn't have been. And in how many stitched, unstitched, and re-stitched parts of her did she have? How much of her has she lost? And as a child, she didn't even have too much. Rin had probably felt like nothing already. Had nothing. He guessed when he entered her life, new hope had been created inside her. A new hope that maybe, just maybe she would be whole again. A new hope that she could base her new life on. A new life where the old life would be forgotten.
He had pulled that away from her.
Leaving her with less than she had before.
Less than nothing.
"Rin," he said.
She looked up confused, but then all at once brightening once again, as if nothing had even happened before.
Kakashi's hand moved out to offer itself to Rin.
Rin reached for his hand, getting up, but stopped herself.
"No," she said. "No go to Dad. Mom said."
Kakashi took Rin's hand and pulled her up anyway.
"You're not going to me," he said. "You're going to your mom with me."
They found the mother in the same state as Rin.
But more extreme.
She was lying on the banks of the river and continued to lie there while the snow was falling.
Her eyes were closed and a few snowflakes had caught in her eyelashes. Her clothes were probably damp from laying in the snow and her face and fingers were pale. Her lips were beginning to cyanide. Kakashi noticed clouds of steam regularly arising from her face, specifically mouth. And the air around her smelled faintly of what Kakashi recognized as alcohol.
He looked back at Rin, whose face was expressionless.
He stood there, thinking a long while about consequences.
Rin shivered and Kakashi finalized his decision by bending down to pick up Rin's mother bridal position.
He got her all the way to what-was-now Rin's bedroom. When he lay her mother down on the bed, she still lay still as ever. Kakashi looked away and out the window, gazing at the moon from behind the misting glass, window half-obstructed by snow.
Signifying Rin to go to sleep, Kakashi walked out of the room and took a seat on the couch.
So now not only did he take in Rin, but now her mother.
The more the merrier?
No, the more the more awkward.
Who was next, the father?
And maybe Rin had a sibling.
Too much for the apartment of a single man with one bedroom and one bathroom…come to think of it, just one of everything, whatever he had, except for maybe…food and clothing.
He really wanted to lie down, sleep, and forget about all this crap but he couldn't just go to sleep. The whole situation was too weird, too awkward for any rest at all. He'd have to stay awake and
rethink a few things. Unfortunately, sleep was tired of being ignored and Kakashi found it hard to keep awake. He found himself chasing thought after thought to keep himself up and conscious.
You do this at least once a week, Kakashi, he thought to himself. Just stay up this one whole night…
But maybe, just a five-minute break for the eyes…
And maybe…
He knew he shouldn't have lay down in the first place. He had fallen asleep, a lot heavier than usual, and the first sound he heard was a hard thump that vibrated the floor.
He confusedly looked up and saw the table flipped over. A figure slipped into the kitchen and turned on the lights.
Despite the overtaking tiredness, Kakashi still had enough conscious to figure out the following logic in his head quickly.
Fact: The table, a heavy object was flipped over.
Fact: Rin couldn't lift heavy objects.
Fact: Rin couldn't reach the light switch.
Conclusion: This was Rin's mother's doing.
Second Conclusion: This was Rin's mother trashing his home.
Additional Support for Second Conclusion: What else could she be doing?
He leaped off the couch and entered the kitchen just in time to catch the plates that had been thrown down from their place on the shelves. Considering he had only four or five, he caught the plates all easily between his fingers, and settled them down on the counter, safe, before now rescuing the bowls. Before Rin's mother could touch anything more, he pushed her to the side and away from fragile items so that nothing else could be broken, or even touched, since he sided her toward the refrigerator.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" he asked angrily. He already knew what the hell was wrong with her, but he needed something to say and nothing else was coming up in the fog of the world that he perceived because of fatigue. He had learned very long ago that it was better to, if having three or less hours left to sleep, just stay up the rest of the night because otherwise, sleeping the little amount would have only made the fatigue stronger.
She looked at him with red bloodshot eyes, as if she hadn't slept in days or was in a lot of stress.
"Ask yourself that," she said quietly, and moved him out of the way casually to continue her work of trashing his home.
I do, he answered mentally before dragging her into the living room, actually forcing her to go there since he blocked further access into the kitchen. The living room, at least, had heavier items for one, and were where the less fragile items were.
"What…" he asked, and dropped off, suddenly unsure of what question to ask. There were too many complications in the whole situation, and all the questions had to be answered.
Their conversation was simple and brief.
"What is your problem?" he asked.
"Right now?"
"Yes."
"You."
And then she slapped him. Hard. Against his cheek. So hard he felt warm liquid run down from his nose, and he was aware his nose was now bleeding. He hoped that the blood wouldn't flow out too fast so that it would stain through his mask, so that she had an indication he was bleeding. If she did, she would have, in a way, won the whole fight.
"What's your problem?" she asked back. "She's not even your child! Don't deal with her! If I wanted to leave her, I would leave her! And that doesn't mean you get involved!"
"And if you leave her, and I take her in, you don't have to return," he replied.
"She's my child."
"You want to leave her? Why hadn't you gotten rid of her sooner? Killed her just a bit earlier? Some parent you are, just throwing her around, as if you're experimenting how much she can actually take before breaking down. I won't let you do that and I'll do everything I can to stop you."
"Yet you saved me from dying in the snow."
"You're her mother," Kakashi said, not at all satisfied with his weak argument.
She had definitely won the fight.
"This is all so stupid! Why would you care for a brat like her anyway?"
The two were suddenly distracted when they both noticed a small figure run crying back into the bedroom.
My opinion? This was somewhat of a weird chapter, especially with the introduction of Rin's mother. But I wouldn't know what you think about it, would I? I could only guess. With only your help of clicking that purple Review button, I can truly know what is going on in your minds about this story. Help in my quest of understanding the rest of humanity, one review at a time.
:)
-Midori Fujiwara