Watching


Kakashi would never admit it, but he wasn't sure if he had been disappointed or relieved when they finally reached Konoha. He had half-heartedly introduced Kagome to the chuunin guards at the gate and left her there without another word. Not because he was in any real rush to give the Hokage his mission report but mostly because he wanted to see what she would do. Most people would have been angry, would have viewed his sudden disappearance as ungrateful, rude and perhaps even cruel. But he had long since learned that Kagome was anything but the usual civilian.

So he wasn't surprised when he had watched – hidden, with what little chakra he had suppressed - as she shook her head with a strange fondness and not a single trace of annoyance, and introduced herself more politely to the two men at the gate. They waved her through easily enough – not that he had expected them to give her any trouble, she was a civilian and he had more or less vouched for her, just by coming here with her – and he had stuck around to see her get her first real glimpse of Konoha.

Her blue eyes roved over the people and buildings, softly touching on the more damaged parts, shining warmly upon the sight of children playing ninja and tracing even the most shadowy corners. She took in all of his village - every single part good or ill - and for a moment he wondered just what exactly she saw.

But he was not the type of person who would ask.

So instead he left to make his mission report to the Hokage – where he did his best to downplay his chakra exhaustion and write his late arrival off as laziness and perverted indulgement instead. 'Maa, if the hospital had such cute, gentle nurses here I wouldn't be so eager to leave.'

He was pretty sure she didn't buy any of it, but he hadn't been called on it so he considered it a win none-the-less.

Even though Kagome had helped him heal, and had helped him here, he didn't return to her after his visit to the Hokage Tower. Instead he left her to her own devices – to find her own way in Konoha and her own place to sleep – because Kakashi wasn't good at holding anyone's hand, not even his (former) students and for all that he had gotten, if not fond of, then at least used to her presence, he wouldn't want her invading his own private space.

Leaving a civilian from such an out of the way village to her own fate in a shinobi village might seem like a cruel thing to do, but he was sure that she was smart enough not to do anything suicidal, like get in a fight with a shinobi or wander onto a training field. No, if the journey here had taught him anything about her it was that she wasn't easily offended and that she could take care of herself.

So he went home without a care.

He was actually rather grateful that Tsunade had seen through his act enough to insist on giving him two weeks of. Actually, he rather suspected she had cheated and used a medical jutsu to examine him…

With practice he managed to ignore the implied insult to his ego that if he was weak enough that he hadn't even sensed that, than he actually needed those two weeks to recover fully.

Instead he merely appreciated the thought of a little vacation time.


He hadn't exactly planned on spending that vacation time following his new acquaintance (he wasn't sure just what she was to him but that wasn't really relevant anyway) around, but somehow checking up on her the next morning (well, early afternoon) had turned into stalking her for most of the day. And the day after that. And so on.

Kakashi just wasn't sure what to think of her, that strange civilian with a will of fire who had supposedly accompanied him here for his sake. To help him, a complete stranger and a shinobi at that. She had taken care of him, healed him to the best of her ability and defended him against the others in her village. And when they wanted to sent him on his way she insisted in no uncertain terms that she would come with him and she did, without even looking back.

He supposed it wasn't that strange. There were selfless people in this world, those who helped strangers not out of duty or self-interest but simply because they could. But Kakashi had been a shinobi since he was five years old and was a lot better acquainted with the darker sides of people. Even inside these village walls and even amongst comrades, genuine, selfless kindness wasn't much seen out in the open. It was kept hidden, like any other vulnerability, and was seen only in a harsher form of concern shown in an exchange of nods or in-between the lines of friendly bantering.

He would never expect kindness from a stranger – the life of a shinobi was too harsh to expect anything to come for free. And yet, she was strange and genuine enough that all of it felt true. Nothing he saw suggested otherwise, but Kakashi had always been a paranoid bastard and people had a habit of letting him down.

Or perhaps it was him who had a habit of letting them down.

Either way, those who came close to him always, always fell away from him in the end.

So he kept his distance. He trailed her, keeping an eye on the young woman who had left everything behind just to ensure his well-being and waited, for what he wasn't sure.

While she wandered the village, he followed her on the rooftops, a new copy of Icha-Icha Paradise in his hand (he had truly missed his book - though he had made sure that the ninja who had destroyed it didn't live to regret it for long). Still, his eye tended to slide down from his beloved reading material to that strange civilian who had been exploring Konoha for these past few days.

During all this wandering, her eyes were always warm and welcoming, as well as assessing. There was no judgement there, but there was something deeper that he was having the most difficulty to define. The closest he could come was to say that she was perhaps looking for something. But that didn't quite ring true. Her gaze was not searching enough – it flowed over everything, dismissing nothing as unimportant.

Her walks seemed aimless. Her feet took her through every part of the village – from the hospital to the markets to the Hokage monument. She walked amongst civilians and shinobi alike, smiled at any who crossed her path, drinking in their presence. And yet, there was something about her that told him that she was looking for something in particular – he just didn't know what it was.

And after three days, he was starting to suspect that she didn't know either.

Whether she found what she was looking for or not, after the fourth day she moved out of the hotel near the Hokage Tower (it was commonly used by clients) and settled in a district that had been hit hard by the Sound Invasion. It was not yet fully repaired even now - because this wasn't one of the best parts of the village, not as rich as the more inner parts of the village, and not as prioritized as the main streets. Few shinobi lived here and the few who did, did not care enough about these people or buildings to waste their time and chakra helping their civilian neighbours out. Konoha had taken far larger losses than damaged buildings, after all.

Their Hokage had fallen and though Tsunade had both the name and the power to take his place with confidence, that strength would only go as far as the strength of the village did. Konoha could not afford weakness – a shinboi village never could – but now, these years after a costly victory were more important than most. So the Godaime worked them hard – missions by outside customers were never refused and trivial missions on the inside took a back burner.

And so, in one of the worst parts of Konoha, the buildings remained in a less-than-perfect state. Usable, liveable, but only just. The people who lived there didn't really seem to care much – they went about their days, head lowered, eyes forward, ignoring anyone else.

And this was the place that his travelling companion had decided to call home.


Five days later he started to see what she had seen in this neighbourhood. The potential, as well as the wounds that needed to be healed. The neighbourhood just needed a bit of help – a warm, helpful hand - and once more, Kagome seemed more than willing to provide it freely to everyone willing to give her a chance.

He watched as she carefully, gently made a place for herself in there. With her positive attitude and willingness to help she won over her new land-lady. Her warm smiles and genuine greetings to her neighbours were finally beginning to be returned. Softly, slowly, the people started to smile more frequently – that beaten down look disappeared from their eyes.

Starting with the young, black-haired woman more and more people began fixing up their homes and those of their neighbours – helping each other in their own areas of expertise.

Kakashi should have been surprised when the somewhat reclusive chuunin who lived on the third floor of one of these apartments actually joined in and helped with some of the more heavy lifting and precise cutting.

Seeing the bright, grateful thank you he received from Kagome – the one-eyed ninja really wasn't.

By the time he was cleared back for duty and left the village on another mission he couldn't help but wonder just what this place would look like by the time he returned.

A part of him believed it might yet be one of the best neighbourhoods of Konoha by then.


A.N. I'm a bit iffy about this chapter... I'm not sure what's wrong with it. It's very introspective, but I'm ok with that. It's just... meh, I don't know. Does this sound OOC or otherwise weird to you?