Chapter 3

Things slowly began to go back to normal. Kakashi and I did not talk more than the usual, "Anything Else?" - "No, thank you," but it did not matter to me, as long as I got to watch him every Monday and Thursday + a few weekend days. My boss yelled at me almost everyday and I did not talk to any of my colleagues, so basically nothing had changed since the day I had Kakashi all to myself. I could only point out one thing that had changed and it was that Kakashi had begun to buy more cigarettes than he usually did. It was strange and I could not figure out why. My best bet was that he was having some sort of trouble in his personal life. I wanted to know what had caused his usage of the life threatening product to increase. I wanted to help him. Help him solve his problems. I wondered if he was alone throughout all the things he was going through. Did he have anybody to talk to? Judging by his groceries, he was living alone, but did that also mean he did not have any friends? No, it did not make any sense. I could not conclude that he did not have any friends by the fact that he was probably living alone. Still, I was afraid it was the case. Maybe I should...

"Iruka, get back to work! What the hell do you think you are doing?" an annoying voice interrupted my flow of thoughts and I was not happy about that.

"I'm sorry," I did not even try to make it sound genuine. Right now, I did not care about my boss's or my own problems. Kakashi could be in trouble and I had to figure out what was going on with him so that I could stop him from doing something stupid. Who knew? Maybe he was heartbroken? Or maybe he had debts that he could not pay back? Maybe he was even involved in illegal drug transportation and something had gone wrong and now he had the mafia on his back... Okay, the last thing was a little unrealistic. Kakashi would never have anything to do with drugs. The point was I did not know if he had a big or small problem and how serious it was. Maybe he even had more than one problem?

"Don't give me that attitude, you know I'll fire you if you don't do as I say. I'm starting to get sick and tired of you, Iruka. Now, go back to work," he did not even bother to yell at me and I could not blame him since it was not the first time today we had had the talk. My currently passive aggressive boss did not say another word, but turned around and went back to whatever he was doing. I rolled my eyes at him before looking down at the wooden crate filled with different products. I was supposed to put all these new products in place, but it was boring and took a long time, because I had to put all the new ones in the back so that people would buy the oldest products first. This was a total drag, at least that was what my colleague, Shikamaru, would call it.

As long as I was doing this, I had to find something to think of so I would not bore myself to death. I could not think of Kakashi since he was a more like a distraction than a subject to kill time and that was not what I needed. I would never finish unpacking the products if I kept thinking about him so I decided to sing a little song – inside my head, of course. Singing a song turned out to be a pretty good time killer.

I finished my first box and went out in the back to get another. And that was how I spent my afternoon.

"Hit me, baby," a deep voice blurted out and I turned on my heels to see who was standing behind me. My eyes widened when I saw it was non other than Hatake Kakashi. I thought I knew that voice, but I could not imagine him saying anything like that. Especially not when his words were directed towards me.

"E-Excuse me?" I stammered partly because I was caught off guard by his comment and partly because it was him saying it. Heat was rushing to my cheeks and I tried my best to keep myself from blushing.

Kakashi's eyes smiled at me and he chuckled, "Hit me, baby – that's what the song you were humming is called, right?" I put on a puzzled look and he scratched the back of his neck and cocked his head a bit. Had I been humming? I figured I had been so lost in my own thoughts that I had been humming it out loud instead of keeping it in my head. How embarrassing!

"Well... I-I think that it's actually called "Baby One More Time" but yes, I guess it's that one," I could not stop myself from blushing anymore and I was sure it was pretty obvious to him.

"Oh..." he said and paused, taking a quick look around the shop like he was searching for something... or maybe someone? When his eyes fell back on me, he continued, "Actually, I came to ask for your boss. Do you know where I can find him?"

I did not understand why he needed to talk to my boss. What could be wrong? Did he have a complaint about some of the products? - or maybe some of the employees? Could it be me? Had he noticed that I always stared at him or that I stammered a lot when I was around him or maybe that I never did my job properly? Could it really be me?

"Ohm, I think he's on a break now so he'll be in the back," I pointed at the door that led to the back and his eyes followed my instructions.

"Thank you and I'm sorry for taking your time," he said and sounded genuinely sorry. He waved goodbye before he walked to the back. I did not move out of the spot, I just looked in the direction he had disappeared. First of all, it had been a pretty weird conversation and I was still embarrassed about the fact that he had caught me humming – that song at that, I blushed all over again and guided my sight away from the way he had gone.

"Iruka-san to checkout 2," an almost mechanical voice was heard throughout the speakers, which hung around the entire supermarket. I sighed and looked down at all the products that was still left in the crate. I was never going to be done with this if I was constantly called to the checkout or the boss was feeling like putting me in my place... Or Kakashi asking for direction. Well, I did not mind that last thing, but still, I was never going to be finished with what I was currently doing. I left the crate without moving it away from the dairy department.

The people in line sent me annoyed looks even though I had not kept them waiting this time, but that was just the life of a cashier, I guess. I sat down behind the counter and began serving the people that did not see me as an equal but more like a servant. As always, there did not happen much while I was sitting there. At least not until about 15 minutes later.

"Good evening," I said to the next customer just like I had said it to all the others before him. I glanced up at the man and his behavior appeared a bit strange to me. He stood with his hands in his sweatshirt's front pocket, looking around like he was paranoid or something? I turned my head a bit to look down at the things he had put on the conveyer belt. A pack of gum that was the only thing. I directed my look towards the man once again and saw the wild and perplexed look in his eyes. That was when reality struck me like a lighting. My heart began to pump the blood faster around my system. I knew what was about to happen already.

"Everybody, get down!" he shouted so loud so that he was sure it could be heard throughout the entire store. He then pulled out a gun from the pocket of his pullover sweatshirt. I did not know what to do and decided to follow his orders as all the other customers and my colleagues had done, "Not you," he screamed impatiently and pointed the gun at me. I sat up again and tried to sink a lump that had formed in my throat. I began sweating heavily pretty fast and the salty sweat made its way down my forehead and into my eyes, slightly blinding me. I tried not to get distracted by the burning feeling in my eyes; I did not dare to wipe the sweat away with my hand because the man's eyes were fixed on me.

He threw a small bag as hard as he could into my chest and shook his gun in front of me, "Now, take all the money you've got and put it into the bag. I will not hesitate to shoot you," he growled, using his gun as a pointer. He sounded just like my boss, the only difference being that my boss never threatened to kill me if I did not do as he said. I did not answer him since I figured he did not care if he got one or not and instead began to put the money in the bag.

When I had emptied the cash register, he motioned for me to rise and get out of the small box I was sitting inside, "Go empty the next one," he stared at me as I got out of the half open box. He walked behind me and pressed the gun against my back. I jumped in shock and felt how the gun was forced further into my back, "Don't you dare try anything with me. Walk!" I did as I was told. He stopped in front of the next checkout and I walked behind it to enter the box. I then found my key and unlocked the cash register, immediately beginning to stuff the money into the bag.

I glanced up at him whenever I felt it was possible for me to look up without being seen by him. He was mainly concentrating on the customers on the floor, only taking a quick look back at me once in a while to check if I was really doing what he had demanded. Slowly, I directed one of my hands under the counter, terrified that he would notice it from the corner of his eye. When I had finally felt my way to the small red button, I pressed it. The police would arrive soon and there was a small chance that he would still be here as long as he intended to empty every register in the store.

I looked up at him through my eyelashes as I slowly began to remove my hand away from the button again. But then he turned to look straight at me, "What the hell is your hand doing down there!" it was not a real question, he knew what I had done. He lashed out at me and hit me right on the nose. While I was still affected by his clear shot, he stomped behind the box and opened the door, taking a step towards me before he grabbed me by the back of my neck and forced my head down till it hit the conveyer belt. He slammed it down so hard that I was convinced that I was going to be able to feel it tomorrow - that is if I was still alive.

It was a rather uncomfortable position to stand in. I stood stooping with one side of my head pressed against the adhesive rubber and a man standing behind me, laying a lot of pressure on my neck and with his hips pressing against my ass. It only made matters worse when I felt the gun connecting with my temple. I blinked a couple times, something was tickling me right under my nose. I looked down at the conveyer belt and saw blood. I prayed that my nose was not broken, when actually I should be praying for my life.

"You worthless piece of shit, you notified the cops, didn't you? You're gonna pay for that!" he pulled back the hammer and I heard it click when it went into place. That was when it really hit me; he wanted me dead and I was going to die there. I was about to die. To die. I wanted to plead for my life, but no words could escape my dry mouth.

"Sayounara," he buzzed under his breath. I could see him out of the corner of my eye and it seemed like he was about to place his finger on the trigger. I closed my eyes, tightly. But what I expected to happen did not happen. People always say that one's life will pass review when you are about to die, I could now invalidate that theory. All I was thinking about was the actual situation and how much it was going to hurt when the bullet fired through my brains. Would I even feel it?

"What the..?" suddenly, I could not feel the man behind me anymore and the pressure on my face, temple and neck was gone. I placed my hands on the conveyer belt and used the strength of my arms to push myself up so that I could turn a bit and look at what was going on behind me. To my surprise, I saw the robber struggling with a silver haired man over the gun. They both had their hands on it and was trying to wiggle it out of the other man's grip. The tallest of them wrapped one leg around his opponent's, causing him to lose his balance and fall on his back. The masked man was not spared, though, because the shorter man had such a firm grip around the gun that the other fell to the floor with him. The gun was fired and a window shattered only a second after the shot was heard.

I wanted to help, but when I tried to stand up straight, I felt dizzy. I placed a hand on my forehead to stop the room from spinning. I then felt something wet and sticky on my fingers and moved my hand in front of my eyes just to discover that I was bleeding from my head. That explained my dizziness. My legs began to wobble underneath me and I stretched my hand out to grab onto something, but I missed and collapsed on the floor. My eyesight reduced rapidly and my eyelids started to feel heavy. I opened and shut my eyes over and over again without moving any other part of my body. The two men were still romping about on the floor, it was not easy to tell who was going to subdue the other when the fight finally came to an end. My eyes flickered and I noticed that I was drooling all over the floor. I could not even control my own saliva, things did not look good for me. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I had blacked out.

~o~

When I finally regained consciousness, I was not lying in the checkout box anymore. I was in the back of the supermarket on a thin mattress on the floor. My head was throbbing, my mouth was dry and my body felt weak. I did not feel like sitting up or moving at all. A blanket would be fine, thanks, I thought to myself and tipped my head to the side to see what was going on around me, even though it felt like someone was beating me with a frying pan. The only ones in sight was my boss and a tall lean man, who, by the way, was wearing a mask, covering the lower part of his face.

They were standing right outside the door of the room I was lying in, talking. I needed to concentrate a lot in order to make out any of the words they were saying and I cursed the vain in my ear that was pumping blood like crazy, making it even harder for me to hear what they were talking about.

"Well, I guess I can't deny you it after what you have done," my boss did not sound like he was too happy about the words he spoke himself.

"I'm glad you decided otherwise," Kakashi said, curving his eyes up into a grateful smile. What were they talking about? What did I miss? My boss glanced over at me and discovered that I was awake. It actually seemed like he was relieved. It did not take long before Kakashi's eyes were on me as well.

"You know, I'm not paying you for just lying around," he tried to sound angry, but I knew he did not mean it like that even though he pretended to do so. He had always been a quirky fellow. I did not answer him because it did not feel like there was any need for it, "You have already been through a medical examination, but you probably don't remember that, at least that is what they said."

I nodded, carefully, and let my eyes glide slowly from one man to another. Kakashi did not say anything, he was just smiling down at me. I wanted to sent him one back, but I could not make my lips form into something that could ever look like anything near a smile.

"You'll get a few paid days off including the rest of today. I'll drive you home in a minute, okay?" I nodded towards my boss and closed my eyes, I still felt a bit tired. The two men continued their conversation for a little while longer – I did not care to listen. I just wanted to sleep.

"Hey you," a calm and soft voice tried to get my attention so I opened my eyes and saw Kakashi standing in the doorway, "You might wanna put some ice on that," he smiled at me before turning to my boss. He thanked him and I did not know why Kakashi was thanking him, but he was. He then left without another word.

oOooOooOo

So, this was the third chapter. I think there was a bit more action than the last two, but I don't know if you see that as a good thing. Anyway, I hope you liked it. Reviews are always appreciated :)