oOo
Pieces
A Kakashi Romance
4. Back
Three days later, Emiri joined Sakura and Ino who were already meeting with the Hoakge in his office. Emiri could just make out Sakura's voice, muffled by the heavy wooden door, before she knocked and quietly entered.
She noticed Kakashi's dark eyes casually flick up to acknowledge her as Sakura debriefed about the success of her mission. Emiri gave her Hokage a quick bow as she shut the door. In front of his desk were three chairs—two of which were occupied by Ino and Sakura. Emiri soundlessly slid into the empty chair beside Ino.
"While in Suna, I checked-in on the status of our clinic there," said Sakura, after she finished relaying the story of her successful mission. "Everything is fully functioning. The doctors and staff are excellent. The children that are still there when we first launched the clinic seem to be slowly and steadily improving."
"That's good to hear," Emiri voiced, her smile genuine when she thought of the kids she had met three weeks ago.
Ino and Kakashi nodded in agreement.
"We're going to switch gears a little now that Emiri is here." Kakashi announced as he shuffled a stack of papers across his desk. From one of the many stacks of files that surrounded him, he extracted a thin, tan file and put it in front of him.
"While you were away, I received a request from Kirigakure to open a children's clinic there. Emiri expressed that the three of you would be willing to expand."
"I believe we have the man power to do it," said Emiri, glancing at her cousin and at Sakura. "Similar to Suna, we can meet with doctors over at Kiri, and now that we have a fully functional team, we can send our better trained staff in our place to help train the medics there as needed."
"I agree," Ino said with a nod, her green eyes ambitiously bright.
"Maybe that can be the clinic that you're in charge of," Sakura suggested. It was unwritten agreement that, as it was Ino's idea, the business and logistics of the children's clinic in Konoha was primarily Ino's. Their first expansion in Suna belonged to Sakura as she had a strong relationship with the medics there. Although Emiri chose to work behind the scenes, it would only make sense if the Kiri clinic became her project.
"I can manage that," said Emiri. Already her mind raced with the possibilities of who she would send from Konoha to help build up Kiri's children's clinic.
Kakashi glanced at the three young women. "So it's settled," he said, opening the file in front of him and extracting a pen. "I can inform the Mizukage of a new children's clinic?"
Emiri, Sakura, and Ino glanced at each other, wordlessly coming to the same conclusion.
Emiri glanced at Kakashi, surprised to find that his gaze on her, expectantly. "Yes, Hokage-sama. We'll expand into Kirigakure."
"How soon can we go?" Emiri then asked Ino and Sakura as Kakashi wrote. "I can be ready by the end of the week."
Ino and Sakura glanced at each other.
"I don't think I can," Sakura said, her voice apologetic.
"Me neither," said Ino.
Emiri raised an eyebrow in question.
"Hinata needs help planning her wedding," Sakura smiled. "Naruto is absolutely useless. If it were up to him instant ramen would be served, and Hinata is so sweet that she won't say no, but she's clearly distressed. So, I promised I would help her plan as soon as I got back from the mission."
"Same," Ino agreed. "We're doing the flowers for the wedding as well. And I also have a date this weekend with Sai."
In spite of Ino's confident voice, a light blush rose on her pale cheeks—Ino and Sai had started dating soon after they returned from Sunagakure after launching the clinic. To Emiri, Ino had always been the happy type, but her recent relationship with Sai changed the young woman—though always lovely, Ino became radiant.
A sharp pain beat in Emiri's chest at the mention of weddings and relationships. She knew if she closed her eyes, Neji would appear in her mind, as clear as day, as though he was only taking a day of rest after a long mission instead of being a name on the KIA stones.
"I understand," Emiri said, her voice soft. She offered her friend and her cousin a closed-eyed smile. "I'm doing Hinata's make-up and hair for the wedding, and we went over those plans while the both of you were away. So you need to do what you have to."
When she opened her eyes, Emiri saw it again. The look her family and her friends gave her that sent another dull pain through her heart and chest. Ino and Sakura had that look now.
It was a look of uncertain pity—sadness and pity for the girl who lost her fiancée to a horrible war. After The War, Emiri barely spoke and barely ate. She had lost weight, and she had stopped wearing any form of make-up. Even on missions, Emiri had always made it a point to swipe a red lipstick across her lips. Because, even when she wasn't feeling it, it mattered to her that her enemies and her comrades believed she could fight another day.
After The War and Neji's death, she alternated her days of solitude by spending time in her room with the blinds shut, or if she had energy she was at Neji's grave. One day she even went to the training field where she first kissed Neji—and that was a mistake because she broke down crying and had to be escorted home after Ino found her in the middle of the night, still crying.
It had been two years since it all happened, and it took a lot of hard effort to regain the muscle she had lost when she stopped training and going missions, and feeling okay enough to start wearing red lipstick again. Still, there wasn't a day that passed in which she thought of all the friends and family she had lost, the terrible things she had seen, and the boy she loved more than anything.
In those two years, she had come to recognize the looks of pity, because while she still struggled, it seemed everyone around her wanted to know when she would get better. But after such tragedies, broken pieces rarely came back together as quickly as they seemed to come apart. Even if they did, the pieces hardly fit as together as perfectly as they used to.
"Emiri."
Emiri shook her head, sharking away the familiar sinking feeling to answer Kakashi. She took a breath; she didn't realize she had been holding it while she was lost in her thoughts.
Looking at Kakashi in this moment was like a breath of fresh air. Where Sakura and Ino gave her that sad look, Kakashi's eyes remained the same—stable and unchanging-like something Emiri could walk toward and know it would keep her up before she went under.
"If you can be ready to go by the end of the week, and if it is alright with Sakura and Ino, I can assign someone to accompany you on your mission."
"Thank you, Kakashi-sama," sad Emiri. She glanced at Ino and Sakura and nodded. "I will report back to you both—and you Hokage-sama—about the specific needs and details from Kirigakure."
At the end of the meeting, the three kunoichi rose, bowed to Kakashi, and left, agreeing to get lunch at the local Korean BBQ place.
Once there, the three sipped their green tea in silence.
"Is it okay that I go without you two," asked Emiri. Her face remained neutral, but on the inside she squirmed at the tenseness between the three of them,
"Oh it's completely fine," said Sakura. "I checked-in on Suna without the two of you. So it's no trouble at all."
"Emiri-nee-san, this is your first mission since…"
"Since Neji died." Emiri filled in, and Ino looked down.
"I know, nee-chan," Emiri said. Quietly, she covered the girl's hand, and Ino's eyes filled with tears. Sakura quietly excused herself to give the cousins a moment alone.
Then Emiri did something surprising to Ino. She laughed pleasantly, a sound Ino rarely heard outside of the times she was with the children at the clinic. "Nee-chan, look at you worrying about me, it's my job to take care of you."
Ino pouted, and Emiri laughed again and passed Ino a napkin to dab at her eyes.
"Ino, you forget I am a Yamanaka too. Maybe I'm like the first flower after the snowy season, hm? It takes a lot of strength to break through the icy ground to tell people spring is coming. For me, it just happened to be snowing for a very long time."
That seemed to make Ino cry harder and Emiri rolled her eyes lovingly. For a minute, it felt like how it felt before The War—Emiri, ever pragmatic, professional, and observant—a trait she inherited from the Nara clan—protecting her younger cousin and her dramatic feelings.
It was enough to give Emiri a slight mood boost that perhaps, she can be better one day too. "I'm as strong as I used to be, if not stronger. So it's time to get back out there." Finally Emiri let go of her cousin's hand with a squeeze.
"I've missed you, Emiri-nee-san," said Ino, wiping at her eyes.
Emiri closed her eyes briefly to keep from flinching. I missed me too.
"I'm still me, Ino-nee-chan," Emiri smiled as Sakura came back. "But, thank you for taking care of me when I couldn't."
The air seemed to be a lot more amicable after that as the three laughed and talked about wedding plans for Hinata and made fun of Ino and her upcoming date with Sai. All the while, Emiri, though she interacted and joked, she grew more steadily excited and nervous for the upcoming mission.
The end of the week couldn't come quick enough.
Author's Note: A COUPLE THOUGHTS!
1. This story rating will be changing to "M". Because I will be toping about mature issues such as mental health, choice, sex, etc. Whilst I hope the majority of my readers can handle such content (and I'm quite sure you can), I'm sure, for safety, it's better to up the rating. If anything, I wished FF offered a "T+" rating. As such, I will be updating chapter 1 just to reflect the ratings and warnings.
2. Any Japanese speakers? I'm struggling with honorifics, and I'm hoping you can help me. As I add "nee-chan" to Emiri's name, I add it becaue I imagine Isamu calling Emiri "[big] sis/sissy Emiri" and Ino referring to Emiri as "Sissiy Emiri" as well. Even if the latter are cousins. If I need to change that, someone please feel free to let me know. :)
Thanks for reading!
Your reviews are love!
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