Kakashi had just finished bandaging his wrists again after adding to the healing cuts there, and was cleaning up the blood in the sink when he felt the familiar flair of Tenzou's chakra from somewhere in the hotel.
His hands stilled and his head snapped up and he let his chakra flair a little bit in response to the other man's silent query to let him know that he and Naru were still alive and kicking-er well, so to speak.
He started to clean up the blood again when he felt another chakra flair from his former Anbu brother and paused again. This time the query clearly asking, Is Naru alright? Kakashi made an irritated sound in the back of his throat and made a mental note to punch Tenzou in the nuts for asking such a stupid question.
And quickly finished cleaning up the sink and disposed of the rags he'd used to clean the blood up as he tracked Tenzou's chakra signature while he tried to think. He needed to cover up his eye and meet Tenzou and the others so that he could warn them that Naru's memory was messed up so that he could be sure that no one accidentally triggered her memories.
He stepped out fo the bathroom and pulled his shirt sleeves down over the bandages and checked on Naru then pulled his mask up over his nose and mouth again and grabbed his headband and put it on, then tugged it down over his left eye to hide the discoloration and walked towards the door sensing that Tenzou was just a hundred or so feet away from the room.
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Tenzou sighed, Kakashi-senpai's silence about Naru's current condition was telling. Things must be horrible for her. Things must be horrible for Kakashi too. Tenzou couldn't imagine how it must feel to be in Kakashi's shoes right now.
To know that Naru was probably crying, mourning. To know that every time Kakashi tried to reach out to comfort her she probably shrank back from him in fear and disgust. To know that she was hurting so badly and was in desperate need of the Kakashi she once knew, yet couldn't seem to find in the person sitting across the room from her.
And Kakashi himself- Tenzou could only imagine how much it hurt him to know that his former student and friend was right there, that she needed him, but he couldn't touch her. Not even to try and comfort her.
It was simply too dangerous. In her fragile state he could easily break her into slivers that would never heal or mend back together again.
Horrible- Tenzou thought as he clenched his fists at his side as he and the rest of the group rounded the corner and stopped for a second when he saw Kakashi leaning his back against the wall just up ahead, his one eye staring blankly at his feet which were crossed at the ankle, his arms were crossed over his chest which was void of his usual vest.
God in heaven the man looked like hell! His silver hair was longer than Tenzou remembered it ever being, falling just past his shoulder blades. His face under his mask was probably a little bit haggard looking. He had a dark smudge under his visible eye, indicating his lack of rest.
Kakashi looked up at him for a second, doing a mental check of whom exactly had been sent and Tenzou thought he saw a slight relieved look cross the copy nin's face as he noted Shizune, Sakura, Ino and Hinata.
Kakashi dropped his gaze after that and didn't look up again. Not even when Sakura and Sai pushed past Tenzou and ran up to him and took turns hugging the man to show their understanding of the situation.
Kakashi looked just as startled as he was shocked by the display, his body language showing what the copy nin himself would never say. He felt that he should be condemned for doing what he had thought would save Naru's life. Kakashi seemed to have forgotten that former team seven, Tenzou and many others were very understanding people.
The only reason Kakashi wasn't condemned for what he had done was because he hadn't wanted to do it. If he had done it out of pure meanness, that would be an entirely different matter.
Kakashi would be facing down an execution upon his arrival back at the village. But because Kakashi had been trying to preserve Naru's life, even at the cost of his honor, people wouldn't see him as a rapist or a monster. They would merely see him as a man that had had to make an agonizing decision.
But they would never understand how agonizing that decision was for him. Or what it had cost him.
Tenzou walked up as Sakura was drawing back from the copy nin and stopped an inch or so away from him and then reached out and hooked his pinky finger around one of Kakashi's knowing more than anyone how the man probably felt about physical contact right now. Kakashi looked at him for a second then sighed and moved a little closer to his former brother and dropped his head onto Tenzou's right shoulder and just stood there.
Both touching yet at the same time not touching. Tenzou trying to comfort the older man and Kakashi trying to draw strength from the younger man before he finally lifted his head and moved away. "How's Naru?" Tenzou asked softly. Kakashi looked at him and slowly shook his head.
"Not good. There's something wrong with her memory." Kakashi said in a rough tone. "She's acting like she did before I-" He stopped speaking and looked over his shoulder at the door behind him. "Her chakra is out of whack and she's been sleeping a lot in an effort to heal herself. And a few hours ago she started running a fever. It's pretty low grade at the moment but I suspect that may change if she isn't looked at soon."
Tenzou, Sakura and Sai all frowned as the others finally joined them and Kakashi saw Pakkun hanging from the stick slung over Sai's shoulder and pointed and asked, "Sai, what the hell did you do to my pup?"