The village was sleeping peacefully by the time Tsunade had agreed to let Akari leave the tower and return to her home. However, she hadn't figured out a way to get rid of her new found friend. Uzumaki Naruto had been on her right hand side since Tsuande had started questioning her. Her brain was beginning to ache. It was a dull ache…but an ache. She took a slow breath and turned to face him stopping in the street as they walked. One thing about Naruto was he didn't ever shut up. She gently placed her hand over his mouth and let a sigh of relief out.
"Listen, kid, one question at a time and only seven per day. You've already hit your quota. Sorry." She let her hand slip from his mouth and waited for protest. He raised an eyebrow and put a hand on his neck grinning and then laughed heartily.
"Sorry, yeah! I forget! I just can't believe Kakashi-sensei has a daughter!" he smirked turning back to watch Kakashi who was walking lazily towards them with Sasuke trailing about a step behind. Akari glanced over Sasuke in his Jounin uniform, she could see what some girls in the village talked about, but she really didn't care.
"I'm coming Naruto…" Kakashi drawled out weaving his ahnd at his student shrugging. Akari was sort of glad that Kakashi hadn't been overly thrilled to react. She supposed they were a little alike in that manner. She hated dramatics and she hated people in her personal space even more but what really meant a lot to her was having her own bubble. She was a loner. She never really had liked people and she owed much of that to Danzo.
"Eh, you live here?" Naruto made a face looking up at the complex where they'd stopped.
It was a run-down complex with little to no windows on the front side of the building. The roof was patchy and the fence around the place was falling down. A light by the front doors of the first base floor flickered as a cat ran by hopping over a hedge. It wasn't really much. It was home. Akari shrugged putting her hands in her pockets unaware that Kakashi was standing in exactly the same manner behind her.
"It's where I like to live. It's quiet and people don't bother you…works well for an ANBU." Actually it had worked well to keep Danzo off her back. That old bastard had always been harping on her about staying hidden.
"It's off the grid Naruto. Most ANBU don't live inside the village with the normal people." Sasuke said in a monotone voice.
"Yeah, well, whatever!" Naruto quipped back frowning. Akari smirked and fished her key from her pocket. She lived on the right end on the first floor.
"Look, love to say you all are invited…" Sasuke slid past her taking the key and glancing at the number on the back of it, walked over to her door opening it.
"We're inviting ourselves." He said coolly opening the door so that Kakashi and Naruto could walk inside. There was a moment, brief in its entirety, that they met each other's eyes. She felt a heat boil inside her chest and she dismissed it as agitation paved the way through her veins. Who did this asshat think he was going into her house. She snatched the key from his hand her fingers brushing his wrist and she turned quickly going inside.
The light above her kitchen table was flickering to which Naruto stood underneath it staring up at it guessing how he could fix it. Before the boy could inflict damage she sighed and slammed her fist into the wall where the circuit was. The light went out for about three seconds before she slammed her fist into it again and the light blazed on illuminating the whole room strongly. A small black cat jumped up onto the table hissing loudly at Sasuke before swiping at his hand and jumping onto Akari's shoulder. She smirked nuzzling his head with her chin and then tickled his nose with her fingers.
"Meet my cat, Neeko." She made her way to the fridge and grabbed four beers setting them on the small dark wooden table in the center of the room.
"Beer?" Kakshi raised an eyebrow reaching for one as he leaned back against the tiled and cracked counter which wasn't very far from the table at all. The kitchen, let alone the whole place, was small. Kakashi arched his neck catching a glimpse of the living room area which doubled as her bedroom. He saw the mattress on the ground with an old lumpy pillow with what appeared to be one lonely thin blanket half on the floor.
"I drink…probably enough to call it an issue. Don't really want to hear or know anyone's opinion." She said snapping hers open on the counter and taking a swig. Sasuke watched the two of them and ran a hand through his hair pushing it back. He handed a beer to Naruto who again made a face.
"No thanks…" he said putting a hand up. "I think I'm gonna go home anyway…" He headed for the door but stopped first waving back at Akari. "Good to meet you." She waved back and closed her eyes when he slammed the door shut and the kitchen lights went out again.
"Great place you got here." Sasuke said dryly in the dark.
"Listen, you came in, I didn't invite you. Your issue not mine." She said reaching into a drawer she pulled out three candles and matches. She laid the stumpy red candles over the table and lit them taking a seat across from Kakashi. She nodded her head to the last available seat expecting Sasuke to sit down too.
"Really, the ANBU pay better than this though last I remember." Kakashi said in a gentle tone. He wasn't being as judgmental as Sasuke had been.
"I didn't get paid for a really long time. I worked for Danzo. The pay I have now…I save what I get and the rest goes for my medication."
Kakashi felt his heart drop. It was like someone was handing him a string and then cutting it short at his fingers. He waited hoping she'd go further into details but when she didn't he sighed. His eyes roamed over the walls; they were all bare. She didn't have anything that seemed to make this place her own or really mark it as anyone's. It's like she enjoyed the ambiguity. Sasuke tilted his chair back sipping the bottle staring up at the ceiling.
"Medication for what?" he asked glancing back at her.
"The same thing your brother needed it for." He nearly fell out of the chair and snapped it back upright grabbing the table for support. For once, the raven felt a little shocked. He watched her confused the candle flame playing with the lines and curves of his face.
"Excuse me?" He asked.
"Did I stutter?" she snapped back tilting her head crossing her arms over her chest. She blinked and Kakashi as well as Sasuke were floored. Her eyes turned into two bright bloody red orbs glistening back at them.
"How…" Kakashi started to ask but she finished for them both.
"Genetics. Obito's eye has been in your head so long it sort of fused with your body altering the DNA. They're not full proof and they don't work that well, some things can't be copied into the gene pool." she let her eyes fade back to blue and she shut them sucking in a hard breath.
"That hurt much?" Sasuke asked leaning forward stretching his hand out. She pushed it away and rubbed her eyes sighing.
"Hence why I said I take medications. They hurt. I don't really use them unless I need too."
"That's why Danzo had you." Kakashi said breaking his silence. "He put a binding on you didn't he…the same thing he did to the Root." She looked at him glad for once that he was as intelligent as he was.
"Yes, only my binding didn't stop at his name, I couldn't say or be who I was. You couldn't know." She took a long deep drink from the beer in front of her. It both troubled and worried Kakashi that she was drinking that deeply.
"But he's been dead now for almost two years…" Sasuke began. "Why didn't you come to Kakashi after that?" he finished his question.
"Why would I?" she said looking at the sink past Kakashi where there were piled dirty dishes. "He already had enough on his plate, not to mention three students who'd recently found their way back to him." She shrugged looking to Kakashi. "I guess I just figured I'd already raised myself and been ok, you didn't need me messing up your life."