CHAPTER TWENTY

THE REASON WHY

It was late at night, around two in the morning. There were no sounds in the house save for the howl of the wind outside. All occupants of the house lay in bed sound asleep, all except for one.

He couldn't sleep. No matter how hard he tried, sleep just seemed to evade the white haired man. He would have read a book until he fell asleep but thanks to some rule stating that he couldn't read one of his beloved books in the room at night, he didn't. It also didn't help much that the younger Uzumaki slept practically on top of him, quietly snoring into his ear. He resorted to walking aimlessly around the loft while reading his book.

Without realizing where he was going, he soon found himself taking the stairs and coming to a stop in front of a door he often found himself visiting. Slowly pushing the door open, he peered inside. A stream of moonlight shining through the closed window highlighting the form of the sleeping girl on the bed. Leaning against the doorframe, he studied the girl's prone form. She was small, small compared to him and most others; she was a few inches taller than his pink haired student and the blue haired girl. Although, in time, those two would probably end up taller than her. She had naturally peach colored skin with a light tan from all her time outdoors, though at the moment her skin was pale. Her long ebony colored hair was spread out over her pillow with her bangs hanging over her twitching eyes.

"I know you're awake," he stated. He felt something inside him relax at the sight of her moving to sit up. She was alright. Silently, so as not to wake anyone, he walked into the room shutting the door behind him. "How long have you been up?"

"I woke up for, like, ten minutes a few hours ago, but then I fell asleep again. I only just woke up when you opened the door," was her quiet rasp of a reply, her voice, more than likely, hoarse from not having used it in a few days. She also purposely left out the part where she had removed the catheter along with the pee bag. "What happened? All I remember was, trying to get back to the loft, falling, a lot of pain, and then everything went black."

"When you fell, you fell on an open tool box," he began as he took a seat at the edge of her bed. "When hit the box, you were impaled by a wrench, which we only know because it was in you hand when I found you. You must have pulled it out on reflex before passing out. You had lost a lot of blood by the time they were able to get your wound closed. They had to give you an emergency blood transfusion."

"But my dad isn't here. I don't even think he's a type match. How? Where did-"

"Itachi and Sasuke donated. Since they're brothers, they were both matches. Which was a good thing since you needed twice the amount of blood a single person could give."

"Why am I in my room? Shouldn't I been in the hospital? I'm confused," she asked all in one breath. Her head was starting to hurt.

"Sakura is a highly trained medic. She performed the transfusion and healed your stomach wound with Hana's help, though she didn't have all the tools she needed. She ended up using a technique that would normally extract poison to withdraw the blood, and then transfer it to you. Your left arm was broken, and your shoulder was dislocated. She healed everything, although you might feel a burning/tingling sensation along your shoulder blades.

He watched her face to see what kind of reaction she might have. She had seemed a bit confused at first, and then her face changed into a fort of dazed expression. He gently pushed her back down onto the bed when she tried to stand up.

"I have to pee," she explained, once again making a move to stand. He nodded in understanding, and helped her to stand. He face contorted into one of irritation at the soreness her body experienced. At first she was a bit wobbly on her feet, but with the help of Kakashi she made it to the bathroom door. "I'm sure I can make it to the toilet on my own." It was only after she had closed the door that she realized she was only wearing a long baseball shirt that just barely covered the important parts which were feeling rather breezy.

While she was in the bathroom taking care of business, Kakashi retook his seat on her bed contemplating, a light flush, hidden by his mask, on his cheeks. Getting away from those thoughts, he pondered over whether he should confront her about his suspicions now, or wait till later? If he waited till later, there was no telling when later would actually come. He decided to ask her now rather than later. At the moment everyone was sleeping the night away, ensuring that they wouldn't be interrupted. But first, there was something he wanted, needed, to get out of the way.

"Get dressed," he ordered as soon as Kim had walked out of the bathroom. She watched him walk out of her room before turning around and getting dressed slowly. Running the brush through her hair a few times before gathering it all in a messy ponytail, she was done. She opted to leave the gray baseball shirt on, put on some underwear, and throw on pair of black pants and her all black Converse. Walking out of her room and down the hall, she met up with Kakashi.

"Where are we going?"

"Out," he said vaguely. He had thrown on the pair of jeans he had been wearing earlier that day, and a long-sleeved navy blue shirt over the one he usually wore that had his mask. She nodded her head in acceptance of not knowing where they were going, but trusting him anyways, and followed him out the door and down the spiral staircase.

He led her over to her father's truck. Kim immediately walked over to the driver's side and got in. Kakashi gave her a look before he lifted her up and dropped her into the passenger's seat. She stared at him as he closed the door, put the key in the ignition, and drove off.

"Since when can you drive," she asked bewildered, not being able to recall a time when the man had gotten lessons.

"It wasn't that hard to learn. I've watched you, Jade, and your father enough times to get the gist of it. Then there was also that book I found in one of the kitchen drawers," he answered, smirking slightly under his mask.

It was quiet for the rest of the ride. He pulled off the road, and into a parking lot, quickly parking in the vacant lot. Sliding out from hi seat, he shut the door before making his was to the other side of the truck to assist the girl.

"Mary's Diner," Kim said raising an eyebrow as she read the neon sign. She shrugged her shoulders, and followed in after Kakashi, who was holding the door open. The two walked over to a booth in the back.

The diner had a 50s theme. There were black and white checkered tiled floors. Red leather booths lined the walls. Swivel barstools lined the counters. Tall circle tables were on the open floor area. There was a jukebox pushed up against the wall. The white walls were decorated with records and pictures of famous recording artists of the 50s. Much to her amusement, there was a movie poster for Grease.

"Hello, kids. How may I take your orders," a kind elderly voice asked. The woman was plump with gray hair. She wore a black collared shirt, alight pink skirt with a frilly white apron, white socks with black and white Oxford shoes and a kind smile. When she took notice of whom she was talking to she beamed. "Oh Kimberly! It's been so long since I've last seen you. You're looking as beautiful as ever. Oh! Who is this? Is he your date?"

"N-n-no! Mary were just friends," Kim stammered blushing. The old woman, and owner of the diner, pouted.

"Well, if you don't want him I'll take him," Mary teased. Kim giggled when Kakashi choked on his spit. "Just kidding darling. So what will it be? The usual?"

"No I'll-"

"She'll have her usual, and I'll get the same thing," Kakashi ordered for them. Kim threw him a look. He shrugged in response.

"Two usual's coming right up. I'll have your drinks out in a jiffy, but your food will take about twenty minutes," the woman smiled, sending a quick wink in Kim's direction before walking off.

"I can order for myself," Kim huffed, leaning back in her seat with her arms crossed. Mary came back and dropped off their drinks and returned back to the kitchen. Kim swirled Coke and ice with her straw. Kakashi watched her, contemplating on how he should confront her. He decided to be blunt, like always.

"Do you have an eating disorder?" Kim stared at him.

"What would make you think that," she questioned glaring, nearly knocking over her drink.

"Why are you getting so defensive," Kakashi demanded, voice coming out harsher than he intended. She looked down, trying to hide her watering eyes.

"Why do you even care?"

That... that was a good question. A question he didn't know the answer to. "You can tell me," he urged, reaching across the table to place his hand over her's. "I promise I won't tell anyone. It'll just be between us. I just want to know why. You were fine. I-I noticed something was off, but I didn't do anything. If I have just said something, then I could've stopped all this from happening. I could've done something. So, what would have caused this? I noticed something around the time... Was it something that guy said to you?"

"I guess you could say that he said some things that triggered it," she replied quietly, glaring down at the table. She could feel a lump in her throat.

"Triggered? So this is an existing problem," he mused, tightening his grip on her hand. "What caused it the first time?" He heard a sniffle. "Kim?" She looked up at him with tears in his eyes. At some point their conversation turned into an interrogation in his haste for answers. He'd forgotten that it must have been hard for her to talk about. "I'm sorry. You can trust me. I just want to help."

"Why is it always you that sees me at my worst? Not even my dad has seen me like this. Though I am kind of glad that it's always you," she said giving him a watery smile. She flipped her hand over so that their palms touched and she held his hand. She gave his hand a firm squeeze, steeling herself for what was to come. "I wouldn't even know where to start."

"The beginning is always the best place to start," Kakashi offered. She took a deep breath.

"I guess it all started with my mother." She stood up and walked over to a rack of magazines. Skimming through a few she found the one she was looking for. While she was busy doing that a waitress brought over their orders, a bacon cheese burger hold the tomato with fries and a side of cream gravy. Sitting back down, she opened the magazine to the right page. "My mother," she said gesturing to the woman on the page.

"Your mother is a model," Kakashi said, examining the picture. The woman had the same peach slightly tanned skin as Kim. She had light green eyes, and chestnut brown hair. She was also very tall, at five foot eight inches, a solid four inches over her daughter. The woman was extremely beautiful. "I don't get it."

"She was the top model, her career was just getting started, and then she met my dad and got pregnant with me. If it was solely up to her, she would have given me up for adoption. My grandma begged her to keep me, and publicists wanted to avoid a scandal. Those vultures thought it would be good press. They were going for the hardworking single mom angle. For some reason she wanted to keep my dad out of the picture. She always resented me. Because of me she had to miss out on a lot of the things she would normally do. I remember she had gotten so mad at me when she had to miss fashion week in Paris, because I had the flu."

Kakashi reached across the table for her hand, this time entwining their fingers and using his thumb to rub soothing circles on the back of her hand. He gave her a nod, silently urging her to continue.

"It was really hard growing up in the spotlight. You always had to act and appear a certain way. If one hair was out of place, it was noticed. It was so hard. I was the chubby kid." She gave a soft humorless laugh. Kakashi wished she would stop that. It worried him. "My grandma thought it was adorable, but the media didn't. They started writhing things, and calling me overweight. Some even called my mother a bad parent. So, she started making me go on a diet. That was also around the time she put me in ballet; it was the only time I ever felt free." She paused to take a sip of her drink, flashing the man a small smile.

"You lost yourself in the routine. You didn't have to think, just move," Kakashi agreed, "I can understand that."

"But then it got worse when my grandparents died when I was nine. They were the only ones who actually cared about... well, me. My grandmother was always the one who let me be a kid. My grandpa always took me out on fishing trips and told me these crazy stories. Mother would get so mad at me when she would pick me up and find me covered in mud. When they died she became so cold, and just plain mean. I wanted her to love me, and accept me. So I thought that if I became the perfect daughter, she would finally notice me.

So, I tried to lose the weight for her, but no matter what I tried it just wouldn't go away. When I was at a photo shoot with her, I had heard some girls talking. They said that the less you ate the more weight you would lose. I tried it, and it worked. When I told her about my progress she seemed so proud of me. So I decided to cut out more foods, and then it got to the point where I would only drink water. I ended up collapsing during a recital, and it got to the point where they wouldn't even let me rehearse.

Then one day, I had had enough. I wanted the parent that all the other kids had. The parent that plays silly made up games with them, takes them to the park, takes them swimming, or just tell you that they loved you." She had to stop before she became hysterical. Wiping her tears, she began again. "I always thought it was... weird that I never knew my dad. So I did some searching, found my birth certificate, and all I had was a name. It was so hard, but I never gave up. The only thing that kept me going was the thought of having a parent that cared and loved me. I was desperate.

Eventually I found him. He was in prison though. At first he didn't believe me, but when I showed him my birth certificate… the look on his face… there are no words to describe how happy he looked. He hugged me, and told me that it was the best day of his life. A month after that he got let out on parole, and he took my mother to court to gain custody over me; I was eleven at that time."

"Obviously, he won," Kakashi said with a smile.

"Obviously," she snarked, playfully. "He's mostly stayed out of trouble since then. I met Jade at school a little after that, and we've been best friends since then. I guess when everything started to get better, I formed better eating habits. I was finally happy. When Jake made that comment about how I should watch my weight, it just brought up all of my old insecurities. Not to mention that the other girls are so beautiful and thin, and I'm not," she finished. Her eyes were red, and slightly puffy. "I never really delt with it, never got any help."

"Thank you for trusting me," Kakashi said thinking over ways to help. He pushed the plate of food in front of the girl which she accepted. He slowly studied her. He honestly didn't see what she was so worried about. In his opinion, she was in great shape, but it wasn't his opinion that mattered, it was hers. Once you've began to see yourself a certain way, it was hard to change your mind. Though she wasn't the chubby kid anymore, she couldn't let go of that mentality. Living in a world that put so much pressure on women to look a certain way, certainly didn't make matters any easier. Not to mention that fact that that was the basis of her mother's entire career.

How would he make good on his promise to help? Talking seemed to have done wonders for her mood and her appetite, which was a relief. What was that saying? Healthy body, healthy mind?

"If you want it bad enough, I can train you. Ninja training is a great way to stay in shape." She gave him a bright smile, and pushed her empty plate to the side, leaned across the table, and threw her arms around him. "I'll take that as a yes. If you want me to train you, you're going to have to eat more. You need to keep your energy levels up."

"So, I can get a refill on my Coke," she asked shyly, sitting back down. Kakashi just laughed, and called the waitress over. Kim wore a face of curiosity. She asked him the question that had been on her mind ever since she had first met him, but had been too shy to ask. After spilling her backstory, she felt she could ask him anything. "What's under your mask?"

She felt the excitement bubble up within her when he reached up to pull down his mask.

"Another mask! Cool right," Kakashi said excitedly, smiling like a fool. Kim banged her head on the table, as her white haired companion laughed.

Mary, the owner of the diner, smiled at the sight before her. The two would make such a wonderful couple.