Chapter Note: Training for the cute little Genins and a short lesson for Avurin…
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The next morning, she was woken up by the sound of the kids bursting through the door. The warmth from her hand was gone in an instant and she silently thanked Kakashi for avoiding the situation that would have occurred if the kids had seen them holding hands, even if it was just friendly support. She rested, keeping her eyes closed and her body turned away from the rest of the room, while he explained the situation to them, despite her having spoken with them the previous night. He stressed the danger of the situation, yet was careful not to scare them.
"Avurin told us that this mission was very dangerous last night. We just need to train to get stronger so we can give you and Avurin as much help as we can and then we can complete the mission!" Naruto shouted enthusiastically. Another child's voice chimed in, yelling about them losing their lives for opposing Gato and storming out. Naruto was pretty upset and left to follow him. She mentally rolled her eyes. Civilians. Shinobi signed up for the dangers of these missions knowing they could lose their lives. It was good that Naruto was having the stress of the situation presented, but it was still irritating to deal with distressed civilians.
"Sakura, Sasuke, go get your training equipment. We're going to train today. There's a very important lesson that I think you are ready for." Kakashi told them, sending them out of the room. Avurin groaned once they were out of the room and sat up, knowing her hair was sticking out at odd angles from the ponytail that had loosened during the night. Tazuna and the young woman were still there, giving Kakashi an apologetic look.
"We're sorry for Inari's behavior. He lost his father to Gato's gang. He's young and doesn't understand that shinobi are trained to handle these things." The young woman spoke before bowing and leaving the room. Tazuna followed after, shutting the door carefully after him. Avurin looked at Kakashi, dreading the next week. She was more of an active duty born-from-war shinobi, not one for soothing the worries of civilians. Her team hadn't been anything but jerks to civilians when she was a Genin and they didn't improve on their social skills even when they were promoted to Chunin. After dealing with their behavior for years, originally just as flippant shinobi that didn't care for much other than war and later as completely emotionally disconnected shinobi, she had lost all motivation for trying to sooth the negative emotions of upset civilians.
"Let's get ready to train some cute little kids about the dangers of life-threatening missions, hm?" Kakashi chirped as he pulled himself from the bed. She nodded and went over to their packs, grabbing his jacket which had dried out overnight. It was heavy, obviously full of hidden weapons and other equipment. She laughed quietly to herself, remembering how he'd tucked the shell she'd given him into one of the pockets and she'd told him it would break. If it hadn't, she'd be surprised.
She wordlessly helped Kakashi put his jacket and shoes on before taking a pair of crutches that were placed near the door and putting them under his arms. She took a moment to go through her own pack, putting her kunai pouch on and taking her Konoha headband out of it, holding it in front of her.
"I won't think any less of you if you don't want to wear it," Kakashi commented from next to the door as he waited for her to finish getting ready. She shook her head and fixed her ponytail before tying the headband on her upper left arm.
"I'm here and I'm reclaiming my position as a Konoha Chunin. It's an obligation. Have to look the part, even if I don't feel like it." she spat bitterly. She grabbed some ointments from her pack and put them in the pouch before grabbing her bow and katana.
"You know, I noticed you never carry arrows with that thing but you did kill a couple of rabbits with it. Never figured that part out." Kakashi said as he hobbled towards the door. She shrugged.
"Chakra. I just focus it into a shape and send it flying. No arrows to make and retrieve. My hope when I was on some of my last missions was that I'd be able to find out my chakra affinity and infuse it with the 'arrows' I was shooting." She opened the door and they walked into the hallway. Kakashi narrowed his eye at her in an almost deadpan look.
"They let you make Chunin without knowing your Chakra affinity?" he asked. She shrugged again.
"You know how it was back then. We were fodder. If you passed the test, you made the rank. I passed the test and I advanced. My sensei didn't expect me to live long enough for that training to be useful." Kakashi stopped and stared at her with a hard gaze.
"You really were wronged by everyone close to you, weren't you?" he asked, voice edging on a dangerous note.
"Yeah. I was. So you understand why I feel like I'm walking to the trenches facing the Yellow Flash in war, right?" she snapped. His eyes fell to the floor. They were interrupted by Sakura and Sasuke with Naruto in tow.
"We're ready! Tazuna said that there is a clearing to the East that we can use for training!" Naruto shouted. Avurin pinched the bridge of her nose. It was going to be a long day.
At the training ground, a beginner's course of chakra control was conducted and Avurin found herself yawning. After several weeks of tracking Zabuza with little sleep, she was exhausted. Kakashi demonstrated walking up a tree and gave each of the Genin a kunai to mark the tree at the highest points they can reach. She had to admire his patience with the team, especially with the loudmouth that Naruto was. Sakura, of course, had it on the first try. Avurin was starting to worry about the skill level of the team if they couldn't even climb trees with chakra.
They were more inexperienced than she expected. They had to be fresh out of the Academy. Sure, this was supposed to be their first C-Rank mission but she would have expected them to be further along in their training than this. Kakashi was calm as ever as he watched their progress while he was upside down on a tree. She could sense Tazuna's grandson watching before getting bored and leaving. Shaking her head, she put her hands in her pockets and walked up the tree to sit on the branch Kakashi was standing on. She was surprised when he walked around the branch and sat down next to her, putting the crutches across his lap. She watched, curious, as he opened one of his jacket pockets and gave her a piece of paper.
"Push chakra into it. You'll know your primary affinity by what happens." She shot a look at him with wide eyes and back at the paper between her hands. He was just carrying around chakra paper when her own sensei didn't bother to ever offer her one? She pushed a small amount of chakra into the paper and it wrinkled, a small tingling feeling spreading over the pads of her fingers. Kakashi threw an arm over her shoulder and leaned close to her ear.
"That's lightning. Lucky for you, you happen to know the best lightning user in Konoha and we have a week of training Genin which has some free time. I don't see the point in watching them bounce off the ground for hours with nothing to do. What do you say?" She could hardly contain her excitement as he whispered in her ear. She turned to him after he finished whispering and smiled.
"Let's do it. I can't believe I finally know my affinity…" She looked back down at the paper and tucked it into her kunai pouch. He pulled her close with the arm over her shoulders for a moment before letting her go and standing to walk slowly down the tree. She followed and observed the kids.
Sakura was exhausted but had been consistently practicing walking all over the tree. Naruto had barely made any progress, and none of that progress was legitimate considering he just ran at the tree and the marks were about as high as he could physically jump without chakra. Sasuke had made some progress, but nothing significant yet. Naruto was whispering to Sakura, likely asking for help. She had to admit that was personal growth she wasn't expecting.
She could sense an immense amount of chakra in the kid but would save her questions for when Kakashi and her were completely alone. Possibly after they returned to Konoha if everything went well. She didn't want to pry. It couldn't be a coincidence that the kid looked like Lord Fourth and had so much chakra. She knew she would be missing several years of events in Konoha so it wouldn't be a stretch to assume Minato Namikaze had a kid.
They called it quits when the sun started to set and headed back to the house. As Kakashi gave the kids some tips and a small lecture at the table, she helped the young woman in the kitchen to make another fish-based dinner.
"Inari wandered into the woods earlier. I'm sorry if he interrupted your training today. I'm his mother and sometimes it's almost like he forgets that I exist." she said sadly. Avurin placed a hand on the woman's shoulder.
"He didn't interrupt anything. This can be hard to face, especially since he lost his father to those goons. He cares, he just has a harsh way of showing it." Avurin saw some of the light return to the woman's eyes and turned away from her to continue cooking. Avurin didn't know where the sudden words of compassion had come from, but she couldn't run away from the conversation while she was helping to make dinner.
"Yes, I guess that's true. You seem to care an awful lot for the kids' teacher as well." the woman teased. Avurin fought the blush rising on her cheeks. She gently set down the knife she was using to clean the fish and looked at the woman over her shoulder.
"Please don't talk about that here. Things are very tense in this situation, even if it doesn't look like it. I'm here to assist with the mission, that's all there is to it. The kids can't catch wind of anything like that or it will be harder when we get back to the village. I have some things to answer for when we get there and I can't have them trying to butt into it for the sake of their sensei's friend who cares a little too much. So, please, don't say a word about it again." Her patience was running thin and while civilians didn't have to worry about information like this being out in the open in what could be innocent teasing, the situation was tense and the kids really couldn't catch wind of this. It would be fun to accept the teasing, but she couldn't put Kakashi or his students in that position in the event that she was going to be arrested when she arrived at the village. Kakashi would accept it, the kids wouldn't. Especially Naruto.
"Ah, I apologize. Here, let me handle dinner and you go spend time with your friends. Besides, if Dad catches you in here helping, he'll make you leave the kitchen in a less friendly manner." The woman smiled at Avurin, gently pushing her out of the kitchen. Avurin huffed and walked into the dining room, seeing Naruto and Sasuke glaring at each other at the table and Kakashi reading Icha Icha Paradise. She stomped over to his chair and snatched the book out of his hand. He looked at her with a chilling gaze that almost made her shiver from the pure animosity hidden in his eye but she held her ground.
"It's mine. You stole it." she stated matter-of-factly. The kids had gone silent to watch the two shinobi. Kakashi looked like he was fighting a smile.
"Ah, I suppose it is. It was just so good and I needed something for the trip home. Would you mind if I continued to borrow it? Every time I read it, it's like reading it for the first time all over again." Kakashi asked, the same cold feeling radiating off of him, except she could also feel a hint of embarrassment. It was a show for the kids. They had to have been trying to get the book out of his hands for some time.
"What would I get out of it? You owe me for a two year loan and this book is actually quite valuable nowadays, being a signed first edition." She was playing with fire and she knew it. Why did she continue to dig the hole?
"Anything you want, Avie. Anything." he promised, a heavy suggestion in his voice. Her face was likely red to the tips of her ears at this point partly from the use of the nickname but she crossed her arms with the book trapped against her chest. He wouldn't dare reach towards her chest in front of the kids. He may be trying to pressure her to give it back through embarrassment, but she had her own tricks.
"I'll have to think about it. In the meantime, I'll be holding onto this." Kakashi's eyes fell to the book held against her chest and her eye twitched. This was escalating way too far.
"Sensei! Stop being a pervert!" Sakura screeched, apparently having enough of her sensei's behavior. Kakashi seemed to come to his senses and turned back to his highly embarrassed, red-faced Genin.
"Mah, mah, calm down. Just friendly teasing, right Avie?" he asked, sliding a sly eye to her. She huffed and plopped down into the chair next to him, holding the book close.
"Of course. No harm done. This book is perverted, though. Some white-haired asshole passing through town gave it to me shortly after I built the cabin and it was the first book on my shelf. It holds sentimental value and that's the only reason I had it. We'll discuss what you can trade for it later." She wasn't promising anything, but the glint in his eye made her feel like she had just fallen for some sort of trap despite holding all of the cards or in this case, the book. The young woman walked into the room with Tazuna and Inari, carrying the food as they set the table, effectively ending that conversation.
Dinner was calm and quiet, everyone eating what they could after a day of training. Everyone said their goodnights and Avurin found herself following Kakashi to his room, still hobbling on his crutches. Was it still okay for her to stay in his room? He didn't need her to watch over him now that he was already walking around and could feed himself. He seemed to pick up on her sudden spike of anxiety as they walked into the room and he closed the door behind him.
"You know that I was joking, right?" he asked as he set the crutches down and took his jacket off, setting it next to their bags like it had been the previous night. She nodded but looked down at the book in her hands.
"And you know that I actually do really value this book, right?" she asked. He nodded as well as he sat down on the futon, not settling down for bed yet.
"I… I didn't really think about it when I took it. I just didn't have much to remember that calm little cottage by and that book is about as close as I could get. I still have the shell you gave me, it's at home on my own bookshelf." He was genuine, yet embarrassed. She sighed and set the book down next to their things. Of course he still had the shell.
"I get it. Those few days were really nice. You were different from what I expected and I lived with doubts about what would happen if I went back to Konoha after you left. It was crippling sometimes. I felt like the peace I had was an empty shell of what life could be. You made me think about it and when you left, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I kind of started feeling miserable." She laughed softly to herself, pulling her hair out of the ponytail she'd kept it in. Slipping her arm covers off, she sat down on top of Kakashi's sleeping bag next to where he was sitting on the futon. The scars were prominent in the light of sunset and she traced one with her fingers.
"I can't let go of the past, but a future with friends and maybe a family someday, that was too tempting to ignore. I was lonely, I just wanted to pretend it was what I wanted. I'm willing to face the consequences in Konoha for a chance at that kind of future. We're not at war anymore even if things are still tense. It isn't the same. And after meeting your cute little team, I think there's some hope for the next generation." She looked at him with a smile so bright her eyes were closed. She felt the sharp prick of tears at the corners of her eyes.
A hand touched her cheek and wiped one of the tears as it fell.
"I promised that you would have a home in Konoha if you chose to come back. I'll do what I can to make that happen when we get home, okay?" he promised. She sniffled a little and looked at his uncovered eye.
"Okay. That will be the trade for the book. If I can go back to Konoha and life can be better, I'll give you the book back. Sound good?" she asked. She felt like a fool for bartering such a silly promise for a book she really cared about, but to her it felt like anything Kakashi promised her right then would be met. He nodded and in the growing darkness of the room, she saw him pull his mask down. His hand was still on her cheek, warm and calloused from a life of war and battles hard fought. He leaned forward and she met him in the middle, a light shiver running down her body from the overwhelming emotions.
Their lips met as the last of the light of the sun left the room.