Hachi woke up in a panic the next day. It was already almost nine O'clock and he could barely remember where the training ground was to meet Raido.
Hachi's eyes were still swollen and red from the ongoing crying festival at 3 AM and the lack of sleep. He couldn't meet his new teacher like this; he would make a fool out of himself. Hachi knew there wasn't much for him to bring, but he should at least look presentable.
The rustling soon woke Kakashi up, who ended up falling asleep on the same bed as Hachi. He groggily looked at Hachi's frantic motions and wondered what was going on.
"Why are you up so early?" Kakashi asked, rubbing at his eyes and fighting back a yawn.
"I'm late!" was all Hachi said, making Kakashi even more confused.
"Huh? For what?" Kakashi tried to rack his brain for anything Hachi could be doing this early in the morning. He wouldn't be starting the academy till a week from today, so he had no reason to be so up and about.
"My training with Raido-sensei!" Hachi all but screamed. He was practically ripping his hair out. Kakashi stared at Hachi blankly.
Did I forget to tell him? Kakashi wondered. With so much information and tears last night, Kakashi didn't have the chance to tell Hachi about the postponement of his training.
"I forgot to tell you… You won't be meeting Raido today." Hachi looked at Kakashi with a dumbfounded expression, which Kakashi found amusing. "Since you went to the hospital with broken ribs, I told Lord Hokage and Raido to postpone your training, and they agreed. You'll start training with Raido in three days." Kakashi said. Hachi took a couple moments to fully grasp the entire situation.
I had gotten ready and panicked for nothing? Hachi was beyond pissed. He let anxiety kick his ass for the past ten minutes because Kakashi just so happened to forget to tell him such crucial information? Unbelievable.
Hachi clenched his hands into a fist and grit his teeth.
Seeing Hachi's reaction, Kakashi quickly blurted out, "Haha, sorry about that."
"You simply just forget about something that important?" Hachi roared, his voice shaking the entire apartment complex. Kakashi rubbed his stinging ears.
"Now, now, everyone would forget something like that. Especially, since we were both a bit emotional yesterday." Kakashi tried to reason with Hachi and at the mention of last night (more specifically, this morning), Hachi calmed down. He was still sensitive to the new change he felt.
"I guess," Hachi said, his anger dissipating.
"Instead of training, we can go shopping for your stuff." Kakashi tried to reason, gaining Hachi's interest.
"Shopping for what?" Hachi tilted his head to the side in wonder.
Kakashi chuckled, "Why, your clothes and weapons, of course. Were you planning on training with Raido naked or something?" Hachi blushed in embarrassment which surprised Kakashi.
"I just thought I'd borrow your clothes for the time being," Hachi said with his head down, unable to meet Kakashi's gaze.
"I can't keep lending you my clothes forever. Besides, you still need weapons to train with Raido and for the academy." Kakashi said, getting up from the bed and moving to the bathroom to get ready. "I'll be out in ten minutes, just wait out here and we can go to the marketplace together."
Hachi nodded in response. Hachi heard the bathroom door lock and he let out a pent-up sigh. His mind was still flustered from Kakashi's comment. Naked?
He didn't know why that was the first thing that came to Kakashi's head. Maybe he is a pedophile? Hachi thought in a joking manner, but that thought brought a shudder to ripple Hachi's body.
He can't get caught up in that thought again or he was going to have another panic attack just like a few hours ago. Hachi was not ready for another one to happen.
In a few minutes, Kakashi came out. Looking just slightly freshened up, he went to his closet to grab another pair of clothes. He started stripping off his sleepshirt and Hachi quickly looked away.
"I'll be outside." Hachi blurted out with a blush dusted on his cheeks once more and he ran out the door leaving Kakashi frozen in his position at Hachi's sudden outburst.
Kakashi was out the door right after Hachi, giving no time for the latter to cool down his face. Kakashi locked the house up and gestured for Hachi to follow him. Kakashi pulled out a book from his small bag and headed out of the small apartment complex. They quickly fell into step with each other as they walked to the marketplace.
It only took about ten minutes for the duo to reach their destination. Hachi looked around at the bustling village again. He was mesmerized just like he was a couple of days ago. The village itself seemed to be breathing with life.
Everyone was busy with their business, but that didn't mean no one had a smile on their face. Hachi almost couldn't understand how a village could be so lively, but then he remembered his own village. His village was built on smiles and laughter.
The thought brought a bittersweet feeling to Hachi's chest. He shook his head to get rid of such memories and looked around for Kakashi, realizing that he had quickly lost him in the crowd.
Hachi wandered around a bit, before spotting the familiar tall silver-haired man at a stand about 15 feet away. He was inspecting the weapons that were laid out in the open. Hachi walked up to Kakashi, wondering what he was eyeing so closely, only to find kunai and shuriken.
"Here, hold this." Kakashi handed Hachi a kunai while still looking at the other weapons. Hachi stared at the new weapon in his hand. He tried to get a feel for the weight and started slashing the air to test out the quality and how well it suited him.
The kunai seemed to have a good weight distribution, but something felt wrong when he actually started using it. He couldn't quite grasp what was wrong with it.
"Hey, mister, what is this kunai made of?" Hachi asked the store clerk who was quietly observing the duo.
"Oh, they're made from bronze. It's very rare nowadays." The clerk said with a small smile, hoping Hachi would buy it from him.
Hachi wouldn't be buying shit.
Bronze is a terrible choice for kunai. Kunai usually are made from iron, a harder metal so that it can maintain an edge. The kunai and shuriken that Hachi brought on his journey here would be a better choice of weapons than the one he was holding right now, even though they were rusted over. Hachi gave the store clerk a slight glare and silently left while tugging at Kakashi's sleeve to move on from the stand.
Kakashi fell in step with Hachi. He heard the clerk speaking to Hachi and also knew that bronze kunai would be a useless weapon in battle.
"W-wait! I'll give these kunai away for forty percent of the price! Don't you want to buy at least some of them?" The store clerk managed to yell out, stopping Hachi in his tracks.
"You really don't expect us to buy bronze kunai, right? That's a terrible choice of metal for weapons; they will be useless against iron. Do you want us, shinobi, to get killed or something? Stop selling fraudulent items. Just close up shop, you geezer, and never sell anything again." Hachi yelled back, gaining the attention of almost everyone in the vicinity. The nearby citizens stared at the store clerk in disbelief.
How could someone scam shinobis? They were the protectors and saviors of the village. To scam shinobis, would be to disrespect all shinobi. Such a concept was absolutely unheard of.
The villagers soon started whispering to themselves and the store clerk looked around frantically.
"No, he's lying! He's just a kid, how would he know better than a professional?" He shouted, pointing an accusing finger towards Hachi. The villagers started whispering again, now in agreement with the clerk. He smirked triumphantly.
Hachi scoffed and was about to speak, but Kakashi beat him to it.
"No, he's right. Bronze kunai are absolutely impractical in battle. It would be suicide for a shinobi to bring bronze weapons when his enemies are all equipped with iron." Kakashi stated calmly. Hachi looked up at Kakashi with a surprised expression. He was actually defending Hachi?
The store clerk was at a loss for words as he started stuttering, trying to think of any and all excuses on the spot. Kakashi turned and Hachi followed suit. As they were walking away from the scene, Hachi turned a bit to see the store clerk and made eye contact. Once they saw each other, Hachi lowered his undereye with his finger and stuck out his tongue, making the store clerk blow a fuse. He started screaming profanities that Hachi hadn't even heard of, ultimately worsening his situation.
Hachi giggled to himself and Kakashi peered down at Hachi with an amused expression.
"Why are you laughing? You do know you basically ran him out of business right?" Kakashi asked.
"Serves him right. And I wasn't the only one who ran him out of business, it was both of us. Welcome to the life of crime, Hatake." Hachi replied, grabbing onto Kakashi's arm. Kakashi stumbled forward from the unexpected gesture before gaining his balance.
Kakashi sighed, "I guess so." He let out a soft smile.
"Oh, there's a weapons shop that actually looks reputable," Hachi said while pointing in the direction. Kakashi followed Hachi's finger and saw a familiar building.
The faded paint and slightly crooked sign set off an old memory.
He had come here often a long time ago with his father but soon forgot about it after he passed away. His chest swelled with unaccustomed nostalgia and bitterness.
When Hachi and Kakashi made their way inside, Kakashi was hit with the scent of incense and everything in his body wanted him to turn around and run away. His nose burned from sentimentality. He quickly blocked his nose with one hand and tried to breathe with his mouth instead.
"Welcome." The shopkeeper greeted the two with a smile. Hachi sent a small nod. When he didn't hear anything from Kakashi, Hachi looked over to him, wondering what happened.
Hachi noticed the change in Kakashi's behavior and observed him. It was very similar to his own behavior when something triggered his fight or flight.
He took Kakashi's hand in his own and squeezed it to comfort him. Hachi never thought this day would come so soon. Where he would be the one to comfort Kakashi and not the other way around.
Kakashi stared at Hachi's hand with wide eyes before they softened to a grateful look. Kakashi squeezed Hachi's hand to signify his thankfulness to which Hachi nodded.
They started to gradually look around after Kakashi gathered his bearings. Kakashi examined the kunai that was laid on a shelf to the right of the shop while Hachi went towards the left to view some shuriken. Hachi could tell right away that the quality was exceedingly higher quality than the other shop clerk. The way the shuriken shined could only be from a weapons keeper that truly cared for their gear.
Hachi picked up a throwing star and once again measured the weight of the weapon. It was nicely distributed between each limb making Hachi nod in assurance, but he couldn't be so sure. The bronze kunai also had a nice distribution of weight but was a scam in the end. He turned to the shopkeeper.
"Is there a place where I can throw this?" Hachi asked.
"Yes, if you follow me, we have a small training ground to test out weapons." The shopkeeper said while getting up and showing Hachi to the door. Kakashi followed them with a few weapons himself for Hachi to test out.
Hachi walked towards a target and stopped once he was about twenty feet away. He aimed carefully at the target and threw his shuriken, expecting to hit the center, but it ended up stuck to the fence that was behind it.
Hachi huffed at his result making Kakashi and the shopkeeper chuckle. Hachi turned red.
"You're not going to hit anything with that stance. I thought you went to the academy when you were younger?" Kakashi said while getting closer to Hachi.
"Well, it's been four years and I haven't had the chance to exactly throw any shuriken since then," Hachi muttered. Kakashi didn't press any further, already knowing that there was no point.
"Widen your stance and bring the shuriken up to your ear with your elbows bent. Your shuriken should be lined up with your shoulder. Then throw with a chopping motion." Kakashi explained while guiding Hachi's body through the steps. "Try now," Kakashi said after fixing Hachi's body.
Hachi grit his teeth at Kakashi's help, feeling useless, but swallowed his pride and aimed for the target again. He threw the shuriken, not expecting much of a difference. To his surprise, the shuriken landed just left to the center of the target.
Hachi's face brightened and he grinned at Kakashi.
"Hey, hey, I hit it!" Hachi all but yelled and Kakashi smiled in response with a small chuckle.
"Yeah, you did," Kakashi said while ruffling the top of Hachi's head. Hachi lightly slapped Kakashi's hand away, complaining that he would mess up his hair with a groan.
The shopkeeper looked at the scene in front of him. It was heartwarming which was a nice change to what he usually sees; ruthless shinobi almost threatening the shopkeeper for a lower price on his weapons.
Kakashi and Hachi spent time outside having a little training session for about an hour, but the shopkeeper didn't mind. Their relationship was a breath of fresh air around the usually gloomy weapons shop.
Once they were done with their training, they went back inside where the shopkeeper was waiting.
"We'll get about three sets of kunai and five sets of shuriken," Kakashi said.
"Sure thing." the shopkeeper replied while going to the back for the supplies. He quickly wrapped them and put the gear in bags. "I'll throw in a special tonto too."
"That won't be necessary. You've basically already let us use your training ground for free." Kakashi said with his hands up in refusal.
"It's not for you. It's for the boy." The shopkeeper gave a quick glare which immediately shut down Kakashi. He smiled while handing the tanto to Hachi.
Hachi stared at the small gift that he just received with both hands. He opened the sheath and saw a beautiful blade that seemed to be painted rather than carved.
"Are you sure I can have this? The old man's right; I can't keep this." Hachi said, but his face told a whole different story. He was mesmerized.
Kakashi's lip twitched at Hachi's small quip at him.
The shopkeeper laughed, "Of course, you can. It's a present from me to you since you guys reminded me of my family today."
Kakashi and Hachi stared at each other once the shopkeeper said 'family'.
Us? A family? They both thought. They both shook their heads at the same time. Impossible…
The shopkeeper chuckled silently to himself at the amusing scene in front of him.
"Well, if that's the case, I'll gladly accept the tanto. Thank you, sir." Hachi finished with a bow, his new gift hugged resting tightly in his arms.
Kakashi finished their purchases and with Hachi in tow, they headed off to a different shop, this time, in search of clothes.
When Hachi arrived, he was in peculiar clothing. At least, that was what Kakashi thought. It reminded him of scrubs from the hospital. After their long talk yesterday, however, Kakashi now knew why he was in such clothes.
He basically was in a hospital, a sick and twisted 'hospital'.
Before Kakashi knew it, he was in front of a clothing store. Kakashi opened the door for Hachi to go in.
Inside, there were racks upon racks of clothes. Hachi's mouth gaped open slightly.
"Pick what you want," Kakashi said. Quickly gaining his senses again, Hachi set his eyes on the neutral-colored clothes.
He was a shinobi. He couldn't afford to wear loud and bright colors and get himself killed. Luckily, the entire store was color coordinated.
Hachi wasn't planning on buying that many clothes. He didn't want Kakashi's wallet to be burdened by him.
Hachi found the style of clothing that he wanted and left the main part of the store to go to the fitting room. He hoped the clothes fit him, but there was a lingering worry in the back of his mind since he was a bit underweight. Even though he brought the smallest size, he was worried that he would have to wear children's clothes at this point.
Trying to push those negative thoughts away, Hachi pulled off his shirt. He looked at himself in the mirror that was hung up in the fitting room.
Biologically, Hachi may have been a girl, but he really didn't have a chest, which he was grateful for. He didn't want to wear something bothersome like bandages or binders. Luckily for him, body dysmorphia wasn't something that bugged Hachi too much. He had a ton of other problems to worry about.
Hachi tried on the first outfit that he chose. It was just a hoodie-like shirt with no pockets and a pair of short caprese that ended at his knees. After looking closely at himself, he nodded with a small grunt of satisfaction.
Fortunately, the clothes fit him comfortably. The shirt might have been a bit loose, but Hachi didn't mind. It just meant he had more room to breathe.
Hachi tried the two other outfits that he brought with him and tried them on after taking off the clothes he had on before.
Everything fit, much to Hachi's relief. He came out of the fitting room where Kakashi was waiting for him on a bench right outside. Kakashi looked up at Hachi when he came out, wondering if everything was okay.
"I got everything," Hachi said and held up his clothes to signify to Kakashi that he was done. Kakashi tilted his head.
"That's all you're going to get?" Kakashi stared at the small pile that had a max of six items of clothing.
"Yeah, I'm good with this," Hachi said, counting the clothes again just to make sure that he had everything that he wanted.
"What about shoes?" Kakashi said with an amused expression. Hachi had been running around with slippers that were about to fall apart right on Hachi's feet.
Hachi looked down, "Oh… I forgot about that." He scratched the side of his face, a little embarrassed about his situation.
"I'll take that. You go and find a pair of shoes." Kakashi pointed at his clothes and all Hachi could do was nod along. Once Kakashi had Hachi's new clothes, Hachi walked to the other side of the store where the shoes were located and started inspecting them thoroughly.
He needed to make sure they were comfortable, but practical in battle. Soon his eyes glanced over a pair of dark gray ninja ankle boots. He quickly searched for his size and tried them on.
They felt comfortable enough and started to walk around. It was more than enough to help him walk and train. He took them off and walked over to Kakashi who was already paying for his clothes. Hachi silently put the shoes with the order and Kakashi nodded.
Once they had everything, they started heading back to Kakashi's apartment.
"Thanks." Hachi seemed to say out of the blue. He bit his tongue at the awkward tension that followed.
"No problem," Kakashi said nonchalantly, though he was a bit flustered at the others' sudden confession.
They returned home in silence, as the duo kept eyeing each other. The trip back seemed to go on for eternity with the level of awkwardness rising.
The second Kakashi and Hachi stepped into the apartment, they both seemed to let out a sigh of relief, seemingly forgetting that they lived together. They would never be able to escape these never-ending awkward scenarios.
Hachi unpacked his newly bought stuff quietly, uncertain if he could even make a sound. He was a bit excited to try out his new clothes since he hadn't worn anything new in about a year. He did wash his scrubs often, but he only had that one pair, courtesy of the Doctor.
Tired of the silence, Kakashi asked a bit hesitantly, "Uhh… Do you want to go get food?"
Hachi jumped a little at the sudden question. "Um, sure," He realized that they both didn't have anything to eat the entire day.
After Hachi was done getting everything settled, they went out of the apartment again.
"What do you want?" Kakashi asked once they reached the marketplace. The village was enveloped in the delicious smell of street food. Hachi almost melted on the spot.
"Give me up to three options," Hachi said, his eyes zipping through the streets, unable to choose such a big decision.
Kakashi thought for a brief moment before narrowing down his own choices. "Takoyaki, yakisoba, or yakitori. Choose."
Hachi's mouth watered just hearing the names. "Hmm… I'll say yakisoba!" Hachi said and pushed Kakashi to show him the way.
"Now, now. Slow down or we're both gonna fall." Kakashi said, trying to plant his feet against Hachi's monstrous strength that seemed to only appear at the mention of food.
"Come on. I want to actually eat there once we get there and not die waiting for you to get your ass moving, old man." Hachi said, still pushing Kakashi's back. Kakashi's mouth twitched at Hachi's nickname.
It seems that he will never get rid of that name now. It was already embedded in Hachi's tongue and vocabulary.
"I told you to stop calling me that," Kakashi said with a sigh, already knowing that Hachi would never cease his teasing.
"Yeah yeah, whatever," Hachi said, "Just get to the food. " He emphasized the last word, through grit teeth. He was slowly getting frustrated that Kakashi wasn't matching his pace.
Kakashi quickened his steps into a light jog to satisfy Hachi while rolling his eyes at the childish behavior that was displayed before him.
They got to the stand that was selling yakisoba and Hachi's eyes were brighter than the moonlight.
"Two yakisoba please," Kakashi asked the vendor.
"Coming right up." The vendor replied with a smile. He started frying the buckwheat noodles and Hachi had to stop himself from drooling. He didn't realize that he was this hungry. He was too busy getting weapons and clothes to notice that his hunger was gradually growing.
Hachi stared at the vendor as he was making his food with longing making Kakashi laugh silently. Only when it comes to food did Hachi lower his walls and let out his childish self. While the reason was sad, Kakashi decided not to dwell on it.
At least, he actually expressed himself. It was better than nothing. It was better than Kakashi a long time ago.
Kakashi chose to push everyone away till the brink of collapse, but he wasn't going to let Hachi do that. He already failed so many times with Itachi and others. He wasn't going to fail this time. Kakashi held a determined face while looking at Hachi as the food was being served. The change in expression surprised Hachi, but he just smiled and handed the other yakisoba bowl to Kakashi.
"Come on. Let's eat!"