Land of Waves Bridge
Pebbles scattered to the sea below as Obito shifted his foot off the edge of the bridge. The sea churned over top, dragging them down to the depths below. He crossed his arms over his jounin flak jacket and glared at the blood stains on the ground. No doubt Kakashi could smell them, and whose it was. Yet he hadn't said a single word since they arrived that afternoon. The three genin were waiting at the other end of the bridge with Itachi, hiding like startled hens from a snake, though the snake was long dead.
Pakkun sniffed around the corpses, glancing at Kakashi, occasionally up at Obito.
"Smells like Zabuza was taken out with lightning jutsu," Pakkun confirmed, reiterating what Obito had already told Kakashi when they arrived on the scene. Tugging a loose purple ribbon from the rubble of a ruined crate, Pakkun said through his teeth, "Mina was here."
Kakashi stooped down, and took the ribbon from Pakkun, tying it onto his belt loop.
"She killed her own ally?" Obito asked, glancing over the crates of supplies where kunai stuck out of the wood. He walked back over to the main group and sat down on a box.
"Didn't say that," Pakkun grumbled.
Itachi leaned against the railing, delicately crossing his ankles. "You know the penalty for failure to report," he chided quietly when Kakashi sat down on a nearby crate. Sasuke kept a loose finger on the hem of his brother's shirt; he would only deny it if anyone asked.
Obito rolled his eye. The rules did not apply to all Konoha shinobi equally, no matter what Itachi wanted to believe.
"She's not dead," Kakashi insisted, unrolling the scrolls next to the corpses.
Reaching out, Obito squeezed Kakashi's shoulder in comfort. Kakashi shrugged him off with a glare.
"She's not. I won't believe she is until I see her body."
Itachi massaged his temple. "Senpai—" he started before Kakashi shook his head and walked away.
"If it were Sasuke, what would you do?" Obito asked Itachi, looking over at the two curious genin on the other side of the bridge. "Would you believe he died just based on who is dead here?"
"That amount of blood alone—"
"Means nothing to him. He lost her once, only to find out she was alive. Kidnapped by Kumo, even. Living gods know what kind of life. Imagine if that were Sasu-chan, hmm?"
Itachi glanced down at the genin and inclined his head.
"No, I suppose I would also like to see evidence."
Sakura was the first to walk over. She peered curiously over the crate at the two corpses. Sidling up next to Obito, she asked, "Sensei, do you really think Mina killed her allies?"
"It would appear so," Obito answered.
"And she really is Kakashi-sensei's sister?"
"Yes."
"Then why is she working for Kumo?"
"She was kidnapped, then brainwashed. You never know what enemy villages are capable of. One of two remaining Hatakes, that's a prize I'm sure the Raikage could not miss out on. The Hatake clan settled in the Land of Fire, seeking refuge from the Land of Lightning hundreds of years ago. That's what Kakashi told me, anyway."
Sasuke leaned heavily against Itachi's side, hiding his hesitancy to be around Haku and Zabuza's now bloated bodies. Flies hovered around the gaping holes in their chests.
"He was our age," Sasuke commented. "She said we shouldn't trust a foreign jounin. She was right."
Itachi nodded solemnly, placing his hand on top of Sasuke's head. "I imagine she took out the pupil before the sensei. He probably did not even see his own death. It is a well-established tactic. Emotion clouds one's judgment as a shinobi. Ruthless, but efficient."
"Itachi," Obito warned as Kakashi's face darkened from where he laid out two identical body scrolls.
"My apologies, Senpai," Itachi said, inclining his head.
"She didn't kill her ally. And she's not dead."
Naruto kicked a pebble off the edge of the bridge, refusing to look at the massacre behind him. "Even I know, it just doesn't look good, dattebayo."
Sakura sighed. "She taught Sasuke how to bandage a hand wound. And extracted poison from Naruto—"
"Cooked us breakfast," Sasuke added quietly. "Out in the woods."
Obito shrugged in response, glancing up to meet Itachi's eyes. Itachi nodded, placing a hand on top of Sakura's head. He tilted his head back toward land as Sasuke and Sakura looked up at him. With a furrowed brow, Sakura jumped off the crate and tugged the sleeve of Naruto's shirt. The three genin walked back to the island.
"I will report this," Itachi blandly stated. "You two quite obviously are not willing to. I will."
"Report what?" Kakashi asked. "That a former Kiri-nin and his apprentice died in the Land of Water after being contracted to kill our client. The very same client that contracted help from Konoha shinobi. Seems like a net win for Konoha to me."
Narrowing his eyes at Kakashi's back, Obito toed loose rubble with the tip of his shoe. There was something Kakashi wasn't telling them. He was far too relaxed for a man who just heard his sister died a second time. Pakkun, too. Neither were as upset as he expected.
The Land of Fire Capital City, Red Lantern District
Shisui blearily ran his hand over his face. He hated his job. Guarding a man who had no common safety sense was exhausting and yet here he was, in charge of it all. Currently, he was checking each bar in the capital, following up on a rumor that a team of Iwa-nin was illegally passing through. Gods knew they liked their alcohol. This last bar was a run-down joint on the outskirts of the Red Lantern District.
The rickety door flew open, flooding the street with the pungent smell of stale beer. Floor joists creaked beneath his feet with every step as he peered inside the dim bar. Dust motes flew in the air, caught against the few lanterns, casting themselves back down into the shadows. The barkeeper gave a perfunctory wipe of the bar top, leaving white streaks behind on the dirty surface. A glass clinked as it was set down, coins rattled in the back of the room, scratching against the counter.
There were few patrons this late in the evening, for good reason. With a reputation as the roughest bar in town, and close to the seediest brothel, upstanding citizens tended to avoid it altogether. Two men, dressed in ragged clothes, reeking of their own putrescence, sat on either side of a small woman at the bar, shadowing her with their size. Shisui ran his hand over his face one more time; the Iwa-nin had probably already passed through. The woman's shoulders tensed when one of the men tried to touch her breasts.
"Fucking hell," Shisui muttered under his breath, moving to arrest the men.
The ruffian who had touched her suddenly stiffened and stood up. She gracefully walked with him, her steps as sure as a cat's, her hand close to his crotch. A kunai glinted in the dim light as she held it against his manhood. Chestnut brown curls were loosely tied with a hairpin, and the black jacket she wore over top of a green pair of scrub pants had seen better days. Curiously, however, the rubber medical shoes looked new, still largely free of stains. Turned away from him, Shisui couldn't see her face. There was something about the set of her shoulders that made him take a second glance.
The woman growled toward the man at her mercy, low and menacing, "You think that's all right? Saying disgusting things then daring to touch a woman without permission?"
Gods, he knew that voice, or the high-pitched imitation of it. Shisui had a hand on his tanto, ready to intervene if things turned sour. The other man was unconscious with his head on the bartop, his eyes glassy with a genjutsu. Thin trickles of blood seeped through ruffian's pants as the woman pressed a kunai harder against his member.
"Get the fuck out of here," she hissed. "Before my hand accidentally slips."
The man only made it two steps to the exit before Shisui ensnared him in a genjutsu. He dropped haplessly to the floor in a heap. Shisui tied his hands behind his back and set him outside for pick up. His subordinates would make their rounds within the hour. Walking up to the bar, he tapped the woman on her shoulder.
"Miss? Are you okay?"
She sighed, slamming back the last of the whisky in her glass. She turned into him, her eyes went wide, and she scooted back off the barstool. He caught her before she could fall off.
"Mina?!"
"Shisui?!"
Her waist felt far too small under his hands. She slapped his hands away, backing up to the employee entrance.
"You here to arrest me?" she asked calmly. Her hand hovered a bit too close to her purse for his liking. There was a slight waver in her feet as she continued to back up an inch at a time.
Running his hands through his hair, he quickly shook his head. "Shit, Mina, no. I'm not going to arrest you."
She huffed, "And I'm the Kazekage, clearly."
"Okay, we started off on the wrong foot. Can we just sit down and talk about this? Please?" He held his hands out in front of him.
Her eyes refused to meet his, carefully avoiding eye contact, staring instead at his knees, his feet. Surely waiting for any false move on his part. Her right foot was carefully placed behind her, ready to bolt at any second.
"I'm sorry," he rushed. "I didn't know it was you. And I don't normally take in kunoichi from honeypot missions, anyway." He winced.
"You're not helping your case," she growled, moving another step toward the emergency exit.
"Fuck, okay, yeah. I'm not helping my case. But please? Just sit."
"No."
He put his hands behind his head and sat down haphazardly on a barstool. "You want access to the exit? Fine. Access." He gestured toward it with an open hand, crossing his feet around the legs of the barstool, an indication he would not be leaving anytime soon. Turning to the bartender, he raised his hand. "Can I get a beer, please? Bijuu Star. Add her tab to mine."
The bartender grunted in response, handing over a pint of beer. Foam slipped off the top, running down the sides of the glass, adding to the filth on the counter.
"Don't add my tab to his," she argued, walking back over to the bar top. "I can pay for my own drinks."
Shisui hid his smirk in the top of the pint glass. Some things never changed, and pride was one of them. At least it got her to stay if only to prove a point. Her face was beet red with anger by the time she turned back to him. He hurriedly gulped down the rest of his beer and asked for another.
"I hope you get too shit-faced to walk," she muttered. She raised her hand and asked the bartender for two more whiskies with ice.
Shocked, he spit a little of his beer out. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he started to laugh. When the whisky was set on the counter, condensation left a slick trail along the bartop, shimmering in the dark as she slid one over to him.
"Didn't take you for a whisky drinker," he tried to joke as she shot back the entire glass in one gulp, tapping the empty glass on the counter. "Thought you drank vodka sodas."
"Drink it fast. It's not great," she warned without glancing at him. "I don't get drunk on vodka."
He followed suit, shooting back the entire glass. He grimaced as it burned all the way down his throat; she hadn't exaggerated.
"How are you?" he asked gingerly, tapping the bottom of the whisky glass on the bar top.
She raised an eyebrow at him. "That's the best you could come up with? 'How are you?'"
He rubbed the back of his neck. He could feel his cheeks heat under her stare.
"I'm alive. Been on the run, if you must know. Not that you care. Got stabbed a month ago. That was fun."
He sighed and fiddled with his glass. "Does Kakashi know you're here?"
"No. And I'd appreciate it staying that way."
He turned and fully looked at her for the first time that evening. Dark circles were under her eyes. Her cheeks were sharper than the last time he saw her. Her hands were shaking each time she picked up the glass of whisky. Chakra exhaustion, perhaps. She was also thinner. He supposed being on the run as a nuke-nin meant more stress and less access to money for food.
He raised his hand to the bartender again. "Can I get some yakitori, please?"
"We don't sell food here."
He ran his hand through his hair and rubbed the back of his head.
"Forget dinner?" Mina scoffed. She pulled out her wallet and quietly counted a few bills before placing them on the counter.
"I was serious. I'll pay for your drinks."
"No thanks." She got off the stool and headed to the door. "Looks like asshole's waking up. Might want to take care of that. He's garbage."
Running his hand over his face, he cursed again, "Fucking hell. Come on, Mina, don't walk away."
She wrapped her jacket tighter around herself as she walked down the street.
'Definitely chakra exhausted,' he thought. 'There's no way a kunoichi who's used to Kumo's winter would be this cold right now.'
Turning around in the street, she glared at him, still avoiding direct eye contact. "Stop following me," she hissed.
"I'm not going to hurt you, I swear it. Just, fuck—" He scrubbed his hand roughly down his face— "Just let me fix this. Whatever this is, please."
"Shisui," she started. She paused and exhaled, stepping closer. "I just want to go home and sleep. I don't want to deal with whatever notion of chivalry you think you're going to achieve here. It's been a long enough day."
"Can I at least walk you back home?"
She raised an eyebrow at him. "Honestly, I'm not sure I want the captain of the palace guard knowing where I live."
"Alright, that's fair, but—"
Mina's eyes slipped closed, her body hurtling toward the street below. Shisui flash-stepped over, catching her in his arms.
"Chakra exhaustion," he muttered to himself, jumping onto a nearby rooftop. "Pulled this shit as kids too."
All too easily he remembered the nights he had to bring her home and bear the brunt of Kakashi's wrath for letting her overdo it. As if she ever listened to what anyone told her.
Light poured in through the cracked curtains of a window. Squinting against the bald light, Mina frowned. Bits and pieces of the night before flashed through her mind as she ran a rough hand over her face. Soft cotton sheets caressed her hand, permeated with a masculine cologne.
"Oh, fuck," she whispered under her breath. She recognized that scent. Her jacket was neatly folded on top of the solid oak dresser, her handbag next to it.
The smell of eggplant miso floated through the cracked door. She shook her head to clear it, shifting her legs out of the bed. Last night's scrub pants bunched up around her knees, and she let out a sigh of relief. The carpet was plush under her toes as she gingerly crept to the dresser. Her head spun by the time she reached it. Clutching the surface, she sank to the floor.
A spatula scrapped loudly against a pan from the kitchen. She exhaled forcefully and laid down on her side. The door softly opened, and she grimaced when she realized who was standing in the doorway.
"Your apartment?" Mina asked curtly, refusing to meet Shisui's eyes.
He set a small tray on the end of the bed. "You have chakra exhaustion. Pretty severe, too. I'm going to pick you up."
"I don't need your help," she bit out in response, fighting with her body's exhausted muscles to get off the floor. Her arm immediately collapsed under her weight.
He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. "Damn your stubbornness. Please, let me help. Otherwise, you're just going to stay on the floor."
"Why?" She circulated her chakra throughout her body and laid back on the floor.
He shrugged. "You're my genin teammate. And a genin teammate is family for life."
"We're not genin anymore."
"You'll always be my teammate, Mina," he said softly, holding out his hand. "Always."
She nodded against the carpet and closed her eyes briefly. His arms were strong underneath her legs and around her back as he cradled her against his chest. She weakly put her arms around his neck.
He laid her down, tucking the comforter against her waist.
She raised an eyebrow toward him. "I don't understand. You should be arresting me. You're the police around here, aren't you?"
He shrugged again but didn't answer. Instead, he placed the tray of miso eggplant in front of her. "I wasn't sure what you liked, so I made Kakashi's favorite. Thought it might be nostalgic."
She sighed. "It is. Thank you. I don't think I've had miso eggplant in years…"
With a slight incline of his head, he left the room, closing the door behind him with a quiet click. Carefully smelling the soup for any sign of poison, she took the first bite. Flavor exploded on her tongue, and she quickly finished the entire bowl. Shisui quietly knocked on the bedroom door.
"Come in?" Mina cocked her head as Shisui walked back in.
He rubbed the back of his head nervously, refusing to meet her eyes directly. "I uh, left a towel and some sweats in the bathroom. You might have to roll up the legs a few times but—anyway."
As he turned to leave, Mina asked, "You never answered my question."
He sighed, keeping his eyes on the door. "I let you down…no, that—" he broke off with a ragged breath— "I left you on that river bank while you were still drawing breath. I let Itachi arrest you. It was my fault you ended up in Ibiki's hands. My fault that you were separated from Kakashi and I…Ending up in Kumo? That's on me."
"So it's just guilt then?"
He turned around sharply and looked at her. "No. Not just guilt. Well, not entirely."
"Then why? When I smelled you this morning, I kind of expected you to lock me in another genjutsu and pick my brain."
He sat down on the bed with a rough sigh. "It can only work once."
"What can?"
"That genjutsu. It only works once. The brain develops a kind of soft immunity to it after that. There's only four people in my clan that can use it anyway."
Mina picked a loose thread from the edge of the blankets and hummed. She gingerly moved her chakra throughout her body, feeling it swirl and pool along its network. Barely enough to function, much less escape his apartment if she needed to.
He raised his brow at her while still avoiding her eyes. "I wouldn't have brought you to my apartment if I was going to arrest you. It's more convenient if someone's completely chakra depleted when arrested."
She could feel her cheeks heat as she focused on the thread between her fingers. There was a time fifteen years ago when his bedding was made of an unintentional patchwork of rags. Hers hadn't been much better, but Kakashi had always tried his damndest to make sure she never went without. During the third shinobi war, rationing in the Land of Fire had meant new fabric was difficult to come by. Cotton was one of the few crops that didn't grow there. Sheep weren't able to survive the hot and humid summers, so wool had to be imported as well. Even before the war, however, Shisui's family hadn't been well-off, especially compared to the rest of his clan.
The cotton comforter was made from fine thread, with a high enough thread count that it felt like satin against her skin. Dark navy blue, with a soft sheen in the mid-morning light, it was thick on the bed, ironic for a man with fire-nature chakra. On second thought, it smelled like detergent and cedar, unused as though he had pulled it from the storage chest at the end of the bed.
"Mina?" he asked softly, interrupting her musings.
She hummed again, continuing to keep her gaze fixed on the loose thread.
"Why were you chakra exhausted? You weren't fighting—" He broke off "-You weren't fighting Konoha shinobi around the capital, were you?"
"Oh for fucks sake, Shisui. I'm good, but I'm not, 'fight several teams of Konoha shinobi on the quiet' good."
He exhaled harshly, scratching his chin. "So what were you doing?"
"Working."
He raised a brow again. Finally meeting his eyes for the first time that morning, she continued, "I was working at a clinic on the outskirts."
She almost added, 'They pay under the table,' but withheld the comment. There was no need to endanger her employer's operation. Especially not in front of a member of the capital guard.
"I, uh, had several operations last night. A couple didn't go well. One was a kid with appendicitis. He just kept bleeding."
"That's why you went drinking?"
"Yeah. Kids are the worst. Everything is so small. And here? The parents didn't bring him in until it was about to burst—" She stopped when Shisui's face began to pale. "Sorry, I forget sometimes."
He rubbed the back of his head. "Ah, don't worry about it. Why did they wait so long?"
"I think you know why. Money. They have thirteen kids they can't feed."
"And now they've lost one."
A flash of lightning came to mind, carefully spaced over small organs, each pulse willing them to live. One of the many techniques S had passed down to his pupils that Mina had improved. Pulses of electricity had flowed through the tiny body, firing synapses in the brain, conducting current through the small heart. Sweat had run down her back as she poured all of her chakra into the six-year-old.
She gave a bitter laugh and shook her head. "No. The kid survived. I was reprimanded. Apparently, the staff was planning on harvesting his organs. Guess that's common around here. Let the poor kids die so the rich kids can live."
Carefully watching for any sign of his surprise, she glanced away to the opposite side of the room when she found none. His face remained unchanged, hands relaxed on his thighs.
"You knew," she quietly accused.
He shrugged again before standing up. "You should know, I sent a crow to Kakashi last night. He knows you're here."
His footsteps seemed to echo in the quiet apartment as he took the now empty tray back to the kitchen. Mina closed her eyes, slipping back underneath the covers. There was nothing else she could do but let sleep take her and restore her chakra.
Konoha, Hashirama Park
The cold December winds blew through the naked Hashirama trees, rattling the branches, loosening the skeletal remains of leaves to the ground below. Kakashi huddled down into his jacket, wrapping it tighter around himself. The small paper he was using as a bookmark fluttered against the breeze. Over a month had passed since he had found it attached to Bisuke's collar.
Nii-san,
I'm alive, but I have to go. Someone's after me, a man with an orange-swirled mask. Sharingan thief. Or possibly a rogue Uchiha. I'm not sure. Will write again as soon as possible.
All my love,
Kaminari Hatake
He carefully smoothed the note, placing it back against the page. He had delayed opening this note from Shisui all morning, not wanting to hear from the younger man. In truth, when the crow had tapped on his window in the middle of the night, he had debated throwing a kunai at it, rather than hearing Shisui's apologies for the thousandth time since Kaminari was found alive.
The note contained a single line, an unusual departure from the tomes Shisui would write to him of late. He furrowed his brow as he re-read the words, 'She's here.' He didn't need to ask Shisui who 'she' was. He already knew. Kaminari was in the capital, or had been, depending on if Shisui arrested her again. Though, if Shisui wanted to arrest her, he wouldn't have bothered sending a note to him.
Two days had passed before Mina summoned Uhei and Bisuke again. Two days of hell, wondering if she was truly alive or if he was holding on to a ghost. He refused to believe she was dead until he saw her body for himself, no matter what Obito told him. He wouldn't make that mistake again.
Tracing the messy kanji from his sister's letter, Kakashi laid Shisui's note directly on top and snapped his book shut. Getting leave from the Hokage to visit the capital wouldn't be difficult. In theory, he had just learned about his sister's passing a second time, after all. Of course, he would want to visit his dear friend, Shisui Uchiha, for solace.
AN: Thank you for reading! If you have time please leave a comment. 8)
Shisui has re-entered the chat.
'Whisky' felt right for this fic? I guess that's what they produce in Japan. But habitual spelling demanded 'whiskey.'
So I'm actually kind of stuck on the current part of this fic I'm writing at the 120k mark. I haven't added to it in about a week and a half. All I want to do is write fluff and nothing but fluff, but fluff doesn't kick the plot ball forward. I might do an out-take section after this fic is done, though. Some of the deleted scenes turned out super cute.
If you haven't done so lately, take the time to read through the tags (on Ao3). I've been adding to them as I write. I don't think anything else will be added tag-wise, but there's always that possibility. Note that there are mentions and accusations of rape in chapters like 26-30? somewhere in there. Though, I've taken great pains to not show anything 'on-screen.'
Current Ao3 tags: Brother-Sister Relationships; Smut; Kumogakure | Hidden Cloud Village; Long Lost/Secret Relatives; Return; Torture; Romance; Seduction; Love Triangles; Angst; Implied/Referenced Character Death; Femme Fatale; Kakashi's sister; Medic oc - Freeform; War; Kidnapping; Blood and Gore; Ninken | Ninja Dogs; Friends With Benefits; Mutual Pining; No Uchiha Massacre; Dom/sub; Uchiha Obito Lives; Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con; Mind Manipulation
Beta'ed by: Cherryberry12