In the meantime, it was shortly after eight o'clock. Kakashi's limbs ached. His skull buzzed as if a beehive was stuck in there. He could hardly look out of his lazy eyes. With heavy legs he dragged himself across the path to the entrance of the Kent and had just set foot in the musty hallway when he was grabbed by the collar, pulled backwards and thrown to the ground. The back of his head hit the hard concrete, he gasped loudly, briefly saw stars twinkle on his retina, his leather jacket crunched over the ground. He blinked, his vision cleared again, and he looked around for the culprit, lying on the ground like a helpless turtle on its shell. At dusk, their figures were nothing more than shadows flitting around him, but they were three men, that much Kakashi could see, and when one of them spoke, he also knew who the three were. "You lousy bastard.. The fact that you are still alive at all is a bottomless audacity!"

Obito leaned down to him, the little daylight shining only dimly on his furrowed face.

The adrenaline in Kakashi's body pushed the tiredness into the background. He scrambled up and went at Obito, bumping the heels of his hands against his shoulders and digging into the fabric of his T-shirt. "What do you want from me, eh?!"

With a hateful glow in his red eyes, which were so frighteningly similar to Madara's, Obito pushed down Kakashi's arms and grabbed him by the collar in turn. "What do I want from you, you pisser?! You shall die for what you did to my girlfriend!"

Kakashi couldn't help it. Although this situation did not promise any comedy, he laughed out loud. "Your little cunt is not the victim she pretends to be. You have to be really blind not to realize that she's just fucking with you."

For this, Kakashi caught a punch to the jaw. He felt his laceration on his lower lip tear open again and blood running down his chin. "DON'T TALK ABOUT HER LIKE THAT!" snapped Obito. "You son of a bitch have always been into her! Do you think I don't know how you looked at her?! You liked the way she always said 'Kashi' to you!" A few droplets of spit hit Kakashi in the face. Obito swung again, but this time Kakashi was prepared and blocked the punch with his already throbbing forearms. He grabbed Obito's wrist and yanked it around, causing them both to stumble to the side. Kakashi's elbow landed on the side of Obito's neck, but he got Obito's free hand with his clenched knuckles first against the temple.

He let go of Obito, secured his footing and sank his fist into his anger-distorted visage. Flesh and bones met, Obito gasped heavily and staggered backwards. Kakashi wanted to follow him, take advantage of his opponent's daze and land more hits, but someone hit him hard on the ear from behind, throwing him off balance and letting him see stars again. There was a beeping on his right ear, which stretched painfully to the bridge of his nose, and he pressed his hands on it groaning, as if it would do any good. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Asuma's grey shirt moving towards him, slapped half-blind in the rough direction, even actually hit his chest, but Obito kicked him sideways on the knee. He buckled, so his second punch missed Asuma's torso and he was just able to catch his fall with both hands before he would have slapped face first on the concrete.

Asuma pulled him up again, Kakashi's knee didn't want to hold his weight, and he could only try to free himself from Asuma's tight grip to a pitiful extent. His last resort was to headbutt him, which made Asuma groan, but it only encouraged him to tense his muscles further and force Kakashi's arms back, denying him any chance to defend himself, and so Kakashi couldn't do anything when Obito plunged his first fist into his stomach. He writhed in pain, trying to escape another blow, but Asuma straightened him up again, and so the second blow was inevitable.

"You godfucking son of a bitch," Obito hissed, wiping blood from under his nose. "If I catch an infection in this because of you, you're dead!" He spat on the floor. "This is a filthy tip, how fitting for you. No wonder you always stink of shit."

"Ironic that your bitch loves the way I smell. Especially when my cock disappears in her face."

A third blow to the pit of the stomach and Kakashi's body sank into the depths.

"Shut your dirty mouth! Wasn't her pussy enough for you on Saturday and you wanted more from her, he?!"

Kakashi laughed like a maniac and gasped breathlessly, "You believe her this shit..? Wake up, bastard, she's a cock-horny whore! What kind of tiny dick do you have when she'd rather fuck me instead of you, he? And you haven't noticed it the whole time, it's bordering on a disability."

A fourth blow, but this time in the face. Kakashi narrowed his eyes, could hardly bear the throbbing in his cheekbone, which mixed with the pulling of his muffled beeping ear.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!", Obito roared mad as hell, now kicked him in the balls and Kakashi's legs finally gave up. Even Asuma couldn't keep him up anymore but tried anyway and bent Kakashi's arms further and further back until a loud crack with the accompanying pain made itself felt in Kakashi's right shoulder and he screamed in his agonized moans.

Asuma let him go. Kakashi sank to the ground, unable to determine in his overstimulated brain what to touch for relief—his crotch or his shoulder. He decided for the crotch, but now his arms were too far away from his head to fend off another blow aimed at his jaw. He fell to the side due to the force and landed on his injured shoulder, which elicited a whimpering groan from him.

He lay there like a pile of misery, couldn't move anymore from inhuman torment, but Obito didn't seem to be convinced that Kakashi had had enough. He kicked him several times, hit his arms, his torso, Asuma also meted out from behind, practically shattered his spine. Kakashi almost believed that it was now coming to an end and that he would take his last, trembling breaths here in front of the Kent Crescent, when voices cheated into the muffled sounds of Obito's and Asuma's stomps. Genma, who shouted, "Stop, or you'll kill him!", Obito, who replied "He deserves!", and then it was over. No more kicks, only the pain remained. Next to Kakashi, there was rustling, rumbling and crunching. Through his veiled vision, he vaguely recognized how two dark-haired figures were wrestling with each other on the floor next to him, one with the slightly lighter, longer hair held the other down, fixed his arms, the other tried to defend himself.

A loud, farther away "Get away from him!" sounded and movement broke out around him. The two rose hastily, several pairs of feet moved away from him, and others approached. Someone grabbed him by the shoulder. "Kakashi! Can you hear me?"

Kakashi smacked slightly, probably wanted to prepare his mouth to answer, but he couldn't. The unspeakable pain in his body kept him from doing so. He just gasped, wanted to turn on his back to relieve his shoulder, howled and rolled back the few centimetres. Movement was too much. Death would be more pleasant right now.

"Gai, help me to lift him up."

"No..." Kakashi managed to mumble in agony.

"I'm sorry, but I have to, Kakashi. Your shoulder is dislocated. I have to put it back in place, then a large part of your pain will pass, I promise."

The timbre of that voice was so familiar that Kakashi would believe everything the man said. He indicated a nod and allowed one hand each on his upper arm, uninjured shoulder, neck and back of head to pull him straight. As soon as the weight of his upper body was no longer on his stabbing shoulder joint, he gasped and squinted his eyes, couldn't really see anything anyway.

A heavy cloth was pulled down from him, his arms suddenly shivered as the cold sweat on his skin was exposed to the gentle breeze. "Please hold him tight and give him a teeth protector, he'll need it."

From behind, a warm body pressed against his back. One arm was placed around his neck, one hand rested on his upper arm. "Here, bite into this, Kakashi," an even more familiar voice whispered in his whistling ear and some fabric touched his lips. He pulled it in between, tasted curd soap, a hint of earth, sweat and summer air. "You have to bite hard, otherwise it's no use." It didn't sound sneering or arrogant, rather loving, as if he was really concerned about his health. He followed the gentle instruction and took the fabric between his teeth.

"I'm counting to three now, okay, Kakashi?"

He thought he was nodding.

"One.."

A jolt went through his body as his arm was pushed diagonally upwards with targeted force. The cracking of his shoulder was completely drowned out by Kakashi's eardrum-shattering scream, which was only moderately muffled by the fabric in his mouth. He clung to the arm around his neck in search of support, pressed the fabric and the flesh underneath closer to his mouth to stifle his whimpering. His body tensed, he stretched his pelvis in the air as Dai carefully circled his arm and cracked it again very softly in his joint.

And then the pain gradually subsided and his body slackened again. He felt a tingling in his trembling, numb fingertips, took his teeth out of Gai's tracksuit jacket and opened his watery eyes, breathing heavily.

Dai's worried face peeled out of all the colours and shapes. To be honest, Kakashi had never been so happy about the sight of this thick, black moustache. "Thank you.." he breathed without opening his jaw, which throbbed and tugged at the slightest movement.

Dai smiled. "Are you in pain anywhere else? Well.. very heavy?"

"Everywhere," Kakashi laughed half-heartedly, but flinched as his muscles tensed under the hematomas on his cheekbone. Only now did he realize that Gai was still kneeling close behind him, pressing him against his torso, and that Kakashi himself was clinging to his arm as if he were his last resort. He immediately let go of him, pushed his arm away from him and scrambled to his feet with Dai's help. He dared to take a step. His knee hurt, but luckily it carried him. "Thank you, Dai, I.. Uh.. I think I'll be fine now." He picked up his jacket from the floor.

Dai's face darkened. "Forget it, Kakashi. As a doctor, I am obliged to take care of you. You'll probably want to talk me out of any help on the old Hatake tour, but just forget it, okay? You will come with us now and I will look at all your wounds."

Kakashi knew one couldn't argue with Dai when he was in his doctor mode, so he sighed, nodded once, and walked upstairs with the two of them, completely ignoring the existence of Gai walking behind him.

Arriving at the Maitos' flat, Dai put the bags with the Chinese food on the dining table and then turned directly to Kakashi without further ado. "Please come with me." He beckoned him into his bedroom, which Kakashi had only entered once or twice before. Like the rest of the flat, it was no comparison to that of the Hatakes next door. Everything here was clean, tidy, run-down, as was usual in the Crescents, the plaster was peeling off the ceiling in some places, the wallpaper was yellowed and the wall panelling cracked, but Kakashi had always felt more comfortable with the Maitos than in his own home. Here, the patterns and colours on the furniture and walls were warm and snug, all rooms were decorated with plants and pictures, it all looked so inviting. And not only the condition of the flat was a reason for this feeling. In contrast to Sakumo, Dai was much more open, fundamentally friendlier, less critical, had never shown any major mood swings. Kakashi had already dreamed in quiet, lonely moments that he was really Gai's brother, had Dai as his father and would receive more of his joviality.

Even now, Dai proved how different, yes, better than Sakumo was. Kakashi's father would certainly have been only superficially interested in his wounds, rather reprimanded him for now having blood stains on his clothes, commented on the whole thing with "That's my boy" or verbally beat him up for not defending himself properly. Kakashi would never experience this treatment that Dai gave him.

"You can sit down, it relieves your leg," Dai said kindly as he took a small emergency kit from his wardrobe. Kakashi sat down on the bed, gritting his teeth with a hiss as a stab went through his anus. "Gai?" he said to his son, who was standing in the doorway. "Please get me a bowl of cold water and a cloth. Ah, and something to drink."

Kakashi didn't look over at Gai, but out of the corner of his eye he saw his nod and how he disappeared.

"Kakashi, can you take off your top? I don't want to cut it up," Dai asked gently, pulled the chair from his small desk and sat down directly in front of him.

Taking a deep breath, Kakashi struggled out of his T-shirt. His right arm was of no use at all, just hanging superfluously on his body, consuming blood and displacing room air.

Dai rubbed his hands together, grinning. "I hope my fins aren't too cold."

Kakashi smiled narrowly. He had never found Dai's hands cold, but that was probably a doctor's constant concern. Carefully Dai felt Kakashi's shoulder, pressed around on the bone with gentle force, the light massage soothed the tense tissue somewhat. Gai returned, brought the things he had ordered. "Thank you." Dai turned to Kakashi. "Your joint is still a little swollen, but with a little rest it will get better. In the next few days, maybe you should refrain from getting into a fight, huh?" His moustache twitched happily, Kakashi just nodded. The smile obviously faded, although you could hardly make out Dai's lips under the thick snot brake. He dipped the face cloth into the bowl, wrung out excess water, first washed the blood from his chin and then placed it over a large area on Kakashi's shoulder after another load, which pleasantly cooled his injury. "I'm going to look at your upper body now, okay?" Another nod from Kakashi. Dai stroked the many hematomas on Kakashi's torso, poked a soft spot between his ribs here and there, stood up, bent over him slightly, did the same on his spine. Then he sat down again and took his pulse. "Okay, I'll rule out internal bleeding quite boldly, only a CT scan could tell us, but you seem very fit and your blood pressure seems normal. No broken or sprained bones. This is good. It will hurt for some time, but the bruises will heal. If your condition does worsen, please call an emergency doctor. Here." He handed him the glass of water that Gai had placed on the bedside table. "You can rinse your mouth with that."

Kakashi took a sip, gargled and choked down the now metallic liquid.

Dai put on latex gloves, opened a tube, began to dab a white ointment on his skin, and explained, "This is heparin sodium, which helps with wound healing. I'll give you some of it later. Apply it three times a day until the hematomas are gone, but not for more than ten days." After a short pause, he asked, "Who were these boys?"

Kakashi lowered his head, watched Dai smear his bruises with the ointment and murmured, "I don't know, maybe just some of the junkies."

"As far as I know, this would be the first time that they actually attack someone here," Dai said in a knowing tone.

Somewhat annoyed, Kakashi turned his head to the side. "At some point is always the first time."

"And they didn't seem to me like the typical junkies you usually meet in the Crescents. They are normally rather peaceful, rioting at most, but they are mostly left-wing punks and homeless people, strays of society, not actual criminals. The boys were quite young, at your age I guess, huh? And rather richly dressed, as if they did not come from Hulme or even the Crescents. Please close your eyes."

Kakashi was happy about this request. On the one hand, Dai could treat his violet, and on the other hand, Kakashi didn't have to look him in the face while he was lying. "Maybe they were some bigwig children who find it funny to fight three on one."

Dai panted audibly frustrated, dabbed Kakashi's back. "Oh, Kakashi.. When will you and your father finally learn that you don't have to work everything out on your own?"

"Never?" Kakashi replied a little aggressively.

"Yeah, I got the same feeling." It creaked softly and Kakashi looked ahead again. Dai sat there, the heel of his hand resting on his knees, the ointment tube in one hand and the index and ring fingers of the other gloved, shiny and stretched out. "Whoever that was and whatever they wanted, they had no right to abuse you like that."

"And if I deserve it?" Kakashi asked coldly.

Dai's moustache curled disgruntled. "You don't deserve any harm, Kakashi. Please finally understand that."

A very long, very oppressive silence ensued, in which Kakashi vehemently avoided looking in Gai's direction, who stood silently and with his hands in the pockets of his tracksuit jacket by the door frame.

"Did they hurt you anywhere else or did I catch all the spots now?" Dai asked with a sigh.

"My knee.." Kakashi murmured.

"Oh yes, completely forgotten again."

"And.." Kakashi's face moved down to his crotch.

Dai reacted without hesitation. "Gai, will you please take care of dinner and close the door?" He looked at his son with a smile. "And please make sure that you put the portion without peas at my seat, otherwise we'll all get something out of it later."

At the edge of Kakashi's field of vision, a green-clad body moved and a lock clicked.

"Okay. Then please strip yourself."

Kakashi's hands trembled as he lifted himself up, unzipped his jeans and pulled them down to his calves along with his underpants before sinking back onto the mattress. In his mind, he kept repeating the words 'this is just Dai, this is just Dai' to suppress his burgeoning panic.

First Dai took care of Kakashi's knee, pricked around here as well, spread the ointment on it. Kakashi stared at a flower picture on the opposite wall without really seeing it. All his concentration was on his mantra. When he heard Dai put on a pair of new gloves, he broke out in a sweat, his vision blurred slightly. Then he felt the warm fingers on his penis pressing him slightly, stroking it, then pushing it aside to examine the scrotum underneath. Unintentionally, tears welled up in his eyes. He closed them, tilted his head back and bit his lower lip.

It was not only the pain that burned in every fibre of his body, but also the shame, the first malaise in these actually beloved four walls. The images and sensations that Madara had left in his memory were too present to prevent his tears from overflowing, from running down his cheeks. His hands clasped the blanket convulsively, his chest quivered with restrained sobs.

"Nothing suffered here either," Dai murmured hesitantly and massaged in the ointment. "At least not physically," he added whispering. It clacked softly, as if plastic were meeting metal. "Kakashi?"

Sniffling softly, Kakashi wiped his eyes with his arm and nodded. "All good. I'll go now."

"No, you won't, and no, it's not all good." There was no severity in Dai's voice, yet Kakashi didn't move any further. "Can you please look at me?"

Kakashi wanted it, somehow, but he didn't want it either. He shook his head, tried desperately to fight the heat in his eyeballs, and found great interest in the knob of the bedside drawer.

"No problem. If you can't, that's totally fine. Do you want to get dressed again?"

Kakashi nodded hastily. Dai moved away from him and put away the kit. Kakashi stood up, pulled up his pants, avoided looking at anything above the ground. When he also wore his T-shirt again, he stood motionless in front of Dai's bed, nibbling his fingers and not knowing what to say. His heart was racing and for the thousandth time that day he could have sunk into the ground. Now he had wept in front of Dai, he could hardly think of a greater shame.

"Kakashi? Would you like to tell me why you're feeling this way right now?"

Again, his head jerked in the negative.

"Okay. If you can't or don't want to, I'll accept that. But please listen to me, okay? Whatever it is that is bothering you, I want you to know that you can always come to me if you need someone to talk to."

There it was again, this longing that this man in front of him was truly his father. But Kakashi had to realize that he didn't belong here, that his home was next door, as much as he would like it to be otherwise. "There's nothing to talk about," he mumbled.

"I don't think so, but if you're not ready for it, then that's the way it is." Dai took an audible breath. "Would you like something to eat? A little company might do you good. And your body is certainly happy about the food."

Kakashi thought about the alternative, which was that he would now go over to an empty, dark flat, lie down in his bed and hopefully fall asleep quickly, and decided, without thinking twice, that he didn't want that. Despite all the events of the past ten months, he wanted to stay here, even if it meant being close to Gai. But it was Dai's warm, fatherly, bonhomous presence that convinced him. "Yes.."

Dai opened his bedroom door and asked Kakashi to pass through with an exaggeratedly polite wave of his hand, who scuffed into the living room with his jacket under his arm, where Gai was already sitting at the dining table, had prepared two filled and one empty plate and a corresponding number of water glasses, and straightened his posture when Kakashi and Dai came in. Kakashi's eyes darted to that broad-nosed, bar-browed face under the black mushroom hairstyle he detested so much, sat down in the chair furthest away from Gai, and exchanged the plate of rice dish without peas for the empty one. "Help yourself, there's enough," Dai smiled with a dancing moustache and sat down between the two boys.

Without a word, Kakashi shovelled a portion of fried noodles onto his plate, put his head on his arm and muttered a "Bon appétit", which Dai and Gai reciprocated. He increasingly regretted not having left. He had hoped that he could ignore Gai's presence better than he did in the end. He kept his gaze down vehemently, watching the small chunks of vegetables roll around on his plate instead of even daring to look Gai in the eye. But it was his hunger and a last, lonely spark in him that tied him to the chair.

For a while, nothing could be heard except the jingling of cutlery and soft chewing noises, until Dai finally broke the silence. "How are you, Kakashi? Apart from the two or three bruises? And how is Sakumo?"

"Good," Kakashi lied past a bite of lukewarm noodles.

"Hm," Dai grumbled. "And how's school going?"

'They kicked me out,' Kakashi replied in his mind, but said, "Good."

"Hm.. And the work?"

'I blackmailed my boss,' would be the truth, Kakashi's mouth replied, "Good too."

"Really? Are you on vacation?"

Kakashi's head on the heel of his hand turned in Dai's direction. "No, why?"

"Because I haven't heard you anchoring for a few days."

"You listen to Rock Hard Radio?" Kakashi asked with a frown.

"I'm forced to listen in. Gai has the show on every night."

Now Kakashi's gaze inadvertently twitched over to Gai, who paused to chew and stared with wide eyes at the many cardboard boxes on the table. His cheeks turned dark red and a bead of sweat crept out from under the pitch-black mat. Kakashi turned his attention back to his plate. "Aha. Nice for my boss. Loyal listeners are a real goldmine," he replied disparagingly.

"I don't hear it EVERY night and it's more like accidental," Gai interjected. "When I search through the frequencies out of boredom, it sometimes happens that I get stuck there. I just like the music that is played."

Kakashi couldn't hold back a contemptuous grunt. "By that you mean the music that I play. If you're too stupid to understand, you flabby-brow: I am this Sukea."

"I've already noticed, gallant-gramps," Gai grumbled back pissed off. "But I don't give a fuck."

"As if."

"Yes, believe me."

"I don't believe you anything anymore."

Without either boy being able to see it, because they were both spraying their inanimate food with deadly sparks, Dai's gaze shifted back and forth between them. He shook his head briefly and sighed. "Oh, you two. What's wrong with you, huh? You used to be inseparable and now you don't even look each other in the eye anymore and prefer to bitch at each other." None of the boys said anything. Dai growled discontentedly. "You stubborns really are incurably." After a silent while, Dai, who apparently couldn't stand the silence at all, asked, "Has Sakumo found a new flat?"

"Why?"

Dai lowered his fork. "Didn't you get the eviction notice? I thought all the residents had one in the box. At least I know it from the Hyuugas on the ground floor. Luckily, Hiashi had already looked around before. He's going to be a father soon, you know? And he doesn't want to let his child grow up in the Crescents, even if they were still standing in a few years."

"Oh, that, yes.." Kakashi murmured. "No, Dad hasn't taken care of it yet."

"Kakashi.." Dai sighed, "The deadline is about to expire. If he does not apply by the end of July, he will not receive any money from the city and will have to move at his own expense. They're serious about demolition, you know? All remaining residents must be out by October."

"Dad doesn't really like deadlines."

"I can help him with that, it's no big deal. I can bring the papers from the town hall and he just has to sign them."

"He would never ask you to do that."

"He doesn't have to, I do it voluntarily."

"That's even worse. Someone offers him help? Pfah. My father can do everything on his own," Kakashi grumbled sarcastically, shoving a bunch of noodles into his mouth and chewing on them angrily.

"I can't leave you two here. Not after all this time. We have lived next to each other for twenty years, have seen our children grow up together, have experienced so much here. I can understand that Sakumo is attached to this building because it reminds him of Noriko, but they are going to tear down the Crescents, he has to understand that. He can't stay here. And neither do you. I can ask around for you. My new landlord is a very nice man, he will understand Sakumo's situation and can certainly find something for both of you. And when Sakumo submits the application, he doesn't have to worry about the costs at first, the city takes care of everything. It took a while, but they don't let the people in the Crescents down."

"So does that mean my father just has to get his ass up to secure his future?" With an ugly sound, Kakashi scraped the tines of his fork over the plate.

"I'd put it nicer.." Dai replied embarrassed. "But yes. Basically, he doesn't have to do more than put his signature on this application. As I said, I can ask around for an flat for you."

"Well, too bad." Kakashi laughed humourlessly. "He doesn't care if his or my life is threatened, he prefers to ignore his problems. He will certainly not allow something as big as a move that separates him from the memories of his dead wife. I guess we'll just be razed to the ground in a few months together with the Kent." His voice might sound indifferent, almost amused, but inside him screamed despair.

"Kakashi, what are you talking about.." Dai said incredulously. "What do you mean your lives are threatened?"

The doorbell rang. Dai hesitated, as if he preferred to continue the conversation, but stood up at the second ring, leaving the others in their silence. Under the table, Gai bumped into Kakashi's shin. "Excuse me.." he said immediately. Kakashi stabbed his noodles aggressively, as if they had insulted him personally. "Kakashi.." Gai began softly. Kakashi got up jerkily and stormed into the bathroom, where he slammed the door behind him and clawed at the sink, trembling. He resisted the urge to shout. Behind the door were footsteps, voices, laughter. He washed his face, groaned into the towel and looked at his reflection, which no longer seemed to be his. He was completely disfigured, had swelling in his eye, temple and jaw. His skin resembled an expressionist painting. At least his appearance corresponded to his state of mind. Both were ugly.

He took a deep breath, swallowed his anger at Sakumo and Gai and returned to the living room, just wanted to get his jacket and leave, but at the sight of a shaggy, black-purple head of hair he stopped as if rooted to the ground. On the chair, over the back of which hung his leather jacket, sat none other than Anko Mitarashi. She turned around and looked over her shoulder, her broad grin immediately froze. "Oh holy shit, what do you look like?!"

Kina came around the corner to the kitchen, stopped in the middle of the movement and almost dropped the two plates she was carrying in her hand in fright. "Kashi! What happened to you?!"

Kakashi looked from Kina to Anko and back again. The fact that the two had gotten along quite well on Tuesday was one thing, but the fact that they were now apparently spending time together privately was too much of a good thing. He tore himself away from her shocked face, pulled his jacket off the back of Anko's chair, ignored Kina's "Kashi, now please wait!" and left the flat.

That was enough. Kina and Anko, best friends, great. Kakashi retreated to his room and buried himself under his blanket, as if the thin fabric offered him some kind of protection. He felt betrayed by Kina, as she knew that Anko had been present at his involuntary group sex. What was she thinking?! They were friends, weren't they? And among friends, you just didn't do such a thing. You were faithful, honest, and did not deceive each other by getting involved with each other's enemy.

Enemy.. Shit, that sounded too dramatic. Anko wasn't really Kakashi's enemy, but he didn't like her either. Too much had happened for that. Groaning, he peeled himself out of his blanket and rolled onto his back, each of his injuries protesting loudly. Slowly, he slipped his hand under his waistband and stroked his penis, which only reacted with pain. Great, now he couldn't even masturbate out of pure frustration, although he would have needed it urgently today. To release all the pressure, channel all the hatred into his cock and chase it out of his body, it would have been too nice.

Since he couldn't relax in this way, he wanted to at least do it in a different way. He undressed carefully so as not to put too much strain on his shoulder, limped into the bathroom and let himself in a tub with an essential fragrance oil that Dai had given Sakumo years ago, a creation of his own, was supposed to help against bad thoughts and feelings, provide balance, or whatever. The Hatakes weren't big bath enthusiasts because showering was so much faster, but if the promised effect would actually happen, Kakashi should convince his father to use the stuff more often, then his mood wouldn't always change so radically.

The water rose higher and higher, spreading the mixture of lavender and eucalyptus in the small room. Kakashi fetched the Walkman from his room, put in a rather quiet cassette and let himself sink into the tub, moaning softly. The heat did him good, although it slightly stirred his skin, but it relaxed his muscles, which had permanently cramped around his many burst blood vessels. He turned off the tap, dived under once, pushed himself up again until his nose was above water, put on the headphones and started the tape.

The dreamy intro of Forever Young played and put Kakashi in the mood he hoped for from this mix. He had put it together a few months ago in case he wanted to feel melancholic. And that's exactly what he wanted now. So much did he wish for the old days when everything had been easier, when Gai and he had talked to each other, when his greatest concern had been, how he could hide from his father that he had drunk and smoked, before they had grown up.

He missed hanging out with Gai and even Kina, laughing, listening to music, doing some nonsense that drove their fathers crazy. If he hadn't been admitted to the Kensington two years ago, it would certainly be that way now. He wouldn't have squeezed himself into this role of the cool Kakashi, wouldn't have made friends with Obito, Asuma and Genma, wouldn't have met Rin. Then everything would be much easier, much nicer. He had given up his normal school for a dream, but as Crowded House sang so beautifully: Don't dream, it's over.

Kakashi closed his eyes, sank a little deeper and exhaled deeply, letting the water bubble. The little devil in his brain wondered if Sakumo had gotten so heavily into debt because of the Kensington. Because yes, the uniforms were not cheap and he had to get six new ones every year. If you added that up, you came up with a tidy sum. Kakashi actually didn't believe that his father had left the full 25,000 in the arcade, and it had to go somewhere. So, was he partly to blame for this entire situation? Was it all his fault, because he had been too confident, too hopeful that he could escape poverty? Was he really the problem? Was he himself responsible for the fact that he was suffering so much at the moment?

The memory of the afternoon made a burning knot bloom in Kakashi's chest. Would this get better over time? At that moment, he had hardly been able to pay attention to the agreement, but now Kakashi was thinking about his price. Five hundred for each blowjob and one thousand pounds for each ass fuck. That was surprisingly much, considering that it had been about a hundred at the beginning. So at least his training had paid off. A small consolation.

Roughly speaking, he only had to feed himself to this poof twenty more times, if he used his ass and mouth every time, then bring up the remaining hundred breads in paper form and he was free. And his father would be free. Twenty times this ordeal of today. Twenty fucking times.

His head rested on the edge of the tub and he puffed out his cheeks. Was he able to do that? Could he do that? Physically and above all mentally? And emotionally? This humiliation today was the worst thing he had ever experienced. Well, the second worst, May '82 almost drove him to suicide at the age of almost ten. And yes, ok, his eighteenth birthday still existed. And then there was that day at eleven when Sakumo had beaten him for the first and only time, hadn't been great either. But Madara definitely settled into the top 5 of his most traumatic experiences.

These gazes, these statements, all the feelings. They stirred up hatred in Kakashi. He opened his eyes, looked at his knees sticking out of the water, one normal, the other red-purple on the side. His hands were floating on the surface beside it. He turned them over, his skin was already wrinkled. Absently, he rubbed his thumbs over the tips of the other fingers.

There were a lot of women who liked anal sex, he had seen enough of them in porn, had jerked off every time, had imagined what it was like. Why didn't that seem to be a problem for women, but it was for him? Why did it hurt so much? Was it just Madara's size? But honestly, in his father's films there were guys who had even more massive tools, over twenty centimetres, almost thirty. And the women there did not wail, if at all more out of lust. And what about all those shitdicks who liked that? They also found it arousing to be fucked in the ass. Was he just a cry-baby who preferred to whine at every little thing instead of enduring it in silence, as a man should?

He saw it himself; he was much too sensitive. For years he had tried to numb himself because it would make a lot of things easier, but he didn't really succeed. Then Dai came back to his mind. Kakashi had always admired him for how openly he dealt with feelings, for encouraging his children to let everything out, including grief and such. They were not like normal people; Gai as a boy had often cried, been happy about things without a guilty conscience, had always approached everything with fiery zeal – Kina as a girl, on the other hand, had sometimes hidden behind a façade, probably precisely because Gai was so overly emotional and she had to compensate for it somehow. Couldn't both be like that.

Unconsciously, a smile stole onto Kakashi's lips at the thought of how different and yet somehow the same the twins were. They dealt with their feelings differently, but they both knew exactly what they felt and how they could express themselves when they had to or wanted to. Kakashi didn't.

"Don't ask me.." he hummed along quietly. "What you know is true.. Don't have to tell you.. I love your precious he~art.."

A ringing tore the song in his ears. Kakashi flinched so violently that his aroma bath spilled over the edge of the tub and the headphones almost slipped into the water. With his heart pounding with fear, he looked at the closed bathroom door. Who could that be at that time? If it was Obito, he was screwed. He would need a weapon to be able to defend himself in his condition. What could he use for this? A knife? The frying pan? Should he demolish his bed and use one of its legs as a baton?

The bell rang a second time, longer and more energetically than before.

His arms trembled as he heaved himself up, now dripping and breathing heavily on the bare tiles. His brain rattled, looking for defensive means in this flat, an escape route where he wouldn't break his neck.

A third ring.

For a moment, Kakashi wondered if it would be wiser to ignore the uninvited guest, to pretend he wasn't there, to entrench himself in this flat, but a fourth, repeatedly interrupted ringing so that it sounded like the melody of I Just Can't Get Enough, caused him to roughly dry himself off with a dark premonition, wrap the towel around his waist and creep to the flat door. "Who's there?" he asked, although he thought he already knew the answer.

"You know who, open the door!"