Chapter Seven is up!

After less struggling than normal, I give to you chapter seven! I hope you enjoy it! (Strangely, I had fun making some extra use of the semi colon in this chapter. I think I used more adverbs and other modifiers than usual, too, which could be bad.)



Chapter 7
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Kakashi strode up to the Konoha main gates. He checked in with the on-duty chuunin. They waved him on and Kakashi nodded; it was as close to a conversation as he generally had at the guard post. Then, as soon as he got far enough away, weaving his way through the crowds with expertise, he turned off the main street and leaned heavily on the closest wall. He felt underneath his vest. Even the lightest touch was painful. Kakashi sighed. He’d have to go to the hospital then and have whatever those guards had managed to score on him tended.

Ordinarily he wouldn’t have bothered. If the wounds had been really bad, he would have done some stopgap measures on the way back and then collapsed upon reaching the front gates. If the injuries were light, Kakashi would have let it get out that he was hurt, yes, but he would have milked his injuries to get some time off. He wouldn’t find himself heading for the hospital as he did now. Nope. But now there was Sasuke to think about. Kakashi frowned. It was thinking about Sasuke that had gotten him hurt in the first place. Best not to start again. He forced himself to a speed only marginally faster than his usual amble. His side protested every time he put one foot in front of the other. Kakashi needed to be at his peak to deal with Sasuke, that was all. Lazing around in bed while waiting to heal was not a smart idea. For one, he was sure Sasuke was not temperamentally inclined to being a nurse.

Kakashi checked in at the emergency room front desk. The nurses gave him a once-over. He tried to look unaffected and bored. The waiting room was empty, but he hoped that they would let him sit down in private somewhere. It was oddly embarrassing to be at the hospital when he wasn’t dying.

A nurse directed Kakashi to an empty examination room. He was instructed to take off his clothes and don a gown. He considered claiming some sort of modesty if she started to do it for him, but before he had a chance, a code came over the intercom and the nurse rushed out. The door slammed behind her. Kakashi shrugged and immediately wished he hadn’t. He had an insistent urge to rub his side where it hurt the most, to try to alleviate the pain. To distract himself, he removed his gloves and stripped off his pants as carefully as he could. He toed off his sandals with a minimum of wincing. Kakashi was able to get out of his vest, but he struggled with the tight-fitting shirt beneath it. He was glad no one else was in the room. He wondered if the doctor would make him take off his mask.

Disrobing left him a bit short of breath. He decided that, in the interest of being a model patient, he would deign to sit on the exam table for a minute. The doctor would be late. Doctors always ran late. He’d rest a minute and then, somehow, wriggle into the johnny. Tying it might be out of the question, though. Codes kept blaring out of the PA system. Kakashi ignored them. He considered throwing a kunai at the speaker. His body throbbed in warning. Kakashi speculated that the speaker was probably an expensive item and not easy to replace. He would spare it, this time.

He was still sitting on the table, waiting for a medic, when the door exploded in a hail of smoke and splinters.

Kakashi looked up from beneath the improvised shield of a tray that had held surgical instruments a moment before. Sasuke stood in the wreckage of the doorway. He looked paler than usual as he brushed ashes off his clothes. He hesitated a moment before crushing a still-glowing cinder on his sleeve, as if he were confused as to how it had gotten there. Sasuke’s eyes were moving constantly and the Sharingan flickered in them.

Kakashi felt the ANBU land on the ledge outside the window and he relaxed minutely. He didn’t take his eyes off Sasuke. It was nice to have backup today, even if it was costing him some dignity. Kakashi sighed. He wished, distantly, that he’d already put on the gown. At least his mask was still on. He tensed again as Sasuke stepped into the room.

“No flowers? I’m in the hospital after all.”

Inside, Kakashi was calculating how much time and space he’d need to subdue Sasuke, and whether Sasuke could kill him, or only hurt him on top of his still untended injuries. He knew the ANBU wouldn’t be able to intervene in time, though they could probably pull Sasuke off him after the fact. Kakashi took a deep breath, readying himself.

Sasuke turned his head sideways. He didn’t look like he was going to attack, which was good, but he seemed confused, at best. At worst, he appeared… Kakashi didn’t know. Sasuke had been a few letters short of a post box before Kakashi had left. Now he looked worse. Much worse. Kakashi hadn’t realized how much Sasuke had improved since his release until now, with this apparent relapse.

“I heard them saying you’d come back,” Sasuke said. “But you didn’t show up, and I’d waited and waited and now I’m here.”

Sasuke turned his red pin-wheeling eyes on Kakashi and then past him, to the ANBU in the window. He crossed the room and sat on the stool near the foot of the exam table. He was a yard away from Kakashi.

“They weren’t going to let me come. But I broke the seal.”

Sasuke glanced down briefly, and Kakashi saw a few smears of ink at the base of his throat and around his wrists. Kakashi snorted. Sasuke was lucky he hadn’t blown his extremities off from the backlash. Still, maybe it had something to do with Sasuke’s rattled, not-quite-right appearance.

“Are you feeling well Sasuke?” Kakashi said. “If not, you’re in the right place.”

Sasuke looked around the room. It seemed he only now realized he was in the hospital.

“I’m a bit tired,” he said.

Kakashi’s eyebrows shot upward before he could stop himself. If Sasuke admitted to weakness, it was undoubtedly much worse than it appeared. Sasuke would have gritted his teeth and passed off a severed leg as a scratch if anyone said anything about it. Kakashi tried to be casual.

“Oh?”

“You were gone,” said Sasuke. “I couldn’t sleep with them--” and here he gestured at the window-- “watching me. So I stayed awake.”

“Well, missing a night’s sleep isn’t abnormal,” said Kakashi.

His instincts screamed inside his head. Kakashi struggled to keep appearing calm. He knew the signs of a ninja on the edge of collapse. Sasuke needed to keep believing Kakashi was relaxed, that nothing important was going on, or he might get dangerous. Three feet away wasn’t enough.

“But you still haven’t told me why you’re here,” said Kakashi.

Kakashi had a sinking feeling. The longer Sasuke talked, the worse he sounded.

“I stayed awake the whole time,” Sasuke said. “When I got tired I went up on the roof and watched the stars. Except then it was raining but I couldn’t go inside.”

Sasuke shivered and drew in on himself. Kakashi made a quick sweep of the room for weapons.

“They were waiting for me to go inside so they could go back to staring at me through the windows .”

Kakashi decided that Sasuke was more than just tired. He looked sick. His cheeks had a light flush and all the skin Kakashi could see was shiny with sweat. Fine tremors rippled across Sasuke’s shoulders.

When Sasuke was distracted by a nervous orderly peering into the room, Kakashi hand-signaled the ANBU detail. Did Sasuke do anything that might have made him ill? Kakashi was disgusted with the answers. Not only had Sasuke stayed up every night and cat-napped in the day, but he had sat unprotected in the rain for the better part of two days. Why hadn’t the ANBU sent for a medic when Sasuke started getting sick? Not their job his ass. If Sasuke hadn’t been sick and, Kakashi suspected, somewhat delusional because of it, he wouldn’t have broken the seal and done who-knew how much damage to the hospital. Kakashi didn’t know what else Sasuke might have done en route. Sasuke might not have been here now at all, as close to raving as he’d ever been, if the ANBU had done their jobs properly. Kakashi silenced the thought that it was his fault, for taking the mission in the first place. It wasn’t his fault.

Eventually, a doctor came by and patched up Kakashi. She also gave Sasuke a look-over. Kakashi noticed the doctor’s hands trembling as she made a show of not noticing the incinerated door. She gave Kakashi medicine and instructions and sent the both of them home. The whole thing rubbed Kakashi wrong. Still, no use in making the other patients nervous--not to mention the doctors and nurses--and it would be better for Sasuke to go ballistic on apartment furnishings than expensive medical equipment.


Kakashi got Sasuke settled on the couch. He took his bags into his bedroom to unpack. As soon as he entered, he realized Sasuke had been in there. Things were slightly off; pictures just a hair to the side of their former positions; the covers on his bed at a different crooked angle; the door to his wardrobe not properly shut. And there, on the window, was a Sasuke-sized handprint. It had to have been deliberate, that lone print. Kakashi was furious, but it would be meaningless to take it up with Sasuke now. It was too late after the intrusion and Sasuke was sick. Kakashi had his doubts that Sasuke would realize his infringement even when he was well. He threw his dirty uniforms in a corner and polished kunai for a while.

When Kakashi had done enough work on his equipment to calm down, he saw it was time for Sasuke’s medicine. Kakashi deliberately made noise coming into the living room. Getting kunai thrown his way was annoying, but that was what a well Sasuke would have done. Who knew what sort of thing a sick Sasuke would do? Kakashi tried not to think about an out-of-control Mangekyou, provoked by fevered nightmares. Thoughts about that were fodder for bad dreams. Kakashi cleared his throat when he got within three feet of Sasuke’s head.

Sasuke sat up quickly for a sick, sleeping person. Kakashi was fascinated to see he was indeed asleep and not merely leaving his eyes closed. He didn’t want to startle him awake, so he tried to slip the tip of the medicine dispenser between Sasuke’s lips. He was surprised when it actually worked. He pressed the plunger down and the medicine hit Sasuke’s taste buds. Sasuke cracked his eyes open.

“Kabuto? What…”

He stopped and took a better look.

“Next time wake me, or I’ll spit it out in your eye.”

Sasuke closed his eyes and was asleep again in seconds. His body folded back onto the couch. Kakashi fought against draping a blanket over him. He didn’t want to know what Sasuke had thought he was doing with the medicine. His hands moved almost before his mind could catch up, pulling a blanket over Sasuke‘s torso. Kakashi dropped the corner of it as if it were hot. Sasuke didn’t need mothering. He stood for a moment. He studied his hands and, for once, they weren’t what he expected. They were strangely foreign, grafted onto his familiar arms. He forced them down at his sides where he couldn’t see them anymore. He went back to his bedroom.


Over the next few days, Kakashi did as Sasuke asked, waking him for medicine and water. He also roused him during nightmares. Sasuke’s eerie, half-strangled cries came right through the walls, penetrating Kakashi‘s sleep and dreams. Kakashi got used to Sasuke’s forehead dampening his shoulder during the short staggers to the bathroom so Sasuke could piss and swipe at his teeth with a toothbrush. Kakashi drew the line at sponge baths, though Sasuke smelled terrible after the first day. And, while he wasn’t a good nurse, he thought it said something that Sasuke didn’t die under his care.

Sasuke recovered slowly. Kakashi was glad that he left some of his paranoia and bad dreams behind. Already Kakashi had learned more than he needed or wanted to know about Sasuke’s time away from the village. He also now knew many of the more visceral details of Sasuke’s imprisonment, things that had been left unsaid in the dry facts of the reports he’d read. Sasuke would be completely humiliated to know what he’d said in his sleep. Kakashi burned with embarrassment for him. He was overwhelmed with the desire to forget what he’d discovered. Sasuke seemed to know he’d done something while he was sick. He went around as normally as he could. Kakashi kept his best poker face up. If Sasuke ever got the courage to ask him what he’d said, Kakashi had already decided to lie.


The next time the topic of a house came up, Sasuke said, as calmly as he could without seeming desperate--a noble but unsuccessful effort--that he’d like to try it. Either they would succeed or not. In the case of failure, it would give them more time before looking for a new place. Kakashi suspected that Sasuke’s imaginings of what the neighbors might have heard recently had influenced his decision. It probably wasn’t the most objective way to decide, but at least Sasuke had finally given him an answer. Kakashi didn’t know how this would affect the unacknowledged tensions between them. He sighed. Like it or not, caring for Sasuke was his duty. If moving to a house in the middle of the forest would be best him, then he was prepared to work hard to get them there. Besides…they were two S-rank ninja. How hard could it be?


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Random author's notes:

I debated the use of various synonyms for hospital gown in this part. (For one, I couldn't remember it was a hospital gown. I kept thinking smock was almost-but-not-quite the right word.) I consistently referred to it as a johnny. But then, when the spell-checker questioned it, I did a little research, and it is now mostly a gown in the story. I figured it would be a johnny from Kakashi's fairly informal perspective. I tossed "smock" out the window completely because I kept thinking of artists wearing smocks, which made me think of Kakashi in a smock and beret, doing a painting. It was a ridiculous image. (Of course, using gown makes me think of Kakashi in a red carpet event celebrity-woman's gown with sequins and a feather boa and stuff...but it's better than smock!)

Also, I still have come to no conclusion on the smart quotes issue. I didn't even bother looking for turned around apostrophes this time. Oh, how the mighty have crumbled!

I'm going to kick back and not even look at chapter eight until tomorrow. My brain is still buzzing from completing chapter seven.

Later!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. All rights remain with its original creator, Masashi Kishimoto. I make no profit from writing these stories.