Dirty Little Secret

CHAPTER 26



The ANBUs put a wide and long shirt on Pein to make him at least relatively presentable while they transported him from the Tower to Naruto’s home – it reached his knees and hung like a rag from his overly thin body. Kakashi watched as they picked him up again and he offered no resistance – looking and acting much like a doll between the two large nins. Funny, this was the first time he noticed that the red-head was actually quite small in stature – before, his overwhelming presence and power masked that feature.



Silently, Naruto and Kakashi followed the ANBUs back to the Hokage’s house. After they dropped the man on the front porch, the nin bowed and one of them said:



“Should we put 24 hour surveillance on your house, Hokage-sama?”



Naruto shook his head:



“There’s no need to watch the house while I am in it. The moment I leave though you are to make sure that he doesn’t step a toe out of the front door – do you understand?”



They bowed deeply again and disappeared in a puff of smoke.



Naruto looked down at their prisoner, then at Kakashi:



“Pet, take him to the bathroom and wash all this grime off him – I don’t want him to dirty up my furniture. Afterwards you can put him in the closet where you spent your first night here.”



Kakashi too bowed:



“Yes, Master.”



Naruto entered the house and the older man looked at the red-head at his feet – he hadn’t moved from where the ANBUs had dumped him. The truth was, he too didn’t understand completely Naruto’s motives. As much as he had to set an example, part of Kakashi still wasn’t convinced that the man presented no danger, regardless of how broken he appeared at the moment. Just looking at him brought back terrible memories of uncontrollable agony – both mental and physical, of destruction and the faces of all the people that had been lost while fighting him.



Angrily he reached and grabbed him under his shoulder, then pulled him up roughly, dragging him in the house. With his leg that would have been a little difficult, had the man offered any resistance, but since he didn’t, and as he was so small, it didn’t take much effort. Pein stubbed his bare toes several times on borders and stairs because Kakashi was too angry to think about warning him and then fell down, whimpering every time he added new bruises to his body, only to be pulled up roughly again.



Once in the bathroom Kakashi let go of him and ordered him to stand, which he did, despite that he was swaying and shivering in the thin shirt, then pulled up the curtains around the bathtub and said:



“Take off the shirt.”



With trembling fingers, the man did. Kakashi grabbed him again and half-lifted him, half pushed him into the bathtub. The red-head stumbled and fell again and stayed lying on his side in the cold tub. Kakashi reached to turn the water on. Part of him wanted to make it freezing, but he knew that hot water cleaned grime and blood off skin and hair much better than cold water did. So with a sigh, he turned on the hot water and took the showerhead, pointing the jet at Pein’s back. The red-head jumped in surprise.



Kakashi grabbed the soap they used to wash clothes and started rubbing it roughly over the bruised and scarred skin, making the soap foam, while he used the shower to wet Pein all over. When he pointed it at his hair the red-head sputtered and shuddered, spitting out the water he had swallowed and inhaled by accident.



With sharp, ungentle movements, Kakashi began to wash the grime off him, running his hand and soap all over him, then washing off the suds. The bathroom began to fill with water-vapour. In spite of the rough treatment, by the time Kakashi had reached his hair, Pein had relaxed completely under his hands, lulled by the warmth and what appeared to be sheer exhaustion. He didn’t even jump when Kakashi pulled at his hair while washing it.



Finally, when he was done, the younger man turned off the water and put the showerhead back.



“Hey, wake up! Get up!”



Almost lethargically, the red-head followed the order and stood up sluggishly. With a frustrated sigh, Kakashi literally lifted him out of the bathtub and put him on the floor – Pein remained almost doll-like relaxed in his arms. With another sigh, Kakashi began to dry him off with an old towel, and when he deemed he was dry enough, discarded it in a washing-basket.



He looked at him again. Naruto hadn’t said anything about putting clothes on the man, but having a naked person around all the time would feel weird. Kakashi took a look in the dryer and found one of his old, torn shirts and a pair of threadbare pants. They would be too big and wide on Pein’s short and thin frame, but they should do. He threw them at the red-head:



“Put these on. And hurry up.”



Obediently, the man began trying to do so, albeit not as quickly as Kakashi would have liked. Because he was blind and because his fingers trembled way too much he just wasn’t coordinated enough even for that simple task.



With a growl of frustration Kakashi took the shirt and stuck it over his head, then made him push his arms in the sleeves. He kneeled for a moment and helped the prisoner put the pants on, then secured them with the zipper and the button at the fly.



When he pulled back, Kakashi took a good luck at him – he looked like street rat, if a clean one. The shirt was too big and hung from one shoulder, the pants too long and they dragged onto the floor. Despite his age, he looked like a kid who had gone through his parents’ wardrobe and was playing grown up.



Then again, such an association would imply that he was an innocent, something that Kakashi knew the man was not.



With another growl, he grabbed his wrist and dragged him out of the still damp bathroom.



When he opened the closet’s door, he stared inside in surprise – it was obvious that Naruto had been preparing for this for a while – all the junk inside was cleared out, leaving only the dusty walls. On the ground there was an old mattress and in the corner there was a chamber pot. Aside from that, the small room was completely barren. The light-bulb on the ceiling turned on automatically when the door was opened.



Kakashi pushed the man in:



“Stay there and don’t you dare to try and come out.”



Then slammed the door shut after him.



After he washed his hands, he returned to the living-room, where Naruto had stretched on the sofa, reading a book.



“It’s done, Master.”



The blonde didn’t look up.



“Good. In the evening, give him some rice. I don’t want him completely starved. It’s not fun if he faints from exhaustion.”