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Catharsis	By : WaisetsuNingyou Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 968 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
Chapter 5.Relationshit
Kakashi tried to smile underneath his mask, but only succeeded in looking just as awkward as he felt. Inside, he was mentally slapping himself for not having thought about what to do once the brunette woke up in advance. He didn't really anticipate Naruto's or Sakura's reactions either, and the way the two teenagers stared at him--the way anyone looked when they hadn't been told something they should have been told--only made him feel even more uneasy.
Yamato's eyes shifted from Kakashi to the brunette, then back to Kakashi. The woman was in tears, though she made no noise, only letting wet droplets trickle down her cheeks. Yamato frowned: of all the people to run into, it had to be her, that woman so unreadable that Yamato couldn't figure out whether she was genuinely upset about seeing the copy-nin, if she was really surprised, or none of the above.
As if she too were confused about why she was acting the way she was, the woman took a shaky breath and wiped her eyes, apologizing softly for her strange behavior. Yamato's eye twitched; it was always one thing from another for her. Luckily, he wasn't Kakashi...
"Ano... I guess it would be appropriate to introduce all of you," Kakashi decided, scratching the back of his head while his one visible eye looked at Naruto and Sakura. It had become too quiet, and the copy-nin was itching to relieve the tension. He turned to the brunette. "Shizuka, these are two of my old students, Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura. Naruto, Sakura, this is--" The pause that broke his sentence was almost a breath, but it did little to disguise Kakashi's uncertainty. "--one of my old colleagues, Hibashira Shizuka."
Judging from the tense silence that greeted the woman, neither of the teenagers was cottoning to her, despite Kakashi's assurances.
The copy nin laughed nervously and apologized to the brunette, "Sorry for the cold reception, Shizuka." He nudged the two teenagers. "Hey, you two, the least you could do is say hello."
Shaking her head, the woman cut in, "No, no, don�t worry about it. I understand. You�re meeting me under weird circumstances; even if I gave you explanation, it would sound too ridiculous to be true. But, for starters, the little boy that we were fighting each other over is my nephew, Aoi. I would never hurt him."
Sakura raised a skeptical eyebrow, and asked disparagingly, "If that's so, then why hasn't he woken up throughout this entire ordeal? Most kids his age would be screaming their lungs out by now."
For a very brief moment, Sakura felt victorious, thanks to the look of regret on the woman�s face. But the brunette relaxed quickly and chuckled, "That's where it begins to get confusing. Now, if you don't mind, I have a question of my own: exactly what were you doing at my brother's estate?"
"Eh?!" Naruto gawked at Shizuka. "That guy was your brother?!"
"If you mean the guy sitting behind a big fancy desk and scribbling away, then yes, that would have been my brother."
Naruto objected loudly, "But you two look nothing alike!"
With a sardonic smile, Shizuka replied, "Because we have different mothers."
She said it so cheerfully that it was scary. Much more seriously, she continued, "In any case, that doesn't answer the question."
Before Naruto could say anything else, Yamato clapped his hand over the blond�s mouth. "Shizuka, sorry about that," he said, embarrassed. "To answer your question, we were supposed to pick up Aoi-chan there as our mission. But obviously, you got to him before us."
"Eh?! Yamato-taichou knows her too?!" came Naruto's muffled yell.
Sakura was just as surprised as Naruto, but had a bit more restraint. She gave him a sharp slap across the top of his head and sighed, "Naruto, shut up for a few minutes, will you?"
Kakashi made a mental note to treat Sakura to a meal or something one day. Maybe it was because Naruto really liked her or geared her monstrous strength, but she was the only one who could deal with his runaway mouth effectively.
The woman suddenly jolted, the way people did when they jerked themselves awake after dozing off. Kakashi�s eyebrows furrowed in concern underneath his headband. It was only a little bit, but she's already so worn out? He sighed, the things he did to make up for unnecessary trouble...
Kakashi faced the rest of the group, and offered, "Despite the unexpected turn of events, I think we can safely say that this mission was a success. Let's stop at an onsen on the way back, how's that? It'll be my treat."
"What the hell?" gurgled Naruto the next evening as he and Yamato soaked in a hot spring. "Kakashi's been acting weird because of that woman. He's never treated me or Sakura to dinner before and he wormed his way out of paying for ramen the first time we ate together--remember Yamato-taichou? All of a sudden he's offered to pay for all of us at this resort."
"You ought to be a little more grateful, don't you think?" Yamato scolded.
"It's not that," Naruto argued, splashing water with his fists. "And you too!" He pointed accusingly at Yamato. "You know something's up between him and that pretty woman, you're just not telling us!"
Yamato frowned. "Naruto, it's not something for me to tell."
"Ah! I knew it!" Naruto beat the water furiously with his fists. "There is something between those two! Naninaninani?!"
Yamato groaned. That was a bad move on his part--now Naruto would pester him half to death. But the more he thought about it, the more he thought telling Naruto and Sakura would be a better idea. The dark-haired ANBU turned in his spot, looking around to make sure no one was listening. He leaned close to Naruto, and said softly, "Let's get out. I'll tell you and Sakura in the lounge."
Naruto snickered. "Heheh, Yamato-taichou, you're a good guy."
"We'll turn into prunes if we stay in here any longer," said Yamato, grabbing his towel. "I'll treat you and Sakura to something while we talk."
When Yamato and Naruto found Sakura, Yamato swore and clapped his hand over his face. Why wasn't he surprised at what they found?
Sakura, holding the gurgling two-year-old who had finally woken up that morning, watched with a mix of fascination and bewilderment as Kakashi and Shizuka put all their effort and concentration into an intense game of...
"Ping-pong," Yamato groaned. "Kami-sama... if those two aren't the most messed up pair I've ever seen, then this world is going down the toilet."
"Don't tell me that's all you�ve got, Shizuka," Kakashi taunted, returning a volley.
"Likewise, Kakashi," she shot back. "Come on, your reaction time's a bit slow. What happened?"
"Oi... Sakura-chan," Naruto whispered. "What's up with them?"
The baby in her arms cooed happily, and reached over to yank Naruto's hair. "Aoi-chan, don't pull at Naruto-baka's head," she chided playfully. "They've been at it for the last hour and a half."
"That long?" asked Yamato, amazed. "Kami-sama..."
"What?" Sakura looked at Yamato inquisitively.
Yamato shook his head. �Never mind. Sakura, would you mind coming with Naruto and I to get some snacks?"
"I'd like to, but what about Aoi-chan?" Sakura asked, prying chubby fingers out of Naruto�s hair. She turned to the pair, still embroiled in their game. "Ano... Shizuka-san, would it be alright if--?"
The brunette didn't even look at her when she waved a dismissive hand. "You can," she said, smacking the battered ping-pong ball back to Kakashi. "You can take Aoi-chan with you, too."
How she managed to do it, Sakura had no idea, but Shizuka fished inside the sleeve of her playing around and extracted a small change purse while still managing to keep her eye on the ball. Returning the ball to Kakashi, Shizuka held the purse out to Sakura said, "Here's some money for Aoi's snacks. I don't really know what he likes, so get him the soft things and then see what he likes."
At that moment, Kakashi smacked the ping-pong ball dangerously close to her face, and she barely managed to block it with her paddle. "KO-RA!" she yelled, returning all of her attention back to her game. "Do you want to take an eye out?!"
Yamato chuckled nervously, and ushered the them out of the room. "I think it's best to leave these two alone for a little while."
As they left, there was a loud snap in the ping-pong room, followed by the triumphant slam of a paddle onto the table. They heard Shizuka clapping as she cried out gleefully, "Aha! You broke it! I win by default!"
Clearly irritated by his paddle mishap, Kakashi returned, "Rematch. Now. Someone get me another paddle."
"Honto ni... I'll never understand them," Yamato mumbled through a mouthful of takoyaki once they had settled down with their snacks one of the resorts many lounges. "But I guess it's better than listening to them shout at each other..."
"Hey, Yamato-taichou," said Sakura, annoyed at the fact that he still hadn't told her or Naruto what he wanted to talk to them about. "What are you talking about?"
Naruto cried out in surprise as Aoi suddenly began to let the chewed up castella he'd just eaten dribble out of his mouth. ("Well, that strikes out castella as something Aoi-chan likes," Sakura muttered, and pulled the small plastic tray of cake away from the baby.)
"Oi, chibi! Yamete!" Naruto protested as the baby continued to regurgitate a saliva and cake puree all over him. Trying to stop the flow of cake and clean his yukata at the same time, Naruto asked, "Yamato-taichou, you haven't told us anything yet."
Yamato plucked Aoi out of Naruto�s lap and sat the toddler next to him, holding his free hand out to keep the child from crawling all over the place. "I'll tell you, but you two have to promise me that you won't tell Kakashi I told you," Yamato warned. "The only reason why I'm letting you know is because once we get back to Konoha, people are going to start to talk and it'd be bad if you got old rumors."
That was more than enough to catch the two teenagers� attention. They leaned closer to Yamato. Occasionally, Sakura would pick up one of the many soft snacks and desserts they bought for Aoi to keep him preoccupied as Yamato began to explain: "Shizuka used to be one of Kakashi's old girlfriends."
Naruto and Sakura were rather disappointed by the information. Kakashi had a lot of girlfriends and/or flings, as far as they'd heard; what was one more? Sakura complained, "Yamato-taichou, I was hoping whatever you were planning on telling us would be a little less... anticlimactic?"
Yamato tsk-ed. "Would it be less 'anticlimactic' if I told you that she disappeared from Konoha while they were dating?
"Depends," the two chorused, but it was obvious that he'd caught their attention. "What happened?"
Was it just them or did Yamato actually shudder?
"I'd like to know as much as you two, but I'm just as afraid of wondering why," he admitted. "But I think part of it might have been the fact that their relationship was a lot like the way they were playing ping-pong over there�without those two yelling themselves hoarse."
He laughed at their reaction: Naruto and Sakura's widened fearfully. "It is pretty messed up--but that didn't stop them from being together for more than three years. It would have been four if Shizuka didn't randomly disappear a week before."
There was a long pause, only occupied by Aoi's squealing when he finally found something he liked: mitarashi dango.
Finally, Yamato said, "I think... Shizuka was Kakashi's 'first.' (No, Naruto, I'm not talking about sex.) From what I heard from one of Shizuka's buddies, she and Kakashi were childhood friends, and she was the first girl that he liked when he was a kid. Eventually, I guess that developed into the first actual relationship Kakashi had that was more than just a fling or casual dating. But, like I said, they were a really messed up pair.
"As you know, Kakashi puts his teammates as his first priority. It was the same with this relationship he had with her: he really cared about Shizuka." Yamato laughed softly. "I remember when we worked in ANBU together, he was really off one day because she was away on an A-rank mission and he had a nightmare about her getting hurt. But that's how much he cared."
Yamato cleared his throat and took a sip of tea before resuming, "On the other hand, I've had the opportunity to work with Shizuka as well, when she worked the undercover missions. Their philosophy on missions couldn't be more different--and they carried it over to their personal lives as well. Shizuka was a loner: she didn't like--or she had a hard time--working with other people. The times I worked with her, my team only worked as back-up in case something bad happened to her--which never happened, since she used to go out of her way to make sure no one else got involved. Now imagine her, a fiercely independent woman who stubbornly refuses to be helped, with Kakashi, a guy who will risk his life for the sake of his comrades: it�s like oil and water.
"Shizuka had a lot of issues as well, and serious problems developed as a result, and those problems she had contributed to their bad relationship. Kakashi wanted to help her and he wanted her to get help, but she wouldn't have any of it. Kakashi couldn't stand how she refused to listen to him, even if he was trying to help her, and she hated the fact that he was always trying to help her. If you walked underneath their apartment window--when they felt it was safe for them to live together--you used to be able to hear them yelling at each other."
Naruto was downright terrified, and made a resolution to bolt at least a mile away from Shizuka and Kakashi, should he ever catch them in the middle of an argument. He whimpered, "That's called a relationshit�, not a relationship."
Yamato only shrugged. "I did warn you that it was really messed up."
Sakura had picked up Aoi and sat him on her lap, and held onto him for dear life. This was like a soap opera--only scarier. She asked, "Was that why she left? I mean... I would have, if I was in a relationship like that."
"Who knows? Maybe, maybe not," Yamato sighed. "But why would she have left the village, rather than just ending the relationship? The way it ended is a little bit extreme for irreconcilable differences, don't you think? I mean, Sakura, you read the tabloids. Celebrities might have a bad public split, or, if they're married, they'll file for divorce. But have you ever heard of anyone disappearing for seven years?"
Apparently not.
Yamato took another sip of tea. "After she left, Kakashi was a bit of a wreck for about a year. If you didn't know him, he seemed to be okay: he still kept his position as one of the best jounin in Konoha, and he had a relatively high mission success rate. But he didn't just say 'Forget about it' and declare their relationship null and void--he actually waited for her to come back for a year. When she didn't, he finally gave up and went back to life as if nothing had ever happened.�
Rubbing his chin, he wondered, "Now that she is back, I don't know what to expect from either of them. From that ping-pong match we saw, they're both very pissed at each other, but neither can bring themselves to argue anymore. Something has to give, but neither is willing to give up before the other. I won't be surprised if the only way they can interact is through physical competitions or spiteful pranks."
The ANBU leaned in even closer to his subordinates, and said softly, "Don't get me wrong, Shizuka is actually a very charming person and she's a good person to be friends with, as is Kakashi-senpai... From now on, I want both of you to know what to expect if they're together--and I want you two to avoid touching that subject. If you hear any gossip from the village jounin about Shizuka and Kakashi, ignore it. Don't ask either of them questions about each other or their relationship--or, as Naruto so eloquently puts it, their 'relationshit.' It's something only the two of them can work out."
Sitting in the onsen a few hours after several vigorous games of ping-pong with Kakashi, Shizuka felt immensely satisfied... and very empty at the same time. A few ping-pong games didn't prove anything, even if she did beat him 3-2.
He was the one who challenged her after she got out of the onsen the first time. But... she was the one who turned it into something of a death match. No matter how Shizuka looked at it, she held most of the responsibility for it coming out the way it had.
Shizuka slid underwater, careful to hold onto Aoi, who sat on her lap, splashing away. Even underwater, with all his splashing and flailing, she could hear him chortling and squealing like he was the happiest baby in the world. It was soothing and made her feel a little bit better.
Reemerging from the water, she hugged him close to her. He cooed and babbled something in his endearing gibberish, turning his head up to place a sloppy kiss on her chin.
"Yes, I have you now, Aoi-chan," she cooed, turning him around so she could kiss his plump cheeks. "I have to pay my full attention to raising you like a good mama should, and I can't be worrying about that moron all the time."
But, later that night, after she had left the hot spring and Aoi had fallen asleep, when she ate sweets until she could feel her teeth rotting in her gums and drank until she passed out, she unconsciously realized that not "worrying about that moron" was easier to say than it was to do.
Especially when her heart rate increased tenfold every time she thought about him, no matter how evil her thoughts were.
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Kakashi gaped at the bill. When he offered to treat them all to the hot spring resort, he knew it would be expensive, but, at the very least, he hoped to have some of the previous month's paycheck left over. Coming from a series of battles and then going directly to an escort mission that ended up being more trouble than it was worth, he wanted to give his team a chance to recuperate--and, later, he wanted to extend that change to Shizuka, who wore herself out running from and fighting against people she didn't realize were comrades until after she came to.
Certainly, the trip had fulfilled its purpose--and then some. The silver-haired jounin turned around, and looked at a particular brunette, who sat on a loveseat in the inn's lobby with her head on the coffee table in front of her.
A huge portion of the bill was thanks to Shizuka, who was now nursing the worst hangover she had ever gotten, while Sakura held onto Aoi, looking concerned for his aunt. Most of it was for an inordinate amount of sweets and alcohol. Kakashi thought darkly, She�ll accidentally kill herself if she goes on like that--either of dental problems that extend to her heart or of liver problems.
But, swallowing the lump in his throat and pride, Kakashi signed the bill and emptied out his wallet of the money he had taken out the day before.
Once that was taken care of, there was still Shizuka. "Oi... Shizuka," he demanded firmly, standing over her. "Can you move?"
"Shut uuuuuppppp," she moaned, covering her ears. "Don't be so friggin' loud, my head really hurts."
Exasperated, Kakashi muttered under his breath as he began to walk away, "Then you shouldn't have drank so much last night."
"Then you shouldn't have broken my ribs nor should you have nicked up my face," she mumbled, looking up menacingly at him. "If you hadn't done that, I wouldn't have wanted to get back at you with my expenses. You know, Sakura-chan told me all about the injuries you gave me when you knocked me out."
"What the hell?" Kakashi sighed. "You're healed up just fine, thanks to 'Sakura-chan' over there."
"That still doesn't change the fact that A, you broke three of my ribs; B, my face got cut up; and C, it hurt like hell."
And what about the times that you were trying to do the same thing to me? he asked her without saying anything. Turning to Naruto, he ordered, "Since Shizuka can't really move, you'll be a gentleman and carry her back to Konoha, won't you?"
"What?" Naruto groaned. "But--!"
He wanted to protest against carrying the tall brunette, but then he remembered the warning Yamato gave him and Sakura the previous night.
"She's light and has nothing on her," replied Kakashi coolly. "Trust me, I would know."
Naruto grudgingly obliged to Kakashi's order when Yamato stepped in front of him and dropped his travel pack. "I'll carry Shizuka," he offered. "But in exchange, you can carry my bags."
Naruto brightened up. Anything was better than carrying a deadweight of a woman, even if she was as light as Kakashi claimed.
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Author's Notes: Oh the drama. And, yeah, I grabbed "relationshit" from Dane Cook. It was the best way to describe it.
// Kami-sama: God
// "KO-RA!": "Hey!"
// "Honto ni...": "Really..."
// "Oi, chibi! Yamete!": "Hey, runt! Stop it!"
// castella: A kind of sponge cake. (If you've watched Bleach, at one point, Orihime mentions one of her weird concoctions during lunch, which happens to be castella with red-beat paste. xD")
// mitarashi dango: The round things you�ll see Anko eating from time to time. This kind of dango has mitarashi, a syrup of soy sauce, sugar, and starch, drizzled on top.
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Catharsis