Chapter 29: New Team Six Arc: Six

Disclaimer: I only own Naruto in my dreams, where I am a person named Kishimoto. In my waking moments I realize that this is a delusion of grandeur.

"Is Mu-kun in?" I'm greeted by Muta's father, Aburame Shoko, when he opens the door.

He pauses for a moment, and doesn't speak much to me. "I have to tell you that Muta-kun is not in right now."

I feel a vein pulse in my throat. "He's at home right now, Shoko-san."

He inclines his head. "Indeed."

"Why does he not want to talk to me?" I step into the hallway. "What did I do that makes him feel that he can't face me?" Why? We didn't do anything wrong? Why doesn't he want to talk to Toku and I anymore?

Shoko-san shrugs, a loose movement of his shoulders. "I cannot say."

I look at him, studying his opaque glasses and thin lips for any sign of emotion. I find none. "You cannot say? Or you will not say?"

"Both." Aburame Shoko steps aside. "I will let you ask."

I look down the long dark hallway, and take a deep breath. It is not his fault. "Thank you, Shoko-san."

"Mu-kun?" I rap on his door, but he makes no reply so I slide it open, and enter his room. The blinds are drawn, and everything is dark. Muta's a blanketed lump at the center of his bed. "Mu-kun?"

"Go away, Hana-chan." He whispers, and he sounds tired. So very, very tired. "Please." I do not understand him, but I see Toku's pale face above the crisp hospital issued sheets in Konoha General once more, and I cannot just go away this time. I cannot step away, because if I do, I will have lost Muta's friendship forever, even if he doesn't know it yet.

"I agreed to go away once, Mu-kun." I reach out to him, and he pulls away. "I won't go away anymore. You have got to listen to me."

"You don't know what they made me do." He pulls back until his back touches the wall. "You don't understand."

"Well of course I don't understand!" I throw up my hands in sheer frustration. "You have not told me what it is that you want me to understand."

"I don't want you to understand it, Hana-chan." Muta finally unwinds himself from his cocoon, and I see for the first time that he is completely covered in kikaichu. "I don't think you should come back."

My mouth flattens to a hard, grim line. "Like hell." Toku needs the both of us, you idiot. Like hell I'd leave you behind. "There's something eating at you. I'm your friend. You should tell me what's the problem."

He trudges over to his desk and covers his face in his hands. "Do you know what T&I is responsible for?"

Torture and Interrogation? "But you work in Tracking." I say, the words weak to my own ears. Of course the prisoners that are captured by the Hunting Squads are returned to T&I, Hana. What the hell were you thinking?

"Yes." He sighs. "I can't get the sight of T&I out of my head, Hana. They had me break someone because I was the nearest Aburame." He shudders. "The man was afraid of bugs. That's why it had to be me." He looks at me, gold eyes brimming with tears. "I love this village, Hana, but I don't know if I can do that again." What is this village? How could anyone ask this of a teenager? Of bright, wonderful Muta who just wanted to protect his friends and his family?

I cup his face in my hands, careful not to crush any kikaichu. "And if I ask you to stay my friend because I don't care what you did?" And it is true that I don't care. How could I? He is one of my oldest and dearest friends. How could I let him leave?

He shudders, but sets his hands over mine. "Then I'm still your friend, Hana-chan."

"Good. Then we have a friend to visit in the hospital." I pull him to his feet. "We were attacked yesterday by a masked ninja."

Muta slides his glasses on and pulls on his high collared jacket. "I assume that Toku will be fine?" He glances at me, judging my facial expressions. "And I'm sure you want to plan about how to permanently remove this masked ninja."

My lips curve into a fanged smile. "You know me so well, Mu-kun."

Haya-senpai is asleep at Toku's bedside, but the nurses tell us that he hasn't yet woken up. We don't want to disturb her, so Muta and I head over to Sensei's room instead.

"Sensei?" I call as I rap on his door. "I brought you a surprise."

Muta raises an eyebrow at me. "I'm a surprise?"

I nudge his shoulder. "Yes. You're now a pleasant surprise."

"Come in." It's Kiho-baachan's voice that answers us. We look at each other once, a glance of apprehension and concern passing between us, and then we turn and head in.

"Oh look at you!" Kiho-baachan surges forwards and presses her cheek against Muta's. "You have no idea how much I wanted to see you just now, Muta-kun."

He wraps his arms around her thin frame. "I'm sorry about what happened, Kiho-baachan."

"I won't die from it, Muta-kun." Sensei's propped up on hospital pillows, and his middle is covered in bandages wrapped far more neatly and tightly than the half hearted job we'd done out in the field. "Come sit down, you two."

We spent the morning trading stories until I become too tired to keep talking, and fall asleep cushioned on my arms. It had been a long night, and Toku hadn't woken up yet, but at least his sister is able to spend time with him now.

Two weeks later, the entirety of the currently active Team Six sits down in the Uchiha District for dinner. Even Sensei, who'd never gone to any of these team dinners before unless they were at his house is in attendance.

"Please, make yourself at home. If there is anything that I could get either of you to make yourselves more comfortable, just let me know." Mikoto-san smiles politely at both Sensei and Toku, but she saves a genuinely happy smile for me. "Fugaku told me that you gave him such beautiful flowers, Hana-chan." She turns and sighs. "He hasn't gotten flowers since we stopped courting. I don't think you know how happy he was." What? Oh, of course, Fugaku-san would never tell his son that a friend of his had given his father flowers. It would be beneath his dignity. No wonder Itachi knew nothing about it.

"I'm glad to hear that, Mikoto-san." What else can I say? The more I thought I knew about Uchihas, the more they showed me how little I actually understood.

Fugaku-san himself finds me right before dinner is supposed to begin. "Inuzuka-chan."

I turn. "Fugaku-san?"

He's holding a hand behind his back, and for a moment I am concerned that he is injured, because the Uchiha Patriarch normally has excellent posture, but he pulls the hand from behind his back a moment later. "Itachi tells me that you did not think I accepted your apology." He practically shoves the flowers in my direction. "I assume you know what these mean."

Dark pink roses and rue. Gratitude and remorse.

I take them very carefully. There'd clearly been thought presented in the flowers despite how casually Fugaku-san had attempted to give them to me. "Yes, Fugaku-san." I look up at him. His face is exactly as stony as it had been when he'd been accepting my apology. "Sensei's wife was a Yamanaka at birth. I understand." I'm beginning to believe that Uchiha Fugaku did have emotions, but there is in fact, a disconnect between his facial expressions and his feelings.

And the fact that he knew such subtle shades of meaning between flowers meant that he actually had hidden depths and hobbies that I knew nothing about. It is only now that I realize how little I really know about the Uchiha Patriarch despite knowing what collision course his life is on. What else have I confused about you, Fugaku-san?

He unbends just slightly. "Good." He takes them from me, and threads a few of the blossoms through my hair. "You'll need your hands to eat." Is all he says to my quizzical expression. His job done, he turns and begins to head towards the kitchen. "We should go to dinner then, Inuzuka-chan."

"Wait!" I don't even really know what I'm asking for. "Fugaku-san?"

He turns around, but says nothing.

"I wanted to know. That is I mean." I fumble to find the right words. What am I even attempting to ask him anyway? "What I meant to say." I say finally, after I organize the thoughts in my head properly. "Is that I'm thinking of applying for a position in the Military Police Force after I make chunin."

Fugaku-san raises an eyebrow.

"I wondered if you would consider it." I finish. Could you possibly be more lame?

"I would consider it." He turns around again. "Make chunin first, Inuzuka-chan." He doesn't seem offended. But then, I've just established that I know nothing about reading his moods.

Alright then. "Thank you, Fugaku-san." I bow in his direction, even though I know he cannot see me. Even if you were offended I thank you.

"I'm alright, Mikoto-san." Toku smiles up at Itachi's kaa-san with amusement in his eyes. "I'm just kind of embarrassed that I didn't even see the attacker beforehand."

Mikoto-san is surprised, but she rearranges her shocked expression into something more pleasant a moment later. "I'm sure you don't mean that, Tokuma-kun."

"It's Toku." He picks up a piece of mochi with his chopsticks and shoves it into my bowl. "Here, take this Hana." The next moment, he's back to looking at Mikoto-san. "I mean." He waves a hand in the direction of his face. "I've got these all seeing eyes or something that the Elders seem to think of as the next coming of Kami's favor or something. I should have been able to see a leaf falling in the forest from 800 meters away, but nope. I'm selectively blind."

Fugaku-san snorts. "And do you believe that your eyes are all seeing?"

Toku's lips quirk downwards. "Well, clearly they aren't." He sighs. "Looks like I have to go back and beg Koma-niisan for tips."

I nudge his shoulder with mine. "Remember that time when you didn't even see Mu-kun despite him being just in front of you?"

Toku sends me a shocked expression. "Oh, Hana." He shakes his head. "Why must you make me look worse?"

"You already put yourself down quite a bit, Toku-kun." Itachi leans forward. "You did nothing wrong, remember?" He sets his chopsticks down, and looks us both in the eye. "If there was a teleporting ninja on a C-Rank mission it means that someone else screwed up."

Toku waves a hand in Itachi's direction. "Yeah, yeah. Doesn't mean it wasn't embarrassing."

Toku's still the first to leave though. As the lanterns are being set out all around the district, he begs leave of Mikoto-san and Fugaku-san. "I have to go." He bows in their direction, deeply, and politely. "Haya-neesan would be worried for me if I don't arrive home before dark." He smooths a hand over the front of his yukata. "I haven't been released from the hospital for all that long, after all."

"You have two elder siblings?" Fugaku-san's remark is calm, but there is a small note of curiosity within.

"Yes. They're about seven years older than me, so they're established already." Toku smiles. "Haya-neesan is a surgeon down at Konoha General, and Koma-niisan works for the Hokage." I'm so sure that's a euphemism for he's in ANBU.

"I see."

As there are no further words, Toku exits the garden through the gate, and his tan yukata-clad form disappears down the side street, into the darkening gloom.

"Fugaku-san." Sensei had been silent the entire night, preferring to listen to us speak, but he's looking at Fugaku-san now. "There's something I have to talk to you about."

"We should go back in then." Mikoto-san lays a hand on Sensei's elbow, and guides him in the direction of the house. "I can make tea. I've heard of how much you love rose tea, Nara-san, and Kagen just had a mission to Tea Country last month."

"You do know how to comfort people, Mikoto-san." Sensei laces his hands behind his head, and winces. It must have stretched his still healing wounds. "Lead the way."

That leaves Fugaku-san and I to walk back together, but that's not entirely a problem, as I still have his flowers in my hair.

Sensei blows over the top of his cup of tea, and sets it down on the table. "I'm not attempting to offend anyone here." He begins, and his hands slide into the thinking seal of their own accord. "But the masked attacker that I fought with had a sharingan." Sensei got a good look at Tobi's eye?

"What are you trying to insinuate?" Fugaku-san has also set his tea cup down, and he looks at Sensei with a hard glint in his eye.

"I am not insinuating that any of you are disloyal to the village." Sensei's fingers tap against each other. "I'm telling you that the man had only one sharingan. And we all know of only one person with a single sharingan."

"Hatake Kakashi." Mikoto-san purses her lips. "But your attacker cannot be the Hatake boy. He's in the Hokage's personal ANBU guard."

"It can't have been Kakashi-san." All heads at the table turn to me, and I find myself honor bound to continue. "Kakashi-san's ANBU Hound, isn't he?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Fugaku-san raises an eyebrow at me. "Are you saying you know where ANBU Hound was during the affair?"

"ANBU Hound has spiky silver hair, and ANBU Hound was the one to carry me back to Konoha." I can't let them keep thinking that it's Kakashi. Kakashi has nothing to do with how crazy his teammate's become. It's not his fault that his sharingan donor is certified insane by this point. "He stayed with me in the Hospital all night."

"You didn't see them at the same time, though." Mikoto-san muses.

"I don't think it's Hatake Kakashi." Sensei sets his hands on the table, finally out of the thinking seal. "I've spared with Hatake. The chakra was nothing like his." No matter the outcome of this conversation, I have to talk to Kakashi.

The whisper of Rin comes to mind once more. If I tell him about both those pieces of information, will he come to a realization and tell the Hokage? Will I save the Uchiha this way?

Fugaku-san slams a hand on the table. "Again, then Nara. I ask you what you think the issue is."

"You remember the masked attacker reported after the Kyubi Incident that Elder Shimura dismissed as mere conjecture?" Sensei leans forwards. "I think they're the same. Which means that it can't possibly be you. What could you hope to gain by attacking your son's team, after all?" Sensei takes a sip from his tea. "I think this is a set up to erode relations between the Uchiha Clan and Konoha."

"You believe us, then?" Mikoto-san's shocked words echo in the quiet stillness of the room. "You honestly believe us."

Sensei takes another sip of his tea. "Would I be sitting here and talking to you if I didn't?"

"HATAKE KAKASHI!" I shriek as I pound on the door of his apartment. "I know you're in there! Let me in!" I swear to all Kami that I shouldn't spend so much time on you, but I can't stop spending time on you.

A finger taps me on the shoulder, and I jump about a foot into the air with a scream. "AH, LiTTLE BLOSom! I HEARD You WEre CaLLING For MY YOUTHFUL RIVAL!" I spy...a lot of green. So this...is Maito Gai? A second thought follows the first. Oh dear Kami, he is actually that loud.

"Ah, yes." What do I even say to Gai? How is it that one person is actually this...I don't even know what this is. "I have to talk to Kakashi-san about a training plan, that's all."

"MY ETERNAL RIVAL IS SO HIP AND COOL!" A rainbow appears in the background. I attempt a quiet kai. It does not dispel. "ALLow Me TO HeLP You wITH THAt."

"Gai-san..." I smile as brightly as I possibly can. "There's no need to trouble you. I have to see Kakashi-san about it today, that's all." His expression falls rather comically, and I hasten to add a sentence to my statement. "I know that he's in here and everything. He's just...playing hide and seek right now."

"WELL THen allOW Me to-"

The door jerks open, and I fall forwards with a squeak. "Ack!" I hit something very solid, but surprisingly not particularly hard.

Kakashi wraps an arm around me and pulls me forcibly into his apartment. "Gai, I challenge you to climb the Hokage mountain with your thumbs."

There are actual stars in his eyes as Gai turns around and races away. "If I CANNOT DO IT WITHIN TWENTY MINUTES I SHALL DO 1000 PUSHUPS!"

Kakshi slams his door shut and wanders over to his bedroom, still bodily carrying me with a single arm. It is very uncomfortable. He sets me down in his sad and singular chair and pads over to sit on his bed.

His apartment smells slightly less like blood and wet dog, and it's clear that he's gotten rid of the bloodstains on his floorboards. It doesn't make me see fewer bloodstains on his floor though. I had knelt in his blood less than two months before in this very room.

I never want to do that ever again.

Once we both are seated, he turns to me. "Talk."

"There are people who think that you're the masked attacker." I scramble to get the words out as quickly as possible, and it ends up being a single breath, so the end of the sentence is jumbled and marred beyond control.

"What." I am uncertain if he's just not heard the words properly, or if he doesn't believe what he's hearing. To be honest, it could be a bit of both.

"There are some people who think you're the person who attacked my team." I state again, a little more clearly this time. "Sensei only saw one sharingan on the attacker."

"And you believe that?" He sounds bored, like he'd like nothing more that to examine his cuticles or something, but he really isn't. Kakashi, despite his bored appearance all the time, cares deeply about each and every one of his comrades. I don't know where I rank, but I'm still a shinobi of Konoha. In some small way, I matter.

I cross my arms over my chest. "Would I be so insistent on getting to you if I did?" I move the chair closer to where he's sitting. "Do you honestly expect that I think that Hound, who sat with me by Toku's bedside all night is the same person who put him there in the first place?" I frown at him. "Are you actually stupid?"

"So why are you here to talk to me anyway?" And he's just so bland, as if none of this is phasing him.

I throw up my hands. "Because the attacker said Rin." Kakashi's visible eye widens with shock. "Just before the attacker nearly killed me and Sensei he whispered Rin, Itachi cast a Katon jutsu at him and he disappeared." The silence is so total that we could hear water running down the hallway. "Do you know that you're the only one who mistakes me for Nohara Rin?"

"It can't be." Kakashi gets up and paces back and forth in front of me. "It's a joke." His hand fists the front of my shirt. "You're joking with me."

"I'm not joking." I look him in eye. "Why would I joke about something like this?"

"It's someone who knows me." Kakashi collapses back on his bed. "They're desecrating Obito's memory. They've stolen his eye. They want to frame someone for something." Well, that's one way to put it.

"Is Uchiha Obito the only other person who would mistake me for a Rin?" I have to ask, because I feel that this conversation is a bad idea after all. Kakashi's clearly far too shaken, and he still hasn't connected all the necessary dots yet.

"No." Kakashi shakes his head. "Obito is dead." He looks at me, sees my disbelief and grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me. "MY FORMER TEAMMATE IS DEAD. DO YOU HEAR ME?"

I nod. I can't dispel this illusion. My realization tastes bitter in my mouth. It's the one thing that keeps him sane and willing to keep living. He needs to believe that he's seeing the world for Obito. Without it, he is nothing. "Uchiha Obito is dead." I put my hand on his shoulder. "I believe you." The lie tastes like ash. "Someone's framing him to get to you." If I ever get my hands on you again, Tobi, I will rip your entrails out your throat slowly.

Kakashi's worth an infinite number of you because you're worth nothing at all, but just attempting to tell him the truth will shatter him to bits.

You don't deserve him. You don't fucking deserve him.

Kakashi lets go of my shoulders and collapses back on his bed. "I." His voice cracks and breaks and seeing his bowed shoulders before me reminds me that he's only seventeen years old. He's the age I was when I died for the first time.

I thought that I could take on the world back then. He's not really all that old at all. Sometimes I forget. I've been a child for so long that I forget that seventeen is actually such a frail age.

I slide off the chair, and loosely wrap him in my arms. "I believe you." I smooth a hand over his heaving shoulders. "I believe you." I don't, but I'll carry this lie for you.

And please Kami-sama. If you exist and you're out there, stop torturing Hatake Kakashi. He's been through enough.

A.N. This chapter was a deluge. Honestly, I didn't expect half the things to happen the way they did in this chapter, but ah it happened and I'm rather proud of it. I believe that at this point in his life, this is how Kakashi would react to someone telling him that Obito is alive and evil. He can't accept it yet, because he's still so convinced that he has to see the world through his teammate's eye. I mean, if he's still late to meetings by hours on end because he's staring at the memorial stone by the time canon starts nearly nine years from this point, he won't be able to take it. In essence, Hana not pushing him further is a kindness.

Thank you so much to CasJeanne (I hope this chapter answers your doubts), Snidekick, Dreamy-Girl2016 (Glad you liked the interactions. More Kakashi Hana interactions this chapter), WhiteFang001, (Hana does spend a lot of time in hospitals...), Sam (Those were some of my favorite scenes to write so far), and May525 for reviewing!

And to everyone else who favorited and followed! You guys inspire me to write more!

~Tavina