I Can't Stand You

Idiot / Important - Ebisu

Ebisu had felt sick since the previous night.  He had the chance to say something to her, but he didn't.  He had the chance to make her feel better, but he didn't take it.  And when he left, he could hear her crying.  He had made her cry.

"You okay, Sensei?"

Bato, one of his new genin, was addressing him.

"Huh?  Yeah.  Why?"

"Because your sleeve is on fire."

He looked down, just now noticing that his arm was getting progressively hotter.  He frowned as he ripped his bandana off and beat his sleeve with it, putting the growing flame out.

"Yeah, I'm fine.  Dismissed."

The three genin watched him, as if confused or wondering if this was some sort of test, before bidding him goodbye.  Putting his bandana back on, he looked down at his burned sleeve.  He was terribly distracted today.  Sighing, he resigned himself to heading home to change.

Walking along with his head down, a familiar smell filled his senses as a woman passed.  He looked up and turned around to see who it was.  The woman had also turned to look, wearing a light green, flowing dress and a grey sweater over it and black ankle-length soras.

"Katsu?"

She looked... completely normal.  Her loose braid snaked down her back.  She turned back quickly and kept walking.  He turned back around and-

No.

Turning back toward her, he took a deep breath.  He wasn't going to let this sit on his conscience any longer.

"Katsu!  Wait!"

"No.  Leave me alone.  Don't you have more important things to do?"

She continued to walk on; he kept up beside her.

"I didn't mean to make it sound like your job isn't important.  Let me make it up to you-"

"No thanks.  You don't have anything to make up for.  I don't even know you."

He sighed and stopped following her, watching her walk away.

***

He had debated on whether he should even bother her tonight.  She clearly didn't want to see him, and didn't think much of him, calling him a stranger.  But the sound or her cries were permeating his brain.  He felt like a piece of shit.

Opening the door to The Kat's Meow, there were a few other people in there on this Thursday night.  Nobody even bothered to look up at him.  He didn't see Katsu, but a moment later, she walked out of what appeared to be the store room.  She walked right past him and back to the counter, sitting behind it.

"Katsu-"

"Buy something or get out."

Her quiet, emotional answer made him want to cry.  Disappearing into the far corner of the store, he picked up a bunch of stuff.  He didn't even know what he had, but he took it to the front counter, dumping it in front of her.  She didn't look up at him as she began ringing things up silently.  He watched the top of her head.

"I'm sorry, Katsu.  What you do is very important.  More important than what I do.  At least you make people happy.  I don't."

She held her hand out for payment and he noticed it was shaking slightly.  He wanted to hold her hand and tell her that he was an idiot, but instead he put the correct amount of mon in her hand.  He could see silent tears running down her neck and chest as she kept her head down.

"Good night. Katsu.  Please, don't let the words of an idiot like me hurt you."

He took his big brown bag of porn and left.

***

He couldn't sleep last night and he couldn't focus now.  Only having a brief meeting with his team, they obviously knew something was up.  All he could do was tell them that he had felt ill and they would reconvene tomorrow.  But things weren't going to be better tomorrow, either.  All he could do was go back to The Kat's Meow tonight and apologize to this person that he didn't really know again.  Because for some reason this feeling was gnawing at him.

And now he had cleared the rest of his day to sit on a bench outside and think about what an asshole he was.  Oh boy.  Tilting his head back, he stared off into the clouds-

Until someone sat next to him.

Looking over, he was expecting to see Kakashi or Genma, but it was Katsu.  She had on her green dress and grey sweater, looking completely normal.  She didn't say a word, but that was fine.  He was the one who needed to say something to her.

"I shouldn't have implied that I'm more important than you."

"Maybe you are."

He shook his head no.

"I heard you crying..."

She was looking at the ground.

"I don't know why.  I don't know you, and we seem to keep butting heads.  I don't know why I cared so much about what you said."

"Are you hungry?"

She shrugged.

"Can I take you out to lunch?  It's hard to apologize properly to someone I don't even know."

She looked up at him, a look on uncertainty on her face.

"Okay."