The Huntress

A New Resolve

A bouquet of Scotch Brooms sits gently on the bedside table. The afternoon sun's beams cast intricately shaped shadows throughout the hospital room in between its radiant golden rays. Minute dust particles caught in the fractions of light nearly twinkle like a natural glitter around her and amber eyes gaze softly down at him.

"Hey, Stranger." Katsume smiles brightly at him, then retracts her hand from his hair when she's confirmed he's awake.

Kakashi's eyes widen as he sits up and stares at her in awe. She's smiling at him, right? He's not imagining it? He's not just dreaming? She's actually awake?

He had to be sure.

Without control of his body, his arm travels from the sheet up to her face. Katsume awkwardly glances between his gesture and his eye holding her in a curious gaze, her eyebrows drawing in confusion. His right palm rests delicately along her jaw as his thumb swipes across her cheek. Absentmindedly, her eyes close as she momentarily leans into his cool touch. His eye, dark as onyx, studies her calm features. She's warm, he thought. Alive. Awake...

His mask creases as he smiles, his eye softening at the conclusion, "Hey, Traveler. Where'd you sneak off to this time?"

He retracts his hand and sits down beside the bed again. Katsume opens her eyes to stare at him in wonder as he relaxes back in the chair and speaks to her so nonchalantly as if he didn't just do what he just did. She settles her thoughts with a deep breath as she adjusts herself more comfortably in the bed, bringing her knee up and wrapping her arms loosely around it.

"The Land of the Dead, I think," she chuckles seeing his eye widen a bit at her answer, "How long have I been out?"

"A week," he stands and starts to make his way to the door, "I need to notify the Hokage of your condition."

Before he can get too far, Katsume reaches out and grabs his flak jacket and he halts his movements turning back to her, "Is there something wrong?"

She shifts her gaze away from him looking towards the door, an indiscernible emotion contorting her features. "Could you stay a little while longer? I don't...I don't want to see her quite yet."

His face heats up briefly before he realizes something. Huh? Wait...could the Hokage be...

Click.

The last corner piece falls perfectly into place.

The potential of the picture is so much clearer now. Now that the guidelines are in place, it all makes so much more sense–her strength, why she is so heavily monitored, her summoning abilities, everything is seen in the new light of the final corner piece. He has the boundaries of the picture and can now more easily work his way toward the middle. The Fifth Hokage's daughter, and the daughter of two Legendary Sannin. That would also makes her a descendant of Uzumaki and Senju Clans, the great-granddaughter of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju.

"You could say my mother wasn't ready for me...so she abandoned me..."

Her words ring around in his mind. The Fifth Hokage abandoned her only child? Why would she do that? No. It's not his business. Katsume trusted him with the information, and it is not his place to pry into her family affairs. That explains why Orochimaru abducted her. She would have plenty of enemies if word got outside the Leaf about her relation to the Hokage and the Sannin. Is that why Lady Tsunade left her? Because Katsume inherited a target on her back? Stop, Kakashi. You're mentally prying. Leave it alone.

"Alright."

Kakashi stayed and read for a while in the chair beside the bed, narrowly dodging questions about the book contents and sly peeks from the white-haired woman.