Things We Do For Love

CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT

Y/N's P.O.V

Days turned into months and soon, a year had passed by. Kakashi exactly hadn't been the best representative of a family member and I spent most of my time with my friends – Saaya and Naomi – without meeting that boy. Tanaka-san had been feeding me the same tale; that Kakashi was a hardworking man, he was a respected shinobi and I had to be understanding of his job. I needed to be patient while he barely made time for me.

At all.

But as times went by, I became immune to his presence and absence. It didn't bother me like before and aside from the growing awkwardness between the two of us, everything seemed fine. That was until the medical ninjas visited our home one Thursday evening, their faces grave as they talked to the oldest in our group. Aoi-san had long been gone; she did send a few letters to Tanaka-san, talking about her marital life and endless duties. She missed us all dearly and promised to visit, but that visitation never came. Currently, the eldest girl had already been promised to join a Daimyo's mansion as head-maid. That left just three of us underaged orphans, scared to death of being replaced or rehoused to another orphanage where we would definitely be bullied by the residents. Not because we came from a different orphanage, but because we were not pure Konoha citizens.

During the first few days, our old mistress had steady recovery and all of us seemed overjoyed, however, her ill health worsened suddenly and within a week or two, she was bedridden. Tanaka-san could barely recognize some of her own students on bad days but on good days, she would tell us stories while the other girl prepared food. More medic-ninjas visited our house, their briefcases and supplies a wonder to my eyes; I tried peeking inside their bottles of herbs, medicines and masks, some even offered us lozenges that tasted like caramel. And when we would annoy the ninjas too much, one of them would bring out an injection – a monstrous device that had us scurrying out of Tanaka-san's room. Even though I was a girl of eleven, having no conscience of the severity we faced, my heart wrenched when the professional nurses said that Tanaka-san was at her wits end, that she had lived a good life and now deserved to be at peace. I wasn't able to process what those words meant, everyone wanted peace... then why did those words have a negative impact on me?

Three weeks into her treatment, Tanaka-san seemed to have lost the battle as she breathed her last in a gloomy evening day. Rain poured onto the roof of our orphanage, its arrows so sharp that the house rattled – threatening to tear apart the pillars. With growing anxiety, the fear that her sweet face wouldn't welcome us in the morning became harrowing. Her slight remarks on my odd behaviors, teaching me how to tend a garden while also being disappointed at my petty fights, rude descriptions of other people and being mean to anyone who teased me had kept me grounded to this place. Perhaps, I acted out to get some sort of connection from my mistress and now, she was gone.

When she was laid to rest, the burial ground looked bleak and uncaring. It were just us four girls, accompanied by the priests and the delivery man who was kind enough to help us carry her body to the cemetery. It felt cold despite the sun glowering at us, and outside the graveyard people carried on laughing without a care. It seemed as if no one knew what we were going through, and even if they did, no one bothered. Our fates thrown to the gutter, we were no longer their headaches. Or so it seemed. Before we were sent on our way, a scary looking Jonin approached us, delivering a shocking news – we were to expect a new mistress within three days and until then, the house would be looked after by a temporary maid. There were no objections and if there were, then none would be accepted; it was apparent by the way he looked at us that the decision was made by important people we couldn't defy.

Our hearts raced for those three days; unsure how to welcome a woman we knew nothing about. In case of Tanaka-san, she raised us when most of us were babies. But this new mistress... what did she look like? How would she treat us? Saaya was the worst one in our group, her hands trembled and voice shook. She even asked if push came to shove, could we just run away? I did ponder; we could run away but how would we survive without money? What about all the bad people Tanaka-san warned us about? At the end, we all decided that we would tolerate the worst just so our tummies were full.