Six Years Too Long

Chapter 32

Third person pov

There's a smell in the air. One Kurama thinks he may recognize.

He doesn't like what that implies.

~~~

Ayumu's office is filled with only the quiet fluttering of the curtains, brushed by the barest breeze fluttering in through the windows, which have been cracked to bring in fresh air. Kakashi is perfectly still, his posture textbook and his lone eye trained on a single spot on the wall behind Ayumu's head. It's pretty clear he's not going to cooperate.

Ayumu smiles nonetheless. Getting Kakashi to talk had never been his first priority. Just getting him in the room was a momentous occasion-- one he would very likely be popping a bottle open to later. Kakashi Hatake was attending a therapy appointment in a therapist's office, and the manhandling it had taken to get him here had only been minimal.

Scheduling him in right after Naruto had been a stroke of genius. Everyone had their eyes on the boy right now, wary after his kidnapping, wary because of the fox. Kakashi was one of the ones most dogged in his pursual of Naruto's safety, always lingering, not wanting to fail again.

He'd been right outside the door as soon as Naruto finished. With the help of Kushina Uzumaki's fiery temper and willingness to full-body tackle, dragging him through the door had practically been cake compared to Ayumu's past attempts to ask him... well, anything, really.

Slightly giddy with his success, Ayumu couldn't help the way his smile widened slightly. Kakashi twitched slightly. Was that irritation? Ayumu jotted it down, half to annoy him more. Showing emotion was good considering they'd already been here twenty minutes and he'd hardly blinked twice, let alone showed emotion.

Then again, Ayumu hadn't said anything either. It was a bit of a powerplay, trying to get Kakashi to start the conversation, but Ayumu doubted he'd reply if he tried to speak first anyhow. 

He had around three clipboards worth of questions and notes on the young man, who had about as many problems as you'd expect from someone lost everything and then joined ANBU at 13, of all ages. Honestly, what had they been thinking?

Ayumu stared intently at Kakashi for another moment before humming and nodding to himself, looking down to doodle a few flowers on his clipboard. Kakashi twitched again, and Ayumu pursed his lips, nodding some more as though he had just written a profound and riveting observation. 

The silence continued. There was the faintest tinkling of windchimes from somewhere outside further down the road, and Ayumu could see Kakashi shift in his peripheral, almost as though the man were considering making for the windows. He'd find very quickly that the glass was reenforced and that, despite being slightly open, they were very much still locked and would not go up anymore than that.

Ayumu paused, considering. He wouldn't put it past Kakashi to blow a hole in the wall just to get out of the suffocating aura that was beginning to build. He shrugged to himself. If he did take that route, it would tell Ayumu plenty-- probably at least a page's worth of more notes. 

The image he had of Kakashi's psyche was still a blurry one, but it was a clearer image than anything anyone else had gotten before. Kakashi Hatake was a notorious mystery, closed off from the people and world around him. His constructed front was impeccable for a man his age; especially considering all he'd gone through.

But Ayumu is very, very good at his job. And in this room? It's his court, and no one else's. 

He draws some more flowers. He wonders if he can get a field to sprout in Kakashi's mind too, the same way Naruto's gotten one going in his own scape. Speaking of-- he's set to talk to that fox again soon. Not looking forward to that, but he feels he's gotten past the fear of it and is now healthily numb to his circumstance.