Blame It All on Me. Part 2

Chapter 3. The Night-Fly and Lantern

Contrary to expectations, the journey was progressing peacefully and without major events. They stopped for the night in a small village about halfway to the capital.

Arina was restless the entire day – the only reason she volunteered to walk was to try and hide her nervousness. And now, during dinner, she felt that she could barely swallow a bite of food. Even though he wasn't there, she could almost physically feel Kakashi's cold gaze on her.

She was not too far from the truth: guarding their peace, Kakashi really did turn his attention to her much more often than it was necessary. However, the further, the more difficult it was for him to maintain his forced severity.

Hiruzen, seeing the girl's awkwardness, gently teased her all evening in his usual manner. He also tried to touch upon the subject of their relationship with Kakashi, although he did not directly mention his name, rather embarrassing both the girl and Kakashi, who was unwittingly eavesdropping on them.

Then it was Hiruzen's turn to be embarrassed, while Kakashi snorted involuntarily: Arina suddenly asked why the Anbu had not joined them for dinner. After all, if there had been 'ordinary' ninjas with them, they would have been sitting at the same table. In fact, the shinobi carrying the palanquin had only just shortly before left the dining room to rest for the night. Hiruzen somehow awkwardly explained that this was the tradition: the Anbu always remained in the shadows, regardless of the situation.

Then the girl went further and continued to be meticulously questioning how, in this case, their life was organized: food, sleep, and... other pressing issues. At this point Kakashi was already frankly enjoying the rapidly increasing confusion of the Hokage. He had a reasonable feeling that the girl was deliberately pestering Hiruzen, as if to get back at him for his own torture – he had personally already explained some of the subtleties of this aspect of his profession to her before, and her emphatically innocent expression left no doubt – she remembered it perfectly well.

As a result, Hiruzen pleaded tiredness and retreated to his chambers, leaving the girl alone. Arina soon also went to her room.

☙ ❦ ❧

Arina returned from the washing room, turned off the light and walked up to her futon. She stood for a while in thought, glancing surreptitiously at the window a couple of times.

There were no curtains here, only the opaque sliding shutters on the windows, and she didn't want to close them. It had been a rather hot day, and the night had not yet had the time to cool the air in the room sufficiently, but the girl felt a pleasant coolness flowing from the window aleady.

Finally, Arina sat on the bed. She thought a little more, staring doubtfully at the window.

'Oh, what is it that he hadn't seen already?' she grumbled mentally and began unwrapping her yukata's belt.

However, as soon as she bared her shoulders, another insight came to her: 'He has, but the others haven't!' – and she immediately pulled on the yukata back on again in panic. She then slapped herself on the forehead: why did she even think that someone from the Anbu would be watching her, and even more – so closely? She's not Hiruzen, after all...

Arina stared sullenly out of the window again. If they were watching her now, they were probably rolling with laughter from her twitching... Sighing, she finally lay down as she was, with her yukata on.

She lay there for a while, remembering the events of the past day. However, her thoughts kept turning to Kakashi, who was somewhere nearby. For some reason, she was especially acutely aware of his presence tonight.

What if he had come over to her, the girl was wishing timidly, but almost immediately sarcastically pulled herself back: 'Yes, imagine he'd show up and you would ruin everything as usual...'