Tear Me Apart [18+] ENGLISH VERSION

Chapter 11: Beast unleashed

„Senpai?"

...

„Kakashi-senpai!"

A tanned hand waved in Kakashi's view. He raised his head. „Huh?"

„Kakashi-senpai, the signature," said Naruto, pointing to the sheet of paper on Kakashi's desk. „Oh, yes, of course." He pushed out the tip of his ballpoint pen, which he had been holding motionlessly between his fingers until then, and signed the declaration.

„Thank you," Naruto murmured, taking the sheet of paper, but then he didn't turn to leave.

„Is there anything else?" Kakashi asked harshly, appraising his assistant.

„Senpai, I..." Naruto started, obviously searching for words, and finally asked insistently, „You're so absent-minded these days. Has something happened?"

Kakashi leaned back in his office chair and crossed his arms over his chest, the pen clamped firmly in his fist. „I don't see what concern it is of yours."

Naruto seemed unsettled. „You've been in a bad mood for a week, even worse than a few months ago. You were so cheerful and now... Is everything okay?"

Groaning, Kakashi loosened his posture again, leaned forward and absently started to push some papers from one side to the next, just to appear busy. „Everything's fine."

Naruto, the persistent pest that he was, was not going to be fobbed off like that. „I'm always here for you, Senpai. If you want to talk to me about it, then–"

„But I don't want to!" Kakashi snapped at him, slamming his fist with the pen on the table. „Everything is fine, Na-ru-to, and now mind your own business. Or are you begging for more work?!"

Any other person would have backed away from Kakashi's outburst of anger, but Naruto remained steadfast, propping his hands, including the one with the declaration, which was slightly crumpled because of this, on a few folders, bending down far and staring Kakashi earnestly in the eyes. „Senpai! Obviously NOT everything is fine with you. So come on, talk already!" When Kakashi remained silent, he added, „I've known you long enough and even if not, I have eyes in my head and I'm said to have at least a little empathy. You forget things, you're unfocused, you were much too polite to Tsunade-sama, you didn't even snap at me when I had to leave early on Tuesday because of Boruto. Something is wrong with you and I want to know what it is because I care about you, Senpai. For days now, you've been coming to the office as if the world had ended out there."

„Maybe it has for me!" Kakashi blurted out involuntarily and he would have liked to smash his own skull. How could he lose his temper like that?! He jumped up from his chair, slammed the ballpoint pen down on the plan for a new client in Shanghai and hissed, „Stay out of my life, Naruto. My problems are nothing for you to deal with."

Enraged, he stormed to the door and ran into Sasuke, who blinked at him in confusion. „Kakashi-senpai..."

Without saying a word to Sasuke – because for fuck's sake, he didn't want to look into those eyes that were so similar to those of his older brother – he pushed the Uchiha aside and immediately pointed at Sakura, who was standing next to Naruto's desk and looked surprisingly scared. „You! I expect a report from you about Stockholm, and preferably yesterday!"

Sakura stared at Kakashi in a daze, but nodded and turned around, where she clearly wiped her face with her sleeve. Kakashi stormed out of the building. He was loaded, angry, sad, desperate and so full of hate that he couldn't take it anymore and hadn't wanted to for a long time. He saw his only way out in giving in to his addiction. It burned within him like a painful flame that threatened to consume him again and again. He had fought against it because of his lover, had been able to keep it at bay, but since that devastating Sunday a week ago, it had grown stronger than ever. Since his breakup with Itachi, he had already killed four times. He no longer lured his victims away from Haneda Airport with care, worrying about the consequences of his actions, no, he simply drove into the night, picking out random strays to slaughter in the darkness that surrounded him like an aura.