Kaedehara 'Kujou Killer' Kazuha

lightning strikes, rock spikes, water flows and wind blows

Yaku rubbed his eyes, his body was stiff and his back hurt. They had been staying at Sasuke's house for almost three months now. The friends had promised to stay for as long as it took for Sasuke to overcome the grief but he had struggled more than they had expected, even now he barely spoke, instead he sat staring blankly at the wall. All of them were still recovering and coping differently. Tomo threw himself into his training, constantly outside pushing himself desperately as if growing stronger and being a more adept warrior would bring him closure. Kazuha on the other hand was constantly slipping off. Yaku would hear the floor boards creak sometimes in the dead of the night as he once again left. Yaku assumed he must go somewhere quieter, perhaps somewhere grief didn't hang heavy in the air, it must be too much for his introverted friend to handle, he seemed to shrink further into his shell as the days went by.

Yaku sat up groggily, still half asleep and immersed in his thoughts. He was sleeping on Sasuke's couch, his friends grandfather missing. Yaku could feel the dried tears on his face, he must have cried in his sleep at one point. He rose off the couch, wincing as a sharp pain shot up his spine, and made his way to the bathroom.

Yaku splashed cold water onto his face, allowing it to distract him momentarily from the pain. He thought back to how normal that fated morning was, he had been in a good mood even. Then he had received the call from Sasuke...and then he was here, with a gaping hole in his chest and empty tear ducts. He shook his head, he would go outside, he decided, to clear his thoughts.

Yaku  stepped outside, careful to not make much noise and wake up Sasuke, Tomo or Kazuha. He breathed in the cool night air. He could see the grand narukami shrine and took comfort in the gentle glow it emitted. Enraptured by its beauty he found himself bowing his head and praying, to the kitsune , the archons, celestial, whoever would listen. He prayed for Sasuke, for Genji Hamasaki and for the truth. Though it had been near months they hadn't given up though a small part of him feared the worst he refused to listen. The detectives had been working round the clock and though they had hinted at it being a cold case Tomo's withering glare and Sasuke's hollow expression had caused them to continue their fruitless search.

Yaku finished his prayer and opened his eyes, he felt slightly better. He continued to survey the scenery around him before something caught his eye. A book lay open, face down on the floor. He looked up, it had appeared to have fallen from the window of the room Kazuha was sleeping in. All 3 friends had insisted on staying with Sasuke and after much resistance Yaku had convinced Tomo and Kazuha to take the spare rooms while he took the couch. Yaku picked up the book, Kazuha's neat looping handwriting filled the pages. Yaku closed it and turned back into the living room to return it to Kazuha before something stopped him. 

There was a nagging feeling he couldn't quite shake, he had felt it the moment he had seen Kazuha's reaction to the disappearance. He had chalked it up to just a different response to shock, it was also so long ago that he could be misremembering the details, his paranoid brain attempting to fill in the gaps, but he knew Kazuha and he knew himself. He wasn't making things up and he  had expected an entirely different reaction...

Yaku thought this over as he turned the book in his hands, one one side the book could be a diary and he shouldn't invade his friends privacy...but on the other side his friend may need help coping and if he didn't get help what if it led him to doing something dangerous? Yaku already worried about Kazuha's constant long disappearances, he would never answer properly when questioned about them and Yaku didn't want to pry, but what if he was harming himself in some way? 

Yaku considered it more before caving and opening the book, he scanned the pages with growing curiosity.