The Case-Book of Kakashi Hatake

A Study in Silence {Part 3}

As we approached the door of 221, I couldn't help but notice just how much taller Hatake was than I as he straightened up some to rap the knocker on the door loudly.

There was bustling and the sound of someone going down stairs and shutting doors.

After what seemed like an amount of time much longer than it actually was, the door was thrown open, following the sound of a couple of locks being slid back.

The man standing on the other side of the door created quite the funny picture. His light brown hair was much longer than average, hanging down almost to his shoulders, and a blue bandanna was tied around the top of his head, knotted at the front. I figured that it was there to keep his hair out of his eyes since he had a box of cleaning supplies held precariously under the arm holding open the door and a broom in the other. His slacks had dust circles from kneeling down and his buttoned shirt was starting to come untucked. The toothpick resting in his mouth moved as his lips curled into a strange mixture of a smirk and a smile.

"Kakashi, who's the pretty lady?"

Hatake chose, wisely, to ignore that comment, but instead got his own dig in.

"Dr. Watanabe, this is my landlady, Genma Shiranui."

The smirk was instantly replaced by a scowl and a light blush covering Genma's features as he sent a promise of death in the form of a glare to my silver-haired companion. I had to avoid laughing at his visible struggle to maintain his composure.

"A pleasure, Dr. Watanabe. Are you the other tenant that Kakashi told me about?"

I nodded with a smile and some of his ire seemed to vanish a little.

"I'm Genma Shiranui, your new landlord," he stated with a pointed glare towards an apparently oblivious Hatake.

Said man cleared his throat lightly, "We wanted to take a look at the rooms."

Genma shrugged, "Right this way."

He stepped back out the doorway, and Hatake and I followed Genma in before he closed the door behind us and put down his cleaning supplies.

Genma lived in the unit downstairs, 221A, and Hatake and I were led up a narrow flight of stairs to the door labeled 221B. Inside was a small kitchen, a living area complete with a fireplace, and two bedrooms. It was very nice for the price, and I was finding myself enjoying Hatake's and Genma's humorous, if not a little strange, company immensely so I took the rooms immediately, moving into our unit the very next day.

We stayed there peacefully for several weeks, mostly keeping to ourselves. Hatake was invariably awake and out and about long before I was even out of bed. I'd usually go downstairs and eat breakfast and chat with Genma before spending most of my day upstairs, reading, writing, or finding some other way to amuse myself. On the other hand, Hatake was much less consistent with his daily schedule. Some days he would request the use of the sitting room, where I'd retire to my bedroom, and then he'd meet with the people that he said were his clients, who were always a wide range of different sorts. Other days he would be gone from sunrise to after sunset at the library or a laboratory or some other place of which I had no knowledge. And then for several days on end, he would not move from the small sofa in our flat for the entire day, either reading or plucking away at his violin morosely, his dog Pakkun sitting at his feet.