Roses {Kakashi Hatake}

22. Experiments

Walking through the forest, the two ANBU members talked about recent happenings. That included the silver haired boy's new summons.

"You're not going to show me?" Akahana questioned, "You're going to stop at talking to me about them?"

Kakashi shook his head, "You'll see them eventually."

Hidden behind her mask, Akahana raised an eyebrow, "When is that? When I'm in a life threatening situation?"

"You're asking an awful lot of questions today."

"Oh Kakashi-chan, you love me for it." 

Kakashi sighed, but still refused to give in. They didn't have the time for her to meet his summons, she'd be occupied with rubbing Pakkun's paws too long. "When we're back at the village."

"Or when we need them."

"Not now."

"Oh come on!"

***

After the mission, Akahana still hadn't seen his ninken, but decided to let it be for the moment. They were to meet Danzo, who wanted both of them to be part of ROOT.

After the meeting (both of them weren't quite convinced yet to be part of the organisation), they met another member who possessed the wood element.

"You're thinking about breaking in the Hokage's office to look for files about him, aren't you?" Akahana asked her boyfriend when leaving the building, "What if we get caught?"

"You're not coming with me," Kakashi stated, "I don't want to get you in trouble."

Akahana shook her head, "I'm not letting you go alone. We're in this together, I want to know more about this guy too."

Kakashi tried to reason with the girl, but eventually gave up. She refused to listen, no matter what he said. "Why do you have to be so stubborn?"

Akahana gave him a closed eyes smile, "It's what makes me me." She then added, "Besides, you're just as stubborn."

That night, the couple sneaked inside the Hokage's residence, opening several drawers, without finding what they were looking for.

After a while, they realised they weren't alone anymore, Hiruzen had entered the room as well and stood behind Kakashi.

"What are you doing here?"

Akahana spoke up, "It was my idea, Hokage-sama. We wanted to know more about wood-"

"It was my idea," Kakashi interrupted, "I dragged her along."

Hiruzen chuckled lightly, "You two definitely seem to find yourself in situations like this one." He decided to tell them the truth about the Kekkei Genkai they wanted to know more about. He had already told them about Naruto, yet had not heard anyone else talk about it, so he figured they could be entrusted with this kind of information.

Hence, he told them about the experiments Orochimaru had conducted on small children involving the DNA of Hashirama Senju. He had tried to recreate the wood style technique, but as far as he knew, every test subject had died from it. Then, he told them about the kidnappings that had occured in the last ten years.

Afterwards, Akahana headed home, Kakashi walking with her for a while before turning back to talk to Hiruzen again. There was something he needed to know.

It pained her to see him this way, still unable to let go of the past, still unable to not think about Rin's death and blaming himself. Akahana sighed, no matter what she said could convince him otherwise, even what she had said right before he left. "I know how you feel, believe it or not. Somehow, I believed I was responsible for my parent's death, but I chose not to let it weigh me down in the end and learned to live with it. To accept they were gone and there was nothing I could do to prevent it. Our grief does not bring back the dead, neither does blaming yourself."