Love Triangle: Kakashi vs. Genma

42 | Lucky

It was a few weeks before Naruto and Jiraiya actually returned to the village. Everyone, while worried for Kakashi, still had missions to take and students to teach. [Y/N] busied herself with missions outside of the village—if she stayed in town, she wouldn't get anything done. When she was in town, she stayed at the hospital with Kakashi (they moved him there when he still hadn't woken up the day after his incident with Itachi).

That particular day that Naruto and Jiraiya returned with Tsunade, [Y/N] had already been sent to the Village Hidden in the Sand. It was her job continue helping make diplomatic amends with the village post-invasion attempt (much to her chagrin, as she had fought her father time and time again before his death about not wanting to maintain a diplomatic role, not to mention the Sand village's role in his death).

Kakashi finally awoke with a start. Tsunade, who had just healed him, stood in front of him, unimpressed and frankly, rude. He had just sat up, sweat pouring down his forehead, when she sighed. "Disgraceful. To be taken completely out of the game by two low life punks like that. I thought you were supposed to be the best."

He narrowed his eyes—more from exhaustion than anger—and gave a half-ass response. "Sorry to disappoint you."

A nurse came in to start doing a baseline assessment on Kakashi as the room cleared out, what with Tsunade having another patient to see (Guy would never let her forget about Lee in the next room). Kakashi looked at the nurse. "How long have I been here?" She smiled sympathetically and explained to him that he had been here quite some time now, but he was very lucky.

"Lucky?"

"Yes sir. You've had friends here visiting every day. Not always the same ones, but every day nonetheless! Anyway, I've finished my assessment and I'll leave you alone for a while. It's about time for your friends to make their usual visit, so rest up!"

She helped Kakashi lie back before exiting the room. He felt tired, but he wasn't sleepy. His mind ran wild. What had happened with Itachi? Did all of his friends make it out okay? Did anyone have the same fate as he did? Where's [Y/N]?

[Y/N]!

Kakashi jerked straight up in bed and almost tried to heave himself up to stand before he heard someone from the door. "Calm down. She's fine. Just worried about you."

He looked to the doorway where Asuma stood leaning against the door frame. Kakashi relaxed but stayed sitting up. He sighed and rubbed his forehead as Asuma made his way into the room and sat at the foot of the bed. Kakashi looked up at his friend.

"Well, what happened?"

Asuma took his time to explain everything. He told Kakashi about how the fight had ended, how [Y/N] had gone to look for Itachi right after, about his talk with her that night, how she hasn't been in the village much since, and about how, when she was in the village, she slept in the chair by his side.

"She's really been torn up Kakashi. She doesn't like to see you like this. I think that's one reason she stays away so much."

"Where is she now?"

Asuma clicked his tongue. "Hmm. I think they sent her to the Sand village. She's been playing diplomat the last few weeks since we've been without a Hokage. She'll be relieved to hear Tsunade is taking that out of her hands... you know, she should be back here in a few days."

"A few days... Asuma, is... is [Y/N] disappointed in me?"

Asuma was taken aback. It was not every day that Kakashi let his feelings show, let alone openly spoke about them. Asuma's jaw went slack for just a second before Kakashi dropped his head. Asuma realized that he hadn't really responded and Kakashi had probably taken it the wrong way.

"Of course she's not. You forget that she knows Itachi too. He was one of her closest friends. She knows what he can do. She knows that you really took a hard hit here."

"Yeah, her friend. I'm sure seeing him again like that wasn't easy for her."

"No, probably not. She won't really talk about it, at least not to me. But I do know it's been a lot harder for her to see you hurt by him."

"Well, it won't happen again... Come on, I want out of this bed. I'm going home."

Asuma laughed. He didn't figure that Kakashi would last long talking about his feelings. He was already acting like his old, apathetic self again.