Atonement

Chapter 14

"Come on Anko. Stop this madness. Do you think Kakashi would like to see you in the hospital when he comes back?"

Genma stood next to his purple-haired friend and watched her, worried. Since Kakashi's departure five days ago, Anko had done nothing else than train, eat, sleep and train again. It was like Kakashi three years ago all over again and it worried Genma immensely. He could partly understand her actions, he too had started to train harder but Anko over did it. 

Panting, the girl stopped and glared at her other best friend.

"I need to catch up to Kakashi-kun as fast as possible," she muttered exhausted. 

And even though she tried to pretend to be okay, Genma saw right through her mask and the pain and fear she desperately tried to hide laid wide open for him. She missed the silver-haired boy terribly. Genma sighed quietly and quickly grabbed her hand. 

"Let's visit Namikaze-san and Uzumaki-san. Maybe they know something new about Kakashi," he said cheerfully and dragged Anko with him.

'Don't worry Kakashi, I will look after her just like I promised. But please, come home soon. We both miss you,' he thought and prayed to Kami to watch over his friend. 

It hurt him to pretend to be okay around Anko when he missed his best friend as well but he had to endure it. If only to lighten some of his best friend's burden. 

The two children soon stood in front of Kushina's and Minato's house. Throughout their whole walk through Konoha, they had received glances of pity. It was no secret that the two were friends with the boy that went with the first platoon. They were often times called 'cursed children' behind their backs because somebody had started the rumor that everyone associated with the young Hatake was destined to die. Nobody knew who started that mad rumor, not even the Hokage could find out, and that only caused Kakashi's friends to get more furious. It was especially hard on Sakumo and in response, the Hatake had hid himself in his house, only ever leaving his room for a daily check up in the Hokage office.

When Kushina opened her front door only to see two children, Anko Mitarashi and Genma Shiranui, standing there, the smile on her face vanished immediately and instead a frown settled on her face.

Kushina didn't hate the two children, just ... disliked them a lot. 

It had always been Obito, Rin, Kakashi, Minato and her but ever since Kakashi had met Anko and later on Genma, he continued to drift away from them. They were supposed to be a family but that didn't happen. It didn't help that Anko's sensei Orochimaru was responsible for Kakashi's absence. Even though she didn't hate the children, she did hate Orochimaru for what he had done. 

Keeping a polite tone, Kushina asked the two: "How may I help you?"

Genma and Anko, noticing the tense atmosphere, hesitated for a moment but then Genma asked: "We were just wondering if you had heard anything about Kakashi or about the first platoon in general."

Annoyed by the fact that the two wanted to know more about Kakashi, Kushina answered sharply: "No, there is still no news."

At the cold answer, Anko sighed upset and unconsciously tightened her grip around Genma's hand. Genma, noticing the discomfort of his friend, squeezed her hand slightly to let her know he was there. He grinned at the purple-haired girl encouragingly. 

"Thank you for your time, Uzumaki-san," Genma thanked Kushina quickly.

He had seen the displeased look the red-haired woman had given Anko and him and he was determined to get his friend out of here as fast as possible. Anko didn't need anymore reason to be upset.