A fair share of gossiping was devoted to Arina herself: everyone knew that he had brought her to Konoha, as well as the fact that later something went wrong between them, only confirmed by her shying away from him. This caused her special indignation: it was enough for her that Kakashi was regularly within her sight, and the colleagues almost squealed like some fangirls every time he appeared, and then there were those meaningful glances and whispering behind her back, or even attempts to find out something about the mysterious hottie, since she herself was clearly not interested. At the same time, Kakashi pointedly did not interact with her, so she had nothing to confront him with.
On top of everything else, Arina also acquired an extra feeling of guilt because she almost dragged him to the afterlife with her. His bandaged hand did not escape her – the girl remembered perfectly well that when they met by the Hokage's office on that vindictive day, despite the presence of other injuries, his hands were alright.
Therefore she rather welcomed this change.
☙ ❦ ❧
On the day they were supposed to set off, Arina approached the Hokage's residence with a sinking heart – he seemed to be deliberately teasing her, no more returning to the subject of the Anbu accompanying them. However, there was still hope that, since Anbu-class ninja usually did not show their presence outside of Konoha unless absolutely necessary, she might never even find out who exactly was watching over them.
A two-seater palanquin was already standing in the courtyard and its bearers, clearly bored, were waiting nearby. Like Hiruzen said, they were not civilians, but also shinobi, already familiar to Arina. Lately, apparently, his age was beginning to tell, and Hiruzen was increasingly resorting to their assistance. Although this time Arina had a suspicion that her company also played a role in choosing this method of traveling: for a fully-proficient ninja, even at Hiruzen's age, the road to the capital was not that difficult. Arina, on the other hand, was just beginning to explore this skill, and due to the peculiarities of her chakra flows, she was still experiencing some difficulties.
After greeting and exchanging a few words with the shinobi, the girl left her bag in the palanquin and went to report herself to the Hokage. She then went out into the courtyard again to wait for him to join them.
Hiruzen came out a little later, and not alone. Seeing his companion, Arina, although she expected this, still almost shuddered – it was Kakashi himself. He was telling something softly to Hiruzen, who was listening to him thoughtfully, folding his hands behind his back and looking ahead.
Over the time Arina didn't see much of Kakashi, he appeared to have grown even taller and more mature, broadening in the shoulders some more. Although, perhaps, it was just the contrast with the relatively short and slender Hokage.
Kakashi was holding the fox mask in his hand, and when he finally acknowledged Arina's presence briefly, though without saying a word to her, she held her breath, barely recognizing in the rigorous restrained warrior with a steely gaze the Kakashi as she remembered him – even when she asked him for the last time to stay away from her. It was as if he was radiating frost.
Rất tiếc! Hình ảnh này không tuân theo hướng dẫn nội dung. Để tiếp tục đăng tải, vui lòng xóa hoặc tải lên một hình ảnh khác.
