It was only natural that all these snatches of sleep during the day affected the night's sleep. Besides, it was unusual for Arina to sleep in the open air. As a result, she tossed and turned half the night, more or less fell asleep towards the morning, but still woke up at sunrise, as soon as the first birds began to sing.
She was lying snuggled up against Kakashi's side cosily, her head on his chest. His right hand was wrapped around her and rested on her shoulder. And that seemed so natural, as if they had been together for a long time already. The girl instantly broke out in a sweat at this thought and the remnants of sleep left her rapidly.
She looked up at Kakashi. He was lying on his back and his head was turned slightly to the left. His silver hair, not held up with a headband again, was scattered in all directions. His left hand was slightly covering his forehead and eyes, as if he was hiding from the sun, which, however, had not appeared yet. At that moment, he looked almost vulnerable, although there was a thought somewhere that the impression was deceptive. However, this thought was quickly overtaken by another one.
Arina raised herself slightly on the elbow and Kakashi's hand slid off her in a relaxed manner. She slowly shifted a bit higher, almost hovering over Kakashi and stretched out her hand towards his face cautiously. Her heart was pounding wildly. His mask was like a magnet for her. However, the moment she had already touched the edge of the mask, feeling the warmth of his skin and the rough edge of the fabric beneath her fingertips, her wrist was suddenly seized by his hand. She saw his eyes fly open, he glanced at her rapaciously without turning his head, and suddenly her world turned upside down.
She was already lying on her back, whereas Kakashi, in turn, was hovering over her. His hair was almost touching her forehead. There was no hint of sleep on his face — he was alert and radiated danger. For some reason he reminded her of a wolf — a mature wolf. Now he was gripping both of her wrists above her head, with just one hand. It seemed to her again that his left eye was phosphorescing red.
Arina squirmed and feebly tried to put into action the plan 'if he even tries to poke his nose at her', but Kakashi seemed to have predicted her move and the knee did not reach the target. He chuckled condescendingly. She immediately gave up trying to resist. Kakashi softened his gaze a little.
With his free hand, he painfully slowly removed the strands of hair from her face, then, looking down at her meaningfully, gently stroked her cheek with his knuckles and finally touched her lips with his fingertips seductively. She barely restrained a convulsive sigh and stared at him with wide-open eyes. Her heart was about to jump out of her chest. That was it. Game over. But the worst part was that the fear was mixed with a completely inappropriate sensation in her lower abdomen, which especially intensified when he touched her — and that had scared her perhaps even more.
Kakashi, meanwhile, leaned even closer, tickling her with his hair and nearly touching her lips, but at the last moment shifted slightly to the side and spoke earnestly almost in her ear:
"Remember this — I usually take off my mask only on three conditions: to eat, to bathe and... ahem, to do something else that is not quite convenient to do while wearing a mask — you can guess for yourself. So just keep that in mind next time you decide to try and pull off my mask again. I'll take that as an invitation..."
Arina swallowed hard.
Pleased with the effect, Kakashi pulled away, let go of the girl's hands, got off her and nonchalantly rolled onto his back, closing his left eye and folding his hands behind his head, as if nothing had happened. He was very amused by this situation: the girl was asking for it herself, falling into one trap after another. If she had acted differently, he would even have been somewhat disappointed.
"Well, shall we get some more sleep?" he asked with exaggerated cheerfulness. "I've certainly not had enough." He yawned as he said that.
The girl sat up and looked at him gloomily. Then she threw herself down again with her back to him, wrapping herself up in the blanket huffily.
Kakashi sneered, removed his hands from behind his head, turned to the side, reached out to the girl and pulled her to him.
"Well now, don't sulk," he cooed peaceably into the back of her head. "Curiosity killed the cat, you know."
Arina grunted vaguely in response, then muttered barely audibly: "But satisfaction brought it back." And suddenly she grabbed his right forearm, tuck her head in her shoulders and pressed her cheek against his hand.
Kakashi's heart skipped a beat. He felt an unbearable desire to turn her over to him and fulfil the previously announced condition number three immediately. But something was stopping him.
He never took full advantage of it, but, in general, he was aware that he was attractive enough — and the mask added more to it and made him a source of unimaginable fantasies among women, — and if he wanted, he could have almost any girl, especially if he temporarily turned off the phlegm mode, which he could do when required. However, in this case, he occasionally could not help but think that he was simply taking advantage of his position. Sure enough — the only island of relative safety in an unfamiliar, foreign world — no wonder she was drawn to him. He was a little uncomfortable with this thought.
And she... only the gods knew how she lived in her world. Perhaps she was in a relationship and her heart was occupied... After all, she did mention a certain 'friend'... Kakashi again caught himself experiencing a feeling that was not typical for him. He didn't even know he was capable of such a thing. He was by no means a model of chastity, but his fleeting affairs had never particularly affected him emotionally. And now his equanimity was disappearing somewhere, crumbling like a pierced armour. And he didn't know what to think of it yet.
It appeared that he really was getting enticed. Who would have thought, so fast... and unexpected... But what she was thinking was a mystery to him.
Finally, he was able to come to terms with the fact that it was still too early to draw conclusions. He would take her to Konoha and see how events would develop from there on. The only thing was that taking her to his dorm was out of the question. But he had an idea.
Mentally nodding to himself with satisfaction, he began to fall asleep. The girl in his arms had been snuffling faintly for a while already.
☙ ❦ ❧
When he woke up again, he determined that about two more hours had passed. He'd skipped his morning training routine already, but, by all accounts, he should have been finally getting up and cooking breakfast at least (and he used to chuckle when he saw the formidable Minato-sensei wearing an apron and complaisantly fussing around in the kitchen), but he could not make himself tear away from Arina who was sleeping so comfortably and whom he was still hugging. And so he showed wonders of skill, when he silently, with one hand — this is what proper motivation can do! — summoned a shadow clone and entrusted the care of the 'household' to him. He made sure that the girl did not wake up, and then blissfully tucked his face in her neck, falling asleep again.
It was Arina, who began fidgeting next to him like an eel on a brazier, that tore him out of the sweet slumber again. Then there was an exclamation gradually filling with panic:
"Uuuh... aaaah... AAAAAH!"
Realizing what had happened, Kakashi hurriedly sat up and got rid of the clone.
Arina was already sitting, too, and gazing huntedly back and forth between him and the place where the 'househusbandy Kakashi' had just been.
While he was figuring out how to calm her down, she had already pulled herself together.
"I... I didn't dream it, did I?" she asked nervously. Kakashi noticed that she was staring at him, recollected himself and finally closed his left eye.
"No... Sorry I scared you, I... got carried away a little. This is called a 'shadow clone'. It's my temporary double that I can create and maintain in the flesh for a certain amount of time. The quantity and, ahem, the quality limits depend on the chakra levels and general abilities. It's very convenient when you need an extra pair or two of hands, but generally using them in everyday life is considered a mauvais ton — it's a battle technique, and besides it is considered a conditionally forbidden one..." he ruffled the hair on the back of his head in embarrassment.
"I don't get it," she stammered in confusion, "can all of you do magic here or something?"
"This is not 'magic' and no, not everybody can use chakra. Your 'friends' certainly could not."
"And what about me — her? Could she?"
"You can't either... although..." he tripped, looked at her in a new way. Why did he actually decide that she could not? Especially after it turned out that Orochimaru was interested in the girl... She could hardly have been a mere miko at the temple and he coveted her because of her beauty. Kakashi seriously doubted that Orochimaru could actually be interested in someone from this point of view.
He opened his Sharingan again and looked at Arina. The girl flinched slightly, meeting his gaze. Obviously, the Sharingan made an indelible impression on her every time, why though? He was even slightly afflicted by that.
There was no chakra system. From the word 'absolutely'. Kakashi frowned in puzzlement. How did he not realise this before, especially when he was checking her wound? After all, even those four had chakra glowing lightly. And here was void, which in principle was incompatible with life. Supposing there was no chakra in her original world, but chakra was an attribute of the body, not the soul. It was embedded in genetics.
And then, after a moment, he finally spotted a faint shimmer of chakra. Mere faint shimmer it was indeed, almost imperceptible — perhaps only the Byakugan would not have been deceived. How interesting. Apparently, that was why he decided that Arina had no abilities — otherwise her chakra would have been resonating quite differently.
"May I take a look at your stomach?" he startled Arina.
"What for?" Arina stared at him incredulously and quickly pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them to be on the safe side.
Kakashi rolled his eyes slightly when he saw that. As if he was going to forcibly lift up her hem in case of refusal. Or as if that could have stopped him if he really wanted to...
"I need to check something," he said evasively. "You want an answer to your question, don't you?"
She thought for a moment and finally nodded:
"Fine, but just don't peek until I let you, okay?"
Kakashi turned away obediently.
The girl lifted her dress up to her chest, covered the lower part of her body with the blanket and lay down. Finally, she allowed Kakashi to turn around.
He bent over her, glanced briefly at the strip of bandage covering the girl's wound, then shifted his gaze to the opposite edge of the visible part of her abdomen, which intriguingly went under the blanket. The view was truly stunning: a chiselled waist, flat, but not too skinny, tummy, even visually most delicate silky skin — just as he liked. He really wanted to explore this discovery, and not at all for the original purpose. It was very difficult to concentrate, but he had to cope with it — he was a Jonin, after all, wasn't he?
He pulled the blanket a little lower — perhaps a bit more than was really necessary — slightly exposing her pelvic bones, causing the girl to stir involuntarily. He stopped her with a soothing gesture, as if saying: that's it, I won't do it any further.
He gently placed his outstretched fingers on her stomach, almost losing the internal struggle again. Arina did not feel tickly, but she giggled for the sake of decency and to hide her embarrassment from similarly inappropriate thoughts: she could not comprehend why his touch felt so — and at all — good.
Kakashi, meanwhile, continued to carefully feel her stomach. Finally, the girl twitched slightly, and Kakashi winced apologetically. When the seal appeared on her skin, he was not even surprised. Rough, even crude — he had never seen one like that before, — but effective. He sensed that he would not have been able to break it offhand, and if he'd applied force — he did not know how that would affect Arina. He didn't want to torture her unnecessarily. There were specialists in Konoha who would be able to take care of this without needless risks. Although, alas, in any case it was unlikely to be completely painless. But he was only hoping there were no additional and not very pleasant surprises...
With some regret — he would have liked to continue the tactile contact with the girl's delicate skin: his expectations were indeed fully met — he removed his hands. He got up and walked over to the fire in an attempt to conceal a belated faint blush.
Arina sat up, straightening her clothes, and asked: "Well?" — she did not notice his sudden agitation.
Instead of answering, Kakashi handed her the fish. Arina took it, but did not try it, looking at him questioningly.
Finally, he answered:
"Well, as far as I understand, you do have some sort of abilities, but for some reason they are sealed in such a way that it's even absurd — there simply are no people without chakra, and at a first glance you look exactly like a person completely without chakra."
"Wow, so I can do magic?"
"Not 'magic' — but I can't say for sure yet."
"And what do you need to do to conjure these 'clones' of yours?"
Kakashi shuddered slightly.
"Train long and hard," he snapped. "And it's not a fact that it will work."
"And what's with your eye?"
"It's a long story..."
"And what is 'chakra'?"
The flow of questions was clearly not going to end, but Kakashi resolutely stopped it:
"The inner energy that shinobi use to perform their techniques. If you want, I can narrate the entire basic course of the Academy to you, but only sometime later. And now let's have breakfast and get going already. I really hope to get to Konoha by noon at the latest."