Kakashi would have preferred to somehow soften their slightly clouded reunion with Arina, but instead he had to check on his blockheads, as he called them amiably to himself. Arina resolutely followed along, saying that she was fed up of sitting within four walls, whereas this was at least some variety — and she was curious, after all, what they were like, young shinobi and Kakashi's mentees. Kakashi, foreseeing the upcoming acquaintance in bright colours, mentally shuddered, and really wanted to send the girl home after all, but quickly gave up under her pressure. Therefore, they only dropped off Arina's belongings at home, and after that went to meet his students.
On the one hand, Kakashi could not stop wondering what Arina had been through all these days, but at the same time he was not sure that he really wanted to know so as not to inadvertently come into conflict with Ibiki again, whom, for some reason, he chose for himself as a scapegoat in this situation. After all, no harm, no foul. The girl was fine and free again. Therefore, instead he just briefly told Arina about his subordinates: irrepressible Naruto, gloomy, as if forever immersed in his thoughts, Sasuke, and Sakura, who, it seemed, did not care about anything but Sasuke. He also told a little about their first test, to the girl's great amusement. He did not tell Arina only that he practically did not sleep the night before, worrying about her, so in the end he overslept shamelessly and was late for the meetup, which did not contribute much to improvement of their team's relationship.
When they arrived at the farm, the trio were engaged in gardening without much enthusiasm. Judging by the progress, there was enough work there for a couple more days, which gave hope for a more or less free schedule for their sensei in the near future. The kids stared at the girl with a varying degree of interest. As expected, Naruto was the first to greet loudly, instantly pushing the calmer Sasuke and Sakura into the background. Arina greeted them back in a friendly manner, introduced herself — it seemed that she was destined to settle down in this world as Rina Matsukata.
Sasuke barely honoured the girl with a nod, while Sakura, with childlike spontaneity, declared that Arina was very pretty and asked whether she was Kakashi-sensei's girlfriend. Naruto broke into an understanding grin and started a song about 'Kakashi and Rina sitting on a tree', but quickly received a light slap on the head from the flustered sensei.
Out of embarrassment, Kakashi went a little too far with the legend and introduced Arina as his distant relative who was passing through Konoha. The girl was slightly disappointed because of the 'relative', but after thinking about it, she reasoned that perhaps it was even better that way.
They headed back to the village together. Naruto was showing off in every possible way all the way back — obviously, the company of Arina was affecting him. She watched his somersaults with sincere delight, and he basked in this attention, as only a child who grew up without parental attention and desperately needing it could. Kakashi looked demonstratively exhausted, occasionally trying to calm the fidget down without much success. Arina looked at them and laughed quietly, but then suddenly became wistful when she remembered her own younger brother, a little terror just like Naruto.
Finally, they reached an intersection, and Kakashi dismissed them with obvious relief, announcing the time and gathering point for the next day. Naruto frowned, wanting to do at least something useful that day, however, after receiving an offer to send him back to the garden, he immediately rushed off, reasoning that he could train on his own.
It was getting late. Kakashi and Arina were walking down the street. Kakashi thought with annoyance that the shops had already closed, and they still haven't bought anything for Arina. On the other hand, this meant that the girl would be sleeping in his clothes again, which was not bad at all...
Suddenly Arina, who was looking thoughtfully at the Hokage Rock, asked if it was possible to go up. Kakashi was a little surprised by her wish. Arina explained that she wanted to look at the village from above: she always did this, if possible, when she visited an unfamiliar city — so to say, this was her way of getting acquainted with it. Kakashi didn't mind. Moreover, this delayed the moment of appearing together in a public place a little more — and since they only had just a handful of diners, they were guaranteed to meet some of his acquaintances there. Therefore Kakashi had no objections to keeping some more privacy this way. He really needed a break after Arina's acquaintance with Naruto and co.
As they approached the Hokage Rock, Arina began to doubt the reasonableness of her request more and more: a seemingly endless series of steps led up. It would have been better if she had gone there alone sometime, while he wasn't around. And she would have climbed those steps — slowly and steadily... However, Kakashi casually offered to give her a lift. When Arina got embarrassed — one thing was to carry her for speed of movement, on flat terrain, but for no serious reason and upwards? — he pointed to a rock in the distance, not inferior in height to the rest of the ridge, and nonchalantly mentioned that he occasionally climbed up and down it for the sake of training, and when the girl's eyes widened, he added: using only one hand, or even with additional weights, which finished her off. So, obviously, a few hundred steps and a climb, even with a load, was nothing for him.
Soon they were standing at the top, looking at the village spreading out below, bathing in the golden light of the setting sun. The village was indeed more the size of a small town, with an interesting and distinctive architecture. Arina doubted that she had seen anything like this before in her world, even in Japan.
The lights were slowly starting to flare up, although the sun was still visible from where they were standing. The trills of nightingales could be heard from down below, and there was a sense of peace and freshness of a fine evening in the air.
They stood side by side in silence for a long time. Arina occasionally secretly glanced at Kakashi — she wanted to snuggle up to him: the atmosphere was perfect for that, but she did not dare do it. Kakashi clearly did not share her feelings: he stood with a detached look, his hands in his pockets indifferently. The girl felt that he was not at all occupied with romantic thoughts.
Kakashi, on the other hand, indeed was recalling the conversation with Hokage and thought that Arina would no doubt want to learn jutsu — and this thought made him uneasy. It would be fine if she had ordinary, unremarkable abilities — she could have been indulging herself quietly, but a Seigenryu... Why of all options she had to turn out to be a Seigenryu?.. Or perhaps he was winding himself up for no reason?
Arina, meanwhile, leaned forward a little, stepped closer to the edge of the cliff. At some point, she mis-stepped on a stone and her ankle twisted slightly. Before she even managed to freak out, Kakashi had already caught her, preventing her from falling down. He pulled her away from the edge and only then let her go. The girl smiled guiltily. Kakashi heaved a dejected sigh.
No, not for no reason, — he thought gloomily.
After a moment of silence, he finally said:
"I am firmly against you studying jutsu."
Had he said it some other way, Arina might have possibly also reacted more agreeably herself, but this bluntness instantly fired her up.
"Perhaps you can let me decide for myself? Even Hiruzen-sama believes it reasonable," she looked at him disapprovingly. Under different circumstances Kakashi would have even admired her strong-willed and stern look, standing out from her pretty and gentle appearance.
"I don't want to upset you again, but I understand Hiruzen-sama's motives quite well. You are nothing to him. In the long run — another battle unit, potentially rather useful. For you to decide for yourself, you need to understand at least something. How long have you been here with us? What do you know about us? The way things work here? Well, if we just remember our first encounter when you fainted to start with and then recoiled from me for quite a while," Kakashi looked at the girl sombrely.
"That was at first," Arina winced guiltily. "It was because of what happened to me. I didn't understand what was going on — for my world this was just surreal. But now I understand that this is a different world and things are different here. I will get used to it... I must..."
Kakashi only sneered.
"What is there to speak, you still cannot handle it easily, can you?" saying so he lifted his headband and looked at the girl, opening the eye with the Sharingan and folding his arms on his chest.
Arina gritted her teeth. When he looked at her like that, he didn't even need that scary eye to make a deep impression on her...
"Perhaps if you told me what this was, I wouldn't be reacting this way," she said reproachfully. "Yes, and the hidden face does not contribute to tension relief either..."
"Okay, supposing it was because of what happened to you: shock, strange unfamiliar world, and so on," Kakashi again ignored her remarks. "But still... tell me, are you ready to kill? For some reason it seems to me that you are not. Have you ever seen a real battle? Again, no. Perhaps I should show you so that you understand once and for all that this is not as poetical as it sounds."
"I don't have to kill to be of help..." the girl tried to object.
"In that case, you will be killed," Kakashi retorted. "I have, I dare say, more experience and I can foresee the risks involved. And I also feel personally responsible for you, can't you understand that?.."
"You don't have to..." Arina almost whispered, bit her lip and stared at her feet. Just don't cry. Only now was she beginning to fully understand the situation she was in. After all, while she was living with him and was completely dependent on him, he really had every reason to impose his conditions on her. What would happen if he realised his true power over her? Or perhaps he already had?
They were silent for a while. Arina was struggling with herself, and Kakashi was thinking aggrievedly that he was too harsh with her. But how else could he convey to this stubborn girl that she shouldn't have meddled in shinobi's affairs, that he was worried about her — and the further, the more? He was more and more doubtful that he was right to bring her to Konoha at all. He pulled the headband back down over his left eye and sighed.
"I don't think it's a good idea for you to stay here," he finally managed to say. It wasn't easy for him.
The girl looked at him wistfully. She had expected something of that sort as well. Well, it was his right...
"I see..." looking away, she said softly, hugging herself shiveringly by the shoulders.
Kakashi realized how it must have sounded to her, patted her lightly on the shoulder and hurried to elaborate clumsily:
"I'll think of something. It's just that... I can't let you get involved in our affairs, no matter what Hiruzen-sama says. We... we could leave together..."
The girl looked up at him and frowned:
"But Hiruzen-sama warned about the consequences for you."
"I'm willing to take the risk."
"What did he mean by that?" the girl asked anxiously.
"It doesn't matter," Kakashi responded flatly.
Arina shook her head reproachfully. Kakashi stared silently into the distance for some time and finally said:
"I understand that we are still expecting that we would be able to do something about your situation, therefore, by leaving Konoha, you may lose your last hope for this..."
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that — there is no hope," Arina said bitterly.
"In that case, the more so no reason to stay here," Kakashi did not look at her.
Arina's chest ached. She felt lost again, without purpose and certainty. At first he forbids, then he even drives her away. Now it was clear why she was only a 'distant relative'. Probably, he already regretted that he had brought himself a burden — as it often happened in such situations, the girl pulled out of Kakashi's words only what hurt her the most. And to think that she was so uplifted when Hiruzen said that her abilities could be useful to Kakashi... She felt more and more like crying. It was good that Kakashi was absorbed in his own thoughts and did not notice anything — Arina was able to pull herself together and cope with her emotions.
"Well, I think there's no need to hurry for now — after all, it's not like there will be war tomorrow," she said unexpectedly nonchalantly, and her voice almost did not tremble. "Therefore, to begin with, your 'distant relative' would still like to get to know Konoha properly, while I'm here. And then we'll decide what to do next."
Kakashi looked at Arina, wondering whether to tell her that there could very well be war tomorrow indeed. However, then he reasoned that there was enough drama for now, so he just nodded, customarily squinting his visible eye in the semblance of a smile.
☙ ❦ ❧
One evening, at a joint dinner, Kakashi introduced Arina to his colleagues and friends after all, repeating the legend about a distant relative and feeling like a complete idiot at the same time.
Whether they believed him or not, he tried not to think about it. Fortunately for him, the colleagues from the Interrogators Department were not present at the dinner, while his friends, even if they did suspect something, delicately kept silent.
The legend was supplemented by the part that Arina belonged to a family where there were no shinobi, so when her abilities were revealed with great delay, it was decided to temporarily assign her to the Academy, with the prospect of a subsequent move to Konoha. This was confided by Arina herself, who was defiantly ignoring Kakashi's quiet discontent, calmly responding with a kick to his poke under the table.
Arina had to make every effort, given her ignorance in this world, not to look like a complete black sheep, but ultimately the ability to listen, ask the right questions and laugh sincerely, combined with her personal charm, did their job. Pretty quickly she was able to find a common language with everyone who was present at the table.
Kakashi was especially worried about Iruka, who was gazing at Arina with obvious affection and curiosity. He already knew the girl and Hiruzen had also informed him that he would need to teach Arina individually. It was obvious that he was very much looking forward to a closer acquaintance, especially as soon as he was convinced that Kakashi didn't seem to have any views on the girl.
As the evening progressed, watching Iruka, Kakashi became more and more gloomy: he was well aware that the open and charismatic Iruka was much more pleasant to socialize with than him, with his habit of withdrawing into his shell at the first opportunity when amongst a noisy get-together. And the further it went, the more he regretted that he had come up with that stupid legend at all. He didn't really understand why, against his wishes, he did it over and over again, as if drawing an invisible boundary between them — one hell of a relative he was, secretly imagining how he would be kissing her... and not only kissing...
On the one hand, he desperately wanted to defiantly hug Arina in front of everyone, and so that no one would have any doubts about them — and especially Iruka... But at the same time, he dreaded it. In fact, the answer lay on the surface: he simply wasn't ready to become a sensation. And yet, even though he had been aware of this for a long time, he was afraid to finally admit to himself how much this girl had managed to etch into his soul. And if, in terms of her safety and well-being, he was already prepared to do anything, when it came to such a trifle as a public demonstration of their relationship, he seemed to be seized with a stupor. That was why he simply continued to silently reap the fruits of his issues, hiding his frustration behind the usual facade of visual equanimity.
Arina, on the contrary, ended up rather enjoying the evening, while keeping emphatically independent of Kakashi. She prudently did not drink saké, but she liked the plum wine a lot, and it set her up in a friendly way. When they were saying goodbyes, Kakashi had to wait for a long time for Arina, who just wouldn't leave, and he barely restrained himself from dragging her out of the restaurant by the scruff of her neck.
However, once outside the walls of the stuffy space, the girl quickly recovered from a slight intoxication, although she continued to express her admiration for Kakashi's friends on the way home, while deftly avoiding Kakashi's attempts to approach her — he'd gotten quite fired up in the course of the evening and was already beginning to slightly lose his patience.
It was not like he planned this, but as they were walking down a deserted path along the park wall, Kakashi suddenly interrupted Arina, who at that moment was dangerously chatting away about Iruka, and resolutely pinned her against the wall, dropping his vest and headband that he had been carrying in his hand.
Arina stared at him wide-eyed, not quite understanding what had suddenly gotten into him. Still a little bright in the eye, she was too late to realise that praising Iruka in front of Kakashi was not the best idea, especially considering their ongoing confrontation on the jutsu side.
And yet, the further development of events left no doubt and had nothing to do with jutsu, in fact: the man looked at Arina with such a feeling that even his mask could not hide it. And then he leaned down to her and took hold of the edge of the mask...
The girl shrank into the wall, becoming even more petite than she already was. She then went further to squeezing her eyes shut and turning away.
Kakashi lost all his passion in an instant, his look changing to one of a genuine confusion. If anything, he did not expect such a reaction.
Muttering an apology in embarrassment, he stepped back, hunched a little and shove his hands into his pockets, then walked on. However, he soon stopped and returned briefly to pick up the vest and the headband — he had almost forgotten about them.
The girl, after a little hesitation, followed him timidly, trying to calm her frantic heartbeat, and biting her lower lip. She did not utter another word all the way back home.