Hanae's luck ran out mid October.
Business was still booming, especially since the farmer had added pumpkins to her inventory, but after waking with the alarm clock one quiet Tuesday morning she also found the pressure in her head booming. Her limbs were heavy with fatigue and her eyelids were almost too heavy to open. She mustered just enough strength to wobble out of bed and shut off the pestering alarm.
The signs had started a week before ; itchy eyes, clogged ears, runny nose. All the symptoms of seasonal allergies. It was no shock to the non-native. The Land of Iron had virtually no wildlife, meaning that there were no pollens to induce such suffering. But Konoha flourished with wildlife and all of the fall plants were taking their frustrations out on the woman's sinuses. The hay fever warfare just so happened to come to a head this morning.
Nearly falling down the stairs twice, Hanae managed to hang a sign on the glass front door.
Dear friends,
We will be closed October 14th due to illness.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
She had half a mind to put a frowning face on the sign, but seeing as it was already a struggle to hang the sign right way up Hanae decided to reserve her remaining strength for the journey back upstairs and into bed.
Nine hours passed before she woke again. The 2pm sun was shining bright, as if coaxing the worn down farmer outside. And against better judgement, she conceded, making her way out the sliding glass patio door on feet already steadier than they were this morning. The mix between chilled air and warm sun felt like heaven on her exposed shoulders.
Hanae returned indoors to nab her pipe and a pouch of tobacco. Settling into the lone nest shaped chair in the corner of the patio, she lit the end of the pipe and took a deep inhale, hacking up a lung on the exhale. Choppy puffs of smoke drifted off into the blue sky.
"Why do I have to be sick on a beautiful day like this?" She asked the plush cream fabric below her. A trail of mucus traced down her philtrum after a sneezing fit.
"Hanae?" The voice came from below.
She peered over the stone wall after struggling with the chair.
Kakashi peered up as the burgundy head popped into his view.
"Kakashi," she choked out, coughing pitifully into her fist. "One moment!"
He wanted to tell her not to worry about it. Wanted to being the key words here. Secretly he was a bit worried, more so by what he heard from above rather than the sign on the door. Not that he meant to be. Being worried meant that he was breaking his rule to himself - as if checking up on her on his way to work wasn't breaking said unspoken rule enough. But seeing as their last conversation was three weeks prior and mainly consisted of her lecturing him before giving him tea, he took her hardheadedness as an open excuse to see her. After all, he couldn't be blamed for her actions. Besides, he at least owed her the knowledge that the tea had in fact worked.
His heart leapt a little at the sight of her stumbling down the stairs inside. She righted herself before making her way to the front, unlocking the door and pushing it open.
"Sorry," sneeze "about that," sneeze. "These allergies, " sniffle "are killing me," sneeze sneeze cough.
"I can see that," he sounded as bewildered as he looked, watching as she shuddered with another sneezing fit. "Are you alright to be up? Health is beauty."
Hanae grinned sheepishly. "Hey, don't be starting that. I'm feeling better already!" She blew her nose noisily into a handkerchief produced from her bra. "I was actually thinking about going out for a little. Might as well use a day off to my advantage."
Kakashi gave her a suspicious glance that the farmer was quick to catch.
"You can come with me if you're worried?" The question came as no surprise.
Being a ninja taught him not to believe in coincidence - being a savant in such a position allowed him to figure out exactly what caused each situation thrown at him. This particular situation was caused by his innate desire to heal, to be rid of the curse that followed each relationship he had ever formed. The world had been trying to get it right, to right the wrongs it had tossed the elite's way, and it seemed to have finally perfected the formula in the form of this woman - this sick, determined woman - staring at him with hopeful eyes in the doorway of a natural grocery store.
"I don't see why not."