By the time Konome Taketori and Guy reached the scene, the blaze was already under control.
Neighbors in pajamas and house slippers clustered in twos and threes to watch. A passing shinobi, identity unknown, spat a steady stream of water from his mouth and smothered the stubborn tongues of flame still licking within the house.
"Guy is back…"
The breathless green blur of Might Guy sent a ripple through the crowd. People parted on instinct, leaving a path for the man of the hour.
He did not need the path. From far off he had seen the black pillar of smoke.
He stepped past the last onlookers.
Crack.
The charred wooden door, softened by water, collapsed inward and clattered onto the stone threshold.
Inside, the place looked like a honeycomb first set on fire, then plunged in water. Scorched, bubbled, ruined.
Guy stared at the wreck of his home. He clutched his head and dropped to his knees with a thud, remorse pounding his skull like a rain of hammers.
Konome thought his posture could have used a snowfall-and-strings soundtrack. Too tragic.
He had been duped emotionally, his secret technique stolen, then guilt-tripped, and now his house was ash. Even Konome, culprit that she was, felt a twinge and stepped forward to pat his shoulder.
"It is all right, Guy. Do not break down. Worst case I buy you another place."
Guy turned stiffly. Looking at the blind girl trying to comfort him, his face crumpled. "Konome, your money is… is all inside."
Thump.
The silver-haired blind girl who had been consoling him also sagged to the ground.
She flared her Byakugan and swept the ruins, unwilling to accept it. Floor tiles vitrified by heat showed crystalline patterns. Charred window frames were alligator-cracked. In that kind of heat, cash or banknotes, it made no difference. Everything would have burned clean.
She had no proper identification. All her notes were bearer notes. There would be no canceling them.
How many billions was that?
A dull roar filled her head.
Poor in her past life and scarred by it, Konome could barely breathe at the thought that Guy, this lovable disaster of a man, had incinerated several billion of her savings.
The ten stacks in her pocket had gone down as earnest money at the ninja tools shop for the Shadow Clone scroll. Now there was no balance left for the final payment, and the nest egg she had hauled in from Peichuan Port for the future had gone up in smoke.
She had fallen from billionaire to blind beggar on the street in one evening.
"Konome, are you all right?"
Guy, grief-stricken, turned to worry for her. He had never seen that look of total despair on her otherwise cool, quick face.
"Can you forgive me? If not… you can hit me. I swear I will not hit back."
The way he parroted her own line made Konome's knuckles itch.
Sweet as it was to moralize a moment ago, being on the receiving end was suffocating.
So this was what they meant by the boomerang coming back.
Harm others and you harm yourself. Guy, we are even.
Boom.
Water surged around Konome, twining like twin whips.
Guy shut his eyes in guilt and braced for the blows.
Splash.
The whips cracked into the ruins instead, threading past the fallen doorframe into the house's dark belly.
The expected strike did not land. Guy cracked one eye.
"Here."
Konome, exasperated, guided something toward him in a sleeve of water. A familiar picture frame surfaced and stopped in front of him.
The frame's edges were burned to coal, but the photo inside was intact save for a touch of yellowing.
"This…"
Guy accepted the photo of himself and his father with visible relief, then looked up at Konome. For a moment he was too moved to speak.
"You owe me ten billion. Plan on working for me the rest of your life to pay it back."
Seeing her lift both palms, fingers splayed as if about to weave Dust Release, Guy nearly wept. After a long, silent beat, he nodded like a man who had accepted his fate.
…
"So what you are asking is… to crash at my place for a few days?"
Hatake Kakashi was crouched over a bowl of instant noodles at home. He peered up at Guy, who had dragged along the blind girl Kakashi had been watching a few days ago. Guy's tearful plea made Kakashi rub the back of his head in defeat.
As the last head of the Hatake clan, and its only member, he could certainly take in the pair.
The problem was…
His one visible dead-fish eye slid to the blindfolded girl standing behind Guy. Letting an unknown quantity like her inside his home did not feel wise.
"You must help me," Guy begged, nose running, eyebrows slumping into a pitiful inverted V.
Single dad, house burned down, ten billion in debt on top. His life was perched over a cliff edge.
Watching that dangling thread of snot, Kakashi gave up. "I do have a few empty rooms. Fine."
"Excellent. Kakashi, you truly are my dearest friend."
Guy whooped, seized Kakashi's arm, and shook it hard.
"Hey, hey…"
Kakashi shielded the noodle cup, terrified the big drip would land in his dinner.
Konome had no idea what to feel. After Guy pinched his nose and accepted the ten-billion IOU, the kindly Water Style shinobi doused the last embers. Leaf shinobi soon arrived to take statements.
The blaze had not spread far.
Only Guy's home was truly lost, and no one was hurt.
The neighbors suffered little besides the damp from the rescue. Guy had always gotten along with them, and seeing his empty pockets and the blind girl to care for, they grumbled but did not demand compensation.
Misfortune, but not the worst kind.
In the end, the house was unlivable.
Cash was low, and both of them were hungry. Guy brought her to the Hatake compound to ask Kakashi for help.
Konome knew exactly who Hatake Kakashi was.
Leaf's technician, the Copy Ninja, wielder of Kamui, also known as Mr. Fifty-Fifty.
Opportunity, she thought at once.
At Tools Full-Stock Hall she had just learned she possessed all five chakra natures and she badly needed a good ninjutsu instructor.
Kakashi, with all five and a thousand techniques under his belt, fit like a key in a lock.
"What do you want to eat?" Kakashi shoveled two mouthfuls of noodles, then noticed Guy staring soulfully at the cup.
"What do you have?" Guy asked, rubbing his hands.
Kakashi mentally inventoried his pantry. "Instant noodles."
"That is fine. Five bowls."
Kakashi set down his cup and began rummaging. "That many? Can you two finish them?"
"They are just for me."
"What about Konome?"
Konome considered the optics, decided not to terrify her host on night one, and moderated her answer. "It is late. I should not eat too much. Ten bowls to start."
Clack.
Kakashi dragged an entire case of instant noodles out from the bottom cabinet and froze. He looked back to find the two self-invited rice buckets already seated at his table, expectant.
Suddenly he did not feel like taking them in after all.
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