Chapter 27 Part 1
Morning greeted me with a pounding head. Having groped my way almost by touch to the bath, I tried to wash nonexistent sand out from under my eyelids, then simply shoved my head under a stream of ice-cold water.
I looked, of course, like a not-so-fresh risen corpse: puffy bags under my eyes, reddened eyes, black ink blots here and there... Yes, I looked revolting. The costs of a sleepless night filled with high concentration and meticulous work. But I couldn't help myself: that sensation of running late, having seized me once again, simply wouldn't let me relax. I felt in my gut that I needed to hurry.
I don't know how long I'll last at this pace.
Stifling a yawn, I open the window. Pre-dawn air bursts into the room in a gust, tousling my hair and bathing my face in blissful freshness.
Closing my eyes, I listened. Barely audible whispers wandered among the air currents. Freezing, barely breathing, I hearkened to the surroundings.
Unable to restrain myself, I exhale heavily, nearly slumping onto the window frame. Trouble had passed them by!
My team had survived this night. Unfortunately, they hadn't managed to avoid an encounter with the female version of Orochimaru, but that had been inevitable. The main thing was that the "Snake Woman in dead skin" had left, leaving all the genin alive! Thank the canon! The only bad part was that the White Snake had still placed her cursed seal upon Sasuko. Very bad. Arrrh!! It's so infuriating that spirits can't be questioned for details. They simply wouldn't understand the question! However, I'm already prepared! Knowing this had high odds of happening, I'd prepared countermeasures in advance and thought through possibilities.
Naturally, I won't allow this filth to influence Sasuko! Though the options for solving the problem are few: since I have no way to help her immediately, I'll have to seek other routes. I need to invite myself into the tower, and there, study the seal in detail and decide which prepared option is more acceptable. The route was already thought out: leaning on the fact that I, too, am a team member and have every right to observe my comrades, I can convince Akashi to take me with her. If that doesn't work with her, I'll go straight to the Hokage. With Sarutobi, it'll probably be even simpler: my presence near the jinchuriki was her decision, so there's no alternative here. The other matter is that the Hokage will only head to the tower at the stage's conclusion, and Hatake still needs to be caught. Problematic...
However, that's far from all my worries. While all the Village's internal forces are occupied with watching the guests, I have a decent chance to pull off a couple of... matters, not for every eye. The greater part of the past night, I'd spent in calculations and computations, as well as preparing various rituals. It had been difficult and exhausting, but the costs would pay for themselves.
Mhh!.. How badly I want to sleep!!! Mm... I need to rest. Is it still so early?.. Mn, a few hours of sleep would... be... ni... ce... Hrrr...
Hatake was exactly where she always was. Standing before the memorial stone, the woman continued wordlessly gazing at the carved names.
"Ahem," the young man coughed. He'd been at the clearing's edge for quite a while already, yet had still received no reaction to his presence from Akashi.
"Did you want something, Kaoru-kun?" she asked with her customary indifferent laziness.
"Akashi-sensei." Nagisa greeted her, then took a brief pause, mentally constructing the coming conversation. But even so, his mouth spoke entirely different words of its own accord. "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be with the other jonin in the special quarters? Or at the tower waiting for the others?"
"..." Akashi didn't answer. She only tore her gaze from the names for a fleeting moment to glance somewhere aside, but that was all.
"Why are you here, Akashi-san?" Kaoru repeated his question, frowning. This wasn't how he'd wanted to start the conversation, but something pushed him forward. Apparently, the jonin's unresponsive silence had become the last grain of sand tipping the scales of his soul. "Why? Right now, your place is there, at the exam. Waiting for your team to reach the assembly point and meeting them there!"
Sighing shakily, the young man closed his eyes for a minute. The intense work had worn him out thoroughly, and even five hours of sleep couldn't fix it. Beyond that, he was too tense and agitated to fully control his emotions, which had begun to break through his habitual tact.
"Weell... It's not required," Akashi finally answered.
"'Not required'?" Kaoru echoed, puzzled.
"Not required," Akashi repeated, indifferent. "Iruka-sensei will meet them."
"Why?"
"She asked for it." A barely perceptible shrug. It seemed Akashi was entirely unconcerned with the situation. Her only concern was how much time she could spend here, staring at the memorial. She answered with lazy reluctance, as if savoring every second of silence and wishing to stretch it out as long as possible.
"That's not what I asked!" The young man exclaimed, clenching his fists for an instant. The longer he spoke with Akashi, the angrier he became. Akashi's attitude stung him deeply. "You are their sensei! Even if Iruka-san asked you for this, shouldn't you still do it yourself? Does it truly not matter to you at all what happens to the team?"
"You're saying some foolish things, Kaoru-kun," Akashi waved his words off, having finally deigned to turn toward her interlocutor. "I care for my team as a sensei. I don't always have the time, but I fully perform my duties. I provide training and protect them on dangerous missions."
"Training? You mean the training you dumped on me?" Nagisa asked, looking the masked woman in the face. "Or that incident in the Land of Waves?"
"As I already said: I don't always have enough time," the jonin simply shrugged, brushing the young man with a lazy glance.
"Enough!" Jerking his head sharply, Kaoru pressed his lips tight, staring at the jonin. "Simply... enough. When will you stop doing this, Akashi-san? When will you stop looking at the dead and turn your attention to the living?! Or do you simply not care?"
"You speak of things you don't understand, Nagisa-san. You're far too young to know of such matters," Akashi answered coldly, narrowing her single exposed eye ever so slightly. This uncomfortable conversation was beginning to provoke irritation in her.
"No, I understand all of it." Kaoru straightened, stubborn, boring his gaze into the back of the woman who'd once again turned away. Everything had gone to hell. What was initially supposed to be a conversation about a request had abruptly turned into a fruitless argument between the deaf and the mute. "You are dead. You're still somewhere back there. Spending your time standing here, staring at the names of the dead. Trying to hear their voices. But for what?! The dead remain dead, and the living continue living in spite of everything! But you... You are dead. Standing before me now, I don't see a person, Hatake Akashi. Just a living corpse that, by some unclear whim, still moves and speaks. It's as if you revel in mourning, and!.."
"Be silent, Nagisa Kaoru!" Akashi didn't turn around, didn't even move, yet Kaoru sensed with some feeling: she was on the verge of explosion. "You have no right to speak like that. You hold forth far too lightly about what you are incapable of understanding."
"I'm disappointed," Kaoru uttered, colorless, closing his eyes wearily.
"Is that all you wanted to say?" the jonin inquired coldly, her words carrying an undisguised hint.
"Yes." The young man, his eyes flashing furiously at the woman's back, turned sharply and took his first step toward the training ground's exit. Reaching the tree-line boundary, he suddenly stopped and, without turning, quietly said: "But. One more thing. The last. Change your attitude, Hatake Akashi. While it's not yet too late."
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