FairyTaleFic - Music Pedder - END

[flametwirler]

When she came looking for him two days after his late night visit he was waiting for her, new gift in hand. She was smiling as she strode up to him, an inner spark to her, a bit of defiance, that had been missing from her step since they’d reunited. It made him wonder what had happened during her time away from him.

First things first though. Her eyes were locked on the item he held in his hands and he had to fight down a grin. He wasn’t about to risk her losing interest; he’d have to hold that at the very least if he was to follow through with his plan.

“What is that?” she asked by way of greeting.

“Oh, just something else I thought you might like.”

She stared at it a long moment before turning away and sitting down against the tree he shared, but he saw her peeking from the corners of her eyes. “Yeah, what is it?” she asked in what she hoped was a disinterested tone.

In answer he merely leaned over and deposited the item in her lap. Sakura stared down at it in wonder and slight confusion. It was a bird. Granted, it was a lovely, well made rendition of a little songbird, but it was just a piece of pottery. It wasn’t doing anything the least bit interested and she confessed herself disappointed.

“It’s a bird,” she stated blandly.

Kakashi just smiled and shook his head. “Stroke your finger over its head.”

She did so and the bird burst into song, one of the most bittersweet melodies she’d ever heard, and her heart swelled at the sound. Its little beak even moved with each note it sang and she marveled at such craftsmanship.

“Did you make…?”

“No.” He pointed to his eyes. “I’m not quite that talented. It was a gift from a friend back at my village, something of a good luck charm,” and that was something he would definitely need a lot of as the day progressed.

“It’s lovely,” she breathed, cradling the thing carefully in her hand. “But why are you showing it to me?”

“Because I think you could use it. It seems you see very little of the outside world so this will bring some of it to you.”

She let the veiled barb slide, choosing to see the gesture simply for what it was. “So, how much does this one cost?” she asked drily.

“Well, it was a gift. And you can see the exquisite craftsmanship, so I’d say… a hundred kisses.”

Sakura just laughed. “Careful or you might start me thinking you’re nothing but a letch.”

“What’s to say I’m not?”

“Then I suppose I’m just going to have to hold you very, very still.”

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at that, realized that was a ridiculous thing to do, and chuckled instead. “No bargaining? You’re giving in, just like that?”

She shrugged. “I suppose I’m not much of a haggler.”

Kakashi snorted. Sakura had always loved a good fight, so either she was more comfortable around him than he’d imagined, something very strange had happened over the last week and a half, or she thought the bird was worth much more than he asked. If everything went right, hopefully he’d find out.

“All right then,” she said, moving to sit in front of him again. She touched his chin and he pulled back, startled.

“What are you doing?”

“My, aren’t we jumpy.” She smiled at him though. She could only think of two reasons for his reaction. Either he was uncomfortable with people touching his face, especially trying to look at his eyes, or he’d thought she’d truly been about to kiss him. To the former, that was something she could understand - especially given a certain old teacher of hers. If the latter - well it wasn’t something she’d be averse to, she was unreasonably uncomfortable around him after all, but she would want to see his face first. She didn’t care about his appearance - she gathered he was likely heavily scarred from whatever had caused him to lose his sight and, working in the medical field, that hardly gave her pause - but she didn’t want to kiss someone she couldn’t put a face to.

“Now don’t be silly. Weren’t you the one who first brought up the idea of a kiss on the cheek? Well, kisses, given this case.”

“All hundred of them?”

“Yes,” she declared, grasping his chin firmly and turning his head to the side. “And you’re keeping count.”

She leaned in, her lips delicately brushing his cheek, then pulled back and eyed him skeptically. “Out loud,” she told him.

He cleared his throat. “Ah, yes. One.”

She leaned in again and kissed the exact same spot, a bit more pressure behind it, and her eyes fluttered close. Kakashi wondered how she was able to hit the same spot every time without being able to see. By the time they were at about forty the feeling of her lips was ingrained so deeply in the sensory memory of his skin that he knew, without a doubt, that anytime anything brushed against that bit of cheek he would always remember this sensation.

“Yoshi? Yoshi?”

It took Kakashi a minute to realize she was talking to him. “Yes?”

Her lips quirked in an entirely too female smile as she told him, “You stopped counting.”

“Of course. Um, what number were we on again?”

Her eyes glinted in amusement. “Fifty-two.”

“Thanks.”

When they finally reached the hundred mark he couldn’t be sure, but he thought that Sakura was slow in pulling away. It made him regret even more what was going to have to happen today. And things had just been getting so interesting.

She looked so happy, or at least pleased with herself, but he couldn’t delay any longer. He had to get back to his friends in Bird Country eventually. They were all depending on him.

Well, he could delay it a few minutes, at least. “What kept you away so long? You seem…different.”

“Keeping track of my movements now, eh? Or did you just miss me?” she asked cheekily.

“It pays to keep track of my best customer,” he said, watching as she deflated slightly. “And, maybe just a bit of the other as well,” he admitted.

She smirked up at him. “And don’t you forget it. As for my absence?” She shrugged again. “The elders like to keep tabs on me as well. They didn’t like the fact I was spending so much time with…” She trailed off, searching for the right word.

“Me?” He guessed.

“Yeah.”

“Why’s that? Because I’m a peddler?”

“In a way...” she hedged.

Then it dawned on him. “Ah, it’s because I travel, I have foreign ideas, and I could lure you away from them. They wouldn’t like it if their prize medic went missing.”

She snorted. “You have no idea.”

“Really?” he asked quickly, too quickly, but she didn’t notice. “Why don’t you tell me about it?”

She thought about it a moment and then figured, why not. “They make their opinions very clear about where they would like me to stay. Still, there are always valuable alliances on the table and they let me know, very clearly, which they would allow me to accept and which are unimaginable. Even then I think those are just grudging allowances though. They really just want me to stay here. I know that for sure.”

“Why?” he prompted when she didn’t seem like she was going to go any further on her own.

“There was another ‘old friend’, I guess you could say. During the war, though, he wasn’t exactly playing for the same side.”

Ah, Kakashi thought. That narrowed it down to one.

“Some time after the war he was captured and brought back and given the option of being accepted back within the city if he did a certain number of things. One of those was to marry me.”

Kakashi sucked in a breath. “The elders?”

“Yeah.”

“And you turned him down?”

She laughed. “I never had the opportunity to. I didn’t even find out about it until much later. He wanted no part of us, didn’t even want to come back, so it was somewhat pointless.”

Kakashi was quiet a moment. “Would you have turned him down if he’d asked?”

Sakura shrugged as if it didn’t matter, and as he watched her there, suddenly so comfortable in her own skin, he wondered if maybe it truly didn’t. “I’d like to think so, but you just never know until the opportunity is presented. We did have quite the past, after all. Mostly, I think I regret not getting the chance to turn him down and see the look on the smug bastard’s face.”

They laughed together, elapsing into companionable silence as they watched the wind flutter through the leaves above them.

“You never did answer my question from last time, you know. Is this a regular habit of yours to avoid questions by leaving?”

To his surprise she just leaned back again the tree again - her shoulder almost bumping his. “Not usually. You ask hard questions sometimes. And in answer - I guess both your guesses have a bit of truth to them. I like that you don’t make demands of me and it’s both a relief and a bit sad that you’ll be leaving soon.”

The last admission made Kakashi’s stomach drop even further but he knew he had to push on. “Let me ask you another question then - what’s so wrong with people wanting your help?”

She huffed irritably. “Haven’t we been through this already? People always want something for nothing. They’re all just like the elders, but at least those two don’t pretend to be something they’re not. I’m a tool, that’s it, even if a very expensive and valuable one. I’m a tool to everyone else but they try to hide it behind friendship or other nonsense.”

“You think friendship is nonsense?” he asked, shocked. This was certainly a new development.

“For the most part I think it’s a bunch of rubbish. You can be friends until someone suddenly has power and then they’re just out to use you, like everyone else.”

“You mean they wanted you to heal them?” he asked, fishing for what the problem was.

“Yes! Every time we hung out it was always ‘take some time to look at this wound or that’. I mean, we’re shinobi, so there’s always some problem or another. As I said, I’ve already accepted the fact I’m meant to be a tool, it was just painful when they pretended it was more than that.”

“And you know it wasn’t ‘more than that’ because?”

She grumbled irritably. “I just told you - they were always harassing me to do something for them. I was never just Sakura, always ‘the girl who heals’.”

Kakashi rolled his eyes. He understood getting defensive but this was just absurd. “You were friends with the Yamanaka girl, yes?”

She shot him a sharp glance. “How did you know that?”

He tapped his ear. “You would walk together in the marketplace. I can still hear, remember? And the Yamanaka girl has a very distinct voice.”

She laughed. “You can say that again.”

“And her family owns a flower shop?”

“Yes,” she affirmed, suddenly hesitant about where this was going.

“So if you faced a flower emergency and suddenly needed twenty bouquets by tomorrow, wouldn’t you expect her to help you out?”

“What does this have to do with anything?”

“All relationships are about give and take. Yes, they wanted your services, but you’re also the best, so why shouldn’t they take advantage of it? Friends help each other out. Maybe you didn’t need their particular talents as often but that didn’t mean they’d be unwilling to lend you aid if you needed it. Perhaps some of them were just leeching off of you but do you really pretend to believe that every single person you’ve known since childhood suddenly cares nothing about you but for your skills?”

“Hey, what do you know! You didn’t see how they’d react when I told them no. You didn’t see how it was the first thing that would come out of their mouths at any gathering.”

“So you punish them by hiding yourself away from everyone? Set some boundaries with them - the ones who agree are your friends and those who don’t aren’t. It sounds to me like you’re just using it as an excuse to seclude yourself and remain in your lab. There you don’t have to deal with people, with the messy daily life of healing people, of the heart wrenching sadness when a patient doesn’t pull through. It sounds to me like you’re simply afraid of living.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, I think I do. Your responses are already conditioned. You already know I care about you, right?”

She crossed her arms angrily and looked away.

“Right?” he prompted.

“Fine, yes.”

“If I told you I fell last night and hurt my ankle would you be willing to take a look or would I automatically be lumped in with those who only wanted to use you, despite that our entire relationship up to this point has been based on anything but medicine?”

She didn’t answer.

“There are plenty of people who knew you before you ever decided to become a medic. Why do you now automatically assume the worst of them? It sounds to me like you’re simply afraid.”

“Afraid?!” she snapped. “I’m a shinobi. We don’t do fear.”

“Oh yes, we do. It’s what keeps us alive.” She didn’t catch his wording so he plunged on. “You look like you’re stagnating; something has to change. I don’t know what it is, what it is you need, but whatever it is it’s not what you’re doing right now.”

Finally, the fact he’d just lumped himself in with shinobi dawned on her and she spun to stare at him. “Who are you?”

He pulled off the lengths of cloth covering his face and hair. Despite never having seen most of his face, she recognized him instantly.

“Kakashi?” she breathed shakily. “You?! What, why?” She gazed up at his sad eyes, at the censure she saw therein, and found herself lost for words.

“I was never out to use you, Sakura, as I’m sure is the case for plenty of others as well. You assuming the worst of me is quite disappointing, actually. What I told you about the medical situation in Bird Country was true and I merely sought help from a friend, thinking she’d want to do something about it. You liked to help those in need, and most especially would be interested in finding out what caused an epidemic, if for no other reason than to keep it from becoming a pandemic. I was prepared to accept a negative, as I knew you might have other obligations, but I’d never expected…this,” he said finally, waving his hand at her.

“You need to figure out what you really want, Sakura.” He rose to his feet, brushing himself off. “I really hope you find what you need soon. As for me, it’s clear I’m not getting what I need through this venue, so I’ll just be stopping by the hospital for a few things before I head out again.”

Sakura was shaking now, innumerable emotions colliding within her. “You really think you have any right to lecture me like this?”

He sighed so heavily his shoulders sagged. “I’m not lecturing, I’m trying to help a friend find her path. If you choose not to listen, that’s your own prerogative.”

“What? You!” She broke off when he looked at her again, the disappointment in his eyes cutting her to the core. “You really think so little of me right now?”

He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter what I think.” He nodded toward the bird sitting forgotten by her side. “It really was a gift so I hope you get some enjoyment from it.”

Sakura fought the urge to hurl it at his back as he walked away. Instead she picked it up and stared blindly at it as she fought to find her center in a world suddenly turned upside down.

~ ~ ~

Kakashi grumbled under his breath. It was a shame that his aversion to hospitals had come back to bite him in such a way. He only knew a few medics aside from Sakura, and those he did know could only show him things he’d already picked up from her years before.

With nothing else to do he took to the markets. Since Sakura had seemed so taken with his musical items, he’d created a few more of the pots and sold them for what he could in the next couple days. She wouldn’t have the only one in these parts anymore, but that hardly mattered. Besides, she still had the bird.

Then he took all his money to the hospital, buying all the vaccines and medications he could. He even bought a few of the surprisingly cheap medical scrolls, in the hopes that studying them back in Bird Country would reveal a few secrets and basic practices that would help out. While in the hospital he was able to copy a couple more jutsu, though he had to ask the medics performing them exactly what they were for, which aroused suspicion. It didn’t much matter to him, though, since he was on his way out of town at that point.

It had taken him a month to travel to Konoha, but he’d rambled and wandered, more reluctant to return home and make his request of Sakura than he’d been able to admit to himself. Now he was resolved to get these medicines back as soon as possible and he made the journey in a week and a half.

He was greeted back warmly, even though he felt something of a failure himself. Still, the texts were working out better than he’d ever imagined. The Bird medics could only understand what was going on in half of them, as they were written in medical jargon they’d never heard before, so it was up to Kakashi to decipher them in a usable way. He found he rather liked setting up his own classes, experimenting with creating new things that focused on healing rather than killing. It was…refreshing.

After a couple days of study though he realized something unusual about the scrolls; they were all in the same neat, tidy script, despite the fact they were obviously all transcribed by hand. It gave him pause, made him wonder what lowly grunt had been assigned the tedious task but was dedicated enough to not do it sloppily just to get it over with. Something about it tickled on the edge of his mind and finally it hit him that he recognized the handwriting. It was Sakura’s.

His heart clenched at the sudden mental image he was provided. He’d always thought there was no way she could truly be conducting experiments well into the night every single day, and had considered she might do something else with her time. Now he could see her clearly, hunched over her desk during her lunch break or after everyone else had gone home, transcribing text after text to be sold for a pittance. After all, if she didn’t have to pay someone else to do it then she could sell them for less.

Even when she mimed at uncaring something managed to slip through the cracks with her. He chuckled darkly to himself, the revelation doing nothing to make him feel better about how things had turned out. Instead, he buried himself in the work, hoping to forget all about that uncomfortable sojourn into Konoha, the things he’d done and the things he’d discovered, and pushed himself to ascertain things beyond what the scrolls taught. Someone had created all those other techniques one way or another, and if he couldn’t learn them from someone else then he tendered the hope that he could recreate at least some of them. It was better than not trying at all.

Three months passed as he poured over the scrolls, deciphering, tweaking, teaching, experimenting, and he prided himself that his town was healthier than ever. Not by much, but it was something, and that something was everything to him. One of the medics had even saved a woman giving birth just the previous night because of what she’d learned in one of the scrolls he’d brought from Konoha. Things were changing, even if slowly, and he had to believe in that.

He sat out in one of the glades, pausing when a shadow fell across the scroll he was studying. He’d already had a kunai in hand five minutes prior, not recognizing the chakra signal, but the slow, steady pace with which the intruder approached, mixed with the calmness of the chakra signals, indicated the approaching person wasn’t there for a fight. He’d already met multiple people from nearby villages who’d heard of his town’s medical advances, so it was no surprise to him.

Still, once a shinobi always a shinobi, so it was with a keen alertness he turned. “What can I do for you?” he asked calmly, gaze raking over the person who was covered nearly head to toe but for her eyes. He’d recognize those eyes anywhere.

“I-I heard you’re looking for experienced medics,” she said, her nerves playing havoc on the evenness of her tone.

Kakashi sheathed the kunai smoothly and took a step toward her, the smile that lit up his face burning brilliantly even through the cloth of his mask. Still, she wasn’t sure where she stood with him just yet. That smile could mean he was just glad for her services, not necessarily that he was happy to see her. After all, they hadn’t exactly parted on the best of terms.

She hesitated, almost took a half-step back, then her backbone straightened and her eyes blazed as she looked at him.

He smiled. “We appreciate anything we can get.” He took another step and reached for the wrappings around her face, tugging it down. “What took you so long?”

She glared. “You’re really going to ask me that? Well how about the fact that I didn’t know which blasted village you were staying in. Do you have any idea how many towns there are in this country?”

He chuckled at her irritation.

“Plus the elders weren’t exactly thrilled with my decision to leave.”

That gave him pause. “Did they give you trouble?”

She huffed. “Like you wouldn’t believe. Oh, and as of right now, you are looking at one ex-shinobi. Hope that doesn’t bother you.”

His eyebrows dipped with concern. “Why? What happened?”

“They might’ve been okay if I was leaving for one of their alliances, but they gain nothing from this and tried everything they could think of to dissuade me. Finally they just threatened cutting all ties with me if I left. I took them up on the offer.”

“But you love Konoha.”

“So do you. Besides, Naruto and Tsunade are just biding their time. As soon as they have the upper hand I’ll be welcome back with open arms.” She shrugged. “I’m in no rush to return though.”

Clasping her hands behind her back she looked around, her gaze landing on the scrolls he had spread out on the ground. “It seems I have my work cut out for me.”

He laughed lightly and bent to pick up his paperwork - he could get to it later. For now he had to show her around.

Her words stopped him in his tracks though. “This isn’t free, I hope you know.”

Kakashi sighed and stood back up, hands tucked in his pockets. “Of course not. So tell me, what could I hope to pay for the services of teaching these people how to save lives?”

She took a deep breath, pulled up to her full height, and said succinctly, “A kiss.”

“A kiss?” he repeated, smiling so softly under his mask that she missed it entirely.

“Yes. Well, a kiss for a day’s work, I mean.”

He chuckled. “And how long will this bargain last?”

She tried to shrug nonchalantly but was entirely too high strung to pull it off. “A while, at least.”

“Only a while?”

“I don’t plan on staying here permanently, you know.”

“Oh, you don’t.” Kakashi’s heart sank. “How long then?”

“I’m not sure. It’ll depend on how far behind this place really is. There are so many other places to visit, I mean.”

He paused, stared her in the eyes to gauge her intention. “You mean to travel and teach medicine in these ‘other places’?” he guessed.

“Yes. A certain someone told me I could make better use of my talents and I figure this is a good place to start.”

He nodded once, giving her no idea of what was going on inside his head.

“Well then, may I continue?” he asked

“Oh, yes, of course,” she stuttered, knowing she was already turning red.

When he reached for her, cradled her jaw, and leaned down to press his lips against hers, she froze completely. When he didn’t instantly pull back she loosened marginally, then finally relaxed into the kiss. After all, this was her bargain and she darn well planned on enjoying it.

Still, her body was traitorous, and before she even realized it her hands were reaching for him. She hesitated, this was just a bargain after all, it didn’t necessarily mean anything to him, then tried to stealthily pull her hands back, hoping he hadn’t noticed. Luck wasn’t with her though, as he grabbed her hands as he broke the kiss, pulling them up to eye level to look at them.

She cringed, already pulling away from him, when she felt a kiss on her left palm, followed by her right. She stared at him in wondrous amazement, at what her treacherous heart hoped could only speak of acceptance with such a parallel to their first ten kisses. He saw her expression and smirked down at her.

“You’re awestruck already? I haven’t even kissed you thoroughly yet.”

“Thoroughly…?” She rolled the word around in her mouth, liking the way it felt, though it was nothing in comparison to the feeling of his lips coming down on hers once again.

And this time, neither of them planned on letting go.