a touch like gentle kisses.
Fandom: Naruto
Characters: Hatake Kakashi & Haruno Sakura
Prompt: 020. the road home & 050. bliss
Word Count: 805
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Notes: Written for 30 kisses & lover100. Prompt tables are here & here.
-
“…Kakashi?”
The continuous rhythm of his footsteps falters slightly at her ill-used voice, but his tired feet do not stop in their trek. A casual shrug of his shoulders is enough to tell her that he has heard her quiet inquiry. Her small frame is jolted slightly when he shrugs his broad shoulders, and he pauses for a slight moment to adjust her position on his injured back.
“Are we…” she trails off, curious, yet afraid of what the answer will be.
“Home,” he croaks in reply, his voice protesting the sudden usage after such a long abstinence. “We’re going home.”
“…you completed the mission?”
“We completed the mission,” he coughs, and for the first time she notices her surroundings, herself, and him. They are nowhere near the lush forests of their home country; there are no fiery green leaves that glow in the dawn light, waiting to envelope them in its warm bath. Instead, rocky cliffs that jut out at odd angles, shrapnel-like and intimidating surround the sorry path they are on. The soft crunching that follows each step Kakashi takes holds an almost musical quality after she has lost count of the number of steps he has taken, and she relaxes enough to allow her battered body to melt into his.
And battered it is; automatically, her mind searches for any damage she has sustained, and the mental response is so overwhelming with feedback that she has to let her eyes flutter shut. At least one rib is broken, and another one half fixed, several gashes that have been healed haphazardly are draped across her body, and she zones out after ten or so injuries.
No wonder Kakashi is carrying her like an invalid. But just from her comfortable position on his back, she can feel the multitude of injuries he has endured also, healed to an unsatisfactory-at-best level, either of his own hand or hers.
“Kakashi,” she whispers into his covered ears, her breath tickling the tiny bits of exposed skin. “Stop and let me heal you.”
“No,” is his firm reply, somehow pulling enough energy to lace his one word with steel.
“It wasn’t a request. It was an order.”
“No.”
“I order you as your medic,” she tries again, patience exhausting at an exponential rate.
“No.”
“I’ll tell Tsunade and you’ll be stuck in the hospital for the next two months, if I have any say in it.”
His steps slow to a sudden stop at her last words, and he twists his head as far left as his injuries allow. “You wouldn’t.”
No words escape her mouth, and her silence is answer enough. An irritated sigh is all he says in reply also, careful to place her delicately on the ground. When her feet make contact with the uneven ground, a sharp jolt of pain shoots through her every muscle, and she bites down on her lips to suppress the urge to groan.
“Lie flat,” she whispers through pinched lips. “Let me see your injuries.”
His clouded eye meets her exhausted emerald orbs. He thinks he should look away, but perhaps it was from surviving such an ordeal together or simply gravitational pull, his eyes do not obey his commands, and they indulge in a staring contest until the corners of a smile breaks out on Sakura’s muddied face. The infamous crinkle of Kakashi’s lone eye follows, and the little bits of tension that had formed dissipated like nothing at all.
Perhaps shocking them both, he complies with her order without further contempt, and though it’s a little more than painful to sprawl out on the ground, he has no more complaints. He doesn’t miss the poorly hidden grimace as she shuffles closer, filled with the discomfort of her own wounds, but now, he thinks he deserves a moment of selfishness. As her hands, aglow with beautiful bouts of life energy closes the distance between their two bodies, Kakashi allows his eyes to flutter shut for the first time in nearly a day.
He’ll never admit to the woman now kneeling beside him, eyebrows scrunched in concentration as her chakra enters his pathways through a charred piece of skin, but the feel of her, her energy within him is when he is the most calm. Somehow her touch, gentle like a soft kiss in the spring wind wipes away the leaching guilt from his genin days, the guilt of his lone crimson orb, the guilt of not being enough-
The gentle tickle as it trickles through him threatens to send shivers through his body, and he ponders idly as he drifts away from the conscious world that this - this is worth it.
Characters: Hatake Kakashi & Haruno Sakura
Prompt: 020. the road home & 050. bliss
Word Count: 805
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Notes: Written for 30 kisses & lover100. Prompt tables are here & here.
-
“…Kakashi?”
The continuous rhythm of his footsteps falters slightly at her ill-used voice, but his tired feet do not stop in their trek. A casual shrug of his shoulders is enough to tell her that he has heard her quiet inquiry. Her small frame is jolted slightly when he shrugs his broad shoulders, and he pauses for a slight moment to adjust her position on his injured back.
“Are we…” she trails off, curious, yet afraid of what the answer will be.
“Home,” he croaks in reply, his voice protesting the sudden usage after such a long abstinence. “We’re going home.”
“…you completed the mission?”
“We completed the mission,” he coughs, and for the first time she notices her surroundings, herself, and him. They are nowhere near the lush forests of their home country; there are no fiery green leaves that glow in the dawn light, waiting to envelope them in its warm bath. Instead, rocky cliffs that jut out at odd angles, shrapnel-like and intimidating surround the sorry path they are on. The soft crunching that follows each step Kakashi takes holds an almost musical quality after she has lost count of the number of steps he has taken, and she relaxes enough to allow her battered body to melt into his.
And battered it is; automatically, her mind searches for any damage she has sustained, and the mental response is so overwhelming with feedback that she has to let her eyes flutter shut. At least one rib is broken, and another one half fixed, several gashes that have been healed haphazardly are draped across her body, and she zones out after ten or so injuries.
No wonder Kakashi is carrying her like an invalid. But just from her comfortable position on his back, she can feel the multitude of injuries he has endured also, healed to an unsatisfactory-at-best level, either of his own hand or hers.
“Kakashi,” she whispers into his covered ears, her breath tickling the tiny bits of exposed skin. “Stop and let me heal you.”
“No,” is his firm reply, somehow pulling enough energy to lace his one word with steel.
“It wasn’t a request. It was an order.”
“No.”
“I order you as your medic,” she tries again, patience exhausting at an exponential rate.
“No.”
“I’ll tell Tsunade and you’ll be stuck in the hospital for the next two months, if I have any say in it.”
His steps slow to a sudden stop at her last words, and he twists his head as far left as his injuries allow. “You wouldn’t.”
No words escape her mouth, and her silence is answer enough. An irritated sigh is all he says in reply also, careful to place her delicately on the ground. When her feet make contact with the uneven ground, a sharp jolt of pain shoots through her every muscle, and she bites down on her lips to suppress the urge to groan.
“Lie flat,” she whispers through pinched lips. “Let me see your injuries.”
His clouded eye meets her exhausted emerald orbs. He thinks he should look away, but perhaps it was from surviving such an ordeal together or simply gravitational pull, his eyes do not obey his commands, and they indulge in a staring contest until the corners of a smile breaks out on Sakura’s muddied face. The infamous crinkle of Kakashi’s lone eye follows, and the little bits of tension that had formed dissipated like nothing at all.
Perhaps shocking them both, he complies with her order without further contempt, and though it’s a little more than painful to sprawl out on the ground, he has no more complaints. He doesn’t miss the poorly hidden grimace as she shuffles closer, filled with the discomfort of her own wounds, but now, he thinks he deserves a moment of selfishness. As her hands, aglow with beautiful bouts of life energy closes the distance between their two bodies, Kakashi allows his eyes to flutter shut for the first time in nearly a day.
He’ll never admit to the woman now kneeling beside him, eyebrows scrunched in concentration as her chakra enters his pathways through a charred piece of skin, but the feel of her, her energy within him is when he is the most calm. Somehow her touch, gentle like a soft kiss in the spring wind wipes away the leaching guilt from his genin days, the guilt of his lone crimson orb, the guilt of not being enough-
The gentle tickle as it trickles through him threatens to send shivers through his body, and he ponders idly as he drifts away from the conscious world that this - this is worth it.