Chapter Text
It was dusk when Rei departed, the sky a watercolor portrait overhead. The young woman, with red hair haphazardly tied back, rode down mossy pathways upon a large, white horse. It was in these moments that she felt the most free, as if the woods were expanding her lung capacity and finally allowing her to fully, unapologetically breathe. She, bred for battle, the little assassin, Rei Natsuki. She gripped her horse’s mane tightly as they weaved between towering trees, her heart pounding in sync with his hooves. If only she could melt into the forest floor, become one with the wilds, liberated from the strict convention of her career.
Amid her daydreams, her grip on Toshio’s mane had loosened and so when a white flash of something startled the steed, she flew off his back and effectively slammed into the dirt. Rei spluttered into the crook of her neck as she tried to catch her breath, glaring at her horse. “What the fuck?!” she called to him, pushing the long bangs back out of her face. Toshio stamped his feet and shook his head, nostrils flaring. In the near distance, crumpled at the base of a large tree, lay a mass of white fur.
Rei was, at first, understandably cautious. The wolves were vicious in these parts and she knew better than to apprehend a dangerous animal. Her curiosity, however, overpowered her logic. With sword drawn, she inched ever so slowly nearer, praying for the woods to keep still so as not to startle him. And then she saw it: blood.
The wolf’s chest rose and fell tumultuously, his mismatched eyes searching this way and that. His right was naturally dark and ominous but his left shone red, bright as the blood on his flank, with a nasty scar straight down the center. He growled softly as he watched Rei approach.
“I’m not going to hurt you” she murmured. “I just want to help.” When it was clear he had finally at least tolerated her presence, she sheathed her sword and knelt down beside him. The wound was deep and intense but had not severed any important ligaments. The outlook, should he let her treat him, was bright.
The wolf watched with a wild, alert gaze as she pulled a flask of water from the belt at her hip. She popped the cork and poured the cool liquid all over the wound, a stream of diluted blood rushing into the dirt. Then, grabbing her dagger, she sliced away a strip of cloth from her skirt and began to bandage him up.
He snapped his jaws at her as she wrapped his leg, but she did not flinch. “I know it hurts!” she fired back at him. “But it has to be done. It’ll only take a minute, so suck it up.” A confused expression flitted across his face before he ultimately accepted his fate. Once she was finished, she stood back and motioned for him to get up. “Make sure you can walk on it” she insisted. The minute the words fell from her lips, however, she felt stupid and childish. There was no way a dumb wolf would understand her human commands. And yet somehow, he did. She watched him rise slowly, testing his back leg with a strange sense of concentration. When he had grown more comfortable and agile, she knelt down to begin gathering up her supplies. As she did so, a heavy shadow suddenly stretched over her, growing with every second. Her hands grew unsteady, and then she heard it.
“Thank you.”
A man’s voice. Rei’s heart leapt into her throat as she slowly lifted her gaze. The wolf had disappeared. Standing before her now was a human man.
Rei whipped her dagger out and stumbled backward, narrowing her eyes at the stranger. “Come any closer and I’ll hang you from that branch by your intestines!” she threatened. He recoiled, his mismatched eyes widening. She studied his every move, every feature. If she was to die right here—or worse—she at least wanted to thoroughly recognize her assailant.
First and foremost, he was attractive. Frustratingly so. His silver hair fell into his eyes and stuck up in all directions, wild and unkempt. Second was that he was naked. Completely and utterly naked. And in his nakedness, she could not help but notice he was also lean and fit. Her cheeks burned at the mere sight of him.
“What business do you have wandering around the woods like that, anyway?” she asked, dropping her eyes. “If you’re looking to take advantage of innocent girls, you’ve targeted the wrong person.”
The man blushed, clearly embarrassed by his own immodesty, as if he hadn’t even noticed until it was pointed out to him. Rather than apologize, he replied, “It’s nice to know your hospitality is limited to animals.” The statement was so strange, it warranted another look at him. A cocking of the brow and a search of the face for any signs of intoxication, or if he was simply a hallucination. Instead, all she saw was a bandage around the thigh and a sharp red eye cut down the center by a nasty scar. No…it couldn’t be…
Rei tightened her grip on her dagger as she scrambled to her feet. The sky overhead had grown inky black, the stars poking through the darkness to shine down upon them. All Rei knew for certain was that she needed to go home. She needed to get as far away from here as humanly possible. And yet her feet refused to move. If anything, there was an unnerving grip in her chest pulling her ever nearer to him. All she could manage was to pull the ragged cape from Toshio’s flank and shove it into the man’s hands.
“Put this on” she commanded. “I can’t stand to look at you.”
The man took the cloak and did as he was told, tying it around his waist like a makeshift hakama. “Sorry” he apologized, rubbing the back of his neck. “I hate when that happens.”
Blinking, Rei asked in sharp disbelief, “Does…does this happen often?”
The man paused a moment before asking, “Which part?”
Unbelievable. Shaking her head, Rei turned to mount her steed and disappear back home. This man was testing her patience—a man she was unsure was even real. No, she needed to remove herself from this situation before she sank too far into her own insanity. Perhaps if she climbed into bed with a cold towel to her forehead, then come morning, this would all be a hazy memory.
He wasn’t sure why but the sudden threat of her departure struck him with a desperate yearning. He couldn’t afford to let her leave. Not yet. Not now. Acting on impulse, he reached out to grip her wrist. “W-wait!” he called. “I’m sorry” he continued. “I didn’t mean to be so abrupt. I don’t often find other people out here. Nonetheless women as…as beautiful as you.”
Truthfully, Rei wasn’t buying it. If he was aiming to erase the predatory undertones of his appearance, then this was not helping his case. “Well, maybe that’s for the best” she muttered. There was a fire in her gaze that almost made him back down. Almost.
“Please…tell me your name” the man then asked.
Rei considered his question for a moment. She wasn’t sure if it was information she ought to give out. But then again, there was no harm in telling very real things to very fake people. “Natsuki” she replied, her voice breathy as if releasing the pent-up pressure within a balloon. “Rei Natsuki.”
Rei Natsuki. The name enveloped him in a strange, titillating comfort. “Rei” he repeated, paying close attention to the way her name fit in his mouth. He said it again, nodding. Rei. “That’s beautiful.”
For a moment, with her hand clasped in his in the moonlight, she suddenly felt as if their flesh was melding into one. She never considered herself particularly beautiful. The thought of someone else thinking of her as such felt foreign and displaced. And whatever was foreign was immediately terrifying. “And what about you?” she asked. “What’s your name?”
The man cleared his throat before answering, “Kakashi.” The name brought Rei a similar sensation of comfort and anxiety. It seemed so familiar, like a vague echo of childhood nostalgia that she couldn’t quite comprehend. She felt her hand grow clammy in his grip and she knew in that moment that if she did not leave soon, she was likely going to be sick. Kakashi felt her wiggle her way out of his grasp, saw the nausea painting her face, and knew he had made a terrible mistake. “I’m sorry” he said again. “I never meant to scare you. It’s just…you remind me of someone.”
“Oh yeah?” Rei asked. “Who?” The thought of her resembling a stranger to a man with limited social connections was unnerving and, quite frankly, inconsistent. Her curiosity piqued.
“I spend most of my time reading” Kakashi started.
Before he could say more, Rei interrupted. “You read…?” she asked. It wasn’t that she considered him illiterate, necessarily, but rather was simply shocked seeing as so many people these days had given up on books. The thought of having found someone else who thrived within the nooks of narratives piqued her interest that much further, though she was also admittedly unsure of how this factored into the original topic.
Kakashi nodded in reply, noticing a significant change in the way Rei carried herself. She seemed more open, more accepting, and in that, he could breathe a sigh of relief. “Have you ever read the works of Master Jiraiya?” he asked. “You remind me of his heroine, Junko.” Then, slightly more sheepishly, “She’s actually my favorite.”
“Oh?” Rei asked. Toeing the dirt, she asked quietly, “What, uh…what do you like about her…?” She couldn’t bring herself to look at him now. She was unfamiliar with the books he spoke of, but she was deeply intrigued by how he could so firmly assess her character after only knowing her for an hour or so.
Kakashi went on to name off the traits he admired in a woman, exemplified by Junko in the novels. Unbeknownst to him, so many of them paralleled Rei’s personality. She felt stripped down, exposed and terrified. How obvious was she that he could pin her down so clearly? His rattling only further convinced her this had to be a dream. But his grip felt so real, so soft yet strong. Was she really capable of dreaming up something so vivid? She didn’t know. The more she questioned it, the more she feared that perhaps she truly was losing her mind. And all the while, her mind harkened back (on its own accord) to the idea of fate. The idea that everything happens for a reason, that there is a destined companion for everyone. When she looked at him, that strange, shapeshifting man, she somehow saw home. She only wondered if he felt the same.
Dark storm clouds rolled in overhead to blot out the moonlight. The moment she opened her mouth to speak, a crack of lightning illuminated the sky followed by thunder so intense, it shook the whole wood. A cold slap of reality.
“I have to go” Rei said abruptly. She had no clue what time it was but that didn’t matter anymore. Danzo would certainly be searching for her now, seething and strict. She could not let him know what she was up to in the woods.
Kakashi watched her approach Toshio, who had since become rather impatient, but not without a deep ache in his chest. “Rei, before you go” he called. She turned to him as he approached her at Toshio’s flank. He tenderly brushed the hair out of her face and she felt her cheeks enflame yet again.
“What is it…?” she asked, her voice small and meek. She was terrified of what he was about to offer.
Kakashi stammered a moment before motioning toward the makeshift clothing tied around his waist. “What about your cloak?” he asked.
“What about it?” she rebuked.
“You should take it with you” Kakashi said. “It’s yours, after all.”
Rei glanced down at it, the way it cinched at his waist and fell in tatters to the forest floor. Panic rose in her throat as she feared watching him undress. She rested a hand upon his forearm and whispered, “Keep it. You need it more than I do.”
A small smile touched Kakashi’s lips as her hand lingered on his arm. “I’ll return it to you tomorrow. Come back and see me at sunset. Please.”
She considered the request for a long moment. For Kakashi, that stretch of time felt eternal. He rested his hand atop hers, a silent prayer that she would say yes. And looking into his mismatched eyes, the way his jaw clenched in anticipation, and his toned chest and strong arms—“Yes” spilled out of her mouth on it’s own accord. Delighted, he kissed her hand delicately before encouraging her back home. His lips stung against the soft flesh and she felt her mind spinning as Toshio raced back to the village.
Kakashi watched her depart as the rumbling sky intensified. A sinister feeling, like smoke on the moors, crept across the forest floor. He knew what was coming but he did not care. He would deal with the forest’s wrath later. For now, his focus was her.