Kakashi's Suffering (Ex. Chapter)

Katsu's eyes slowly drifted open. A ray of light had pierced his eyelids and in a moment of discomfort, shaken him awake.

Katsu stared at the curtains which had failed to keep the rising sun — which barely peaked over the top of the compound wall — out of his face.

'I will sew them together one day,' he thought with no small amount of spite.

Figuring it was nearing the time in which he usually awakes anyway, he decided, though with some annoyance, to remain awake and begin the day early.

As he'd grown taller over the course of the last few months, he wore new clothes which had been gifted to him by Sakumo — a long-sleeved mesh undershirt, plain black shirt with the Konoha leaf imprinted upon the back, and dark-blue pants and open-toed sandals. He wrapped his hands with bandage as demonstrated to him by Sakumo, brushed his teeth, and left to see if either Ayaka or Kakashi had awaken.

Leaving the guest bedroom he'd been given, Katsu approached the kitchen where he could smell the scent of smoked sausage and fried eggs.

"Good morning, auntie," Katsu said to Ayaka, who was preparing breakfast.

"Good morning, Katsu. Did you sleep well?" she asked. "Insomnia is the killer of a sharp mind."

"Well enough to pass, auntie. Just well enough to pass," he said with a tired voice as he sneakily approached the preoccupied Ayaka.

As Ayaka cracked another egg into the pan to begin frying, a small seven-year-old arm slowly crept past her to snatch one of the cooked sausage links that lay unprotected by the side.

"Not so fast, sneak thief," Ayaka said, swatting Katsu over the head with a wooden spoon, "You can wait until Kakashi's up. Then we can eat breakfast together."

"Tch, Sakumo just had to hire a shinobi," Katsu said in manner in which it was obvious he was merely joking.

He eased off the smoked sausage and backed away, surrendering for now.

"He also let you into the household. I sometimes wonder if he made the right choice," she said, not turning her attention away from the eggs.

"Your life would be dull without me," he said while walking away, "I'll go wake Kakashi."

"That it would. For better or for worse," she muttered.

At the end of a hallway in the main building, Katsu slammed open the sliding door, sending a happily sleeping Kakashi into a panicked frenzy.

Kakashi flew into a stance that showed he was prepared for battle and ready to give hell.

Seeing Katsu stand in the doorway, Kakashi tilted his head, wondering why he'd been so rudely awaken.

"Kakashi! An intruder has broken into the compound and taken Ayaka hostage!" Katsu said with a face of pained agony, like he'd lost his puppy to a train barreling down the tracks with little regard for lessor lifeforms, steamrolling any creature unfortunate enough to get caught under its hundreds of tons of steel machinery.

Kakashi went into a momentary state of shock before quickly being taken over by a steely determination, and with commendable tenacity, rushed out of the room to eliminate the assailants.

"They're keeping her captive in the kitchen!" Katsu egged on from behind, "Hurry, before it's too late! Only you can save her from those thugs!"

Kakashi, further encouraged by Katsu's heartfelt words, pushed himself to sprint even faster, quickly disappearing behind a corner. From the hallway, Katsu could hear his rapidly pattering feet moving in the direction of the kitchen.

In the distance, he could faintly hear Ayaka yelp something in surprise, followed by the sound of a loud crash and the clattering of metal.

Then there was silence in the Hatake compound.

"That went far better than expected," Katsu mumbled to himself.

Peaking around the corner, Katsu saw a bewildered Ayaka, a limp Kakashi lying completely still beside the counter, and a ton of silverware splayed across the kitchen floor.

Ayaka, who was staring at the unconscious Kakashi with a face of disbelief, noticed something in the peripheral of her vision. Glancing up, she saw a smirking Katsu peeping from around the corner.

"You did this, didn't you?" she asked.

"There's only one person who knows for certain, and he's taking a nap, so I guess we'll never truly know," he said, throwing up his arms in feigned ignorance.

Ayaka pinched the bridge of her nose and began to shake the once-again peacefully sleeping Kakashi. "I'm almost glad this is your last day here. Your antics are becoming worse by the week. Now clean up this mess you've orchestrated."

Katsu stopped smiling and said, "Yes, auntie. Sorry, I didn't mean for it to go this far."

She just nodded and pulled a confused Kakashi back onto his feet.

After Katsu had cleaned up all of the fallen silverware and apologized to Kakashi, the three finally sat down at a Japanese-style chabudai — a short-legged table — to have breakfast.

"How's the nose, bud?" Katsu asked.

Kakashi, his nose thoroughly reddened, looked at him for a moment with a blank stare before continuing to eat his breakfast as though he'd heard nothing.

"So… these eggs are pretty good," Katsu complimented, though the other two did not respond.