Burden of a Jounin
"I got this for you." Izumi held out a brown box to Kakashi. Around it wrapped a navy ribbon, tied together perfectly atop the mahogany wood.
His first mission of a Jounin was about to begin, meaning she had to give him the gift she had gotten for him before he left. As they stood near the gates of Konoha, Izumi's hands almost began to tremble in the anticipation she was feeling, patiently waiting for her gift to be accepted.
Kakashi took the present into his hands, smiling underneath his mask. The outline of his smile was barely visible on the outside, though the brunette noticed immediately. Carefully he pulled at the end of the ribbon, charcoal eyes carefully watching the material fall apart in his hand. He stuffed it into his pocket before raising his hand once again to open the wooden box. For a moment he looked over at Izumi, taking in her reaction. Then his fingers pried open the box to reveal a bracelet.
"Just so you know no matter what happens, you will never be alone." A token for their friendship, one could say.
The bracelet was woven delicately, strings in shades of blue forming a beautiful pattern all across the bracelet, complementing each other. The clasp of the bracelet was shiny silver, glittering in a small amount of light. Kakashi thought it was too nice of a gift to be worn by a Shinobi, regardless, he appreciated it.
"I don't want it to break accidentally."
"You don't have to worry about that, Kashi. I thought ahead! I asked Kushina-sensei to enforce it with fuinjutsu so it would not break."
The thought warmed his heart. She had gone to such lengths for him. Just for him. "Thank you, Izu. I appreciate it."
Delicately he took the bracelet out of its wooden confinement and placed the box underneath his arm in order to put the bracelet on. Once he had gotten the clasp open, Kakashi attempted to wrap it around his non-dominant wrist, though failed each time he tried. Sheepishly, he looked up at his friend before motioning to the bracelet. Izumi let out a giggle but gave him a broad smile, taking the bracelet out of his hand into her own. With much more precision than him she quickly wrapped it around his wrist, clasping it together once she had done so. Immediately afterward a small light emitted from the gift and subdued again.
"That was the fuinjutsu … I think." said Izumi.
"That looked like fuinjutsu to me." spoke Minato, who suddenly stood beside the two.
"Sensei!" spoke Izumi, startled by his appearance. "Hello."
"Nice seeing you here, Izumi," Minato's eyes wandered down to the bracelet his student held, mischief glinting in them. "What is that I see?"
Izumi suppressed a groan at his obvious tease.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the interaction. "It's a gift I got from Izumi for becoming a Jounin."
"I see," Minato nodded in understanding, though the way he looked at the object indicated that he had already seen it once. "What a thoughtful gift."
What is his goal?
"I tried." said Izumi, sending Kakashi a small smile.
"Is that fuinjutsu I see? How prepared you are. Impressive."
"Again, I tried."
"I don't think my gift for Kakashi can compare with something so personal."
Izumi sent the blond man a pointed look. "I'm sure you got something nice too, sensei."
Minato shook his head. "Nothing that can compare."
"What do you need, sensei?" Kakashi successfully interrupted the man's teasing, allowing Izumi to breathe out in relief.
"Right," Minato cleared his throat. "We have to leave on the mission now, so you better say goodbye."
Kakashi frowned slightly. "Obito isn't even here yet."
"I'm sure he will be here soon."
"I wouldn't want to hold you up on your first mission as a Jounin," said Izumi. "So I better get going yet. I'll see you once you get back."
Kakashi nodded in agreement. "I'll see you later, Izu." He smiled underneath his mask. He turned around to inspect what his teammates were doing and once he saw none of the attention was on him all for his sensei's, he went ahead and gave Izumi a quick hug, wrapping his arm with the bracelet around her shoulder for a moment before letting go again
Minato looked away for the moment and once they separated, he took this as a sign to lead his student away to join his teammates. The man did so not without throwing a quick wink across his shoulder at the brunette, teasing her worldlessly.
"Damn it, sensei."
Izumi turned on her heel with pink cheeks, ready to go train with her own team.
━━━━
When Izumi heard that Team Minato had returned from their mission to Kanabi Bridge, she sprinted towards the gates of Konoha, ready to welcome her best friend back from his first mission as a Jounin. She desperately hoped that the mission was a success not only for the silver-haired, but also his team. Especially due to its known importance for the war, Izumi could only hope that they succeeded.
Once she stood at the gates to Konoha, there was no one for her to greet. Even as she waited for half an hour, there was no sign of the presence of Team Seven or any of its team members. The lack of any of them made worry bubble up in her stomach, her hand beginning to feel clammy.
"Where are they?" She muttered, hands nervously playing with the hem of her skirt. Something could have gone wrong…
"Kid!" An unfamiliar voice called out to her. "Who are you waiting for?"
Izumi turned towards the unfamiliar guard. "Namikaze Minato's team!"
The man's brows furrowed in confusion at the reply. "Kid, they've arrived already. But they are at the hospital, didn't you know?"
Her eyes widened at the revelation, mouth suddenly feeling dry. "T-thank you." Without another glance towards the man, she rushed away from the scene and towards the hospital, hoping for her friend to be alright.
━━━━
"I'm so sorry for being late! I waited at the gates but none of you were there and then I was told you were here and I rushed over here and-" Izumi cut herself off at the sight of the gloomy faces of only three members of Team Seven. Her heart felt as though any moment, it would drop to the darkest pit of her stomach.
"Obito didn’t make it." explained Minato solemnly. It would most likely be no time until Kushina-sensei would join her boyfriend to comfort him.
At the mention of her friend, Rin teared up quickly, her hands coming to rest in front of her face as her shoulders began to tremble. Not shortly after the brunette stood up hurriedly, rushing out of the room immediately. Izumi had her own tears in her eyes by now, they were decorating her low lash line as she stared after her friend.
"Can I talk to you?" asked Kakashi, voice cracking once, searching her features for any kind of reluctance. He found none.
Izumi smiled wrily. "You can always talk to me, Kashi."
"I will be back later, Kakashi. Rin needs me right now." Minato gave him a sad smile and nodded at Izumi before leaving, closing the door behind him.
Izumi made her way over to where the plastic chairs were positioned in the room and chose a yellow one to drag to Kakashi’s bed, sitting down on it once positioned by his bedside. She leaned forward to be able to listen to him better and to study his features, more specifically the bandage now wrapped around his head and eye. One charcoal eye was left uncovered and it made her wonder whether he had entirely lost his eye or if it was intact, but injured. Both scenarios made her frown.
"What happened?" She asked carefully.
Kakashi’s head turned to face Izumi, a frown evident underneath the mask he wore. "I failed," His singular eye focused on her before he averted it to stare out of the window of the room instead. "We went on the mission and I failed my team. I failed the mission," He took a shaky breath. "You were right all along and so was Obito, you can’t put the mission above your comrades. Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum."
Izumi reached out to him to rest her hand on his arm, to bring him some sort of comfort, but the silver-haired startled away from her. Quickly she retracted her hand again, sitting idly in her chair.
"Sorry." He murmured, looking apologetic.
"No need to apologize. I should have asked first."
Between the two friends reigned silence, filling out the space previously overtaken by conversation. Kakashi inspected his friend from the perephiral of his vision several times, reading the facial expression she wore, trying to determine what she thought of him now. All he could find was unhidden worry overtaking her completely.
"Your eye." spoke Izumi gently, her own eyes raking over the bandages yet another time.
"I lost it."
Izumi stiffened at his reply, her hand going to cover her mouth in shock, a startled noise escaping her involuntarily. The tears in her eyes began to pool again, she felt absolutely petrified at the mere thought. It happening left her in a ghost-like state, unmoving.
"You- what-"
"And then Obito unlocked his Sharingan and gave me his." Kakashi’s voice shook as he spoke.
Izumi gave him a wry smile, trying to lighten up the situation somehow. "At least now you have a battle scar across your eye." The misery he was surrounding himself was drowning.
His open charcoal eye wandered over to the scar across the bridge of her nose, running down all the way to her cheeks. Even so long after it had not faded, instead it had begun to stand out more, the skin an enraged shade of red. He still thought that even with it, she looked beautiful.
"Like I have."
Kakashi smiled grimly at that. "Will mine be as cool as yours though?"
"Cooler than mine, that’s for sure. I mean, Chuunin exams can’t compare to your awesomeness."
"I guess they can’t…" For a moment he trailed off from his line of thought. "About the Sharingan, I don’t think I can deactivate it. My chakra, it will drain." He frowned at his own revelation.
"Have you tried deactivating it?"
Kakashi nodded. "I passed out from chakra exhaustion later."
Izumi couldn’t help but wince. "And when you close it?"
"Then I don’t drain myself," He confirmed her thought. "But I can’t keep it closed all the time, that’s inconvenient and an obvious blind spot."
Izumi made a noise, tilting her head in thought. "Can’t you cover it with your headband? Slant it over the eye?"
"I think that would work," Kakashi mulled over the idea in his mind, trying to think of ways how it could be an inconvenience but found no better solution than the one provided to him by his friend. "That’s a brilliant idea, thank you, Izu."
The brunette laughed at his choice of words. "I don’t think people have ever called ideas of mine brilliant before. I’m more focused on helping you, Kashi."
A small smile blossomed underneath his mask, but for a full one to bloom, he couldn’t bring himself to. "Can we talk about something else then?"
"Of course we can," smiled Izumi. "What do you want to talk about?"
"Anything but the mission." His voice came out pleading, almost desperately so.
Izumi pondered for a moment about potential topics absolutely unrelated to the mission or the now deceased Uchiha boy. "Have I ever told you about my teammates totally crushing on each other?"
Kakashi shook his head with the small smile still apparent. "You haven’t." He hoped she would tell. It was not the information he was wildly interested in, but rather the fact that he would get to listen to the comfort of her voice.
"Good, because there is a lot to say."