What Friends Do
"I want us to promise each other something," Chihiro looked at teammates seriously. "If anyone of us get hurt, we will be there for each other."
Their regular training had just ended, leaving the three members of Team Eleven to sit on the grass by each other's side as they always did.
"Of course we will." promised Izumi.
Sen titled her head as she looked at him. "Chihiro, you good?"
He shooked his head. "Since what happened with Obito, I’ve been worried and thinking about … the worst case."
Izumi gasped at his revelation, heart feeling heavy. "Oh, Chiro, you have been thinking about that for so long. Why didn’t you share your thoughts earlier?" Her mind wandered to Kakashi for a moment, but she pushed the thought aside, focusing on the friend in front of her.
"I’m not sure. I just want us to promise this." He held out his hand, it trembled. On his face he wore a look of bravery, eyes gleaming with determination.
The brunette of the team leaned forward, resting her own hand on her teammates. "I promise."
Sen followed shortly after, nodding at both of her teammates before adding her hand to the bunch. "I also promise."
For a moment they stayed in the position, hands placed atop each other, gazes meeting. Cerulean, emerald and raven, all meeting. As a team, they knew that sticking together would be their priority, not the mission. It was a thought all three of them could easily agree on, fear of potential abandonment settled into their bones. It was an easy thing to promise, to be there for each other, to do for someone what they wanted to be done for them. Speaking the idea aloud though made it much more serious, allowed the reality and gravity of their situation to settle in. A seriousness Team Eleven was not used to with their usual lightheartedness. Sen was the first not to be able to bear the atmosphere.
She pulled away her hand from the bunch, focusing on the target of her teasing in order to break the umcomfortable air. "We especially need to make sure Izumi will return under any circurmstance."
Izumi was absolutely confused, brows furrowed. "Why specifically me?" She pulled her hand off of Chihiro’s, who also pulled his own back.
Sen smirked at her unsuspecting friend. "You can’t, like, die without having told Kakashi that she has a crush on him."
The girl reddened considerably before screeching in denial. "I don't have a crush on him!" The previous topic was now abandoned.
Chihiro nudged her lightly against her shoulder. "Yes you do."
"You betrayed me, Chiro. I thought we had an agreement."
The strawberry-blond sweatdropped at that, regretting speaking out against his friend. "You wouldn't-"
She gave him a challenging look. "You sure?"
"Stop switching the topic, Yamanaka," Sen gave her a pointed look, leaving Chihiro to breath in the relief he felt. "We were talking about you and your crush just now. We weren’t finished yet."
Izumi frowned at her friends. "But-"
"No buts, ‘Zumi." intervened Chihiro. Backstabber. She would remember his betrayal.
"Come on, you are ganging up on me!"
Sen raised her eyebrow at that. "Rather dramatic of you."
"Dramatic?" screeched Izumi in disbelief at their teasing. "I’ll show you dramatic-"
"What are you three yelling about?" asked an all too familiar voice, making Izumi startle and turn red again.
Sen smirked devilishly. "You-"
Izumi slapped her hand over her teammate's mouth dramatically. "Nothing."
Chihiro, the only one with manners apparently, peered up at the silver-haired curiously. "What are you doing here, Kakashi?"
Izumi startled at the mention of the silver-haired Jounin. When she turned around, she was first met with the sight of gravity-defying silver hair. For weeks she had not heard from him. At one point after Obito’s death he had pushed her away suddenly, as though having come to a realization. He had not come to any of their trainings and instead sent Pakkun to cancel each, not even coming to see her himself. When she had gone to visit him, to check up on him, he had refused to open the door, locking himself in. Each time she attempted to talk to him, to coerce him out of his home, he had not responded. His only response came once she had tried to pick the lock, him telling her to leave. Several times she had still come by after trainings, sitting outside of his door, waiting for another response, for him maybe inviting him in. Nothing. Now he stood there in front of her, headband slanted as she had suggested to him, acting as though he hadn’t ghosted each of their weekly meetings, as though he hadn’t pushed her away. As far as she knew, he appeared to Team Seven’s trainings, at least according to Minato-sensei, but not to their shared trainings. Kakashi had hurt her deeply, but at the same time she knew she couldn’t fault him for his behaviour. She tried not to, even though her heart felt heavy during the times he ignored her, even out on the streets.
The Jounin rubbed at the back of his neck sheepishly, looking towards his best friend with his uncovered charcoal eye. "Izumi and I wanted to eat lunch together today so I am here to pick her up."
Izumi turned an even more intense shade of red at that. Horrible timing. Beside, it was a lie, they hadn't agreed on that, they hadn’t spoken properly in weeks. But to her it was obvious he needed her, so she wouldn't comment on his lie now.
"Like a-" Again, the brunette shut her friend up by closing her mouth, leaving Sen a babbling mess.
Unfortunately for Izumi, Chihiro had no mercy left for her today. "Like a date?" The question came out innocently, though behind his green eyes mischief twinkled.
Kakashi blinked, shock evident on his covered features. Though, before he could formulate an answer to the question, Izumi beat him to it.
"No, we are going out like friends do. And I owe him some lunch for beating me during a spar." It was a lie, though her teammates could not recognize it.
Kakashi seemed dejected at her reply, though barely let the emotion be evident. Instead, he schooled his expression into one of nonchalance. "Yes, you owe me."
"Oh damn, friendzoned." whispered Sen, who now had her mouth uncovered, into Chihiro's ear.
The boy giggled lowly. "I don't know who to feel worse for."
"Neither. Both are stupid."
Izumi may not have heard the first part, but there was no doubt that she had heard the second part. "Hey! Who are you calling stupid here?"
"You."
Izumi took a step towards her friend, fist raised in mock warning but was quickly a stop. Fingers wrapped around her upper arm, pulling at it gently. Through the thin material of her kimono top she could feel gloves covering the hand. Kakashi pulled her away from her friends, murmuring about him being hungry and wanting to eat. She meanwhile blinked in confusion, allowing herself to be dragged away.
"This is better than any book I have ever read."
"Sen, you have never even touched a book."
"Sometimes you know me too well, Chi."
━━━━
"Kashi, be honest with me, are you feeling better?" They were on their way to Ichiraku's when Izumi decided to drop the question on the silver-haired, startling him in the process.
During the whole way she had been mulling over how exactly to break the uncomfortable silence between them, how to broach the topic. She had turned to face him, but he simply stared ahead. One part of her worried that from now on their friendship would change, that things would be different. Another part of her called these thoughts irrational, fears she projected onto herself. Regardless, she coudn’t help the worry coursing through her.
Kakashi looked dejected just like he did before, charcoal eye looking anywhere but at her. "I just-" He stumbled over his words. "I just needed to see if you were alright." Not dead, he really meant.
"For you, I'll always be alright," She attempted to smile, but the hurt still beat in her heart. "That’s because you are my friend, and that is what friends do."
Kakashi turned to look at his friend. "I’m sorry."
Izumi waved him off, not wanting him to feel guilty or anything. She was his friend, she should understand after all. "Don’t apologize."
"I shouldn’t have pushed you away … I was just-" He cut himself off, keeping quiet instead of finishing his thought.
"I understand, don’t worry too much about my feeling, let’s worry about yours. Because I am worried about you. It's been months …" Since Obito died, but the words were lost on Izumi’s tongue. "How are you feeling? Don’t avoid my question this time around, please. You worry about me, and I worry about you."
"Better," The answer came out quickly, without much of a thought, it was how Izumi knew it to be genuine. "I needed the time, to think, for myself."
"I’m glad that helped you," said Izumi, still frowning slightly. "I shouldn’t have pushed you to talk to me, I’m sorry. You needed space and I didn’t provide it for you."
"I liked when you came over and just talked. It was comforting," admitted Kakashi, pink peeking out from the edge of his mask. "I should have responded, but I prefer listening."
"Oh," Izumi felt surprised at the information revealed. "I wasn’t sure if you heard me."
"You are very loud if you want to be."
Izumi rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly, now smiling at her friend. "It comes natural to me, at least sometimes."
"Not that I mind." added Kakashi to his previous statement.
"I’m glad you don’t," Izumi peeked to look at Kakashi, wanting to share a grin with him, only to see him appear to be lost in thought. "What’s on your mind?" Her eyes took another stop at a familair ramen shop in the distance, their lied destination. "Do you want to talk about it over some ramen? It’s on me. You did tell Sen and Chihiro that we would go and eat something."
"Sure," Kakashi wouldn’t mind some ramen, especially if he got to enjoy it with his friend. "I did tell them that." He just couldn’t believe how she used his own words against him, he couldn’t say no to that.
━━━━
Teuchi placed his arms down on the counter and leaned on them, peering at his two new customers. "What can I get you two?" He gave them a broad smile, welcoming them in with his expressive kindness.
Kakashi and Izumi hesitated in their answer, waiting for the other to speak their order first. Though when neither made the first move, they started talking at once. "One Miso with eggplant please." Their heads snapped to look at each other before turning away again, embarrassed.
Teuchi let out a chuckle at the action, shaking his head softly. "Will you two share or a miso each?" When he saw Izumi looking at him, he wiggled his eyebrows teasingly, making the girl look away again. Not even when eating ramen she was safe from teasing.
"One for each of us," replied Kakashi for the both of them. When the kind man turned away from the friends, the silver-haired turned towards his friend again, nudging her lightly with his elbow to catch her attention. "I was wondering, how are Fuji and Miho?"
"They miss you dearly," told him Izumi honestly. "I told them about mission since they heard someone talking about it in the village. They were really worried, still are. It has been a while since you have come over." She also wouldn’t mind him coming over, his presence was missed by her too.
"I’ll come by soon, so they won’t worry." He wouldn’t want the people who treated him as their own to worry about him or to unintentionally neglect them and the constant love they radiated towards him.
"I will tell mom and dad that. They for sure will be excited," Izumi smiled at him widely at the mention of her parents before she let out a laugh. "Sometimes I worry they love you more than they love me."
Kakashi’s charcoal eye widened at the words ‘love you’, his throat suddenly feeling heavier than before. "They- they love me?" His mouth stood ajar slightly, the idea seeming unbelievable to him.
Izumi tilted her head as she looked at him, still smiling. "Of course they do! I was sure you already knew. You are part of the family after all and you wil always be," She took a small breath, stumbling over her words at the next part. "And well, I also, uh, care about you, deeply." In her thoughts she had hyped herself up to say the words so heavily connotated, but she couldn’t bring them out. It felt wrong to say them, to her he was no family as her parents saw him to be, he was more than that. She simply couldn’t put it into words.
Another admission Kakashi was startled by. He felt his cheeks begin to warm, a shade of red most likely dusting them by now. He cleared his throat. "I also care about you."
"I, thank you!" squeaked out Izumi, a giddy smile on her lips as she looked at him.
Kakashi couldn’t help the smile tugging at his lips when he gazed back, the reaction almost coming automatically to him.
Their small moment was interrupted by Teuchi who placed two steaming bowls of ramen right before each of them, wishing them a good meal with a bright smile before turning away again, getting ready to treat other customers.
Izumi and Kakashi shared a glance, still smiling. The former then turned away to give her friend the privacy to remove his mask in order to eat, not wanting to intrude or push his comfort zone. While she was curious about what he was hiding underneath the mask, she wanted him to tell her on his own, not upon her request or him feeling pressured to do so. For as long as he wouldn’t say, the topic would remain unbroached. Izumi just hoped he would confide in her one day, no matter how far away that day may be, she wouldn’t mind. Because that is what friends did, be there for each other, no matter what it took. The thought of them being friends made her delighted and upset at the same time and if she was honest with herself, she wasn’t sure what that meant for her.