Breath of Air
Life proceeds as follows: they start walking and don't stop. Kakashi is uncomfortable for the first twenty minutes, and then Kurama shows up again and he's so much more uncomfortable than before.
The only good thing is that they let Kakashi walk in the back once they notice Kurama a distance away, like they figure he'd be stupid to try to get past him. Or that if Kakashi runs away now, when they're taking him back to the surface, he deserves to get lost down here.
In both cases, they'd be right. Either way, Kurama walking behind Kakashi does him no favors.
The man's expression is still utterly frozen, an emotionless mask, but his purple eyes seethe from under his fringe and chills won’t stop running up and down Kakashi’s spine at not having the man in his line of sight. So he casts occasional looks over his shoulder, just in case.
But he can’t stop noticing that Kurama trails behind and that his siblings… don’t seem to care. Some even seem a little relieved, a little more relaxed, that he is behind and not amidst.
They treat him, Kakashi thinks, almost like a misbehaving child. They follow Gyūki’s lead and none of them seem to notice when every so often, Kurama pauses.
Pauses, looks around, stares down a branching tunnel, and mutters something unsavory under his breath before resuming. And none of them seem to notice that when they inevitably have to turn around from a dead end, the tunnels they turn down that lead to more than a wall are most often the ones that Kurama observes.
They don’t even notice when at one point, Kurama stops completely. Not at a tunnel entrance or branch, but in the middle of the tunnel they’re currently traveling. Not observing the stone all around them, either. He just stops and he stares after his siblings with seething eyes and the blankest look upon his face, and he stays there until Kakashi can no longer see him.
Eventually, Kakashi looks back and Kurama is trailing behind them again.
Another thing he notices is that Kurama doesn’t even attempt to let his siblings know when they’re going the wrong way. After another nerve-wracking hour in the cave system, Kakashi starts slowly edging back towards him.
It takes ten more minutes before Kakashi’s jaw loosens enough for him to ask anything. His teeth ache slightly from how hard he’d been pressing them together. “Why don’t you tell them when they make a wrong turn?” He forces out quietly.
Kurama scoffs—a bitter, terrible noise that falls from his mouth like a curse. “I’ve tried,” He says with rancor, “They don’t listen. They never will, either.”
Kakashi doesn’t know what to say to that. He hadn't quite thought Kurama would answer with words instead of violence. He has to say something though, or the weight on his chest might suffocate him. “... have they ever?”
He’s expecting another scoff. What he gets is a stare of violent purple.
“Used to,” Kurama replies acidly, and Kakashi’s curiosity is piqued, even with some corner of his mind trembling with the effort of voluntarily staying next to a fountain of bijuu chakra.
“Why did they stop?”
“You like questions, don’t you.”
Kurama doesn’t say anything else, and Kakashi gets the feeling that the conversation is over. He drifts slowly back to the main group, and wonders if it’s his imagination, or if Kurama scoffs a second time in his wake.
—
Kakashi meets Chōmei probably two and a half hours in. She bounces out of a tunnel ahead of the group and looks somewhat surprised to see them.
“Oh, you guys are still down here too. Whoops!” She grins.
Kakashi hates her instantly. No, that’s not true—he hates her eyes instantly. With passion. They’re fucking- insect eyes. Entirely devoid of any distinction between sclera, iris, or pupil; they’re bright orange and faceted.
Her braided hair—a vibrant green that shades into blue at the ends—reaches her waist, and Kakashi doesn’t look forward to finding out what skills she’s honed to be able to keep it that long.
“We picked up someone new?” She asks, cocking her head to the side. “Hello! Have you met everyone already? That’s fun. Who are you?”
“Kakashi of the Sharingan,” Gyūki returns absently. “Chōmei, how close are we?”
Chōmei pouts. “I wanted to talk to him, not you. Geez. Ten minutes, tops. There’s a weird turn up here though…”
She spins and marches off. Gyūki sighs softly and gestures to follow.
Ten minutes, Kakashi thinks, and suddenly doesn’t hate Chōmei so much anymore.
—
The outside has never smelled so good. It’s fresh and free of dust and stale air that doesn’t circulate well, and Kakashi can almost ignore the pseudo-jinchuuriki to his right and left.
He wonders if he’s allowed to leave, or if Shukaku will kill him if he tries. He feels a bit numb to the prospect by now, which probably isn’t good.
Gyūki speaks up once his siblings have all stretched and yawned and expressed their relief in their respective ways. "Should we split up tonight, or wait for morning?"
"I'd like to get an early start tomorrow," Chōmei responds after a thoughtful silence. Kakashi tries not to pay attention to the fact that she’s visibly smaller than Matatabi, because that means paying attention to her too-large shirt, because that means paying attention to the seal clearly marked below her collarbones.
Kokuō looks at Son Gokū, who shrugs. "Don't care," He says.
Shukaku is pretending to swim in the grass, and subsequently gets no opinion. Kurama says nothing, and isn't asked. Isobu seems content to remain silent as well.
Matatabi says, “We’ll spend the night here.”
And that’s how Kakashi ends up around a campfire stuck between Shukaku and Isobu, who get along better than Kakashi would have assumed. Mostly Isobu is quiet, and reminds Shukaku to calm down a bit and sometimes Shukaku even does.
Chōmei is the loudest, laughing maniacally as she tries to shove Saiken—who she has in a headlock—into the fire, and Kokuō and Son Gokū are relaxing on either side of Matatabi, who is smirking at Saiken’s thrashing.
Everyone is talking over everyone else with the backdrop of Chōmei’s laughter. Gyūki had opted to set a perimeter. Kurama had sat at the mouth of the cave and hadn't moved since.
Kakashi knows he won't be getting any sleep tonight, but wishes that everything would wind down anyway.
It does not. Or at least, it doesn't for a good three hours. In that span of time, Kakashi learns—not through any want of his own—that Shukaku is two years younger than him, enjoys the sight, smell, and taste of blood for some ungodly reason, and would rather starve himself to death than drink tea.
Kakashi also learns that Matatabi is the second youngest of the siblings, and still more responsible and level-headed than over half of them. And that Saiken is allergic to fucking salt. Seriously. Salt. According to everyone present at the revealing of this, salt will literally take Saiken the fuck out if he so much as licks it.
Kakashi had no desire to know this. Kakashi still has no desire to know this. In fact, he really wishes someone would just hit him hard enough to erase this entire experience from his memory.
Unfortunately, his wish is not granted. Fortunately, this is about when people start settling down, so he can mentally scream his frustrations in peace.
He briefly entertains the idea of slipping away into the night, but Gyūki hasn't laid down yet and Kurama is still wide awake, so it's an idea quickly put to rest.
He drifts into an uneasy doze some time later.
—
The morning brings with it the indecipherable screams of Shukaku trying to catch a rabbit with an inexplicable rage.
Kakashi regrets everything.
“Why,” He groans, “Is he screaming?”
“Rabbits are awful,” Matatabi says conversationally, and there are murmurs of agreement from the rest of them. Except for Shukaku, who screeches something about revenge and immediately faceplants in the dirt when his flying tackle misses.
“Right.” Matatabi stands, looking around. “Gyūki, I’m coming with you to Kumo.”
Gyūki makes an affirming noise, and Kakashi sits up, stiffening when Shukaku leaps over to him.
“Eat, eat, eat,” He chants, dumping a dead rabbit on Kakashi’s lap.
“No, Shukaku,” Chōmei says with good humor, “Not today. We don’t have time to cook it, you know? Besides, Kakashi-chan probably dislikes rabbits so much he won’t even eat them.”
Shukaku turns wide, disturbing eyes on Kakashi before grinning and tossing the dead rabbit a ways into the forest with a loud whoop.
“Rabbits are evil,” He says sagely, and wanders off towards a patch of weeds.
“Isobu and I are going to River together,” Saiken calls from where he, Isobu, Son Gokū, and Kokuō are standing. Shukaku is crouching somewhat nearby, staring intently at a dandelion cupped in his hands. “Kokuō and Son Gokū are heading to Earth.”
Shukaku crushes his dandelion, disturbing eyes tracking to the different white fluff pieces wildly. “Wind, Wind, Wind, Wind,” He chants, snatching at some of the pieces. He cheers when they float off unpredictably in the artificial breeze from his hands.
“I'll be making my way back to my little girl in Taki!” Chōmei hums happily.
Kurama doesn’t say anything.
Gyūki doesn’t seem to care. “I suppose that’s it then. Are we ready to move out?”
Kakashi, still sitting, watches Chōmei take off into the trees with nothing more than a shouted goodbye, and the others slowly peel away from each other and go their separate ways.
So. He's… free to go? After all that?
He stands, absently brushing dirt off his flak jacket and studiously ignoring the gashes left in it courtesy of Shukaku. He almost doesn’t believe that they’d gone just like that, without even a threat in his direction. That they’d just disappeared after having dragged him with them for hours.
Kurama stares after Kokuō and Son Gokū with something like disdain in his eyes and the stirrings of anger in the slant of his mouth. Then he turns on Kakashi, who stiffens.
“Come on then,” He snarls.
Kakashi starts to protest. “I have to report back to Konoha-“
“I know that, dipshit, I’m coming with you. Here’s the deal—we can go together all nice and hostile, you can go ahead and I track you by chakra, or I can go find the damn place myself. Tracking by chakra is a pain, so why don’t you just fucking get over whatever you’re upset about and get a goddamn move on.”
This… could be bad. Kakashi hadn’t thought Kurama would stay, he’d thought the man would pick a direction and go like the rest.
“Wh- why do you want to go to Konoha?”
Kurama’s face twists. “I… had a half-sister. That lived in Konoha."
Kakashi frowns. Kurama sees and rolls his eyes. "Not any of the idiots that just left. Half on the other side."
He takes a moment to collect his thoughts before continuing. "She lived in Konoha. Died for it. For a village that wasn’t even hers-“ He stops again. Breathes. Kakashi can distantly appreciate his attempt to keep calm when talking about something that clearly bothers him, but mostly just hopes that Kurama isn't about to kill him over it.
“We were never close,” Kurama says, like it's an admittance of something heavy with emotion, “I think…” He pauses. “I- I hated her. She was- fuck, she was always so damn happy, and determined, and I thought she was stupid, but she never... I don’t think she ever hated me. I made her angry, upset, but she never…” He swallows.
"But last time I- last time we… talked. Saw each other. She…” Kurama is really struggling now, teeth grit hard enough that it makes Kakashi’s jaw hurt looking at him. “She was… pregnant. Her- her son. I don't know if… I haven't been able to make it to Konoha for a while. I was on my way when that fucking scientist showed up."
Kakashi doesn't say anything, doesn't even move; his mind is a whirring mess of half-formed thoughts. A failed jinchuuriki is one thing—a failed jinchuuriki on his way to the place his sister apparently died is a whole other monster.
Kurama's expression has settled into a lighter scowl, but his chakra is still roiling with anger and loss. "Look," He says finally, voice raw. “I’m going to Konoha. So you can get me there,” His voice shakes a little now, eyes steeling, “Or you can get out of my fucking way.”
Kakashi curses any higher power that might be listening, but doesn't try to dissuade the man. I guess I'll have company for the run home, he thinks, and pretends the thought doesn't make him want to scream.
He hates what his life has become over the last twenty-four hours.