#empty bottles

Chapter 2

Kakashi Hatake takes pride in his intellect.

Being hailed a genius from a young age, he never felt the need to question his intelligence. His instincts are sharp, his awareness keen, and his deduction skills impeccable – those are musts when being a tracker and assassin. He trusts his instincts.

So when he meets his Genin team and feels an instant off-ness to one of them, his senses are on high alert.

The first two are predictable. His old sensei’s son has always wanted to become Hokage, and anyone who knows the boy (or can hear) knows how much he loves Iruka. And Sasuke, well, Kakashi working with his older brother gives him better insight into what the boy is and isn’t saying. Itachi and Shisui are aware of the torch he holds for them; they train with him when they can and, even if they won’t admit it, have a soft spot for the youngest Uchiha.

His last one though…Kakashi picks up on the other twos curiosity and wonders why they are looking at her as though they’ve never heard her speak before. Once he hears her speak – it sounds as though she doesn’t use her voice often. Her answers concern him too. As she answered, he sniffed at the air and had a hard time pinpointing what he was sensing.

When she got to her dream, he knew she lied. Her tells weren’t blatant – surprising, considering her age – but it was easier for him to nail it down when he finally understood what he was smelling: fear.

His little pink haired student was scared.

He wants to know why.

After they had introduced themselves, he told them to meet at a training ground the next day so they could come up with a training plan for them. He asked them to show up to training with an idea of their strengths and weaknesses, where they want to improve, and a few short term goals.

The bell test will have to wait. I need to figure out why she was so scared today.

Kakashi is on his way to the Jounin lounge – he knows just who to talk to.

It doesn’t take long to reach his destination. A quick walk through the door and down the hall, and he steps through the doors of the place he usually avoids.

“MY YOUTHFUL RIVAL, YOU’RE HERE!”

And there is the main reason he tends to avoid this place.

Kakashi looks over to his loud friend and sees he’s sitting with a small group of Jounin – one of which is the one he’s looking for. He walks towards them.

“Yo,” he greets, usual eye crinkle in place, “it’s nice to see you too, Guy.”

He stops at the table and takes the empty seat. He looks around and greets the others, “Asuma, Kurenai, Iruka, Genma – it’s nice to see you guys too.”

All of them nod at him, but they’re giving him a look. Kakashi can feel the eyes on him and sighs internally.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised; I don’t usually come to them. They always seem to be chasing me around the village.

Guy, ever the best of friends and keen observer of all things Kakashi, breaks the silence.

“Kakashi,” he says in a normal tone, “what brings you here? It must be important for you to come and search us out.”

Kakashi could kiss the man.

He’s too good to me.

Kakashi looks at all of the people around the table and makes eye contact with each of them. He weighs what he wants to say before breaching the subject. What he’s asking could be nothing, or it could mean the start of a very ugly process; he doesn’t want to do this lightly.

Genma and Iruka share a look but wait to see what Kakashi wants. They’re silently hoping he brings up the topic of his female student – something he noticed or even a question to show that he saw something. If he did, then there’s a greater chance their thoughts aren’t unfounded.

“I have a…potential issue,” is what he settles on.

Iruka turns fully towards Kakashi and asks levelly, “A potential issue with what, Kakashi-san?”

An outward sigh leaves his lips before he answers, “The girl on my team, Haruno, Sakura, do you know anything about her?”

Kurenai, Asuma, and Guy look on the conversation with interest. They pick up on Iruka and Genma’s sudden interest and gather that they know something about the girl. Their interests piqued, they lean in slightly closer.

“I get the feeling you don’t mean academically, Kakashi,” Iruka responds. He can’t help the note of resignation in his voice. His fears being confirmed doesn’t feel pleasant, it means there might actually be something happening with the girl. And if he’s right, something that has been going on for way too long.

A slight narrowing of his eye, Kakashi looks to the academy teacher and says, “No, not academically speaking. I had the three of my students introduce themselves to me as an ice breaker – to feel them out. Sakura-chan…when we got to the roof her presence seemed odd.”

He pauses to think about how he wants to word the next part but decides bluntness might be best

“The boys went first; nothing surprising. When it was her turn, the first odd thing was that the boys were very curious to hear her answers. Not in the ‘she’s-cute-I-want-to-learn-more’ way, but in a ‘I’ve-never-heard-her-talk-before’ way.”

“Sakura-chan didn’t speak much during the academy,” Iruka confirms, “she preferred non-verbal forms of communication. The only person she ever spoke to was me.”

That’s a red flag.

Asuma speaks up, “She only spoke to you? That’s a little odd.”

Iruka nods and follows it up with, “She was always formal in her speech too – she always seemed tense. Most kids avoided her because of it and she never tried to reach out to anyone.”

Kurenai takes in these things and feels her gut start to drop. She doesn’t want to jump the gun, but her gut is screaming at her to say something.

“What about her other teachers?” she asks. “What did they have to say about her speaking?”

A wave of anger and irritation floods the table. Genma and Iruka can’t hold their emotions back, old wounds being ripped open after so long.

“Her other teachers,” Iruka hisses – hisses, “said that I was crazy. That they saw nothing wrong with her not speaking because her exams and homework were exemplary; they thought I was being paranoid for bringing it up.”

Genma adds, “They found her silence, and I quote, ‘endearing because it means she’s listening and making for a very obedient student’ as though she’s a dog.”

The wave of emotion intensified as the other Jounin listens to their colleagues' words. Varying degrees of rage and disbelief sweep the group at this revelation.

“Anyway,” Kakashi continues, “she introduced herself, but it felt off. I was trying to figure out the emotion she was oozing as she did so, and it didn’t click until I heard her blatantly lie about her dream.”

Kakashi looks down at his hands as he pauses.

“Sakura-chan was terrified,” he says softly. “I don’t know why, or of what, but as she was talking I could smell her fear increasing.”

The group of Jounin feels Kakashi’s confusion as they experience the same thing. What could the girl be so afraid of? Why doesn’t she like to talk? What could be going on? They know it’s serious too because Kakashi actually came to find them in a place he usually doesn’t frequent.

Said man looks up from his hands and meets Iruka’s eyes before asking, “What can I do to find out the reason?”

A heavy silence falls on the group. Each individual takes in the facts and knowledge at their disposal. Thinking through possible outcomes, possible courses of action to take. Delicate matters require delicate hands.

“I have an idea,” Kurenai pipes up, “I assume because you’ve told all of us about this, you’re okay with us helping, Kakashi-san?”

She asks to be polite. Inside, she’s already decided to help this little girl and get to the bottom of her situation. Her mother hen side is starting to poke through, but she couldn’t care less – a child needs help, she’ll get the child help. It doesn’t matter to her if she has to do it alone or not.

“Ah, you would be correct Kurenai-san.”

“Alright, so here’s what I’m thinking…”