#kakasage

  The sporadically branched tree casted a strange shadow on the field. Light raindrops falling anywhere that’s not covered by the shadow, not even daring to pass through the leaves to touch the grass there. A beautiful anomaly, really. Made the poet’s god loving heart race. The only God that was in charge of the rain was either the most hated or least known of.

  The thought hurt their heart that something so valuable was being disliked because villages refused to change the village structure to prevent flooding and all other disasters that would follow. Their fault really. Just too stuck up to take blame so they cast it to the one that granted them it. How ungrateful they are. 

  “Ah, I should offer this to the God before I get mad just thinking about those people.” They spoke to the wind wiping a hand on the papers of their book.

  They tucked their pencil by their ear and rubbed a hand over the canine’s head to try and prompt him to move off his lap. Can’t move without legs now, can you?

  With complaints of numb legs and promise of treats, the dog that had allowed  the writer to get up and move. Though before they got far the canine tugged Sage towards the patch of sand that was at the base of the tree. Akino nudged Sage’s finger through the sand that laid at the roots of the tree. Writing out a wobbled version of his name. Akino sneezing from the sand on his nose was an adorable sight.

  Here’s the part that is Sage’s favourite and most tiring part of doing offerings. The offering dances. Each is distinct for their respective Gods. Movements are reference to their Gods, smooth wavy movements to pay tribute to the Sea Goddess.  Short, concise but fast moves to show the God of War praise when offering him gifts. They’re few that still do this when giving offerings so Sage’s family was intent on ensuring that it at least lives on with their bloodline. 

  “Okay, how does it go again?” The writer mumbled. They had just set the book on the makeshift hill they had made out of various cloths the colours that resemble all the ways the sky may look when it rains. A carved lotus accompanied the book, something from a former samurai. He didn’t have the time to do it himself so he had asked them to offer it for him. 

  The promise of home decorations and more handmade gifts to give.

  Their hands were raised, one hanging over their head and the other swept forward in their front. They were balanced on their toes. Eyes closed and breathing steady, Sage got ready to start the dance for the God Of Storms. Felt the droplets of water seep through their clothes, the water running down their skin. Made them feel the part.

  One last deep breath in and they’re moving. Fast and fluent, never staying in a spot for too long. Their hands bobbed and weaved with their feet. Skipping under the light shower of rain, smiling as the memories of doing this when they were younger came back. The thoughts brought with them a grin that held all the childish joy this brought them. Giggles bubbled up in their throat and they let it flow without resistance. 

  Like how raindrops still meet the ground despite how hard the tree leaves try to stop them.

  The rain slowed as the dance came closer and closer to a stop. The light shower turned to a mist that floated right above the grass, swirling around Sage’s ankle as they twirl. 

  Their hair swaying in the loose, low ponytail that they had styled it in. A few twists and turns, hops and skips around the small offering hill had Sage nearing the end of the performance. 

  They ended up bowing before the hill of offerings they had set up. The circle that the dance had called for made them face the same tree they used as shelter. They raised with a smile on their face.

  “That’s it for today!” Sage clapped their hands together as they caught their breath. Looking up, the poet gave the sky a smile. A small thanks for lending a hand with the routine.

  Bright blue, such beauty.

  Snapping out of their daze and hurriedly packing their things. They could already hear his mother shaking her head at him for how long they stayed out. “I’m leaving now Akino! See you tomorrow!” The poet got a bark in return from the canine.

   A week had passed since then. How? The writer didn’t know they had been so busy since then with their editor being a bit impatient and meets and greets left and right time to go back to the clearing was scarce.  

   They barely had time to put on their shoes properly as they raced out of the door. They were rushing before their move could complain about the thunder that covered the land and the lightning that lit the sky. The light rain was refreshing after being stuck in their room for the week trying to come up with a cover for their book about the God of Storms.

  “Akino, I’m back and brought-!” Sage’s words were lost in their throat at the scene before them. Akino and a bunch of other dogs were sitting in the field. Some were playing with each other, others rolled by themselves in the wet grass. Akino and one other were laying their head on someone’s thigh. 

  They dropped their things. Mouth slack as their mind raced. A bark cuts through their mini daze and they bend down to pick back up their things. With their things in hand, the poet hurries to the large tree and settles. When they’re seated and comfortable  they dig through their bag for a scroll.

  It was gifted to them by Sai, the god of art. After he had heard that they were writing a book about, and they quote ‘ God of Moping’,  they had drawn a sketch of the god for them.He said it was for the off chance the storm god came down to earth and wasn’t thoroughly disguised. 

  Pulling it out they stared at it for some time. Luckily for them Sai had drawn the sketches from a multitude of  points of views. So they just had to find one where he was sitting facing away from them. “Ah hah! Found it! Now I just need to make the comparison-” 

  Again. They were dumbfounded. The man that was sitting in the field was gone. The dogs are still there rough housing but the man is gone.

  “You didn't draw that did you?”

  Sage shrieked. High pitched and echo-ey. They don’t believe that it came from them but alas it did and that was embarrassing. To do so in front of one of the many gods they look up to. Just great.

  “I- I apologize Kakashi-sama. I was just startled!” They tried to shrug off the heat on their cheeks in favour of putting away the scroll. Instead they took out their book and pencil, resting them on their lap.

  “As for your question, no. Sai-sama made it for me. It was a gift.”

  The God nodded, half his attention was on their hands which were holding their writing supplies and the other half was on the pug that was sitting at his shoulder. “Are you the one that did the offering dance? You wrote the book?” 

  For some reason the acknowledgment made them puff their chest ever so slightly and raise their chin just a touch higher than usual. The god sounded excited in some ways. Leaned just a hair towards the poet and the corners of his lips were tugged up. It all made Sage grin. Pride was never something they had a lack of but from a God? One that read their book and liked it? Let’s hope it doesn’t go to their head.

  “I have few complaints though,” this made Sage perk up and straighten their pencil, “Do humans really believe that the hounds follow me everywhere and my eyes could use better description.”

  A few page flips and Sage scanned their work to find where that may have been implied. They winced when they saw it, ‘The hounds don’t stray from his side much. To keep him safe or to give him company we don’t know.’ They picked up their erasure and removed the line from the paper as well as they could. 

  “Then enlighten me! Tell me where I went wrong and I’ll try to fix it.”

  That kick started  a whole conversation between the two. The God exchanged stories that Sage wrote down, then they went into lighter things such as how bad Obito was at soccer when he first started.

  “Have you started on my eye yet or were you too captivated by my stories to try?” Kakashi teased after some time. They had just calmed down from a series of uncontrollable laughter at one of Shisui’s many prank-filled days. The poet never knew how much fun it could be above the clouds. 

  “No, actually! You are a very good story teller. I was jealous but just a smidge.” They laughed while sitting up and facing him. Sage dragged his writing supplies to them as the two’s banter picked up. He placed them between them and flipped to a free page. Tapping the end of their pencil on the page before looking up at the God, “So am I supposed to be able to see through your hair or are you going to move it?”

  Their teasing was rewarded with laughter. Kakashi buried his hand in the mop of gray he called his hair and pushed it back enough for his eye of lightning to be seen. The poet was in awe. He wasn’t close enough to see much but the bright blue that shone from it was enough for his jaw to slacken. A hand went to their own hair in their excitement.

  Things in hand they leaned towards him to get a better look at the eye, every now and then they jutted down descriptions and short poetic clauses. Grinning they mused about how pretty the colour was. A few giggles of awe filled the silence that stretched as they wrote.

  Kakashi felt weird. The nice kind but it was still confusing. To be complimented so genuinely, reminded him of his other mortal friend. That had left the world long ago. He couldn’t dwell on that now. Not when Sage complained about the frown. ‘It made you look old’ was their reasoning. As offended as it made him feel it was a nice feeling.

  “I’m supposed to be admiring you, am I that much of an ‘interesting mortal?”They were using their painfully horrid Ibiki impression. From the way Kakashi made him sound it was the best they could come up with. 

  “You are, on both accords.” The God hoped that he sounded as smooth as he hoped. The words had come as a surprise but a welcomed one.

  “Now, am I allowed to see what compliments that you have written for me or must I wait?”That made the author giggle out loud. Giddy with a hint of child-like glee.

Cherry blossoms paint the sky. Blowing in the light breeze, falling from the trees they grew on, covering every inch of Konoha in a brilliant pink shower. It was a beautiful picture, but he couldn’t help but think there was something missing.

Making his way through the streets, he watched as kids ran around trying to catch the falling petals and witnessed those precious sweet moments between lovers where they would stand toe to toe and gently brush their fingers through each other's hair while whispering sweet words while the cherry blossoms danced around them.

Those innocent moments he so often missed in his daily life.

Yet, that feeling still lingered. Something wasn’t right. The village was peaceful and beautiful, showered under a rainfall of bright pink cherry blossoms, but somehow incomplete. No matter how much he racked his brain, he couldn’t figure out what it was that would pull everything together. Turn the scene from beautiful to jaw-droppingly stunning.

“Oy, Kakashi,” Gai stepped in front of him, annoyance evident on his face. “Are you listening to me?”

“Sorry?” Somewhere along the way, he had lost track of the conversation. Too Distracted by the beauty of the village around them to keep up with Gai’s words. “Ma, could you repeat yourself?”

His laughter was meant as an apology, but Gai didn’t seem to understand it because the only response he had for Kakashi was an exasperated sigh.

“Never mind,” he dismissed him with a wave. “You’re clearly too cool to hand out with your Eternal Rival today.”

There were no bigger warning signs in existence to tell him he had screwed up. Not correcting his mistake right away would be the worst thing he could do in this instance. A week of grumpy silence from his best friend would be his punishment, and that was never a pleasant experience. Even if he acted like he didn’t care sometimes, he couldn’t imagine his days without Gai’s cheerful voice in his ear.

“Gai, I-” before he had an opportunity to apologize properly, something caught his eye. A little flicker of bright red hair off in the distance. Small enough that he could have easily missed it, but impossible to ignore now that he had seen it. Everything else around them disappeared in an instant, only that singular spot with the most beautiful person he had ever seen visible.

“There they are,” a smile tugged at the edges of his lips. In the blink of an eye, Konoha was the most stunning place in the world. The picture was complete.

“What are you looking at?” Moving behind him, Gai scanned the area in search of what had caught his Rival's eye. When he found it the only response he had was a deep, exhausted sigh. A rare sound to hear from Maito Gai. “You’re hopeless, Rival.”

“Perhaps,” he would never deny that fact, but Gai didn’t need to know just how bad he had it. Secrets were good to keep sometimes, even between Eternal Rivals. ‘How about we meet for Dango in a bit? Then you can have my full attention. No interruptions.”

“Dango?” Gai perked up immediately. “You wouldn’t happen to be paying this time, would you Rival?”

His wallet screamed in agony at the thought of having Ryo taken out of it, but this was one of those rare occasions where he was willing to make the sacrifice. The prize was more than worth it.

“Deal.”

“In that case, I’ll see you in two hours.” With a pat on his shoulders, Gai vanished. No doubt off to pre-occupy himself with some extra training until they were due to meet.

With his attention no longer divided, Kakashi focused on the next big task. Taking a moment to calm his nerves he began to walk, destined for the large tree just beside the Acadamy where all of the Cherry blossoms seemed to blow.

Undernither that tree, with a stack of paper off to one side, sat the most beautiful person in all of Konoha.

Sage. Academy-Sensei extraordinaire and keeper of Kakashi’s heart.

The closer he got, the more gorgeous the scene became. With cherry blossoms dancing in the wind and that brilliant red hair shimmering under the sun’s light. There were even a few cherry blossoms that had settled into their hair, decorating it in a way that lit up Sage’s face perfectly.

If he wasn’t in love before, he certainly was now. Who wouldn’t be when someone as wonderful as Sage existed?

“You’re staring,” coming to a stop directly in front of them, he watched as they looked up from the paper currently sitting in their lap. “Let me guess. You want cuddles?”

Right to the point. He loved it.

“Only if you can spare the space,” he waved towards the paper in sage’s lap. “You’re also welcome to use me as a table if you would like to continue working.”

“Such a handsome table,” sage tapped their pen against their chin, smirking when they noticed Kakashi getting distracted by the tiny action. “How could I possibly say no?”

Taking the opening, Kakashi took a step closer and dropped into the space directly in front of sage. It took a little bit of maneuvering, but once it was done Kakashi had his spot. With his head on Sage’s lap and his body off to the side, perfectly set for use as a table, he closed his eyes and gave a happy sigh.

Tow hours. That was how long Gai had told him he had before they were due to meet. Surely it would be enough time for him to have a nap with the perfect pillow, comfortable and content.

If not, Gai was simply going to have to forgive him for being a little late. It was cruel to expect him to leave the comfort of Sage’s lap before he was ready. Downright evil.