When she woke up the next day, Kakashi-sensei was still asleep in her arms. He hadn't even changed positions. It was very early, and she had nothing to do that Saturday, so she took to stroking his hair, comforting him even though he was asleep. It took a couple of hours for him to wake up. She knew right away that he was awake from the movement of his head on her neck. She even knew when he realized he was awake because, for a second, he stayed still before relaxing again and continuing to use her as a pillow.
He didn't say anything when she moved from stroking his hair to caressing the back of his neck and his shoulders. He just hugged her tighter, giving his silent consent. She didn't know how long she spent gently touching him, but she didn't mind.
"Seina… thank you," he said in a hoarse voice, without lifting his head.
"You don't have to thank me. You're not alone anymore, okay?"
"Okay."
Both of them knew what they weren't saying, but that they had both heard. Kakashi-sensei no longer had to thank her for something like that because, even though he hadn't had anyone before, she was there for him now. Her heart ached to think that he was thanking her because the idea of being comforted or helped was so unusual that it seemed deserving of gratitude.
"I should get up."
"Why?"
"Because soon your brother and Sasuke will wonder where you are."
"I'll tell them I need to be alone," she shrugged. "I don't have to do something if I don't want to. The question is, do you want to get up?"
"…No."
So they didn't get up all morning. Her brother asked if she was okay, but he left when he realized nothing was wrong. Kakashi-sensei, now lying beside her, sharing the pillow with his face buried in her hair, didn't even open his eyes.
"I don't know what you did to me last night, but it's like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders."
"I hugged you with my magic."
"Really?" his lips smiled against her forehead. "'It felt like… being freed from my sins. I felt completely protected, like nothing bad could happen to me in your arms."
"And nothing would have happened to you. Magic reacts to feelings, you know? I've told you more than once that it almost has a life of its own. In this case, it's my magic. I guess my magic and I wanted to protect you from the cruel world."
"You did it."
Seina closed her eyes. Yesterday she had thought about all her loved ones. This time, she wanted to think only of Kakashi-sensei, the man she was falling hopelessly in love with. She focused her thoughts on him and placed her hand on his cheek again. She heard another gasp, this one more ecstatic than surprised, as he felt her magic again.
"Today it's something different," he concluded. "I feel love, but it's different… Seina…"
He half-sat up to look into her eyes for the first time in a long while. He couldn't manage to say what he wanted out loud, but she didn't need legilimency to know what he wanted to ask.
"It's different because I'm only thinking about you."
She saw on his fully exposed face the emotions changing rapidly: hesitant hope, some shock, disbelief, and a shy happiness. It was so quick that she almost missed it. The best part of all was seeing Kakashi-sensei's love-filled face above hers. She watched in the dim light of her room as he closed his eyes, savouring her magic surrounding him. When he opened his eyes again, she could read the desire on his face.
"You're torturing me. You don't know how hard it is to hold back right now," he confessed in a whisper.
And that's how they left her room before they could do something they'd regret later. Kakashi-sensei returned to his room to get dressed while she took a shower and changed clothes. When they went down to breakfast, they realized that Naruto and Sasuke were training in the yard, judging by the shouts coming from the open door that they could hear from the house.
"What do you want to do today?" she asked him.
Her teacher shrugged. He was much better than the day before. In fact, he seemed much better than even before yesterday. It made her happy to think that her magic had helped him overcome old sorrows. Even she hadn't noticed that Kakashi-sensei needed it, given how well he always pretended to be fine. Now that she knew the problem was more serious than she'd expected, she wondered if she couldn't do something about it. She had used the Patronus to physically invoke positive feelings, so why not continue down that path?
"What are you thinking about?"
Kakashi-sensei's voice broke her train of thought. She blinked, realizing she had dived back into another of her schemes, as he called them. She saw him looking at her with a smile, a loving expression on his face.
"You'll see."
"Should I be worried?"
"On the contrary."
"I have to go to the Department of Psychic Evaluation," he suddenly confessed.
"Do you want me to come with you? I can stay nearby while I buy some things."
"…Alright," he said slowly, as if he had to argue with himself to accept her company. The important thing was that he had accepted her help.
They headed into the village after briefly saying goodbye to Sasuke and Naruto. She knew they both suspected something was going on, considering that they hadn't even known Kakashi-sensei was in the house to begin with. They walked toward the department in silence. He would have a lot to talk about during his visit, so it was clear he wasn't in the mood to chat. For her part, she looked at shop windows in search of ideas for her inventions as well as potential gifts.
Then she saw a jewellery store with pendants in the window and had an idea. Could she, somehow, trap the Patronus inside a sphere or container like a pendant? Logically, the answer was no, because once she stopped feeding the spell, it would simply vanish. It wasn't like a transformation, which was permanent, or a conjuration, which lasted as long as enough magic was applied when conjuring an object. Nor was it like other enchantments that remained active until the Finite Incantatem spell was used.
However, there was one type of magic that was always permanent. Runes. The curious thing was that she had never considered creating a Patronus with runes. Why would she, when in her old world they were only used against Dementors and to send messages? Dementors weren't common creatures, and it wasn't very useful as a messenger since everyone could hear the messages. So, as far as she knew, no one had ever thought of using the Patronus to treat depression and alleviate trauma, but the idea had merit. In fact, if it worked, it could become a very important tool for the suicidal ninjas of the village.
"We're here," Kakashi-sensei said, stopping near the department. "See you later?"
"Sure."
She smiled, realizing that he was making an effort to implicitly ask if she would wait for him. If all he needed was for her to reassure him that she hadn't changed her mind, Seina would gladly repeat it to him over and over. She watched him disappear into the crowd before turning towards the store with minerals and crystals. She mentally reviewed her inventory of materials, thinking about what she needed to buy to test her theory about the encapsulated Patronus.
In the end, since she didn't know if it would work, she bought different minerals in teardrop shapes, so they wouldn't bother her while she wore them on her chest. She also bought a few chains, stopped by the bookstore in search of new reading material, then went to the Yamanaka family's store to buy different types of seeds to plant… She ended up in a small tea shop near the Department of Psychic Evaluation, reading one of her new books while sipping tea and nibbling on some cookies. It was the closest she would come to reminiscing about her days in the United Kingdom.
"Seinaaa!" a voice shouted from afar.
She looked up, seeing Lee, accompanied by Guy-sensei, waving so fast that his arm was almost a blur. Beside him, his teacher was smiling so widely that the morning sun bounced off his white teeth and dazzled her, making her eyes water from how bright they were.
"Hello, Lee, Guy-sensei," she greeted them as they reached her table outside the shop.
Since they were in a quieter part of town, the shops could afford to have tables out on the street, something that was unthinkable in other neighbourhoods. It made sense, considering that the Department of Psychic Evaluation needed more peace and relaxation than any other department in the village.
"You can sit if you'd like."
And that's how her quiet morning, which she had planned to spend reading and lazing around while waiting for Kakashi-sensei, went out the window. They sat in front of her, probably having just finished training, so she offered them to try her tea once the waitress brought a couple of cups.
"What are you doing here all alone?"
"I went shopping for a few things," she said, pointing to the book she had left on the table, "and now I was just being lazy. And you?"
She listened as, contrary to what she had thought, they were about to go train now. They wanted to stop by Tenten's parents' shop, which sold training equipment, to buy some kind of ribbon with knives to use in one of their katas. They were truly completely crazy. For 20 minutes, she nodded as they explained in great detail what they planned to do. When they finished, they asked her the question she had feared they would ask.
"Do you want to come with us?"
"Maybe another day," she smiled with a pained expression.
"Huh? My eternal rival!" Guy-sensei exclaimed, looking past her.
Seina glanced over her shoulder, seeing Kakashi-sensei approaching with a more relaxed air than two hours ago. His hands were in his pockets, and he was walking straight towards them.
"Yo, Guy, Lee," he greeted as he sat down beside her. "What are you doing here?"
"We were just telling Seina about our training plan!"
She exchanged glances with her teacher out of the corner of her eye with a tortured expression. Kakashi-sensei, seeing it, coughed to hide his laughter, though neither Guy-sensei nor Lee noticed. They were giving him a summary, once again, of their plans.
"We need to go before we lose the sun, but we'll stay in touch!"
"Yeah… Goodbye," Kakashi-sensei said, waving them off half-heartedly.
They watched them leave at a brisk pace.
"Where do they get so much energy?" she sighed. "Just being in their presence tires me out."
"Now you understand why I avoid Guy," replied the jonin, stealing a cookie without even asking. "Mmm… Butter?"
"And vanilla. How are you?"
"Good," he smiled at her. "I even surprised them. They gave me two days to finish de-stressing, so I'm going to take it easy."
"Great."
"How did your walk go?"
She explained what she had bought, though she didn't tell him what she was up to. She didn't want to say anything until she knew how to do it. Shortly afterward, they headed home, strolling through the streets of Konoha. The rest of the weekend, Seina spent in her studio, experimenting with the runes and tweaking the sketch of the suitcase house with the rest of her team. Kakashi-sensei kept his promise, taking it easy while she kept her team distracted with nearly hourly training sessions.
When Monday arrived, all the other genins from her class were waiting for them in the training clearing. Not a single one was missing, much to Naruto's excitement. Ino, upon finding out they had gone out to eat without them, threw a fit until she calmed down when Tenten mentioned that they planned to go out for lunch together every Monday, if possible.
"What's that you have?" Kiba asked Shikamaru, who was talking to Sasuke about some new strategies.
"They're light spheres," he replied in his usual tired tone. Then, seeing that the others were interested in learning more, he proceeded to throw her under the bus. "Seina made them for me."
Guy's team and Team 8 turned to look at her with interested and curious expressions. She, in troll mode, shot Shikamaru a sharp look, who was smiling calmly.
"They just make light."
"Fascinating," Shino said, adjusting his glasses. "Now Shikamaru can use his shadows even in complete darkness.""
This led them to start discussing how to use them, what strategies to employ, what other things they could be useful for, etc. Seina sat on the grass next to Chouji when she saw they weren't going to train for a while. Finally, it was Sasuke who imposed order simply because he didn't want to waste training time. He gave a loud whistle that silenced everyone.
"Are we going to train or what?" he rolled his eyes. Seina suppressed a smile when she heard her baby brother-cactus. Sasuke noticed and pointed at her with a finger, trying not to grin reluctantly. "Stop it."
"What are you talking about?" Kiba asked, looking from one to the other.
"They must be talking with their mental link."
Seina stifled another laugh as they had found yet another topic to discuss. Sasuke narrowed his eyes in her direction, and she raised her hands innocently.
"What? I haven't said a word!"
"Come on, Seina-nee!" Naruto exclaimed, grabbing her arms to pull her up. "We can train while they keep talking."
Her brother's words had the desired effect, and everyone fell silent. Finally. Since there were too many of them, they divided into three groups of four to be able to train with people other than their usual teammates. That's how Seina started training with Neji, Shino, and Shikamaru, or rather, how she fought against all of them at once.
"Too slow, Shika," she exclaimed while exchanging blows with Neji, dodging his chakra-charged fingers.
Shino tried to trap her with his kikaichu while she was distracted, but he quickly realized it was impossible. As soon as she felt one of his insects land on her, she expelled them with a burst of wind-nature chakra. Shikamaru used his ash curtain to block her vision. He really was a genius. She hadn't talked it over with her new team, but it was clear that he had figured out that Neji, with his Byakugan, could track her while Shino's scattered insects would also serve as a radar. At the same time, Shikamaru could use the shadows, thanks to his light spheres, to trap her a moment before she realized. The problem with all this? Shikamaru didn't know that she could also see them thanks to her modified Revelio spell.
She kicked Shikamaru, the only one who couldn't see her, causing him to collide with Shino. Neji, although he could see her, was unable to defend himself from her blows due to her much greater speed. She knocked him into Shino as he was getting up, causing him to fall back down.
"Ventus duo."
The wind spell sent the ash toward Shikamaru, who had to cover his face to avoid choking. She lunged at them, preventing them from molding chakra for another ninjutsu, and drew her wakizashi to attack Neji. His eyes widened as he quickly pulled out a kunai from his sleeve to block her weapon in mid-air, while with his other free hand, he sent another spell at Shino.
"Rictusempra."
Seeing Shino burst into laughter was enough to divert everyone's attention, including Neji and Shikamaru. She delivered a light chakra-infused punch to Neji, who flew back with a groan of pain, then launched herself at Shikamaru, who tried to intercept her with a shadow that she dodged by disappearing and reappearing behind him.
"Petrificus Totalus. Well, well, well," she said with a smile. "I've won."
"I think you broke a couple of my ribs," Neji complained from the ground a few meters away.
"Hinata," she called.
The doubles fight gradually came to a halt, and her friend turned around, panting heavily from her fight against Sasuke and Ino. As soon as she saw her cousin on the ground, she quickly approached with a worried look on her face.
"He's fine. Just a few broken ribs."
"Just?" she heard Kiba mutter under his breath.
"Did you sign up at the hospital yet?"
"Not yet," Hinata confessed, looking down. Seina lifted her chin.
"Would you like me to teach you how to heal him?"
That's how Hinata received her first lesson in iryo ninjutsu. Seina explained to everyone interested—which was all of them—how to heal Neji's broken ribs. It was Hinata herself, with Ino's help, who was already enrolled in the hospital, who healed her cousin. The radiant smile on her friend's face when she realized she had learned a new ninjutsu and healed someone was indescribable.
"Why don't I teach you some iryo ninjutsu every Monday?" Seina offered. "You can ask your father for permission to sign up at the hospital after the chunin exams."
"Huh. Good thinking," Shikamaru said aloud. "Once you've been promoted, your father will be less reluctant to let you study for hours at the hospital."
"And also, learning some medicine every Monday will help Hinata prepare for the exam. Especially because you won't lose a day specifically to study iryo ninjutsu since you're also training with the others."
"Do you really want to teach me?" Hinata asked, her face surprised and flushed, almost afraid to accept her words. "I don't want to be a burden."
"Hina, she just offered herself," Ino rolled her eyes. "Take advantage of studying with a medic trained by the Hokage. I know I will."
"Would you mind teaching me too?" Tenten asked. "Our team doesn't have a medic, and seeing that each of your teams does or will have one…"
"Actually, it would be more efficient for me to know these jutsus too because of my Byakugan."
Shikamaru watched with an exasperated and amused expression when suddenly, everyone seemed to find it useful to know a bit of medicine. Before heading out for lunch together, Seina, with the help of Sasuke and Naruto, taught them the basics of iryo ninjutsu. When they left the training field, all of them, except for Lee for obvious reasons, knew how to heal superficial wounds with the mystical palm. This was discussed at length while they ate barbecue.
The next day, her relaxation period ended abruptly.
"Again?" she asked, seeing that Kakashi-sensei had also received a notice.
"It seems so," he smiled, "although we might not be together this time."
But it turned out they were. She didn't know if she wanted to get used to doing missions alone with Kakashi-sensei because later it would be hard to adapt to other teams with whom she didn't share the same trust. Even so, she remembered her teacher's words from months ago. Genin teams, or even master-genin, usually worked together as they had trained and completed many missions together. The strange thing was that, until now, she had been put with Yamato and the others. Although, now that she thought about it, Yamato had also trained her for a while. In the end, it seemed that they hadn't been giving her teams of strangers as she had thought.
"You have another mission," Shikaku cut into her thoughts. "Obviously, Kakashi will act as the leader, and Seina will be the medic of the team. You two worked well alone last time, so I can spare two more ninjas from your team."
"What's the mission about?"
"It's an escort mission for an important merchant from the Land of Fire. You will have to accompany him to the Land of Wind, where he needs to negotiate some contracts. Then you will escort him back to Hi no Miyako. He will be waiting for you at the hotel."
Shikaku waved them off, lowering his head back to his paperwork. They left in the direction of the hotel where their client was staying. She caught a glimpse of her master's calculating expression, one that only a few lucky people could recognize on his neutral face.
"What's going on?"
"We'll talk later."
Seina accepted that, realizing it had to be more serious than she had expected.
That "later" turned out to be hours later. They had picked up their client, set off, walked for hours, eaten in one of the villages they encountered along the way still in the Land of Fire, kept walking until nightfall, and then stopped to sleep that night in one of the inns they found in another village, still in the Land of Fire.
Saying she was tired of walking so slowly would be an understatement. Moreover, their client was a man bordering on obese who wouldn't stop talking, making the journey feel even longer. Seina put on a childlike face to avoid having to converse with him, ignoring her master's accusatory glances, and let him talk to Kakashi-sensei for the full 12 hours.
"I thought my torture would never end," Kakashi-sensei sighed exasperatedly when the client went to bed after dinner.
Seina chuckled mockingly, laying out the futon on the floor. The client had requested, whenever possible, a room to himself, so Kakashi-sensei and she were sharing the adjoining room in case the unthinkable happened, although, with their barriers, it was practically impossible for him to be attacked in his room.
Suddenly, hands grabbed her, lifting her off the ground and tickling her. She let out a surprised shriek, unable to contain herself due to the tickling.
"Who's laughing now, huh?" Kakashi-sensei grinned widely as he teased her.
"Stop!" she laughed. The jonin stopped tickling her. "It's not my fault! Maybe you could talk to him about your erotic book and see if he shuts up?"
She squealed again when his hands landed on her thighs, making her cry with laughter.
"Ugh. You two are disgusting," Kurama suddenly said. "No one can sleep like this."
"Stop, or I'll pee myself!"
"Are you going to keep messing with me?"
"No!"
Kakashi-sensei stopped abruptly, letting her catch her breath as she lay on the floor, while he sat next to her, laughing shamelessly at her.
"Good thing you put up those barriers, otherwise the whole inn would have heard you screaming. I didn't know you were so ticklish," Kakashi-sensei smiled, removing his mask, vest, and ninja headband. "I'll keep that in mind."
"Are you looking for me to prank you back?"
"I didn't say that," he quickly replied, raising his hands like the troll he was.
"You're such an idiot."
"Is that what you say to your superiors?" he chuckled quietly, picking her up from the floor and settling her on his lap as if it were nothing.
"Not all of them."
Seina hugged him, burying her face in his neck. A hand automatically rested on her hair, stroking it slowly, taking its time.
"We should talk about this mission."
"Then talk," she said without moving an inch. "I can hear you perfectly."
Kakashi-sensei scoffed a laugh near her ear, but he didn't move her from her spot.
"You know that, in the Land of Rivers, somewhere in those lands separating the Land of Wind from the Land of Fire, is Akatsuki? Konoha doesn't know the exact area, but there are signs pointing to it. Some missions I've done have been to try and locate their territory."
"And do we know more or less where it is to avoid them?"
"The safest route would be to cross through the south of the country, below the ninja village, but that would make the trip both there and back much longer, and it also doesn't guarantee that area isn't being watched. I chose to go north, near the Land of Rain, since the territory in the Land of Rivers narrows there, and also, this path is in a straight line from Konoha, so we'll walk less distance in potentially dangerous territory."
"So, Akatsuki controls a territory between the ninja village of the Land of Rivers and the northern border with the Land of Rain? A territory we're going to pass through? How do you know we won't run into any of them?"
"From what I've been able to verify, it seems they're avoiding operating near their borders, so that should work in our favour," he sighed. "Do you remember the mission Shikaku gave you to deliver those documents to Sunagakure? You did well to fly there. If you had taken the straight path from Konoha to Suna, I'm not sure you wouldn't have run into one of them. Again."
"He could have told me something," she muttered. Kakashi-sensei kissed her forehead, comforting her.
"He probably thought I had told you something or that, since you were going alone and didn't have to hide your abilities from a team of strangers, you would prefer to fly."
"And why don't we use the hiraishin to get there without having to cross the Land of Rivers?"
"Mmm… Yes. Actually, that's a good idea, although I'm not sure what Haruyama would say if we suggest it. We'll talk to him tomorrow. We'd better get some sleep."
Seina easily followed his orders. They placed both futons side by side, but she fell asleep surrounded by Kakashi-sensei's arms for the third time in her life.