(no subject)

[beachlass]

Fic post

Naruto, PG, spoilers for ch 327

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, ch 328 would look like this

eta: Last week, kilerkki was wishing for some Kakashi/Kurenai/Asuma, so I starting writing this, based on Ch 327. So it is for her.

For all that Kakashi was deeply contented with the progress that Naruto was making in controlling the wind chakra; and the hope that he would be able to meld it into the Rasengan, there was a deeply unsettled feeling growing in the pit of his stomach. He ignored it when he talked quietly with Yamato; he ignored it when he watched Naruto working at splitting the waterfall, he ignored it lying on his bedroll, and concentrated instead on the steady roar of the water.

 

When they packed up and headed into Konoha, the unsettled feeling had grown so strong that he could not concentrate on his book; although he continued to hold it open as they walked back. Yamato noticed that Kakashi did not turn a page once during the walk. Naruto did not. Once he had other students who would have noticed, students that would have clued in, students who would have worked as a team to figure it out. But if he still had his team, Naruto would not be working on this jutsu, Sakura would not be working at the hospital and Sasuke would not be working his way up the bingo book rankings. Or at least not as notoriously.

 

When they reached the gates, there was, of course, a message telling the jounin to report to the Hokage. Naruto headed off to find Sakura and ramen. Not necessarily in that order.

 

So it was that Kakashi was waiting in the hospital corridor when Naruto arrived to await Sakura at end of shift. The familiar orange book was still in his hand, but now even Naruto noticed that the pages weren’t being turned, the book trembled slightly, and Kakashi’s gaze was fixed over it, at the door of the room across the hall.

 

“I saw Ino, are you waiting to see Asuma sensei?” Naruto asked quietly. Kakashi muttered a non-commital “Hmmm” and did not remove his eyes from the door. When it finally opened, it was Sakura, in her blood stained medic whites who ushered Kakashi in the room.

 

“Don’t agitate him, Senpai.” she said firmly, and then with the observance one would expect of his student, his overachieving girl, she touched his shoulder gently as she moved past him, offering comfort for the anxiety she saw in his white knuckled grip.

 

She lowered the lights as she left, and Kakashi’s eyes adjusted to the low afternoon light filtering in through the window. Asuma lay in the bed, battered and pale, looking as worse than Kakashi had seen him in years. But he was alive, which was more than most could say after a confrontation with the Akatsuki, and from what Kakashi had heard, due this time to Shikamaru’s ability to keep thinking when most would have crumbled, supported by Kotetsu and Izumo’s stubborn courage; and the arrival of Raidou’s team. Raidou certainly had a knack for bringing home work for the medics; if he brought home dogtags, you knew the odds had been truly overwhelming. Due as always, to Asuma’s own stubborn determination to come home to them.

 

Beside the bed, Kurenai sat in a metal chair. She didn’t move her gaze from Asuma, but stretched out the hand that wasn’t already tucked into the bedsheets. Kakashi moved silently over to her, and folded her hand into his. Her hand was smaller, warmer, and as she leaned back into him, his trembling finally stopped. Asuma lay on the bed, breathing. Breathing. He was breathing and the unsettled feeling in Kakashi’s stomach finally had a name. Kurenai shifted in her seat, dragged her foot in its’ cast against the floor as she turned and pressed her face into Kakashi’s vest. He wrapped his other arm around her, threading his fingers into her soft hair, and held her, as she closed her eyes, and he watched Asuma sleep. Kakashi felt it when Sakura opened the door to the room and entered, but he didn’t move.

 

As Sakura crossed the threshold, and took in the three jounin in the room, her perspective shifted and darkened. The three were interlaced, and her always-late, infuriating, porn-addicted teacher suddenly had a side exposed which she hadn’t seen before. She quietly went to the other side of the bed, to check monitors. When she shifted the IV, Asuma woke up. He blinked blearily at Kurenai and Kakashi, and Kurenai leaned into towards him.

 

“This wouldn’t have happened if I’d been there.” she whispered fiercely, and Kakashi’s hand tightened on her shoulder, as Asuma frowned sleepily.

 

“Kurenai.” Sakura’s voice held a clear warning.

 

Kakashi rubbed his thumb against the hand he was holding. “Kurenai. You couldn’t go out with that shattered foot. You can’t go out until it is healed.” It wasn’t her fault. He should have been there, not trying to fix his mistakes, the Third’s mistakes, assigning him those three to his all too inadequate care. Look where it had led to…

 

“They could heal it.” Kurenai replied. “They could have healed it, and I’d have been there too.”

 

Asuma moaned, and tried to shake his head. Sakura reached out, and held him steady while she fixed Kakashi and Kurenai with a glare. “Tsunade left me in charge here, and I will <i>throw</i> you out.” she asserted flatly. She pointedly looked at Kakashi, and then looked at the window, and the three storey drop.

 

Kakashi, at least, knew that tone, and so he moved, pulled down his mask, and gently pressed a kiss into Kurenai’s soft hair. As he straightened, he left his mask around his neck, and gave Sakura a dry look. “We’ll be good. Keep doing your work.”

 

Sakura blinked at the sight of his bared face. Then she met his gaze, and coloured at the confidence and acceptance she found there. She finished fiddling with the monitors, and then picked up Asuma’s chart, and left. Naruto had fallen asleep in the hall, and she smiled at him before heading for the nursing station.

 

When she was gone, Asuma shifted, and rasped out quietly: “Kur…. shhh go home. Safe.”

 

Kurenai frowned. “I’m safe here. I’ll go home later, and be safe there. Broken foot or not, I’m still a jounin. My hands aren’t broken, you know, and my genjutsu is as good as ever.”

 

Asuma shifted in the bed again, beginning to look agitated. “Kash… go with… safe…er..”

 

Now Kakashi frowned. “I’ve had a briefing with the Hokage. I know they are after the guards, but no one will attack in Konoha. The Akatsuki are not that stupid.”

 

From force of habit Kurenai corrected him “They have before.” and then she cursed, as a barely discernable movement of Asuma’s mouth hinted at a smirk at outmaneuvering the two of them.

 

“Safe… t’gether” he muttered. Asuma tried to move his hand to reach towards Kakashi, but instead he cried out in pain, and one of his machines bleeped unhappily.

 

Sakura arrived in the room a scant moment later, checked the machine, checked Asuma, and glowered at Kakashi and Kurenai. Kurenai ignored her, cupping her hand against Asuma’s face, feeling the familiar soft scratch of his black beard against her palm. He turned his head slightly, to rub his lips against her fingers. Kakashi reached up to absently rub at his own messy hair, and Sakura, for the first time saw the sheepish half smile that must have been hidden beneath the mask every other time she saw that familiar gesture.

 

“A couple minutes, then out.” Sakura said firmly, but kindly this time. She left them, but settled in the hall, on the floor beside Naruto. He huffed at her sleepily and nuzzled his face into her neck. She leaned her head against him, feeling his blond hair tickle against her cheek.

 

In the hospital room, Asuma whispered “Mine… safe… t’gether” at Kurenai and Kakashi.

 

“All right.” Kakashi conceded. “I’ll go home with Kurenai, and we’ll be safe together. And we’re yours, yes… who else have we ever belonged to?” A wry smile crossed his mouth. They all knew that his tie to Kurenai and Asuma had scuttled his last relationship, Iruka unable to accept it. Then he gracefully leaned across, pulling down his mask to ghost a gentle kiss across Asuma’s lips. Asuma’s face relaxed a little, still pale with pain, but his eyes closed, and his breathing changed as he slipped into sleep.

 

Kurenai kissed him once more, and then rose, graceful despite her cast. She stood in Kakashi’s arms, and then pressed a kiss against his jaw, pulled up his mask and turned to leave the room. “He’s sleeping” she told Sakura. “We’ll be back in the morning.”

 

Kakashi leaned against the doorway and watched Naruto sleeping on Sakura’s shoulder. “He needs to eat. Something other than ramen.” Kakashi offered as advice, and then tossed Sakura some money. He touched Kurenai’s waist, and they quietly disappeared around the corner.

 

Sakura let Naruto sleep until Hinata tracked them down at shift end. Naruto bragged between yawns of his training accomplishments to Hinata while Sakura slipped into Asuma’s room to check him. Hinata had started stew in the morning, hoping that Naruto would be home, and so the three of them left for her apartment after Sakura left the night’s instructions at the nursing desk. Naruto chattered, Hinata listened, and Sakura thought about teams, and friends and the ties that bind people together.