Never say Never (Kakashi x OC)

Old Acquaintances

Now this is nice, Hajita thought, the first impression of my hometown is people fighting nearby. That was definitely not what she had hoped for. She moved soundlessly through the trees until she got a perfect view of the two fighting pairs. One of them was further away while the other two were directly beneath her feet. She identified two of the men as green leaf shinobi by the symbols on their headbands and had no doubt about their opponents being members of the Akatsuki since they wore long black robes with red clouds.

Kakashi was aware of being in trouble as soon as he found out about Itachi's ability to use the Mangekyou Sharingan. He simply had no technique against that and hoped that Gai would finish off Kisame as fast as he could so that he would be able help him out with his strong tai-jutsu. When Itachi released him from this horrible genjutsu for a moment, Kakashi worried about how long he would be able to endure the next round of torture. He took a deep breath and looked up to the sky. That's when he noticed a glimpse of bright red in the trees above him. Hmm, haven't I experienced something like that before? He mused about having a déjà vu when he was attacked by Itachi one more time. The world around him turned into pain once more and trapped by Itachi's Tsukuyomi, he passed out again.

Wait a minute, Hajita thought, this cannot be! Her heart stopped. She would never have expected to see her childhood friend Itachi being a member of this terror organisation. Saddened she thought about the sensitive, gentle boy she once had known. She simply couldn't believe her eyes and shook her head in disbelief. Suddenly, the ninja who was attacked by Itachi let out a cry of pain and thus caught her attention. The man with the silver hair and halfway hidden face as well as the feeling of his chakra seemed vaguely familiar to her. Hajita never forgot anyone. But no matter how hard she tried, she simply couldn't recall his name or where she knew him from. He let out another cry of pain and all Hajita knew was that she had to save him.

She jumped down from her tree and landed gracefully. "Hey, moron! Stop it!" she yelled and approached them slowly. She eyed each of Itachi's moves very carefully. He on the contrary was fully focussed on the unconscious man in front of him.

"Stay out of this", Itachi told her in a harsh voice without even looking at her.

"Don't you remember me?" she asked. Itachi's head finally turned and his eyes grew big as he started to remember. No, not her, he thought, I do not want to hurt her.

"Go away, Hajita. I would be deeply sorry if I had to kill you." Itachi's voice was as cold as ice and his eyes turned away from her and rested on the silver-haired man again.

Hajita's thoughts were racing. She knew that she would not stand a chance in direct combat against Itachi. All she could do was distract him and buy the two green leaf shinobi a little more time.

"You don't have to do that, Itachi" she said and took a few steps towards him. "I don't know what happened to you or why you have become what you are. But I know that you haven't always been like this. I can sense it in your chakra. Your pain, your sadness, all of it."

There it was. The one feature of Hajita Itachi feared the most. Ever since they were little kids Hajita was so emphatic she always had the ability to sense his feelings. It was like she could look right through him. At times, he was glad about this trait because he didn't have to tell her any of the bad stuff, she simply knew what was going on. But now he couldn't afford to become weak again! He had a mission to complete and he would not let her bring his guard down like she used to.

It took her a huge amount of courage to close the distance between them. She hugged Itachi from behind as hard as she could and released her chakra onto him to make him feel loved and protected. At that, Itachi snapped and pushed her away with one gigantic blow. Hajita was completely taken by surprise by his attack. She flew at least 100 feet until she hit a rock so hard it cracked in two pieces. He almost had given in to her tender touch and let her comfort him just as she had done countless times before when they were kids. But that simply mustn't be, Itachi thought.

"I'm done here. The infamous copy ninja should have already had enough of my powers. But we'll come back. And next time everyone that stands in our way will die. Even you, Jita."

With the sound of the nickname she hadn't heard in years, Itachi left without looking back. He stopped to command his team member to withdraw, and they were gone. Hajita pulled herself together and made her way to the still unconscious man. She held back the angry tears that started to well up. She couldn't let the mixture of pain, wrath and disappointment win her over now. First, she had to tend to the wounded shinobi and do everything she could for him. But the moment she approached him and felt his low level of chakra, she knew she was too late. The handsome young man with the silver hair had certainly suffered serious psychological damage from this torture.

"Kakashi-kun", the other green leaf ninja cried out and hurried towards Hajita and her patient. She already had started to exert medic jutsu onto him when he reached them. Other than a bloody nose he seemed to be fine. All of a sudden Hajita remembered. The silver-haired man was one of her father's apprentices back in the day. As she recalled memories of her father and thought about Itachi's incomprehensible behaviour the tears finally started to flow down her cheeks as she tried to concentrate and focus her chakra to at least heal Kakashi's external wounds. Yet she knew that no medic technique in the world could heal the damage in his soul.

"Thank you", Kakashi whispered as he slowly opened his eyes. Her healing chakra felt nice and warm and all he wanted to do was rest beside her a little longer and let her care for him.

"You're welcome" Hajita blushed.

"Why are you crying?" Kakashi asked and took a closer look at her. Something about her seemed familiar, Kakashi pondered, when it suddenly dawned on him.

"I remember you" Kakashi said. "You're the daughter of the fourth, right?"

"Sssh" Hajita tried to calm him down but felt a little flattered that he hadn't forgotten. "You shouldn't talk so much already. You still are quite weak."

"Wow. What a woman" exclaimed the other ninja she had already completely forgotten about. "May I introduce myself? My name is Maito Gai. If you should ever be in trouble, just call my name and I'll be your hero in splendid armour." And with that he struck a pose.

Kakashi rolled his eyes at that, but Hajita blinked confusedly a few times and eyed the man called Gai suspiciously. This made Kakashi laugh so hard he cringed when he felt a sharp pain going through his body again.

"Looks like Gai has found a new 'love of his life' again" Kakashi chuckled on. The sound of his laughter was infectious and the sight of him responding well to her treatment eased Hajita's tension. She suddenly felt so relieved she couldn't help but join him in his delight and started giggling. At that Kakashi blushed and for some reason he was quite happy about the fact that she didn't seem to be too interested in his all-time rival.