The imagined pain didn't arrive; instead, there was the sound of fists and feet colliding.
Soon, Naraku felt a lightness on his back, as if Genya had gotten off him, followed by the sound of grass and fabric rubbing together.
"You dare…!"
"Young Master Genya, let's go!"
"Hmph, I'll teach you a lesson next time!"
Opening his eyes, Genya and his two followers were fleeing in disarray, and a shadow was cast on the messy grass in front of him.
Naraku looked up along the shadow, and what met his eyes was a tall, white-haired boy. He was putting away his sword, and his features already showed a hint of handsomeness he would possess when he grew up. His hair, backlit, was crowned with a warm yellow halo, making Naraku feel a little dizzy.
As expected of my male idol, he's handsome even as a child.
So this is what it feels like to be rescued by a hero; no wonder Kushina fell for it.
Naraku quickly snapped out of his daze and hurried to get up from the ground and straighten his clothes, but he soon stopped, looking a bit awkward.
After standing still for a while, he quietly thanked, "Hatake, thank you."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow. Usually, Uchiha Naraku barely spoke a word to anyone, so he hadn't expected the other party to be so polite, completely unlike that boisterous dead last.
It seemed the reason for his quietness wasn't arrogance, but introversion.
"Your wrist, if you don't treat it, it will leave a permanent problem."
Kakashi, uncharacteristically kind, reminded him, but found Naraku lowering his head, his expression embarrassed as he hid his hand behind his back. There was even a glimmer of tears in his dark eyes.
It was a long time before he heard a voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz.
"There's… no medicine… at home…"
Naraku wasn't lying; his Scum Father didn't even provide food, so how could he have medicine at home?
"Come with me."
Kakashi walked a few steps, then noticed the person behind him hadn't moved. He turned and asked, "Did you hurt your foot?"
"No, no."
Naraku quickly agreed and followed, walking one after the other with Kakashi back to the Hatake residence.
All the way, Naraku inwardly exclaimed, "Plan successful!" He finally had an interaction with Kakashi; becoming best friends (crossed out) good friends was just around the corner.
Upon reaching the outer corridor, Kakashi went inside the house. A moment later, he returned to the corridor carrying a box of ointment, gesturing for Naraku to sit down.
Naraku obediently sat down. When Kakashi prepared to roll up his sleeve, he reacted a beat too late and tried to dodge, but it was already too late. Large patches of bruises were exposed, with hardly an uninjured spot.
"So severe."
Kakashi's brows furrowed.
This level of beating couldn't be concentrated on just one arm.
"Take off your clothes. Expose all the injured areas."
"No need, just apply it to my wrist," Naraku said softly.
Kakashi's face darkened, and his tone became a little heavier: "No, take them off immediately."
Naraku fumbled at his collar for a while, then finally unbuttoned and took off his upper garment, revealing his scrawny body covered in scars.
"This is too much."
Kakashi's original intention was that even if he trained at home, he shouldn't push himself so hard, getting so many injuries and not applying medicine properly.
But Naraku acted as if he had been seen through, hastily trying to cover it up, "No, no, these… these are all from me falling myself!"
"Liar. Even if you rolled down a mountain without protective gear, you wouldn't end up like this. As expected, Uchihas are all stubborn in their bones."
Kakashi subtly rolled his Byakugan, then silently helped him apply the medicine and bandage it.
Naraku fell silent again, staring blankly at Kakashi's movements. The latter was focused on tying the knot in the bandage, his technique skilled and gentle. The skin under the bandage, where the ointment had been applied, felt warm, and the pain immediately lessened.
"Miracle medicine! I need to find a way to get some. Scum Father's blows are really too vicious."
After cursing the Scum Father a few times to calm his mood, Naraku ordered the system to start generating the inner thoughts he had designed long ago.
"Gurgle~"
Just as the wounds were bandaged, his stomach suddenly rumbled. Naraku's expression was a little embarrassed, his head bowed so low it almost buried into his chest.
Kakashi really wanted to laugh, but out of consideration for Uchiha's pride, he coughed twice and feigned seriousness: "Wait, I'll go cook."
Naraku quickly followed him into the kitchen, helping to wash and cut vegetables and meat into small pieces for preparation. His knife skills weren't very good, though; the cut items were inconsistent in size and shape, making Kakashi's eyebrow twitch, but overall they were usable, so he let it be.
Before long, the two boys had prepared a meal, serving it on the table. Steam rose from the soup and rice, forming a hazy mist in the lamplight.
It was strange, really. They had only been nodding acquaintances before school ended, yet sitting at the same table to eat, Kakashi felt no problem at all. He even rather liked this quiet, warm atmosphere; it was a different feeling from when he was with his father.
Perhaps, it was because it was the first time he had hosted someone?
Naraku, who had been hungry for over a day, tried his best to control his urge to quickly fill his stomach, sipping the miso soup in small mouthfuls, not daring to gobble it down lest he overeat.
The soup flowed from his mouth into his stomach, warming him all over. Naraku recalled the original body's past experiences, and under the influence of those tragic memories, his eyes involuntarily began to sting, his vision blurred by the steam, as if something was dripping from his eyes into the soup.
"Why are you crying?"
"Huh?"
Naraku suddenly startled awake, looking up at Kakashi, who was looking back at him with a puzzled expression. He quickly touched his face and realized he was actually crying. He hastily put down his bowl and wiped his face with his sleeve.
"Holy crap, am I an immersive actor?"
As Naraku, a person in his second life, he was an adult after all. Even if it was acting, crying in front of others still made him feel a little embarrassed, and even his excuses carried a hint of sincerity.
"I, I'm not crying," he quickly denied, though he himself felt his words weren't very convincing, his voice growing softer and softer, "I'm not…"
It was the first time he had seen an Uchiha like this.
Kakashi looked at the thin boy across the table, suppressing his sobs, his body covered in scars hidden by the pristine white bandages. He must have experienced pain that Kakashi couldn't comprehend.
"Alright, alright, wipe it."
Kakashi handed over a towel, waiting for Naraku to wipe his face clean, while he collected the bowls and chopsticks at the sink, turning on the faucet to fill it with water, preparing to wash them.
"Um, Ka… Hatake," Naraku, after wiping his face and neatly folding the towel, walked to the sink and picked up a dishcloth. He almost blurted out the other's name but managed to stop himself in time. "I'll wash them. Thank you for inviting me to dinner."
"Okay."
Kakashi moved aside, watching Naraku carefully wash the bowls and chopsticks, his long black hair falling forward to cover his face, and his wounds, just like in the classroom.
A sudden realization dawned on him: for these two months since school started, had Uchiha Naraku always been injured? Is that why he always covered his face with his long hair, wrapping himself up tightly and hiding in the corner?
Who was doing this to him? That urgent explanation earlier, was it to cover for someone after all?
"Hatake, I should go."
Kakashi snapped back to reality. The kitchen was already spotless. Naraku was quietly looking at him, the light coming from the left, plunging his other side into shadow.
"Wait," Kakashi walked to the medicine cabinet, took out a small, new jar of ointment, and returned to hand it to Naraku. "Take this. Remember to apply it if you get hurt."
He saw Naraku's eyes flicker, seeming to well up with tears, then return to their usual stillness.
"Thank you." Yes! I knew my male idol would be soft-hearted enough to give me a jar!
Naraku took it with both hands, looking at the ointment jar as if it were a treasure…