YAY! Second chapter! I'm on a roll, don't stop me now! Lol. Thanks So SO SOSOOOO much to my reviewers, who prompted me to make a seocnd chapter. Here u go!
It wasn't long before Kaede fit in with Team Seven, and had caught up to Sakura's level of ninja skill. The pink-haired kunoichi was very skilled with Genjutsu and her chakra, and was a good friend to Kaede, who appreciated her company more than the other girl would ever know.
Four weeks had passed since their first introduction, and those weeks had been filled with training, hanging out, and more training. Kaede had learned a lot of things from all three of her team members.
First, she'd learned how to control her chakra and to recognize Genjutsu from Sakura, who had awesome control of her own. Second, Naruto had taught her his own special technique, Shadow Clones. And finally, Sasuke had taught her—although he hadn't realized it—how to throw kunais and shurikens correctly, and how to track and predict another ninja's moves.
That day, a Saturday, the four teammates were headed out for a day of relaxation at the lake, which of course meant that they were going to practice their chakra control by walking on water.
Even Sasuke needed work in that department, Kaede mused, as they walked placidly down the trail. She and Sakura were leading the way, while Naruto and Sasuke argued behind them. Well, Naruto was doing most of the arguing. Sasuke was trying to ignore the ramen-loving blond.
"Will you two CUT IT OUT!" Sakura yelled, stopping and turning around. Her pink hair was turning red from irritation, Kaede thought. She giggled to herself, wondering when Sakura was going to hit Naruto this time.
"We wouldn't be arguing if Sasuke wasn't such a self-absorbed creep!" Naruto defended himself, indignant. He placed his hands on his hips and glared at the dark haired Uchiha.
"Maybe we could get along if SOMEONE would keep their mouth shut!" Sasuke shot back, finally angered. Kaede smirked; thank goodness that Sasuke was getting it all out.
"I wouldn't have to talk so much if YOU'D learn to talk and not just say 'hn' all the time!!" Naruto snarled. Sakura raised her hand to hit him, aggravated, but Kaede stepped between the two.
"Stop it," she said calmly, grabbing Sakura's wrist and lowering her fist. "We are almost there, so let's get there and you can drown each other in the lake."
And she started walking. It wasn't long before she heard footsteps scuffling after her, but only two pairs. The third pair of feet walked slowly. Sasuke.
"Ugh! Naruto! If you splash me one more time, then I'll—ahh!" A huge splash was heard, and Naruto's unmistakable giggle followed.
Kaede rolled her eyes, disgusted. Sakura had been standing on top of the water, while Naruto swam beneath and splashed her at will. She'd been yelling at him for the past twenty minutes, Kaede remembered. Then, when Sakura had been about to make her last threat, Naruto dragged her by her ankles under the water.
Sasuke grunted as he lay on the shore, irritated by his two teammates' childish behavior. Kaede only half-agreed with him. She thought their antics were kiddish, but she was anxious to see what Sakura would do to Naruto when they resurfaced.
"AHHHHHH! NARUTO!!!"
There she is.
Sakura grabbed Naruto by the hair and dragged him out of the water. She tossed him on the shore, shaking in anger. Then, to everyone's surprise, she started to giggle. Her head leaned back and she laughed out loud, hooting with chuckles.
Sasuke and Kaede looked at each other. They silently wondered what was wrong with Sakura and what Naruto had slipped into her water bottle.
It wasn't long before Kaede was biting her lip to keep from laughing along with Sakura and Naruto. Saturdays were always good days, she reminded herself, and cracked a small smile. If her friends could laugh when they were angry at each other, she could laugh even if Sasuke thought it was ditzy and stupid.
So she let herself laugh.
Sasuke glanced at her, momentarily started. She ignored him, hugging her ribs and fighting to stand while she laughed. It felt good, really, to laugh again. Sure, she had chuckled here and there in the past four weeks, but mostly her time had been spent training and brooding about who she really was and where she came from. Oh, well. There would be time for that after today.
That evening, after all the fun was over, after most people had decided to curl up at home and read a good book, Kaede was still outside. She was in the middle of a field surrounded by trees, staring up at the moon. It was so huge, and its secrets were unknown. It mystified her, but somehow calmed her. The moon reminded her of herself, how no one knew her past, her history, her name even. She didn't recall any of it, either, and she was sure that the moon's history went farther back than her own.
If the secrets of the moon hadn't been found out in all of that time, what were the chances of her discovering her own past?
Kaede sighed, and lay back on the dewy grass. She wasn't tired at all, even after the day's antics. Once they had all dried off and were on their way back, Naruto challenged everyone to a race. Of course, Sasuke had shrugged and shot off, but Kaede hadn't been fooled by him. She caught up to him, and tied with the Uchiha. He wouldn't forgive her for that, she mused smugly.
Course, Sasuke wasn't the kind of guy to show his emotions. He was, mostly, stoic and indifferent to those around him. Kaede knew that he possessed the Sharingan; he wasn't shy to tell people about that. But something about him just irked her, and stirred something inside of her that she couldn't shake off.
She growled, and kicked her legs up in frustration. There it was again, that burning, tightening feeling in her chest, as if it were swelling and knotting at the same time. Why wouldn't it go away? She didn't know what it meant, and why it was there, but she knew that she wanted it gone.
"Shouldn't you be in bed?"
The genin's calm, indifferent voice startled Kaede, but had a calming affect at the same time.
She smiled lightly, somewhat pleased at his intrusion. "Shouldn't you?"
"Hn," he muttered and walked up next to her. In the moonlight, his hair was highlighted and the shadows on his face were more evident. She forced herself to look at the moon, not at Sasuke.
They were there, in silence, for a good amount of time before anyone spoke. Kaede found herself enjoying the Uchiha's company, despite her competitiveness towards him. His silence didn't mean anything; that was just his personality.
Finally, Sasuke sat down next to her, and she sat up, her arms and chin resting on her knees.
"Why do you come here every night?" Sasuke asked suddenly. Kaede looked up at him, startled. How did he know that she like to stay in the field at night?
"How did you know I came here?" she queried, glancing over at him before staring back at the moon.
Sasuke followed her gaze and leaned back on his hands. "It's beautiful," he murmured, his eyes taking on a glaze as he stared at the silver orb. "When I was younger, I used to watch the moon all the time. It was like a comfort to me, because it didn't know what would happen to it, and neither did I." He sighed. "I don't know why I'm telling you this."
"No, it's fine," Kaede said. "The moon is a beautiful thing. I love to come here every night and watch it, just because it represents so much."
Silence followed her words, but neither of them cared. They just stared at the big, silver moon, each contemplating their own meanings of it. Sasuke saw it as an orb that represented the unknown future. Kaede imagined it to show the unknown of the past, of her past.
For what felt like hours, but was really minutes, they sat there, content in each others company, until Sasuke stood up abruptly.
Kaede looked at him, noticing how his entire demeanor had changed. He was no longer the boy staring at the moon, expressing his feelings in so many words. Now he was cold, stony-faced, and emotionally controlled. She let him go, and went back to staring at the moon.
She barely heard his footsteps across the grass, but they soon faded away. Her eyes began to fill with tears, and she didn't know why. Impatiently, she brushed them away. Crying wasn't an option with her. For some reason, Sasuke walking away brought a horrible feeling to her chest, and it felt like it was going to collapse in sorrow.
"Why do you come here every night?" he had asked, and she hadn't answered him directly. Instead, she'd asked him a question.
"How did you know I came here?"
Kaede rolled over on the grass, laying her head on her arm. She sniffled and swallowed the lump in her throat. As she closed her eyes, fatigue finally washing over her, she sadly came to realize that neither of their questions had been answered. Not in words, she reminded herself, but both of them knew the answers.
Kaede's eyes snapped open. She groaned, her limbs stiff. There was something warm and soft on top of her. What was it? She closed her eyes again, not wanting to wake up. The bed was so soft, so comfortable—wait, bed?!
This time, she woke fully, sitting up with a start. She was in a room with light brown, wooden walls, lying on someone's bed. Quickly, Kaede tossed the warm blanket off her legs and bounded off the bed. It was then that she realized she was in a pair of shorts and a shirt…just like…oh, God.
She ran to the door and burst through it. Running a hand through her messy brown hair, she rushed down the hall, trying to find whoever was in here, although she had an inkling of who it was.
Then, she stopped, listening. She heard a shower running somewhere, but where? There, that door!
Kaede crept over to the slightly open door, and peeked through the crack. Inside, on the sink, she saw a black, high-collared shirt with the red and white Uchiha symbol on it, and a pair of black shorts. She grimaced, knowing for sure now who was in the shower.
The shower turned off, and she heard someone step out. With a small cry, she jumped back and skittered down the hall again. This time, she ended up in a big room, the living room, she assumed. There she collapsed against the wall, sinking to the floor and hugging her knees. What had he done? What had he seen? Why was she here, in his house, wearing his clothes? What had happened to her, how did she get into his bed?
Bare feet padded down the hall towards the living room, and she tensed. Those feet stopped at the door, slid it open, and came in.
There stood Uchiha Sasuke, in his black shirt and shorts, his hair wet and flattened over his face. He nodded to her as he entered, and when he looked down, she saw the slightest hint of a blush.
She got to her feet, anger flashing in her hazel eyes.
"What do you think you were doing, Uchiha?" she asked menacingly. "Where are my clothes? What did you do with them? Would you TALK, Sasuke!"
Sasuke turned toward her, his expression angry. "Maybe if you'd learn to be a little more appreciative then I would have more to say." They glared at each other.
"Where are my clothes?" she asked, just as he said,
"I didn't see anything."
There was an awkward pause, in which Sasuke turned his gaze back to the floor, shuffling his feet nervously. This in turn astonished Kaede to the point where her anger subsided. Was the famous Uchiha being shy and ashamed? No, it couldn't be?
"They're in the bathroom, they're a little dirty. You were asleep in the field, on the ground, so they got wet and muddy. You're going to have to wear that home and get some other clothes." With that Sasuke went into a room just off the living room, and closed the door behind him.
Kaede stood there, shocked beyond belief. Sasuke had taken her out of the field, changed her clothes, and given her a bed to sleep on. But how had he changed her and not seen anything?
She sat on the floor again, her brain whirring crazily. There was a part of her that wanted to be excited about this, but she just felt awkward and nervous. She'd only know the boy for a few weeks, and he had done so much for her already. Why?
She sighed, and stood up. Well, if Sasuke wanted to be that way, then fine. She could shrug the incident off and keep going, too. It wasn't hard to find the front door, where her shoes were sitting next to Sasuke's bigger ones. She slipped them on, walked outside, and started to jog home. There was something about the Uchiha district, the empty, desolate place that sent chills up her spine, and she wanted out of there as fast as she could go.
The next day, Monday, Kaede was at the bridge earlier that everyone else. She stared down at the water rushing underneath, watching her reflection ripple and tear under the current.
She hadn't seen Sasuke since Sunday morning, which in truth wasn't that unusual, but she would have expected him to come looking for his clothes back. Of course, they fit her pretty well, so they should be small for Sasuke, who was taller.
With a sigh, Kaede turned around, leaning her back against the railing. Whatever suited the Uchiha, she supposed. She'd have to ask Kakashi or Sakura what was up with his attitude. Course, Sakura was Sasuke's fan-girl, so she'd probably say that his demeanor was what made him cool. Kakashi, on the other hand, might go more in-depth into the mind of Uchiha Sasuke, if he felt it right to share.
Kaede stared up at the sky, looking at a bird flying across the sky. She sighed again, wishing that she could fly away, without a care, just soaring through the big blue wonder above. She swallowed, that feeling of sorrow resurfacing. Tears brimmed in the corners of her eyes, and she fought them back fiercely. She would not cry, no. It would just prove Sasuke's comment about her being weak.
She swallowed again, this time to force the lump in her throat back down. But it stuck. Again she tried, and it still wouldn't go away. The tears wouldn't lose this time, she figured. She might as well let them flow.
And she did.
The hot, salty tears ran freely down her cheeks, stinging her soft skin, and dripping off her chin to land on the ground. She breathed in gasps, the pressure on her chest so fierce that it felt as if it were crushing her lungs. Why she was so sad, she didn't know. The image of Sasuke walking away kept coming back to her, kept reappearing in her mind, replaying over and over again.
A sigh rocked her body. She laid her arms on the railing and buried her face in them. Her arms became warm and wet from the tears still coming. She was so terribly sad, but she had no idea why. She wanted to find his warm, welcoming arms, wrap herself in them, and cry into his comforting shoulder.
And suddenly, she was there. There were strong, kind arms wrapped around her shoulders, her face buried in this persons shoulder. The person felt, smelled, seemed familiar, but she couldn't place him. All she knew was that it was a guy. She hiccupped, ashamed at her behavior. Then, the person spoke.
"Shh…don't cry. It's OK, don't cry."
Her eyes widened, then squinted shut, the tears still coming. She knew who this was….it was….him.