1 year earlier...
Emiko Uchiha walked casually around the market stalls of the hidden leaf village, occasionally picking something up before placing it back down after looking at the price, the boredom slowly setting in.
There was all sorts of new things that hadn't been there last time she'd visited, such as new houses and a couple of new stalls, but everything else had stayed practically the same, the sounds, the smells, and of course, grass.
She closed her eyes and greedily savoured the smells and the aura about the village, before sighing and relaxing her stance.
' Man, I missed this place' she said, eventually opening her eyes lazily and carrying on through the busy, but not crowded street.
She turned a corner and gasped in surprise at how big the 4 heads of the Hokages that were carved into the side of the cliff were from up close, and frowned as the memories came rushing back from a few years ago.
She shook her head, ridding her of those thoughts and managing to make her blond and black hair swish behind her and she averted her gaze to the right of her.
It was there that she saw EXACTLY what she'd been wanting to cheer her up, and possibly fill her up in the process.
-
As Emiko sat down on the last of the unoccupied stools at the ramen shop, she placed her bag cautiously in her lap and straightened her hair nervously, before the ramen girl walked over to her from behind the counter.
' Hello! What can I get you?' She asked politely, smiling her head off and picking up a pen and paper, though you could tell she was quite flushed.
Emiko smiled back at her and looked at the big menu, frowning and biting her lip in thought, before she nodded to herself and, smiling, looked back at the girl.
' Umm, can I have the chicken and mushroom, please?' she asked, and the girl wrote something down on the paper, bowed politely and shuffled off to get the tired Sand jonins order.
Emiko sighed tiredly, drumming her fingers on the counter whilst waiting, before smiling and running her fingertips lightly over the smooth wooden surface, remembering the good times that she'd had there the last time her family took her.
' So, you're from the village hidden in the sand, huh?' Someone said from the other side of her, and she looked over to see a man with silvery hair, his left eye closed and a mask covering from his nose to the beginning of his neck.
Turning her body in her seat to place her full attention on him, she noticed that he was dressed in the usual Jonin outfit, his headband ( from what she could see at her angle ) was slanted, covering his right eye and he wore a pair of anbu gloves.
She leant her elbow on the counter to look at him better, and her eyebrow rose in curiosity for the strange, supposed ninja.
' no, actually'' she stated matter-of-factly, though there was a hint of playfulness in her voice and she looked away to the ramen girl who had finally brought her ramen over.
She nodded her thanks and grabbed a pair of chopsticks, before the mysterious man chuckled and opened his eye, gazing in her direction without moving.
' Then what's with the headband?' He asked, his hands swirling the chopsticks around his empty ramen bowl.
Emiko laughed gently before breaking her chopsticks apart and turning back to her delicious looking steaming bowl of ramen.
' You tell me, why do you think I wear this particular headband?' She asked, closing her eyes in bliss as she savoured the luxurious smell of the only ramen she'd ever loved, before opening her eyes and greedily picking up a cluster of noodles, slurping them down in satisfaction, oblivious to the strange stares she was getting from passers by and fellow ramen customers.
' Well,' the man started, turning to fully face her and rubbed his chin in mock thought ', If I had to guess, I'd have to say that you are actually from an abandoned village, when you were young you defeated a sand ninja and stole his headband, and from then on just wandered around killing various people who you disliked... whilst eating a shit lot of ramen at a starved mans speed' he concluded, grinning beneath his mask as she almost choked on some noodles as she began to laugh, before patting her back to help her breath better.
She spat out her meal and continued laughing, succeeding in almost falling off her chair before her laughing subsided and she regained her lazy posture on the stool.
Emiko smiled and turned back to face him, trying to mimic his position before chuckling lightly and fiddling with her chopsticks.
' Well, that's a new one I must say, and I suppose I also single handedly defeated the Kazekage, robbed a bank, killed countless amounts of ninja and went shopping as well?' she joked mockingly, tilting her head to the side ever so slightly as she glanced back down at her bowl, making her long strip of black hair drape down and over her bare shoulder and a bit across the side of her face, which still had a small smile on it.
He chuckled, before looking fully at her features, much the same way she had done earlier to him.
She had long, blond and black streaked hair that turned black near the ends and reached around the small of her back, a Sand village headband tied around her forehead, and the most darkest blue eyes he had ever seen.
She was wearing a halter neck red dress that did up at the front, a long white line with bumps proving that, which only reached to about the beginnings of her knees, making her leg pack stand out clearly.
It was then that he noticed her creamy white skin. If she'd came from the Sand village, then he guessed she should of been a lot more tanned, but her skin was a natural English rose kinda colour.
When she looked back at him, she must've noticed where his eyes were placed on her thigh and she waved her hand in front of his face, bringing him back to reality.
' dude, my face is up here...' she said slowly as if he'd been asleep for a while, and he quickly looked up to her face, before a slight tint of red adorned his features, and he was glad he had his mask on.
But she only smiled and held out her hand, still smiling and waited a moment for him to take it.
' I'm Emiko' she said brightly, and he smiled back in return, his blush steadily creeping away as he took her soft hand in his and shook it.
' Kakashi' he replied in return, before pointing to her headband again.
' so what's REALLY with the headband?' he asked in and ' in any case ' tone of voice, and she laughed heartily before picking back up her chopsticks and turning to her half eaten bowl.
' Oh, it's a boring story, you don't wanna know' she said confidently, but there was a slight hint of uncertainty as she took another bite of her meal.
' I don't mind, I don't have anything to do, and I love boring stories' Kakashi stated confidently, entwining his hands together and leaning his chin on them in a way that said ' I'm going to find out what you're on about'.
Emiko sighed and looked back up to her new found friend, a few of her more business thoughts plaguing her mind, but she decided that it wouldn't hurt to tell him her story.
' Here goes, you asked for it!' she started eyeing him in pretend anger before settling herself comfortably on the wooden stool and looking back into his eye.
' Well, I originally come from this village, but I left when I was 11 to take the chuunin exams in the hidden Sand village, let's call it an act of rebelliousness' she said, and he nodded in understanding.
' So that explains the headband' he said, once again pointing lazily to the headband.
She clapped her hands slowly like he was a child and smiled.
' Very good! you're learning well!' she joked, and he laughed with her until he realised what she meant and he hit her gently on the shoulder in a playful manner, causing her to laugh harder.
' Anyway,' she continued after they'd settled down ',after I became a Jonin, I've come back here to visit my folks and my little brothers as many times as I can' She concluded, taking another bite of her meal and leaving him to process it.
' So what about you, what's with the headband?' she asked, repeating the words he'd said earlier, and he put both his hands on the counter and looked up at it.
' Oh this old thing? Well, I guess I got it the same boring way as everybody else does' he said in his usual light hearted tone, which made her laugh a little more, before they talked for a while longer about friends, weather, and basically everything except the whole issues of family. Every time the subject came up about it, he seemed to change the whole matter, and she deduced that he didn't really wanna talk about it.
Once she'd finished her ramen she sighed loudly and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand sensually, placing the exact amount of money on the counter, before turning back to him and placing her hands in her lap.
' Well, It was lovely meeting you Kakashi, but I best be off. Family will be wondering if I've been ambushed or something so...' She said, before going to jump off her stool.
Now, usually when you jump off of a stool, you put you hands firmly on the side of the counter and slightly stumble off it, before brushing the invisible creases off of your shirt and looking around nervously to see if anyone was looking, proceeding to walk away.
But that didn't work for Emiko.
She put her hand on the side and got ready to jump off, before it suddenly slipped on a piece of stray water, her feet got tangled in the stool and she cried out, clamping her eyes shut and waiting for the hard floor for her to hit, but it never happened.
Instead she felt like she was slightly hovering, before she finally registered the feeling of a pair of arms tightly snaked around her waist and she slowly opened her eyes, finding that she was looking up into one concerned looking, dark grey, beautiful eye and...
" Wait... where did that word come from?" she thought to herself, before realising that it was Kakashi and the closeness of their faces and bodies made her eyes slightly widen and a small blush to creep up her face.
' Are you ok?' Kakashi asked, slowly pulling her up effortlessly, completely unaware of her current condition or the fact that they were dangerously close, with her hands pressed lightly against his chest unconsciously.
' err... y-yea. I'm fine! Just clumsy! Clumsy ol' me...' she rambled, embarrassment evident in every single little fibre of her being as she smiled anxiously up to him, partly wanting him to let her go so that she could hopefully stop the blush that had probably spread throughout her entire body, but partly wanting to stay like that with him.
In the end, he finally let go of her ( much to the part that wanted him's dismay ) and she straightened herself out, avoiding his gaze.
' ...thanks' she said lightly, and the two continued to fiddle nervously with their fingers and hair.
' So...err...Do you, maybe wanna, I don't know, meet up sometime?' he finally asked, even though he said it as if he was telling his teacher something important about a prank or something like that.
Emiko looked up at his face and eventually smiled lightly at the anxious look he was giving her, before giggling heartily like a little girl and adjusting her bag that draped around her right shoulder, nodded at him.
' Yeah... I'd like that.' she answered, gingerly stroking some of her stray hair from her face as she saw his masked face instantly light up, and just for the moment the two had no idea, that their destiny, everything that was going to happen to them, their actual lives, it had all happened in a chance meeting at a ramen bar.