Chapter 4

Just like that the day had already ended, too quickly in Hanare's opinion. She was seated at her desk staring outside as the sun set coating the sky and turning it into a marvellous shade of bright orange. Pulling her gaze away from the sky and her thoughtless musings she shifted her gaze to the interior of the quant classroom she had grown to love. She looked around carefully examining every single nook and cranny of the area in an attempt to solidify the image of the classroom in her brain permanently.

She peered down below her at the stack of handmade cards her students had written for her, she couldn't fight the smile that made its way to her face. She had still yet to read the cards, but didn't want to in front of the children for fear of breaking down in tears and turning into an emotional mess.

She huffed to herself all her years of espionage training and experience and she had still yet to master the art of suppressing her emotions. At the mere thought of her past life as a ninja she experienced instant flashbacks of her time in Konoha with Kakashi and she couldn't help but smile again, maybe the ninja life just wasn't for her considering she completely failed that mission she was given.

She let her mind wander again to thoughts of Kakashi, she really was curious to know of his wellbeing now. Did he still read those bizarre books? Did he still keep most of his face covered by that mask of his? Did he still have those three precious genin of his follow him around 24/7 and spy on him? Was he married? Is his wife pretty? Is she someone who is actually good at her job and doesn't screw up missions then evade all chances of emotional attachment? Hanare grumbled to herself and placed her head against the desk letting herself wallow away in self-pity. What a stupid girl she was allowing her thoughts to wander…again. In an attempt to get her mind of him she decided to read the letters the children had left for her.

She smiled broadly reading all of the letters from the kids, they were all etched with stick figure pictures of her and them enjoying themselves on a sunny day. There were pictures of rainbows and love hearts of different shapes, sizes and colours. All of the cards were marked with the same words of 'we will miss you', however she grimaced at a few of the cards and what was written on them. Despite her students being rather young they knew that Hanare had been single ever since she began teaching at the school and that she had never once shown interest in any man in the village or fellow ninja passing by. As a result, written in a few of the cards were sentences such as 'we hope you get married soon' and some very cheeky students writing 'teacher please get married soon, you're getting old!'. She felt a vein in her neck pulse at how devious some of her students were, but she still smiled, they were just showing their concern in their own innocent way.

Once she had tied up any loose ends remaining in the classroom she decided to make her way back to her tiny little room in order to prepare for her departure. By the time she had left the school building the sky was pitch black save for a few stars twinkling rather dully.

She couldn't sleep, instead she had spent the night tossing and turning. In spite of her constantly telling herself that she was ready to move on from the village and the school she knew she wasn't. Part of the reason being that her next destination would be in a place she tried to suppressed, where a certain someone dear to her is and that person being someone she didn't want to face. She didn't want to face him out of fear that meeting him would make her realise just how far time has passed, for fear that she would finally see how big the distance between him and her finally was. She groaned to herself and smacked her head against her pillow in frustration. With the way she was smacking her head onto things lately she would develop wrinkles sooner than she would like.

Before she could even attempt to try and get some sleep there was a soft knock on her door. Curious at who it might be she quickly scrambled to the door and opened it ever so slightly. There in front of her was a ninja who looked no older than thirteen, she could tell from the distinct leaf pattern on his headband that he was from the Konoha.

There was an awkward silence between them before the young shinobi spoke, "Excuse me, but are you Miss Hanare?"

Hanare quickly composed herself and silently nodded. The shinobi continued, "Well, I'm sorry if I disrupted your sleep but we're the ninjas from Konoha who are supposed to escort you and the children to the academy."

Upon hearing and comprehending what the young shinobi said Hanare gasped and pulled back the curtains of her window and was shocked to see the sun was already peaking, she was late. She quickly uttered a string of apologies and quickly collected her already packed bag and shamisen and followed the young shinobi to the village entrance.

Her students were already there waiting for her along with three other ninjas, two were about the same age as the one who she had first met and the other one was taller and older she was able to deduce that he was their sensei. Once she was face to face with everyone she quickly bowed and apologised profusely for her tardiness. She was forgiven rather quickly and they made their way to Konoha.

They had been on the road now for a couple of hours and the closer they got to the village the more nervous Hanare became. She had yet to mentally to prepare herself if she were to meet Kakashi. She was pulled out of her musings when she felt a tap on her shoulder she turned around and noticed that it was the ninja from earlier who had knocked on her door. He had introduced himself to her already along with the rest of his team and the one talking to her now was Konohamaru. It seemed he wanted to create idle chat in order to pass the time.

"So, Miss Hanare have you ever visited Konoha before?" she contemplated his answer and considering whether or not she should lie through her teeth or tell him the truth. She replied, "once but it was a long time ago,"

Konohamaru snorted, "C'mon you sound like an old lady it can't be that long since you last visited, you look like you can't be that much older than Naruto Uzumaki the great hero of the war!"

"I'm flattered by your words but I am old, the last time I entered Konoha the Third Hokage was still in power," there was an immediate silence from Konohamaru after she spoke and his eyes were no longer fixated on her, but at the ground.

He finally spoke, "The Third Hokage was my grandfather, and someone dear to my heart" Hanare attempted to comfort him, "I'm sorry if mentioning him brought back any unwanted memories." He quickly dismissed and told her that she caused no trouble.

"You know we have a new Hokage now!" Hanare feigned innocence and pretended to act surprised, Konohamaru continued, "yeah, his name is Kakashi Hatake and he's really awesome, one of the most elite ninjas the Leaf Village has."

Hanare decided to use this opportunity to gather intel on Kakashi, "Oh really? He sounds like a pretty busy man then."

"Yeah he is, he's always out on meetings and he still goes off on missions," Konohamaru continued, "the elders are actually really annoyed by how busy he is."

Hanare turned to him and raised an eyebrow in confusion why would a Hokage doing his job frustrate the village elders? Konohamaru seemed to sense her confusion and spoke, "I heard it's because they want him to settle down and marry someone, but he's purposely keeping himself busy to avoid their pestering,"

Just like that Hanare's concerns that he had finally settled down with someone else and started a family were laid to rest. To be honest she didn't know if she should've felt happy or worried.

Hello everyone,

I'm back with another chapter that is a bit more lengthier than the previous one. I do apologise if their are any grammatical or spelling errors, i just really wanted to upload this chapter before reading it over. Anyway i hope you enjoyed reading this chapter and do please share your thoughts with me because I'm really struggling with inspiration on where this story should be headed. In addition, I really need your comments to help me out to figure out whether or not this story actually is engaging and if i should even attempt to continue on with it or not.

Honeybunnay