"Aw, come on! Stop being a little baby, Kakashi."
He annoyingly sighed; Asuma would not leave his apartment. "Asuma, I don't want to go to this festival."
"But you always went to them in the past! Why are you being such a girl now?" Asuma whined
"Tsk... I'll just be third wheel. Like last time!" Kakashi pouted, crossing his arms.
Asuma groaned, rubbing his head with the tip of his fingers, "Not this time! Kurenai is bringing one of her girlfriends this time! I swear! She's pretty freakin' cute, Kakashi! You have to come."
"Last time you said that, it was Gai. So no."
Asuma started to laugh, remembering last year's festival. He held onto his stomach from laughing too much and started to ramble on about time. Kakashi's face became serious, starting to close the door on him, "see? Bye."
"Wait! Wait! I'm just messing with you!" Asuma was still chuckling but tried his best to hold in his laughter. He placed his hand on the door to stop it from closing all the way.
Kakashi opened the door widely again, giving Asuma another chance.
"I'm serious this time. Her name is Kokoro Hy-"
"Hyuga?"
He pouted with one of his eyebrow raised high, "So you already know her? That's great then it won't be awkward!" He pulled Kakashi out of his house.
Kakashi groaned as he locked the door. The two of them walked to the festival together.
"Wait, how do you know her?"
"She was my nurse the other day when I came back from my mission."
Asuma moved his eyebrows up and down, "nurse…, huh? Haha."
"Asuma.."
"She's beautiful, right, right? That's why your ass came out the moment you heard her name. Haha!" He slapped him on his back.
Kakashi glared at him with his hands in his pockets, "I mean… She's cute, but I-"
"Oh, shut up. Just admit it."
"Asuma... Sometimes, I just want to kill you."
"Would you just relax already?"
"Kurenai, I swear, if you try to set me up with Gai again... I will kill you! That BBQ double date was hell..."
Kurenai giggled, "Don't worry! It's not Gai this time. He's busy on some mission anyways. So relax, okay?"
Kokoro patted her formal wear and muttered, "this dress makes me look fat…"
"You look fine! You look fine! Will you pick up your speed already?" Kurenai tugged onto her arm. She pointed at the two of them waiting near the entrance of the festival. "Look! I told you it isn't Gai! Now do you believe me?"
Kokoro stared, seeing Kakashi leaning against the pole with one of his foot pressed flat against the bottom of the pole with his hands in his pockets.
Kurenai grabbed her hand, dragging her towards the boys while waving at them. "Asuma! Kakashi! Hi!" She greeted.
"Where were you two? We've been waiting here for 30 minutes!" Asuma complained.
Kurenai held onto Asuma's arm, "it was all Kokoro's fault! She was being all shy and worried if it was Gai." She whispered the last part, but it was loud enough for Kokoro to hear.
The two of the chuckled as Kokoro face turned bright red with anger. Her trembling hands curled tightly into fists. 'I swear, one of these days... They are going to get it.'
While Asuma and Kurenai walked hand in hand, Kakashi and Kokoro walked awkwardly beside one another behind the love birds. They walked in dead silence. She pouted with her arms crossed tightly against her chest.
'Okay this is so much worse that when I was with Gai. I mean, at least he talked to me, right...?'
"Hey, guys! Let's play this game!" Kurenai called out to the two of them, pointing to a little water game.
"What do we do?" Kokoro asked confused.
"Oh yeah, you never been to a festival yet, huh?"
"Geez, Kokoro, you must of been locked up until you've became a Jonin." Asuma joked before asking the man to get four little nets.
She held it in her hand trying to examine what to do with it.
"It's an easy game with no point, really... There are teams of two. Just try to catch as many little baby koi fish as possible. The team with the most fish gets to keep one of the koi fish they caught. So it will be me and Kurenai, and you and Kakashi. If you catch the golden koi fish, you get to keep it automatically and get your money back whether if you lose or win." Asuma explained, squatting down near the edge of the little pool. Everyone else followed his lead.
The four of them, alongside other villagers, began to gather as many fish as possible. Kurenai and Asuma were getting along so well while Kakashi and Kokoro lacked communication. She slowly scooped up one fish at a time while Kakashi tried to scoop multiple fish at once.
"Hey, Kakashi! Kokoro! Let's see who can find the golden koi fish first!"
She then began to speak up to Kakashi, wanting to beat the two of them so badly for being douchebag friends for the past few days. "Kakashi! We have to get the golden koi fish first and teach these little fucks who the real winners are!"
"Yeah, I agree." He nodded, glancing at her as she tried her best to scout for the golden koi fish.
She analyzed the little pond, finally seeing a golden tail form from under couple of koi fish. She pointed to it while tapping Kakashi on the shoulder, "I see it! I see it! Get it Kakashi-san. You're closer!"
He caught it with ease, "I got it, Kokoro!"
The two of them began to chant and cheer as Kurenai and Asuma saw how lovely they were finally getting along; they just smiled to one another.
Kakashi placed the koi fish in their little bucket of water and held it over the pond. He moved his face closer to the bucket, wanting a better look at the golden koi fish, but the fish jumped up from the bucket and slammed into his eyes causing Kakashi to drop the whole bucket back into the pond; losing all the fish they have caught.
"Ouch!" He grabbed onto his eye with slime all over his face.
Kokoro gasped seeing their bucket moving along the flow of the small pond. But she couldn't help but laugh at how a fish attacked Kakashi. She held onto her gut, covering her mouth; hiding her smile as she laughed loudly.
Between her laughs, she made out, "are you okay?"
He rubbed his eye, trying to wipe away the slime off his face repeating, "ouch" over and over.
This made her laugh even more. She reached towards his face and brought it close to hers. "Move your hands! Let me see your eye."
Their faces were only couple of inches apart. He slowly tried to open his eye; it was red and watery.
"You'll be fine." She moved away from him.
Kakashi was still pressing hard on his eye to stop the irritation.
"Kakashi, it looks like you're crying like a little bitch now!" Asuma teased
Kokoro started to laugh uncontrollably making her lose her balance. She stopped laughing once she felt her body moving forward towards the pool.
"Woahhh!" She screamed as she fell forward into the pond, luckily she had her hands out in front of her to break the fall; only her arms and shirt got wet.
Kakashi chuckled at her now. She slowly got back in her squatting position while wailing her arms. She started to laugh with Kakashi.
"Are you okay?" He asked, calming down.
She let out a sigh from the tension in her abs from laughing too much, "Yeah, I am okay."
"Hey, where did Asuma and Kurenai go?"
"Huh?" She looked towards the direction they used to be at, seeing neither of them in sight. She turned back to Kakashi, shrugging.
He stood up with his hand out. She smiled reaching for it.
"Wanna go play another game?"
She smiled showing teeth and nodded, "let's go!"
The two of them quickly ran together finding another fun game.
Kokoro walked with a medium sized brown teddy bear in her arms while Kakashi walked beside her with his hands in his pockets.
He glanced at her, watching her hold onto that teddy bear so tightly. He honestly wanted to let her in. In fact, Kokoro reminded him of Rin and Obito. She was so kind and genuine like Rin, but had the sense of humor like Obito. His heart was beating so fast, not knowing if he should take the first step. He knew that deep down, if he did tell her, she wouldn't question it. Well, here goes nothing..."Obito. Uchiha, Obito."
"Huh?" She turned her head towards him, confused.
"That's the friend that I visit..."
She softly sighed, looking away from him, staring at the ground. She didn't know how to respond to that. There was nothing she could honestly say. There was nothing more to say.
"Hey, the firework is about to start soon. We should find a spot to watch it."
She looked back up at him, "You're right! We should hurry."
They power walked, finding a nice place to watch it. They stood closely side by side, being stuck in a middle of a crowd. She looked up at the sky, waiting for the fireworks.
"Aw, come on, when will they start?" She whined.
A loud boom roared through the town, and in the corner of her eye, she could see colors of green, pink and blue forming.
"eek!" She jumped from the first few exploding of fireworks, grabbing hold onto Kakashi's upper arm, pressing her body against his side.
He gasped slightly, not prepared for her little burst of fright. She looked up at him and realized what she had done. She backed off him quickly and the two turned bright red. Both looked back up at the sky, enjoying the fireworks together. As much as she tried to enjoy the fireworks, she couldn't help but think of Kakashi's scent and the feeling of his warmth. Her heart was beating loud and her stomach was tingling with a sensation she had never felt before. She found herself craving for more, craving to be close to him again.
Kokoro slowly scooted a little closer, and with courage, she wrapped her arm around his; not looking at his direction once. He slightly tensed up at first and glanced down at her. He could tell she was embarrassed, but he had to admit, she had a lot of courage to be the first to make a move on him. Not many girls ever bothered with him, knowing how cold he was. She was definitely different from the other girls.
He could feel her hand slowly moving down his upper arm, gently making her way to his hand. At this point, he was playing tug-a-war; a battle between his heart and mind. He never had the intentions of getting close to her, but at the same time... He wanted to get to know this lovely girl, so he gave it a chance. Their eyes glanced at one another, and their fingers slowly interlocked.