One Month Later
Sumiko raced towards Kakashi, weaving signs for a water style jutsu.
"Suiton: Suiben," Sumiko whispered. Kakashi had said it was a waste of breath to whisper it and that it had the same effect whether or not it was yelled or not. She liked being quiet, so it suited her just fine. He's also said that jounin could just think the name and it would have the same effect, but it was because, of course, they were seasoned ninja.
Kakashi dodged and used an earth style technique she hadn't seen before. Suddenly, he was gone. Her eyes widened as she managed to jump in the air just in time as his hand came out of the ground, attempting to grab her. She used the kawarimi jutsu with a log as the rest of him came out of the ground. She used two mizu kage bunshin to weave ninja wire around the area in an intricate web in a matter of half a minute. However, during this time, she was weaving a water style jutsu's signs. Suddenly, Kakashi kicked her body into the water. She looked into the water and saw another Kakashi. Bunshin, huh?
She gritted her teeth as electricity rushed through her body via water. She gathered her chakra and jumped out of the water. She landed hard on the ground and flicked her wrist. Ninja wire surrounded both the clone and the real one, whichever it was. She watched with shock as they both disappeared. She whirled around and blocked his incoming kunai with the side of her wrist. She gritted her teeth harder as the cold blade cut her skin. Blood dripped down, but she began to weave signs for a mild genjutsu while he was close. She noticed he fell to his knees and then the water from her previous jutsu was draining into the hole from his earth style jutsu.
She frowned and looked for Kakashi. She didn't have to look; he came to her. She threw shuriken at him. She wasn't surprised as he dodged. She weaved signs for another water style jutsu but still felt something was wrong. She allowed her hands to drop.
"Kai!" she whispered and then her surroundings changed to Kakashi and her still standing there, with her bloody wrist.
She jumped back and weaved signs.
"Suiton: Mizudeppō," Sumiko whispered but was too late; his kunai was at her neck, firmly pressed so that any move she made would draw blood. She smirked and her body turned into a log. Kakashi glanced around. Sumiko weaved signs again.
"Suiton: Mizudeppō."
Sumiko raced to the other trees and threw shuriken and kunai at him. Her hiding bunshin came to rush at him and he easily turned them into puddles as they were taken down. He looked up to see her water style jutsu coming towards her. He allowed it to come close and then jumped into the ground, making it seem as if he was taken down. Sumiko wasn't fooled, though. She panted a little; this spar was taking a toll on her chakra reserves and body.
"It's over," Kakashi whispered behind her as she felt a kunai against her throat once again.
"Yeah," Sumiko agreed. I didn't even sense his chakra come behind me…
"Sumiko-chan!" two boys ran to her, glaring at one another as she struggled to catch her breath. Two men came behind them, walking over to Kakashi and Sumiko.
"So this is the girl Sasuke can't stop talking about?" Fugaku asked, seeming unimpressed.
"Yeah!" Sasuke said. He turned back to Naruto, glaring.
"Sumiko-chan is my friend!" Naruto pulled her hand one way.
"I sparred with her before you did! So I'm her first ninja friend!" Sasuke retorted.
"I knew her before you did!" Naruto growled.
"She's mine!" Sasuke stuck his tongue out as he pulled her and Naruto lost his grip and was forced to let go.
"Sumiko-chan which of us is your friend?" they both asked, their angry eyes turned on her. Her weary eyes glanced at blue and black ones.
"Both," she answered simply as she started a slow walk to a new stand where they sold something called 'taiyaki'. She'd been intrigued, so she decided to go.
"Sumiko, where're you going? Shouldn't you introduce yourself to Fugaku-sama?" Kakashi called out. Her eyes widened and she ran over.
"Please forgive my rudeness!" she bowed deeply. "I-I'm Sumiko," she said, still bowing.
"Sasuke talks about you a lot. I watched your match against Kakashi to see how good you really were," Fugaku said.
Sumiko didn't know what to say.
"T-thank you for taking the time to watch my spar," Sumiko said.
Fugaku didn't say anything.
"Go on, your friends are waiting for you," Jiraiya pushed her along. She bowed again and ran to Sasuke and Naruto.
"Those two were fighting over her~" Jiraiya smiled dangerously.
"Jiraiya-sama, you are not putting this in your book as some sick thing between children," Kakashi warned.
"So what if I think I will?" Jiraiya smirked.
Kakashi sighed and followed the three children to wherever Sumiko was going.
"Fugaku, what do you think of Sumiko?" Jiraiya asked.
"She seems like she has potential. I can see Sasuke's infatuation with this girl. Kakashi, who is she?" Fugaku narrowed his eyes at the jounin.
"Some kid we picked up in Kiri. We believe she carries a kekkei genkai," Kakashi said.
"Oh, is that so?" Fugaku frowned. "Do you know what they are or has the Hokage kept it a secret?"
"I'm afraid the Hokage has to tell you himself," Kakashi apologized.
"Now, where is this girl going?" Jiraiya mumbled.
"This is delicious!" Sumiko said. Naruto looked unhappy eating his taiyaki.
"What's wrong, dobe?" Sasuke asked, smirking.
"I don't like this, teme," Naruto glared back.
"Why?" Sumiko asked.
"It's not sweet enough," Naruto complained.
"It's sweet enough. I don't know what you're talking about," Sumiko took another bite from hers.
"So this is what you were talking about," Kakashi drawled.
"Yeah," Sumiko said.
"Sumiko-chan, Hokage-jii has given me an apartment! You wanna see?" Naruto grinned.
"Yeah," Sumiko nodded wearily. She was tired from the spar so she wasn't thinking straight.
"Let's go!" Naruto ran to his apartment, not noticing that Sasuke was walking with Sumiko. Sumiko was walking at her own pace and Sasuke took this as a golden opportunity to be without the loud blonde.
"Sumiko-chan, are you okay?" Sasuke asked, noticing that she was walking with staggered steps. Her world was becoming fuzzy and she collapsed.
"Sumiko-chan!" Sasuke screamed in fear. He shook her but she remained unconscious.
"Kakashi-san!" Sasuke yelled out as he came walking up, seemingly unconcerned.
"Jiraiya-sama, you saw it. She was pushing herself too hard," Kakashi said as he picked her up.
Naruto ran back.
"Oi, teme! What did you do to Sumiko-chan?!" Naruto went up to him in a rage.
"Nothing! She just collapsed like that!" Sasuke retorted.
"Naruto, Sumiko is tired. She's going home. Tomorrow she can see your apartment," Jiraiya said, saying goodbye to the two Uchiha's as the three parties walked their separate ways.
Sumiko opened her eyes and immediately felt exhausted.
"kakashi…" she whispered. She sniffed the air and it smelled like rice porridge. Her eyes moved around and she slowly sat up. Her body was in pain, but it was bearable.
She stood, but her legs felt weak and she fell back onto her bed. Because of this, she crawled out of her room and her world swam as the room kept shifting.
"Hey, you shouldn't be up," Kakashi picked her up. Nausea came in a wave as she was moved suddenly. He put a hand to her forehead and frowned.
"Your fever has gotten higher. Wait here," Kakashi said. Sumiko tried to weakly reach out for him to make him feed her, but he was already gone.
After what felt like an eternity, her eyes opened up again as a cool cloth soaked up the heat from her head and multiple voices filled her ears.
"…loud…" Sumiko whispered.
Kakashi nodded and sent out the two boys, muttering how they managed to get in.
"Kakashi, she needs to be fed to let her body have energy to fight off whatever got her sick. Flip the cloth over once the other side is too warm and make sure she stays in bed," an old woman's voice said. Sumiko glanced at the woman, not recognizing her.
"Who're you?" Sumiko asked as Kakashi spooned her porridge.
"I'm just an old lady in the building," she smiled as she flipped over Sumiko's head cloth.
"Thank…you," Sumiko closed her eyes and fell asleep immediately.
"Thanks, Yoshiko," Kakashi said as he ran to deal with the two five year olds who were in his apartment. How he managed to get stuck with them was a mystery to him.
"No problem," Yoshiko said as she let herself out.
Kakashi looked at his sensei's son.
"Naruto, do not touch anything. Do not eat the porridge and do not go in my room. You'll experience something worse than hell if you do," Kakashi looked at the blonde in the eye.
"You too, Sasuke," Kakashi said.
"Fine," the boys grumbled as they sat down at the low table.
"I'm hungry!" Naruto complained. Kakashi sighed and made two bowls of ramen, one for Sasuke and one for Naruto.
"There. Now don't mess with anything," Kakashi sighed.
"Kakashi-san, I don't like ramen," Sasuke complained.
"I'll eat his!" Naruto grabbed his bowl and used two pairs of chopsticks-one for each hand-to eat the ramen. Sasuke watched with horror as Naruto ate the ramen in a minute.
"That was the best!" Naruto patted his stomach. Kakashi's eyes glanced at him briefly before going to Sumiko's door. He stood and walked over, still worrying. The room exuded a cold air and he quickly slipped in her room, locking the door behind himself to make sure the two boys didn't go in and wake her up.
Kakashi's eye widened as a thin layer of ice was covering the bed. He felt her forehead and it was of normal temperature.
"That's good," he said, relieved. Sumiko stirred.
"Nii-san!" she screamed as ice spikes almost impaled Kakashi.
"Sumiko!" Kakashi said sternly.
She blinked and composed herself. She muttered an apology.
"Why're two other people here?" Sumiko asked, not able to recognize chakra signatures of certain people yet.
"Naruto and Sasuke were somehow placed in my care today," Kakashi sighed. "I don't even know how I said yes," Kakashi frowned. "In fact, I don't think I did at all."
Sumiko laughed a little and then walked over to Naruto and Sasuke.
"Hi, Naruto, Uchiha-san," Sumiko greeted and sat with them.
"Haha, teme! I'm closer to her than you are! 'Cause she has to be all polite and use that –san with you!" Naruto laughed. Sasuke looked shocked.
"Sumiko-chan, just call me Sasuke," Sasuke grinned at her. "Oh, Sumiko-chan, guess what?" Sasuke pranced around.
"What?" Sumiko asked.
"I learned a jutsu! Nii-san helped me!" Sasuke ran out the door.
"Hatake-san, Naruto, come on," Sumiko ran after Sasuke.
Sasuke grinned at Sumiko and turned and weaved signs.
"Fire style: Fireball jutsu!" Sasuke yelled as a huge fireball came out of his mouth.
"That's cool, Sasuke," Sumiko said, carefully saying his name.
"I know right!" Sasuke beamed at her with joy glimmering in his eyes.
"Hey, Sumiko-chan! I learned how to make a weight seal!" Naruto said as he whipped out a paper and ink and brush. Carefully making his strokes, he applied it on Sasuke's wrist and Sasuke suddenly felt a weight.
"Wow…" Sasuke said. "Get it off me."
"Ne, Sumiko-chan, what do you think? It's great for building your muscles and stuff right?" Naruto smiled sheepishly, hiding his fear that Sasuke was taking her away from him. After all, Sumiko was his first friend. That only made her more precious.
"That's great, Naruto," Sumiko said.
A/N Slightly shorter by like, 500 words that the last chapter, but oh well. Sumiko falls ill and ice surrounds her! Naruto and Sasuke are vying for Sumiko's precious attention!