* Chapter 5 *

When I see your smile
The tears run down my face
I can't replace
But now that I'm strong I have figured out
How this world turns cold
And breaks through my soul
And I know I'll find deep inside me
I can be the one

I will never let you fall
I'll stand up with you forever
I'll be there for you through it all
Even if saving you sends me to heaven

- Red Jumpsuit Apparatus: Your guardian angel –

Pretending Genma wasn't there was exactly what she did during the next weeks while Kakashi taught her how to walk up trees or to stand on water. All the time, Genma just patiently sat next to them and didn't make a sound, except for some bickering with Kakashi at the beginning or end of the training session. Akiya grew used to his presence. Actually, she was pretty glad that he had been the one chosen for this mission, and not one of Kakashi's other friends whom she had met several days ago, namely the "Green beast of Konoha".

Akiya had nearly gotten a heart attack when Gai had suddenly appeared in front of them, challenging his "eternal rival" to a fight and crying waterfalls for almost half an hour when said rival declined. Akiya hadn't thought grown up men could be that ridiculous. And embarrassing. And annoying. Of course, she had seen him in Kakashi's mind before, but somehow the whole thing got a lot worse when Gai stood in front of someone in person, with his stupid green spandex, his thumbs-up and his blinking smile.

Akiya shuddered inwardly at the memory – and nearly lost her focus on her chakra. She swayed a little until regaining her balance.

"Are you all right up there?" she heard Kakashi call.

Akiya rolled her eyes. "Of course. It's the greatest thing in the world hanging upside down under a thin rope that's swaying in the wind, about thirty feet above the ground", she shouted sarcastically. Damn, she could almost hear Kakashi and Genma smirk.

"Didn't know you were afraid of heights," Kakashi teased her, and Akiya groaned.

"I'm not!"

During the past weeks, her and Kakashi had gotten pretty close – which was not surprising, considering they were together basically 24/7. He was the only person she trusted, the only one she actually liked being around, the only one she allowed to touch her.

Akiya was still living in his apartment; they had settled this without even talking about it. For him, it had been a matter of course, and she was grateful he didn't kick her out. She was still claustrophobic, especially when it came to sleeping in the rooms. Kakashi's presence was the only thing that calmed her down enough so that she could fall asleep, even though it was an uneasy sleep.

She just felt...safe around him. So safe that she didn't even mind that they were now both sleeping in his bed. First, he had sat on a chair beside her until she fell asleep, but they had found she would wake soon if he left the room to sleep on the couch. Feeling guilty for stealing his bed, Akiya had offered him to share. Somehow the situation hadn't even been awkward. She knew he would never touch her, because he just didn't see her this way.

"You know that if you should fall, I will catch you, don't you? I promise," Kakashi told her simply, and Akiya knew he meant it. Still, she couldn't resist teasing him.

"Right. Just like your promises to be on time, huh?" she shot back and scoffed. "If this promise of yours is as honest as the other ones you gave me, I want to get down here as soon as possible." And without a warning she stopped the chakra flow in her feet.

The air rushed past her and the ground was suddenly not that far away anymore. The blink of an eye later, she was caught by a pair of strong, warm arms.

Kakashi looked at her, visibly shocked. "What the hell was that for?" he inquired brusquely.

"Just checking," Akiya replied casually. And for the first time since she had met him in the forest, the corners of her mouth curled up into a smile.

"Finally!" Tsunade greeted Genma angrily. "It was about time you showed up to report back. The elders have been bugging me for days now, and I'm itching to tell them something that will shut them up."

Genma shrugged. "There's nothing suspicious about her, if you ask me, but I'll continue to watch her anyway. She's a fast learner, too."

"How is she?"

"She's improving," was Genma's plain answer.

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "I wasn't talking about her training, baka!"

A smile played around Genma's lips. "Neither was I."

The frown on Tsunade's face disappeared, and she nodded in satisfaction. "That is good to hear. That's really good to hear."

"Please tell me you are joking," Akiya said blankly.

"No. I'm dead serious." Kakashi grinned at her – obviously he was enjoying himself. "I'm meeting up with Sakura at Ichiraku's at seven for some ramen, and you will accompany me."

"I really thought you knew me better than that," Akiya commented dryly. "I wouldn't set a foot in there for all the money in the world."

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Honestly, Akiya, you need to socialize, and you need some contact to people your age, too."

"I don't need any of that," she replied stubbornly.

"You will like it, I promise."

"Yeah, about as much as driving burning needles into my eyes," Akiya muttered sarcastically under her breath.

Kakashi sent her a scolding look. "I wouldn't have thought you would be such a chicken."

"Who's the chicken, huh? You only want me to tag along because you're afraid of being alone with a touchy, loud and emotional teenage girl for a long time," Akiya shot back. Kakashi pulled a face, and she knew she had hit the mark.

"I'm sure the two of you will get along well," Kakashi tried one last time.

Akiya sighed. She found it hard to refuse Kakashi's request, even though she already knew this evening would turn out to be a disaster. He had done so much for her, so accompanying him should be a matter of course. "Fine." She finally gave in. "I'm coming. But you do realize it's already a quarter to eight, don't you?"

Kakashi grinned. "Of course. I have to sustain the tradition."

Akiya merely rolled her eyes. "Let's get this over with," she said brusquely and stormed out of the apartment.

A few minutes later, they reached the ramen stand. Kakashi entered first. "Yo," he said casually, before giving his trademark excuse. "Sorry I am late, I'm afraid I got lost on the path of life."

"YOU LIAR!" someone screamed at him. Akiya cringed. Just why did this girl have to be so loud?

"You should know by now that Kakashi-sensei is always late, Sakura," someone remarked in a very bored sounding voice.

"He he", Kakashi laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head, something he always did when he didn't know what to do or whenever he felt extremely sheepish. "Guys, I want to introduce you to someone. This," he said, dragging Akiya into the restaurant by her arm, "is Akiya."

Akiya's eyebrows rose at the sight before her. Apparently they weren't only meeting Sakura but also some other members of the Rookie Nine. Akiya tried to match the names in her head with the faces in front of her. Inuzuka Kiba. Nara Shikamaru. Hyuuga Hinata. And a blonde girl, probably Yamanaka Ino.

Just great.

Kakashi caught her mood. "Be nice," he whispered sternly into her ear. She sent him a menacing glare before composing herself and turning back to the group of teenagers. "It's a pleasure to meet you," she said, trying to be polite although she certainly did not think it was a pleasure to be stuck with them for the next few hours.

"Ah right, you're the girl he found in the forest," Sakura said and smiled at her. "So your name is Akiya?"

"It's not my real name," Akiya corrected her tonelessly.

"Oh sorry, I forgot," Sakura said hastily. "But it's a pretty name. How come you chose to use it?"

"I didn't," Akiya said shortly. "Kakashi tried to be creative. Tried being the operative word," she added dryly.

One of the boys – Inuzuka Kiba, if she recalled it correctly – chuckled. "I like this girl," he declared loudly and would have started to pat Akiya's shoulder if she hadn't flinched and shied away from the touch. At least Kiba got the hint and stopped his movement just in time. Still, the situation was kind of awkward. It seemed that Sakura felt obliged to keep the conversation going, for she made another attempt to change the topic, this time addressing her ex-sensei.

"Well, Kakashi-sensei, what have you been up to?"

"Oh, nothing much...missions...and training Akiya, naturally."

Akiya could see a flash of jealousy in Sakura's eyes as the pink haired girl realized how close her sensei and the newcomer were. Kakashi had never spent time training Sakura individually, so she must have gotten the feeling he didn't really care for her, Akiya mused. "I guess I've just antagonized someone without even doing anything...not that I would suffer the deprivation of her presence..."

In the course of the next few hours, Akiya learned many things.

One: Hyuuga Hinata was incredibly shy. She pressed the tips of her fingers together whenever she was talking, as if she was afraid she might be saying something stupid, even though Akiya was convinced that the blue haired girl was quite intelligent. She stuttered terribly and was completely oblivious to the fact that Inuzuka Kiba was basically drooling over her.

Two: Nara Shikamaru was even lazier than Kakashi. The latter had told her before that the always-complaining chunin had an IQ of over 200, and although he almost slept through the entire meal, Akiya had the feeling that this was true. All in all he was probably the person she would get along with best, because he wouldn't get too close to her.

Three: Haruno Sakura, Yamanaka Ino and Inuzuka Kiba were incredibly loud. Akiya got a headache listening to their constant bickering. At least one could say that Sakura and Kiba were genuine, but Ino was just...stupid. Shallow. Akiya disliked her from the beginning and it showed soon that this feeling was mutual, even though Akiya kept silent for 99, 9 percent of the evening.

At some point, Kakashi excused himself to go to the restroom. Immediately, Ino began to babble away. "Kakashi-sensei is really creepy sometimes, don't you think? I mean, why does he always wear this mask? What do you think, Akiya, you know him best, after all?"

"I think that we all wear a mask. His is just visible." Akiya ended the discussion before it had begun.

The situation became unpleasant when Shikamaru, clearly just trying to be polite, asked her whether it wouldn't be convenient if she trained with Ino from time to time, seeing how her kekkei genkai was slightly comparable to the Yamanaka clan hiden.

"Thanks, but I'd rather not," Akiya answered coolly, horrified by the idea of having to spend time with this girl ever again. She was desperately waiting for Kakashi to return from the restroom so that she could finally get out of there.

Ino laughed. "I'm sure she's just too chicken. I would beat her in two seconds!"

"Ino!" Shikamaru hissed.

"What?" the blonde exclaimed. "See, she's got nothing to say to this, so I guess it's true."

"I know a lot of thing I could tell you. Actually, I would love to mentally duel with you, but I don't fight unarmed persons," Akiya replied sarcastically.

"Huh?" Ino stared at her blankly, while Kiba began to roar with laughter and even Shikamaru smirked. "I don't get it."

"That's my point," Akiya replied dryly and got up. "I should get going," she announced and rushed to the door.

Kakashi entered the apartment only minutes after her. "This wasn't so bad, was it, now?" he asked.

Akiya threw him a dirty look. The silver haired jonin sighed. "Alright, alright. I won't force you to come along next time."

"Good," Akiya replied icily. "I wouldn't have come anyway."

"You really should socialize."

"I've got you," Akiya said simply. "Why would I need anyone else?"

Kakashi just sighed again and decided to drop the subject. A moment of silence followed, which was eventually interrupted by the girl. This was unusual – normally he was the one to start a conversation. "Will you ever show me your face?" she asked.

Kakashi was surprised. "You already know how I look without the mask. You have seen it in my memory."

"Yes, but that's not the same. I want you to show it to me by choice. After all, you want me to trust you, but you never show me that you trust me."

Kakashi smiled. "If you wanted to see my face, you should have just asked. Of course you can see it."

Unhesitatingly, he pulled down his mask. Akiya cocked her head and regarded him silently for a while. "Why do you wear it? It's not like you need to hide anything," she inquired.

He shrugged. "A shinobi mustn't show his emotions. When I was a child, I found it easier to conceal them by hiding my face. After that, it became a habit. Plus, it helps to keep away the fangirls."

Akiya chuckled. "I think your fascination for the Icha Icha series would do the job as well...then again, a combination of these two things is probably more efficient."

She only just avoided the pillow aimed at her head.