I do not own Naruto…
Chap 6
A couple nights later. . .
Akemi rubbed her temples. She was going on no sleep for seventy-two hours.
She too had been enlisted to work on the baffling code and she had been doing so—tirelessly. But, the battle with her body was failing. The lack of sleep was finally catching up with her. The characters on the paper were beginning to look suspiciously like a massive battle scene complete with wounded shinobi and littered weapons. . .
Yeah, it was time for her to sleep.
Akemi rubbed her eyes and groaned dramatically.
There was a chuckle from the doorway. Painstakingly slowly, Akemi turned around in her chair to face the empty doorway.
"Akemi-chan?" an amused voice asked. It took the girl a full minute to acknowledge the pair of sandals on the floor, and another minute to realize that she was being spoken to.
"Nani?" she asked tiredly, blinking her eyes vacantly at the face in front of her.
The visitor's voice became concerned when they saw her sunken expression and empty eyes, "Akemi-chan? Are you all right?"
Akemi felt herself start to swerve forward and caught herself before falling face down on the floor.
"Oi! Akemi-chan! Didn't you get any rest at all?!" the voice demanded before she swerved again. Too exhausted to catch herself a second time, Akemi pitched forward into a pair of strong arms.
"Oi!" the voice sounded closer.
"T-tomoe-kun?" Akemi inquired through the fog of exhaustion.
The identified visitor sighed and swept the slight girl up in his arms and lay her on her bed before deadpanning, "You're suicidal."
Akemi blinked, "Nani?"
"Not even a kunoichi of your caliber can function seventy-two hours straight without sleep."
Akemi offered him a shy smile—weak though she was, "Aren't all shinobi suicidal?" she quipped.
Tomoe chuckled and bent over her, "Not nearly as suicidal as a certain stubborn Nara I know." He teased and kissed her cheek, "Now get some sleep. I'll send someone in to keep an eye on you."
Akemi couldn't retort; sleep beckoned to her. Her pale eyelids fluttered shut over her ebony eyes. Within seconds, she was asleep.
Tomoe relaxed once he sensed Akemi's chakra go dormant and walked back into her room. His feet carried him to the desk where the girl had just been sitting. He ran a scrutinizing eye over her work, widening as it went down the pages of scribbling and references. He scoffed, gaze narrowing with disgust as he muttered "Nothing less from the Nara brat. She almost cracked it!" he sighed before a cruel sneer replaced the irritated expression. He gathered the scattered papers on her desktop and incinerated the entire stack with just one jutsu.
"There." He chuckled darkly, "That should stop her." With that, Tomoe turned and left the room without an ounce of remorse or so he thought. . .