Four days later-
Kakashi was standing out side of the hospital with Sarutobi and Gai, waiting on Uzu to walk out the door and judge Gai. Sarutobi was impassive as he smoked his pipe. Kakashi was prepared to do whatever it took to see Gai's judgement through, and Gai was as nervous as could be. Not that anyone could blame the man. Anyone in his position would be nervous.
The hospital doors opened and Uzu walked out wearing the clothes that Kakashi had gone to get for her earlier, her shoulder length reddish blond hair was damp, and hung around her cheeks and shoulders in soft curls as she walked up to them.
"Jiji-san."
Sarutobi took his pipe out of his mouth and smiled at the girl before opening his arms and motioning for her to come to him. He had been worried sick about her being in the hospital until he had found out that Kakashi had been staying with her the entire time and had been scaring everyone witless among other things. Uzu smiled and gave the elder a quick hug then looked at Kakashi and bared her teeth at him and snapped.
"Wolf-perv."
Kakashi raised a brow at the girl and silently vowed to triple her training later today and not let her leave the training grounds until she was crying for calling him such an embarrassing thing in front of the Hokage. Then turned to Gai, and smiled at the man.
Gai gulped and looked around as if he was thinking about running or something and Kakashi reached out and grasped his shoulder roughly, digging his fingertips into the man's skin, threateningly, silently begging him to try and run so that he could break the bone under his hand. Gai froze and didn't move as he stared down at the fourteen year old girl who held his fate. "I am sorry about what happened Uzu."
"Don't be. You didn't do anything that another person in a desperate situation would'nt do." Uzu said gently before asking Sarutobi. "Has Tsunade been sent for?"
The man nodded. "I've been investigating the one who approached Gai and found him, I've also sent out three teams to find and bring Tsunade back."
"Fantastic. Lee should be up and about in another few weeks then."
"Yes. Tsunade might drag her feet a bit once she's found, but she'll definitely come back and take care of him." Sarutobi said as he gave the girl a thumbs up. Uzu smiled and looked back at Gai as Kakashi cleared his throat.
"Alright, Uzu. Enough stalling. What will be Gai's punishment for going to you with the intention to kill you?" Sarutobi asked after a second or so, his smile fadeing.
Uzu's smile faded as she looked at Gai. He hadn't done anything to her, even if he had gone to her place with the intention too. So why should she punish him? He cared about his students. There was nothing wrong with that. Hell, she'd kill to have someone like him in her life.
"Jiji...would you and the perv take a walk? Please." Uzu said as she looked at him. Sarutobi gave her a calculating look then nodded and looked at Kakashi who sighed and hung his head for a second then both took off walking as the Hokage called over his shoulder.
"You have ten minutes. Make it good!"
Uzu waited until they were gone before glancing up at Gai again. "I'm not going to punish you for caring about what's precious to you. The truth of the matter Gai, is that you were manipulated into thinking that it was killing me was the only way. I did what I did to give you an out because your a nice guy, and under normal circumstances wouldn't have even thought twice to do what you knew was right. You were vulnerable, and the one who lied to you knew it. I won't fault you for caring about Lee, nor will I find you in contempt or hate you for it-" She lean crooked her finger at him and he dropped to his knee's in front of her.
She leaned in and whispered, "I would kill to have someone care for me so much... Jiji's punishment is enough, try not to let this happen again." She took a step back and started walking away, leaving the jounin there staring blankly ahead in shock.
That was it? She was letting him go? It didn't make any sense to him and part of him couldn't help but wonder if this was a trap of some sort to lure him into a false sense of security, but she hadn't seemed like she was angry, or upset with him. So maybe it wasn't a trick. Maybe.
He took a deep shuddering breath and hung his head and waited for Kakashi and the Hokage to return.
(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************)
Kakashi was fuming as he walked to training ground seven.
It had been an hour in a half since she had left the hospital after judging Gai, and he was just a little pissed that she had let the big idiot go without any form of punishment other than what the Hokage had done. He found it unbelievable that she would let the man off the hook so easily. How did she expect Gai to learn anything if he wasn't treated badly for his crimes?
He was pissed, but not surprised by this turn of events. But that didn't mean that he wasn't going to find her and give her a piece of his mind. He walked through the training grounds for twenty minutes before he finally found her. Already training by herself.
Uzu was working on her tai jutsu, working to improve it's quality, sweat was running down her face as she worked through one kata then another. Kakashi stayed off to the side watching her for a few minutes before he finally stepped out of the bushes and walked up to her. "Your form still sucks. But your movements are more fluid." He said as he stopped with in arms reach of her and crossed his arms over his chest and stared at her.
"Shut up perv." Uzu said as she threw a punch and nearly jumped out of her skin when Kakashi reached out and gripped one of her wrists and wrapped an arm around her waist and leaned over her.
"You shouldn't talk back to your teacher. It might give me idea's." He said warningly as he slipped the arm around her waist back and pushed a little at the small of her back forcing her to straiten her spine. "Straiten your spine..." He looked at her arm and frowned, her wrist was bent a little bit too. "Straiten your wrist too. If you had actually been throwing a punch you might have broken your wrist." He said as he kicked her feet apart a little bit, earning a startled yelp and a glare from the girl.
"What are you doing?" She growled at him.
He grinned at her behind his mask. "Helping out. Why do you ask?"
"Because you've never done a hand's on training session with me before." She said as she gave him a suspicious look from over her shoulder. He shrugged, he couldn't help the fact that he was busy training the Uchiha prick and the pink haired slut. They distracted him from her presence a bit, and though he knew that she often felt left out he also knew that she was the only one that didn't really need his help.
Except with this. Her tai jutsu was abysmal. Frankly he still wondered how she had managed to stay alive with such terrible tai jutsu skills. He moved around her, silently checking out her form before deeming it better and planting himself in front of her and put his hands up, palms out. "Okay Kit, lets see what kind of punch you got." He said with a smile behind his mask. She growled at him and he had to resist the urge to laugh.
"Stop calling me Kit."
"I would. If I was'nt having so much fun pissing you off...now show me what you've got." She punched his left hand, the sound of skin smacking against his gloved hand echoed loud like thunder in his ears as she repeated the motion, adding a bit more speed and power to it. His hand ached and throbbed from being hit when she started switching from one hand to the other. This continued for several minutes before he switched things up a bit and started to move his body.
He took up a defensive pose and when she came at him, he struck back. And before he knew it the two of them were sparring together.
It was fun to spar with a female that for once was'nt checking out his ass when she got behind him. Uzu was a better sparring partner than he had first though she would be. She was quick, her attacks well thought out, and she was utterly merciless. She dropped him twice. Once with a well placed jab to his neck and another time with a punch to his jaw.
It started to get dark and the both of them were glaring at each other panting, their chests heaving, little beads of sweat sliding down their faces, into their eyes, down their necks. Both of their shirts were wet and clinging to their skin and more than once Kakashi found his gaze wandering to Uzu's chest.
She had nice breasts. Her breasts were a bit big for a girl with her tiny and delicate frame. But nice just the same.
The fact that he had finally noticed that she even had breasts, was one of the reason's he had been dropped by her earlier. They had been grappling when he had reached out to grab her shirt and ended up copping a feel instead. Her fist had connected with his jaw faster than he could apoligise and he had gone down hard, gasping and moaning in pain.
"Stop looking at my breasts." She growled and his dark blue eye flickered back to her pretty, sweaty, dirt streaked face.
"I can't. Their nice."
Uzu didn't seem to know how to respond to his words, she flushed and looked both embaressed and murderous at the same time. Did it bother her that he had noticed that she was growing up to be a fine young woman? A young woman that had more or less held her own against him in a sparring match and half kicked his ass. The masochist in him was fairly purring with happiness over this turn of events.
"Just stop staring. It's annoying." She mumbled as she got ready to attack him again. He grinned behind his mask and tensed a bit, anticipating her next attack. His blood heated in his veins, and he felt his body start to respond automatically and figured that enough was enough for one day. He needed to get away from her before he did something he might regret.
"This attack will be the last, okay."
"Sure." Uzu said as she gave him a devious smile.
