Love Song
Chapter 11: Day of the Finals
Today was the day, Hanare thought to herself as she walked towards the large stadium in front of her. The finals for the exam were finally here, she could hardly wait to see how Sasuke and Naruto were going to do. She was going to meet up with Sakura so they could cheer the boys on. It was a fun experience, looking around her she saw people of all ages looking excited. She could hear the excitement from people all around her. It was very catching and she could feel the electricity in the air.
Walking into the stadium she went to find Sakura, it didn't take long to find her. Sakura would want to get a good seat plus there weren't many people with pink hair. She quickly found Sakura with a girl her own age with blonde hair. Sakura noticed and waved to her as she walked up.
"Hello, Hanare-san." Sakura greeted.
Hanare smiled back, "Hello, who is your friend?"
"Ino Yamanaka," Ino spoke up although she knew full well who this woman was. Although this was the first time she actually got to speak to the woman. She had heard all the stories, a few even from Sakura. Sakura often spoke of how nice Hanare was. Currently Ino was very interested in getting to know this woman that was the talk of many.
"Nice to meet you Ino-chan," Hanare said as she sat next to Sakura. "I'm looking forward to this. I can see Naruto-kun down there with the other genins, but I don't see Sasuke-kun or Kakashi yet."
"Same here," Ino grinned then whispered to Sakura. "I bet you she's more anxious to see Kakashi-sensei most of all."
Sakura giggled as she whispered back. "I know, she would talk about him during our training together."
The three females then started to watch the matches as they began. They were a little worried when Kakashi and Sasuke still hadn't shown up yet. Hanare was thinking that maybe she should check, it was only pure luck that the officials didn't disqualify Sasuke unless he failed to show up for the last match. Naruto's match had been a very great match, he had put so much effort into winning it and with that surprising win as well. Sakura and Ino had cheered him on and so had Hanare, the three of them even went to congratulate him.
Hanare met a few of the other genins as well, they were very nice. Even during that match between Shikamaru and how Ino had yelled at him to keep fighting had been fun to watch. She could tell that the girl wanted to push her teammate to do his best, even it was through yelling. The matches had all been very exciting but when Gaara finally took to the arena she was worried. Sasuke and Kakashi hadn't shown up yet, where could they be?
She looked down to see Sakura looking worried, "I'm sure they'll make it."
"I hope so," Sakura sighed. "This isn't the time for Kakashi-sensei to run late again."
"You know everyone keeps saying that he's always late but I've never noticed it," Hanare said honestly as she thought about it. Everyone she met seemed to have that to say about Kakashi. He always got home on time and met her on time as well.
Sakura's jaw dropped, how was it possible that she had never once seen him late? Sakura had never known or seen her sensei on time for anything in the time that she had known him.
"Gee, I wonder why he's never late with her," Ino whispered to Sakura grinning.
'Oh...that makes sense,' Sakura thought about it.
"Wait, look!" Hanare said pointing as a swirl of leaves and suddenly Kakashi and Sasuke were there. Hanare, Sakura and Ino breathed a sigh of relief. That had been too close, any second longer and Sasuke would have been disqualified. As the two girls went to the railing to cheer on the boy, Hanare waited as Kakashi made his way right to her.
"That was close," Hanare smiled at him.
Kakashi chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, we kind of had a bit of a problem on the way, but we worked it out in the end. Sorry if you were worried about us."
"I knew you would be here," Hanare told him as they stood together. She had missed him and seeing him again made her feel better, she felt more relaxed and just nice with him there. "I'm just glad that your back. The apartment was getting lonely without you around."
Kakashi smiled, "Yeah, I missed you as well."
She felt her heart skip a beat as he said it, she just hoped that she wasn't blushing.
Kakashi couldn't help but look at her, it had been a very long month. He had been thinking about her during his free time, he still wasn't sure about his feelings for her but she had never been far from his mind. He had missed her and being with her now, he actually felt happy. Just seeing her smile seemed to make things better.
"So, what did I miss?"
"Nearly everything," Hanare laughed. "Naruto-kun was great, I wished you had seen him you would have been very proud."
"I always was proud of him," Kakashi said as he saw Naruto looking on the fight eagerly. "I'll have him tell me about his fight, knowing him he's dying to tell me all about it and I look forward to it."
Kakashi was a bit disappointed he missed Naruto's first match but there was always the next one and if Sasuke defeated Gaara, that could lead to Sasuke and Naruto facing off against each other. That could be interesting, as both of them had been improving and speaking of improving.
"So how is Sakura doing?" Kakashi asked her.
"Very well, I think you'll be proud of her too, she pushed herself very hard." She told him honestly.
"Glad to hear it," he smiled as they went back to watching the match.
Hanare was impressed with how much Sasuke had improved in month, the boy was so much quicker. She watched with interest and things seemed to be going well for Sasuke. When he pierced the sand ball that the other boy had made with a jutsu, that's when things suddenly changed.
So much happened so fast it was hard to tell what happened. She saw feathers and then felt herself getting tired and falling before Kakashi caught her. Then suddenly there were ninjas everywhere, and they weren't from the Leaf. She caught symbols from Sand and Sound as sounds of battle were all over the place.
Years of experience kicked in as she knew that it was time to fight.
Hanare pulled off her civilian clothing as her ninja clothing were under it, it was just common for her to do this and she was thankful now that she hadn't gotten rid of the habit from her spy days. She could see Sound and Sand ninja already attacking as she joined in. A part of her was still in shock, her village, her home was being attacked. A part of her was scared of what could happen to the place that she had come to love so much. But another part of her, a very large part, was furious.
She had been angry before but not like this. This was her home now, the one place she could always return to, the place of her friends, her loved ones, her life truly started here and she wanted it to end here. But not like this, she wouldn't fall today, not until she was sure that every last enemy was gone from Konoha's walls.
Kakashi watched Hanare as she finished the last of the enemy in this area, she was very graceful, almost dancing among the enemies but something was different. There was more of an edge to her movements, she was not showing any mercy, going to killing blows only and as quickly as possible. It took him a moment to realize from getting a glimpse of her face, she was angry. In fact she was very angry, he had never seen her like this.
But he could understand it, every ninja here loved this village and would fight and die to protect it. Even though he didn't show it himself, he too felt the burning need to protect his home and those inside of it. He saw her finished and walked up to her quickly.
"Hanare," he called out as she quickly turned but relaxed seeing him.
"Kakashi, what is going on, why are they attacking?" she asked him.
"I get the feeling Orochimaru is behind this," He stated it stood to reason that man had no love for his former village anymore. "We need to get going there will be fighting all throughout the village."
Gai who had been fighting with Kakashi saw the two of them together a part of him was envious that Kakashi was taking time out to look in on his lady. It was such a youthful thing to do, although Gai still hadn't been successful in finding a woman of his own he would still not lose. But he still had to admit that he liked the fact he was showing such concern for her. With a large grin he walked up behind him.
"Come Kakashi, we have many more enemies to fight and I'm still only up by two," Gai said in reference to how many they each had beaten. He slapped Kakashi on the back but the other man hadn't been ready for that.
Kakashi felt it and stumbled forward towards Hanare. His hands shot out in instinct as they caught her upper arms, she had seen him falling forward with a surprised look on his face as she reached out as well to catch him. The result was them pressing against each other, Kakashi holding with his hands on her upper arms, hers holding his waist. His face had gone forward and once more by accident, their lips were touching.
Kakashi's eye widened at the feel of her lips against his, the first time he had been caught up in what his sharingan had been showing him, now, not so much. Even through his mask he could feel how lush and inviting her lips were. For Hanare, she too could feel through the fabric, her face blushed as a part of her wanted so badly to just sink into the moment. Her body felt suddenly warm and it felt like she wanted to do something, anything at that moment with him.
Gai stood there gapping, "How cruel, you don't have to rub your victory into my face Kakashi!" Gai said with manly tears falling from his face. In his mind, Kakashi was giving Hanare a goodbye kiss, not knowing that he himself had caused Kakashi to accidentally fall into Hanare.
Kakashi slowly pulled back not sure what he could say to her, he wanted to apologize but he just couldn't work his mouth at the moment. He just looked at her beautifully framed face, her long bangs looking just perfect on either side, her large chocolate eyes were glued to his. He also couldn't help but notice the rosy blush forming on her cheeks.
'She looks really cute when she blushes,' Kakashi thought but quickly tried to get his mind on track. 'Why does this kind of thing keep happening?'
Hanare could feel herself blushing, she tried not to, this wasn't the time after all but she couldn't help it. The more time she spent with him the deeper her feelings kept going and that kiss hadn't helped. She knew it had been an accident, like the first time, but that didn't matter to her. Her heart was beating like crazy.
"Sorry about that," Kakashi said softly.
"I-it's okay," She managed to get out and smiled at him. "We better...you know, get back to things?"
"Ah, right," Kakashi rubbed the back of his head. He felt warm all over and part of him wanted to pull her back to him but he quickly put that part away, now was certainly not the time. All this time away from her and now seeing her again, and kissing her again, it was all a bit much all at once. They quickly made plans and each went off to do their own thing for this battle.
Kakashi couldn't help but watch her leave.
"Kakashi you move me with how you watch your lady leave for battle, worrying about her, don't worry, soon I too will one day be able to show my flames of passionate youth to the world like you have today." Gai told him padding him on the back.
Kakashi was quickly feeling a headache coming on, he really wished he knew what Gai was talking about but if he asked, it would take forever to understand it. Plus he still wanted to hit him for earlier, pushing him into Hanare like that, at any rate they had their own problems to worry about.
-Late that Night-
Kakashi slowly walked home, it had been a very long day. Not only that but the village had taken a very defeating blow to their moral, their Hokage was dead. Orochimaru had killed him and had gotten away. He had no idea who would be picked for the job now, there were a few people that could do it but that would come later. First the village had to pick up the pieces, heal those injured, and bury their dead. A funeral was going to be held in a few days.
He was not looking forward to it, Kakashi had to break the news to Naruto earlier about the Hokage. It was the quietest that he had ever seen the boy and his heart went out to him. Kakashi knew how much the Hokage meant to Naruto. The boy was slowly learning that the world wasn't all good, that people died and those that you cared for could die too. It was a cruel lesson for any child to learn.
He had heard that Hanare wasn't on the injured or dead list, something that filled him with relief.
Kakashi turned the key and opened the door to find Hanare asleep on the couch. She had all her ninja gear piled up on the floor next to her. She looked like she had fallen asleep after just taking it all off. Walking over to her he looked down, she had a few bandages on her but she looked largely unharmed.
He sighed as he sat down next to her head, he felt like his body was covered in Gai's training weights. He slipped off his own gear as he placed it next to her own. She just seemed so peaceful just sleeping there. Maybe it was because he was tired both physically and emotionally or maybe it was that he had missed her this entire month. One of his hands gently ran through her long hair, it was messy from her battles but he didn't mind at all.
Hanare slowly started to wake up feeling something nice running through her hair. She could feel another presence with her. She looked up to see Kakashi looking down at her, she broke into a smile just by seeing him. She was glad that he was back home, she had been waiting for him to come back to see how he was doing. The next thing she knew she was waking up, she must have fallen asleep.
"Sorry to wake you," Kakashi said gently.
"I don't mind I was trying to wait up for you," she shifted trying to get up but her body was just too tired. She slumped back down onto the couch. "I want to move but I don't think I can."
"Well can't have that," Kakashi didn't want her sleeping on the couch at least not like this. He got up and gently picked her up bridal style, he ignored the slight pain in his lower back, he had pulled something there earlier and he knew he was going to pay for it tomorrow.
"K-Kakashi?" She blushed as he held her and carried her to the bedroom. Her mind went through a slew of things this could lead to, again, she really needed to cut back on reading those novels of Kakashi's.
"Just making sure you get a good night's sleep," Kakashi told her but it was still dark and he missed something on the ground. He stumbled and the pain in his back flared up. He grunted as both tumbled onto the bed.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, sorry about that," he said as they had landed on their sides thankfully. "I'm going to have to get my back looked at tomorrow." If he could get up, he thought to himself.
She smiled as she was looking at his chest now, her hands gripping his shirt. She felt so tired and she was very comfortable now in bed with his warm body pressing against hers. She closed her eyes trying to memorize the sensation but instead slowly started to fall back to sleep.
Kakashi was getting a bit of a rest before he tried to get up and go back into the other room, pull out the couch and crash for the day. He felt like he was going to sleep until noon at this point. He looked down and had found her back asleep again. He chuckled at how cute she looked curled up against him like that. He went to try and get up but found that she was holding onto his shirt.
He didn't want to wake her up again and sighed, not sure what to do with this. He didn't want to wake her but he also felt that she should be the one in the bed. He was just too tired to really think straight at the moment.
'I'll just rest my eyes for a bit,' He told himself. 'I'll let her let go and then quietly slip out to let her sleep.'
Five minutes passed and she hadn't moved a muscle, it soon became ten and Kakashi's eyes were closed and soon after that he too was fast asleep. The two of them slept perfectly together as the nightmare of that day faded away from them and they both found comfort in each other's arms during the long night.
Next up Chapter 12: Confessions
