WARNINGS: Violence, and grammar mistakes. Still searching for a beta.
As always, thank you all who reviewed, favorited and followed.
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Dark Waters
Chapter 26 – The Chunnin Exams
Part IV
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Kagami Uchiha laughed as he pushed his son back from the ledge, making sure that Shisui was firmly placed back on his seat.
"Calm down boy," he said. "This isn't the last match. We will still be here for some time yet."
Shisui send him an annoyed look. "I know that!" the boy exclaimed, waving his arms around for a bit. "It's just that I have to make sure to see every detail of the fights! I need to tell Kaa-san all about them!"
From his son's other side, the Hyuuga girl snorted, a rather unladylike sound one didn't hear much from a member of that oh-so-regal Clan.
"And that wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that this is the match of the Kiri-nin you met a month ago?" she smirked.
Kiri-nin? Yes, Kagami remembered now. Obito-kun had told him and Meimu he had found Shisui in the company of a kunoichi of the Mist. Needlessly to say, that bit of news hadn't comforted them one bit. What did Kiri want with a member of the Uchiha Clan, especially one so young that he hadn't even entered the Academy yet? Kagami would have suspected Kiri to have some sort of abduction plan, like the one Kumo had cooked years ago that had resulted in Hyuuga Hinawari's kidnapping and subsequent death.
(And the tiny girl who was only half-Hyuuga currently sitting beside his son, but those things weren't spoken in polite conversion, much less in public. Clan affairs were a messy thing, especially when the clan in question was full of white-eyed freaks with a superiority complex.)
But no, according to Obito, the girl showed genuine surprise when she learned that they were Uchihas and Kagami was inclined to believe the boy. He knew that the young Uchiha wouldn't exaggerate his words when it came to the safety of his younger and favorite baby cousin.
Still, better to be safe than sorry.
"Want to tell me more about this mist girl you've met, Shisui?" Kagami asked lightly, black eyes watching lazily as his son twitched on the spot.
"Her name's Izumi Kurai," Shisui's friend answered him when his son only scowled at the ground. "She bought him ice-cream and he fell in love."
All of that was said with that same blank look all Hyuuga children seemed to be taught from the cradle. It was one of Kagami's most long-lived suspicions that they might actually be born with that kind of deadpan expression in their faces. He wouldn't be surprised if he turned out right.
Anyway, back at the matter at hand.
"Was it chocolate ice-cream?" Kagami asked, his face a mask of seriousness.
With a look that matched his own, Kira Hyuuga nodded gravely.
Kagami lamented. "Ah, then it's all over now. We've lost him. To chocolate flavored ice-cream."
The girl snickered.
Shisui frowned at them both. "Whatever, just you wait. Kurai-neesan will wipe the floor with Obito-nii's baka teammate."
Kira stopped laughing at that, thinking over it in her mind, before nodding along hopefully. The girl clearly had no lost love for Sakumo's son.
(A pang went through his heart as he thought again about his old friend, the familiar grief and guilt of not seeing the signs sooner, not doing more to help, not doing enough…)
He shakes himself out of those thoughts, instead turning to his son. "You really think this girl will win?"
"Yes," Shisui answered with his arms crossed and an air of certainty, unshakable in his belief.
"I wouldn't be so sure, Shisui-kun," Namikaze Minato spoke up from Kira's other side. "Kakashi trained extremely hard to win this match against Kurai."
Kagami turned curious eyes to the other man. "You know who she is, Minato-san?"
Minato nodded. "She was Kakashi's teammate in the second part of the Exams. She's also the new Mizukage's daughter and a prodigy in her own rights, from what I've heard. But Kakashi is strong. He will not go down so easily."
Shisui blinked up innocently at the blond man. "I didn't say he will lose easily. I just said he will lose."
Kagami shared a look with the younger jounin, before asking his son "And what makes you so sure that this Kurai will win?"
The dark haired child scrunched up his brow in thought, shrugging when he didn't find a satisfactory answer. "I just know," he said simply.
"How?" Kagami probed.
His son blinked at him in surprise, as if the answer should be obvious.
"Because she's Kurai-neesan."
Minato chuckled at the answer, clearly thinking this was a case of hero-worship or something of the likes, before his attention was drawn away by the little Hyuuga girl, who was asking about Obito and when she would be able to go see him.
Kagami on the other hand narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. His son seemed very sure of his words, as if no other option but Kakashi losing to the mist kunoichi could be even considered.
Why? Why such faith in a girl he only met once and knew practically nothing about?
Covertly, Kagami activated his Sharingan the moment Kakashi and his opponent stepped inside the arena in full view of the entire spectators.
While the Sharingan couldn't compare to the Byakugan in terms of visibility, that didn't mean that the Uchiha couldn't see farther and better than other ninjas who didn't possess a dojutsu. And Kagami's Sharingan was one of the strongest among the clan. It was enough for him to get a closer look at the two children in the arena, close enough to discern their features.
There was Hatake Kakashi, looking like a miniature copy of his late father at that age, and carrying the man's old sword too, the White Light Chakra Sabre. Kagami's heart ached again at the blatant similarities. Sakumo would be so proud to see his son reaching the third stage of the Chunnin Exams, and at such a young age too. Genius, indeed.
Then Kagami turned his now red eyes to the mist kunoichi and-
And he felt his heart stop.
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"The fourth match, Hatake Kakashi of Konoha against Izumi Kurai of Kiri, begins now!"
There was a moment of absolute stillness shared between the two children, a second of mutual respect and understanding, where they each recognized in the other the strength and sheer force of will that helped them get this far and would help them go even farther in life.
They shared that instant full of promises to themselves and to others, the expectations of their loved ones weighting down on them as pink eyes stared into grey and vice versa.
Then they were charging at each other, their blades clashing under the afternoon's midday sun and the deafening roar of the crowd.
Kurai twisted her wrist just so, enough that her dagger slid across Kakashi's tanto, white sparks flying from the friction, and her other hand already ready to deliver a powerful punch to the boy's gut. She stretched her arms and hits
Nothing.
Fast, Kurai has time to think, before she's jumping away in order to avoid the sword coming at her.
She should have expected such speed from the Yellow Flash's apprentice.
She smirks, sees her own mirth reflected back at her from the grey eyes of her opponent, and then they were at each other's throats again, steel singing as they clashed, blows being blocked or misdirected and Kurai can only compare this experience with her more serious spars with Kisame, where they are both pissed for one reason or another and ready to beat the living daylights out of their sparring partner until the anger leaves their systems.
Kakashi jumps at her, his leg almost hitting her head before she stops it with her left hand, her grip squeezing it so hard she's sure that she left a bruise. Even then, the boy doesn't look affected, only using her grip to lift himself higher, still in the air, and use his other leg to crash down on her skull.
It would have worked too, had Kurai not evaded just at the right moment, her shoulder taking the hit instead, and motherfucker, it hurt…
No matter. She had the advantage.
She snarls, pink eyes narrowed, and still gripping Kakashi's other leg, brings the hand wielding her dagger up, stabbing his tight deeply.
Only for him to poof out of existence.
What the fuck…?
She rolls away, just in time to evade the hands that suddenly appear from the ground where she was standing mere seconds before.
Clever, she thinks, using her dagger to misdirect another one of his tanto's strikes. He used an earth jutsu to hide himself under the ground and left me to fight a clone. A solid one… just how much chakra and control does he has?
Kurai parried blow after blow, but still, he kept coming at her and she knew that she had to make him let go of that tanto. Even though her teammate was a gifted swordsman's apprentice, Kurai herself was only average with a blade, and she could clearly see that that was not the case with Kakashi. The boy knew his way around a sword, even if he wasn't as good at it as Kisame was.
But then, he didn't need to be as good as Kisame to defeat her in a sword fight.
Hissing, because she was getting tired of being caught off guard, Kurai drops low in order to avoid the slash that would have taken her head off, quickly gathering some of the dirt beneath her feet. Straightening up again, she tossed the dust right in Kakashi's eyes. Her trick pays off, and Kakashi is shocked enough that he is too slow in avoiding the kick that disarms him, the tanto flying out of his hand and soaring across the air before falling on the sandy ground meters away from them.
Before the boy can make a grab for it, Kurai is upon him, showing every bit of taijutsu skill that earned her a cozy spot in the frontlines of this war and quite a fearsome reputation back in Kiri. Blades might not be her thing, but hand-to-hand combat certainly was. The only other gennin who could have possibly matched her in that area was Maito Gai, but he wasn't in the Chunnin Exams anymore, and despite being good, despite being exceptional for someone his age, Kakashi is still ten, and Kurai is few months away from thirteen. And from what she has heard from Obito' stories, she has been fighting in the line of fire for far longer than her opponent and his team.
It would take some effort, but she would win.
So of course the little Hatake brat had to go and ruin her brief moment of glory.
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Kakashi ducks under Kurai's roundhouse kick, thanking every deity he can think of for having Minato as his sensei. He was sure that if his teacher hadn't been the Yellow Flash, he would have never even seen that blow coming in his direction until he was lying flat on the ground, the sky spinning above him, if it didn't knock him out instantly.
Taijutsu is definitely out of the question, he decides hastily, the second he manages to escape from Izumi's range. He feels deeply uncomfortable with the knowledge that the only reason he managed to slip way was partially out of luck. That thought doesn't sit well with him. At all.
But he can't deny that even now his spine is still tingling with excitement. This was hard, harder than fighting Obito, Asuma or even Gai. This was good. This was… dare he say it…
Fun.
And then Kakashi saw the girl perform the handseals for a jutsu and braced himself for the incoming attack.
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The boy had managed to get away from within her range, and she felt that chasing him all over the arena wouldn't work well for her.
Sighing, because she knew this wasn't a particularly good idea, but was going to do it anyway because she simply couldn't resist a challenge to prove herself (and, yeah, maybe she wanted to show off a bit too), Kurai went through a set of handseals.
The girl never liked much her chakra nature. It reminded her too much of things she wanted to forget and a part of her was always afraid that someday she would try to control (or lose control of) too much water and end up drowning herself rather than her enemies.
Still, she had to try. That one Ao-sensei had showed to her and Kisame some days ago should do nicely. Gathering her chakra, Kurai yelled:
"Water Release: Water Colliding Wave!"
Now, when she used such a powerful and destructive jutsu, she expected to be immediately surrounded by water (something Kurai was trying very hard not to think about). She expected to have created her own small wave, which she would use to crush Kakashi against a wall before very quickly cancelling the technique.
She expected many things.
What Kurai, or anyone else watching that match, did not expect was to see a teeny, tiny little puddle, which couldn't be wider than her foot, appear on the ground in front of her.
There was an awkward moment in which everyone stared at the miserable puddle.
You've got to be kidding me.
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Up in the Kage's private box, the new Yondaime Mizukage of Kirigakure no Sato, Izumi Yagura, sweatdropped.
At his side, Sarutobi couldn't stop his shoulders from shaking with suppressed laughter, nor could the ANBU agents (Konoha and Kiri's), who were supposed to be guarding them.
A vein popped in Yagura's forehead.
That's it, the grey haired man thought, eyebrow twitching out of control and pink eyes narrowed into the figure that was his foolish, foolish daughter.
Forget about chunnin-level taijutsu training. We are back to Academy chakra control exercises.
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Down in the arena, Kurai felt a sudden chill run down her spine, her mind for some reason flashing back to those torturous weeks in the Academy where she had to learn how to stuck a droplet of water on her forehead.
Kurai shivered in horror. She had thought she had suppressed those memories.
Kakashi, meanwhile, appeared to have finally shaken himself off his flabbergasted moment of staring at the failure that was her attempt at ninjutsu, and was now charging at her with his own technique.
Huh, she should probably avoid that.
And then she noticed just what type of attack the boy was using.
"Lightning Release: False Darkness!"
Lightning release. Of course the boy, who lived in Fire Country, for Kami's sake, would have a chakra nature technique she couldn't really fight against. She would probably end up being electrocuted by her own water jutsus.
And Kurai doubted she could trick Kakashi into offing himself too.
Why couldn't he just come closer so that they could end this the old-fashioned way?
Mind still reeling from her botched try at ninjutsu, Kurai evaded Kakashi's attack, retreating until she could safely perform a technique she at least knew wouldn't backfire on her.
Hands clasped together in front of her, Kurai whispered, "Hiding in Mist Jutsu."
Instantly, the arena was suddenly covered by a thick fog, and the girl grinned. At last, things were going her way!
Pressing for her advantage, she ran up to Kakashi as quick and silently as she could go, all the while having to avoid sparks of lightning when the boy tried to see through the mist clouding his eyes. When she finally got close enough, she brought her leg around in a low sweep that the boy sidestepped in the last second, sensing rather than seeing where she was. Grumbling under her breath, she replaced herself with a brave log right in time to avoid being fried alive by another one of the Konoha genius's raiton techniques. Just how many of those did he know?
But it did give her an opening, so Kurai stopped complaining.
She grabbed Kakashi's wrist, ignoring the mild pain of touching his skin while he gathered lightning chakra, using it to fling him to the ground, ultimately breaking the fine bones in that hand. Not giving the boy any time to get his bearings back, Kurai was upon him, raining punch after punch in his face, stunning the boy so much that it was a simple matter to draw her dagger and drive it through his hand, pinning it to the ground.
By then, the mist had receded a bit, and there were a few audible gasps of horror from the people who managed to see such display of ruthlessness, but Kurai cared little. She was too focused trying to memorize every fleeing expression of pain that went through Kakashi's eyes when the sting from his hand radiated to the rest of his arm, to his whole body. She thought that he had opened his mouth at some point, but no sound came out and it was difficult to tell with the mask covering half of his face.
Kurai would have probably stayed there for a while, driving and twisting her blade deeper and deeper into his hand, until she had Kakashi begging for mercy. But then there were swords flying in her direction and instinct made her jump away before she could think things through, taking her dagger with her.
It was only when the swords (and Kakashi) vanished that she realized her mistake.
Genjutsu. Of course. The boy had managed to fool her even while she literally sat on top of him with a dagger driven through his hand. She hadn't even seen him make the handseals. That took some above-average strategic thinking and pain tolerance.
Kurai promised herself to throw another party in Takara's honor, so very grateful she was feeling for the older girl who had trained her to escape illusions in the month they had to prepare for the finals.
Kakashi's genjutsu was strong, but Kurai trained to the point she could dispel Takara's illusions, which were without a doubt stronger than any other gennin's she had seen. She managed to work her way out of each one of them, even if she had to cut her hand open again to escape the last one.
She could have used the Sharingan. If she had, there were no doubts that she would have seen through each illusion easily and knocked Kakashi out before he could even blink. But Kurai would win this match by herself, and only by herself. Screw the Sharingan, she didn't need it to win.
(And even if she did, she wouldn't use it, because there's nothing about herself she hates more than her unwanted kekkei genkai. Because if she uses her Sharingan, Izumi Kurai won't be the one to win. The Uchiha part of her would.)
Kurai uses her chakra again to thicken the mist around them, using it to conceal herself from Kakashi's vision and robbing the boy of his sharp eyes. But he must have other excellent senses, for he manages to block most of her attacks, even when moved as silently as the fog around them.
She catches him by surprise, wrenching him back by his shirt, causing him to lose his balance before landing a blow in his back between the shoulder blades, hard enough to make him fall to the ground again. And once again, she's on top of him, this time aiming her dagger to hit his shoulder, only to stop as the boy kicks her in the stomach, winding her a little with the unexpected force behind the blow.
It's enough time for Kakashi to get to his feet, lips busted and face beginning to swell from the earlier blows but still standing and ready to fight.
It sends a thrill down Kurai's back, to see the strong resolve shinning inside Kakashi's grey eyes, the one that said No, I will not lose this; I will not lose to you.
Crouched and hidden by the mist she summoned, with her dagger in hand and still dripping with Kakashi's blood, Kurai smiled.
She couldn't wait to prove him wrong.
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Kisame watched Kurai's match with Mangetsu and the other gennins who got this far in the Exam standing by his side. His eyes never once strayed away from his Sukoshi's form, even after she hid herself in the mist. He watched as she weaved past the Konoha gennin's defenses and thrashed him before the Hatake boy could once again retreat. All the while, Kisame's hand caressed the sakura pendant of his wristband, having unfastened it from his sword's handle at some point.
His Sukoshi's taijutsu was a bit of a sore spot amidst other male gennins from Kiri. No one could understand how the girl, who by all rights should be biologically at disadvantage, managed to become such a beast when it came to hand-to-hand combat. It shouldn't be possible, and it in all actuality, it only was because the person in question was Izumi Kurai.
Kurai was a prodigy at taijutsu not because she was the strongest or the fastest gennin among their generation (though there were no doubts that she was both strong and fast, more than most, at least).
No, his Sukoshi was a genius because she knew to hit where it would cause the most damage. She knew how to use her opponents' strength against them, how to twist them in her favor, how to make up for whatever she lacked in muscle. She knew that there was no honor in the battlefield, how to use every dirty trick in the book in order to survive and come out on top.
She knew, and she used it.
It was enthralling to watch the dark haired girl in her element. One moment she was like a cat, all speed and agility, to outpace her opponent and get past his guard. The other she was a wolf, her attacks containing an aggressiveness hard to find in a normal ninja, absolutely ruthless in her goal to wear down her prey. Then she was the serpent, striking hard and fast, blink and you will miss it, blows meant to knock out, if not outright kill, her enemy.
It was a thing of beauty, and judging by the enraptured expression on Mangetsu's face, he wasn't the only one to think so.
(Inside, a great lumbering monster roared in anger at the look in Mangetsu's face. Mine, mine, she's mine, don't look at her like that, you don't have the right-
Kisame stopped and breathed. The sakura pendant was warm in his hand as his grip over it tightened. The smell of blood was a tad comforting.)
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Kakashi knew from the moment he engaged Kurai in taijutsu that he would lose if he persisted in that strategy.
So he tried ninjutsu. The girl would manage to out-last him with her greater reserves, even if her control left much to be desired, and was able to evade most of his attacks. Kakashi would empty himself of his chakra before Kurai even began to feel a big drain in her reserves. Then he tried genjutsu. From what he was able to gleam, she was rubbish at creating them, but an expert when it came to disable them, thus nullifying his plan of trapping her in an illusion that would force her to yield.
Kunai and shuriken were useless against her speed, and attempting to fight in close-range was downright suicidal as he had already come to realize.
(A part of him wanted to try and see how she would fare against that new technique he had started to work on, but it was only a passing thought, easily dismissed. The jutsu didn't even have a name yet, the idea was only half-completed at most and if Kakashi made it right, it was meant to be as a one-hit kill. Certainly nothing to use against an ally, much less one that made things so interesting for him)
So there was only one other option he could return to.
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Using a chakra powered jump, the silver haired boy threw himself in the air, twisting his body midway and sending a collection of shuriken towards her.
This again?, Kurai thinks as she leaps out of the way, using her own weapons to back Kakashi on a corner near where he landed. When she had him trapped, she abandoned her weapons and went back to using her hands.
Her punch missed its mark, giving the Konoha-nin the chance to once again move out of her range. Kurai snarled, more than fed up in this little game of cat and mouse Kakashi seemed bent on playing. They've been fighting for far too long, it was high time to end it. Ignoring the warning bells ringing insistently inside her mind, Kurai rushed forward, intent to not let him escape her grasp.
That was her first mistake. The second one was to not make sure she had destroyed that annoying tanto of his.
She stared for a minute, brain trying to comprehend what her eyes were telling it. But no, there really was a sword embedded in her stomach.
Kurai's third mistake was to think Kakashi had lost too much chakra earlier to give one last attempt at ninjutsu.
Having a sword thrust in your gut while it was coated in lightning was not fun, let she tell you that.
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"The Chunnin Exams end tomorrow."
Kurai peered up curiously at her Father, before a sharp look sent her back to practice with her dagger. In truth, she was only repeating some old drills, the real training having ended yesterday night before going to bed. Now it was just a light exercise.
Not that that meant she was allowed to slack off.
"Do you feel confident you will win?"
Knowing that she wasn't supposed to stop, she answered without looking up.
"Yes, Otou-sama."
It was a quiet affirmation, but no less vehement because of it. Certainty rung true in those three simple words as Kurai continued to slash the air in search for invisible enemies.
Pink eyes watched her movements critically, searching for any mistake. He knew he would find none.
"Why?"
She paused then, dagger frozen mid-air, her eyes glinting with steel sharper than any blade as she looked up at her Father.
"Because I promised you I would."
And Izumi Yagura smiled.
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You should give up, you know.
She can't lose. She can't.
There's blood dripping from the wound in her stomach.
She won't lose.
She promised her Father!
Just look at you. You're tired, hurting, and there's a sword sticking out of your stomach. Yield.
No. She won't. She won't.
Elyse sounded perplexed. Why?, the older girl asked. Why continue? Isn't it enough? You will never be as strong as him. I mean, he's Kakashi Hatake. Why are you even going to try?
"I made a promise…" she whispers, a reminder to both to Elyse and to herself. With his sword back in his hand, Kakashi stared at her incredulous, having a hard time to believe that she would still try to continue even after this.
Elyse's words were like melted honey in her mind, sweet and compelling. You tried. You did your best. Not even Yagura can blame you for giving up. Now it's time to retreat while you can still walk in your own two legs. More or less…
Blood dribbled past her hand as she tried to staunch any further bleeding. Thankfully, the lightning had been strong enough to cauterize half of the wound and numb her nerve endings. She almost didn't feel any pain.
(She knew that wasn't good, because it meant she was probably going into shock, that she might end up collapsing from blood loss and wouldn't even notice until it was too late, and she wouldn't have anyone but herself and her stubbornness to blame)
She didn't care. Kurai had made a promise to her Father.
"I'm going to win this Exam, Otou-sama! I won't fail you!"
She had promised. And she would let Elyse take over her body before failing her Father.
"Why?" Kakashi asked, voice betraying his shock at seeing her standing up, bleeding and aching, but so obviously determined and willing to keep fighting.
She remembers being an unimportant orphan with no purpose, until a man with whom she shared eyes with gave her a name.
She remembers months spent in a cozy office learning how to read, years spent in a dojo repeating kata after kata until she could perform all of them without a second thought or single mistake.
She remembers a soft half-smile and warm eyes, a man picking her up and placing her on his bed, his hand brushing her hair out from her eyes and telling her she needed a haircut.
She remembers staring into mirror-like eyes that reminded her of her own, of sharing that second of silence in which she realized she had met a kindred spirit, someone like her, a person who had to prove their strength, not only to themselves, but to their most important person.
They stood in front of each other now, dirtied, bloodied and aching, exhaustion biting at their limbs, but still standing, twin looks of determination shining in their eyes.
Neither of them could afford to lose this match.
Give up. Just give up.
No, she thinks back, and Kurai smiles, bloody and happy. Inside her mind, Elyse grows quiet.
"Because I made a promise to my Father."
(She won't fail him, never him, never-)
And then she was moving.
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It was like everything was in slow motion. Kakashi could see her coming at him, that smile still not leaving her face. He saw her rushing at him, but his arms didn't respond fast enough. It was like trying to move underwater when you have the whole ocean weighting down on you. He aimed a punch at her head, going for a knock-out blow that would surely make the girl stay on the ground this time, but he was too slow, or maybe she was too fast. Either way, she dodges at the last second, throwing a punch of her own that he barely managed to deflect, only to double over in pain when her knee was jammed harshly into his stomach. Gasping, and fighting against the urge to spit out his lunch, Kakashi notices too late her left hand, bloody from pressing against the wound in her stomach, taking a hold of his silver hair and maneuvering his head to stay perfectly still as her other fist smashes into his face, producing a wet crunch sound that made him know his nose had just been broken.
He is thrown back on the ground, feeling the by-now familiar weight of his opponent settling herself on top of him, her tights on either side of his waist and face close to his neck. The only difference was the blood dripping over him from the slash he made on Kurai's stomach, and the sharp feel of a dagger pressed against his throat.
"Yield," she says, loud enough that not even the proctor standing some meters away from them could hear. "Or I will cut your throat open."
Adrenaline pumping in his veins, Kakashi shook his head, in part just to see what she would do. He was high in all the violence that took place in this arena, eager for more. He didn't want to lose, didn't want to end it this way. He didn't want to end it yet.
(It was so much fun)
Kurai's normally sharp eyes seemed almost cloudy up-close, flickering in and out of focus as the seconds slowly ticked by between them. The blood loss was affecting her and it wouldn't take long for her to faint. Kakashi could hold on until then.
The blade drew closer and Kakashi felt his warm blood trickle down his neck.
Alright, maybe not.
"Yield," the girl repeated, her eyes unseeing as she stared down at him. "Or I will kill you before someone can push me out of you."
And she wasn't kidding. He could see it in her eyes, no matter how hazy they looked now. She really was going to kill him before anyone could stop her.
He opened his mouth.
"I yield."
"Winner of the fourth match, Izumi Kurai of Kirigakure."
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The proctor had to catch her before she accidently drove her dagger in Kakashi's throat when she suddenly collapsed on top of the boy.
"Sorry," she tells the boy tiredly, as they were being carried in stretches to the med bay, the adrenaline rush that allowed her to keep herself on her feet finally ebbing away and leaving her to feel the full brunt of all her wounds.
Kakashi grunts in response, too tired to do anything else.
Kurai loses track of time and when she blinks, she finds herself in a comfortable bed in the med bay, surrounded by iryo-nins whose glowing hands were poking and prodding at the gash on her stomach. She blinks again, the medics fading out of sight and her friends' faces replacing them. All of them were there, Akihiro, Takara, Mei and Kisame, the latter two still dirty and slightly tired from their respective fights.
"Hey, how are you Sukoshi?"
She mumbled something barely coherent. Mei laughed.
"You did extremely well," Takara tells her while she fluffs Kurai's pillow and orders Kisame to get a glass of water. "I heard some rumors about Hatake Kakashi, and it appears that no one thought he would end up losing. You can feel proud of yourself."
And Kurai did. She beamed at her friends, gratefully accepting the glass of water Kisame passed her.
She did it. She won.
(Did her Father see?)
"Why are you looking so down, fish-stick?" Mei questions Kisame, looking at the frown in his face. Kisame sighs, looking at Kurai resting in her bed.
"You won't be able to fight again, will you?" he asks, decidedly unhappy as he glared at the place her wound had been closed with the help of the medics.
Understanding what he was referring to, Kurai shook her head slightly, also feeling upset. "It seems that we will have to postpone our fight to another day, Kisame. Don't worry. I will still kick your blue ass when the time comes."
Mei and Takara snorted at this, Akihiro going along with a long-suffering sigh, all three of them more than used to their antics by now.
"Hey! Kakashi?! Is that you? What the hell happened to you?!" a shout from the other side of the room made all four mist gennins look away.
Uchiha Obito was gaping at the image of his genius teammate, black eye almost bulging out of their sockets as he stared at all the wounds that littered Kakashi's body and, especially, his face, that was by now just one big bruise.
Kakashi, who seemed to have been medicated to feel only the mildest of pains, calmly replied back. "No need to worry Obito. Apart from not being allowed to move my hand or feel my face, I'm perfectly fine."
Obito yelped from "Fine? Fine?! Just look at you!"
Kakashi attempted to do just that, but gave up mid away through, his eyes closing completely and a snore falling from his lips as he fell back in Morpheus's arms.
Kisame gave a wistful sigh. "Well, at least I got to see you smack the kid around."
"Your choice of words, Kisame, they never cease to amuse me." Kurai deadpanned.
And Kisame laughed, as did Takara, Mei and Akihiro, all happy and proud for her, and Kurai wondered if this was what felt like to be someone's precious friend.
Eventually, Mei said they had to go, reminding Kisame that both of them still had matches of their own to fight, and the four mist gennins left one by one, Mei giving a nod in Obito's direction in her way out, to Kurai's surprise.
When Kisame was the last one standing beside her bed, he leaned forward, lips resting against her ears and whispered "Watching you fight him… it was beautiful."
Kurai's eyes were wide as she watched him leave with sure strides, for some reason feeling uncomfortably hot in the cool room. Shaking her head, she made herself comfortable resting against the pillows, preparing herself to go to sleep.
"Kurai."
The girl snapped her eyes open, staring at a suddenly awake Kakashi, who was looking at her from his own bed.
"I thought you were sleeping?"
"I… wanted 'bito to stop… pestering me."
Said boy was currently sleeping, mouth open and a trickle of drool forming a small wet spot on his pillow. Kakashi's grey eyes stared at her, mouth trying to work through the sea of painkillers the medics had stuffed down his throat.
"It was… fun. Fighting," the boy elaborated when she looked at him.
Kurai felt her face soften, and a small smile graced her face.
"It was fun to me too, Hatake-san."
"Kakashi. Call me…," his head dropped half-way through his words, and the low snores left Kurai knowing the boy had fallen asleep, this time for real.
Still smiling, Kurai closed her own eyes, slipping away from reality and into her own dreams.
(And what beautiful dreams they were)
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"Where are you going, Tou-san?"
Looking at his son but not really seeing him (he hasn't being seeing much of anything for the past hour), Kagami smiled absentmindedly.
"I'm going to see Obito-kun and Kakashi-kun, Shisui. No need to accompany me, Minato-san," he added when the blond jounin made to stand up. "You all can stay here and enjoy Nohara-chan's match while I go check on our boys."
Minato nodded hesitantly, obviously torn between going to see his two male students or stay and give moral support to the only girl in his gennin team whose fight was about to start. Finally, he settled back and Kagami walked away, feeling relieved.
He didn't want anyone to see him.
The Uchiha man made his way to the med bay, his footsteps not producing a single sound as he walked the desert and quiet hallways. He was stopped only once, by an iryo-nin who wanted to know who he was going to see and if he had permission to enter.
It was simple enough to answer "Obito Uchiha is my nephew." It wasn't even a lie, and the woman let him continue.
He slipped inside the room, but instead of going to Obito's bedside, he made a straight line towards the bed containing a girl.
She couldn't be older than twelve, noticeably short for her age and looking even younger while deep asleep. Her mouth was slightly open, a pink tongue peeking from behind her lips while she mumbled dreamily in her sleep. Her pale skin was beginning to purple and blacken in some places, results of Kakashi's blows which she wasn't able to avoid and her short black hair made a halo around her head, wild dark curls going in every direction.
Slowly, Kagami raised his hand, fingers almost brushing the black locks of hair away from the girl's face, before his eyes narrowed and he whirled around, kunai coming up to deflect a senbon aimed at his neck.
A blue haired man wearing a Kiri headband stood at the door, hands full with more pointy needles that Kagami guessed he was just itching to bury in the Uchiha's body.
"Now, why is a Konoha-nin so close to the daughter of my Mizukage?" the man asked lightly, fingering one of his senbons.
Kagami narrowed his eyes.
"Now, why does the daughter of this Mizukage of yours looks almost exactly like my wife?"
It was with satisfaction that Kagami saw the Kiri-nin's face drain of color.
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AN: I see DRAMA in the future…
Reviews?
In the next chapter of Dark Waters:
"Konoha had absolutely no claim over Kurai whatsoever."
"Konoha might not, but the Uchiha Clan does. I do."
"Shisui."
Also, it has recently been brought to my attention that in this month, it has been a year (and two weeks) since I first started writing this story. It's incredible how fast time flies, huh? I would like to thank everyone who has been reading this since it's very beginning, and welcome all the new readers to enjoy Dark Waters. I loved sharing Kurai's tale with you all, and hope that there will be even more to share in the future.
Thanks again.