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"Pardon could you please repeat that?" I asked, my left eyebrow twitching slightly.
"Kakashi is hospitalized?" Frog sounded more like he was asking rather than reporting. "The Akatsuki managed to get the one-tail but the Kazekage is alive."
"Kakashi is hospitalized?" I took a deep breath trying to stay calm. "That moron."
"Commander? You're leaking killer intent again!" Frog took a step away from me. I honestly didn't care. Kakashi had got himself sent to the hospital and I was going to murder that bastard for getting hurt. After quickly creating a Shadow Clone to do my job for me, I used a Shunshin to get over to the hospital, Kakashi being the only thing I was able to think about. 'You better be alright, Kakashi. I can't lose any more precious people. I love you too much to lose you. I can't lose you.' I tried to assure myself that he had to be fine, I couldn't afford him not to be.

A silver-haired ninja threw up the door to a hospital room and rushed in, completely ignoring the distressed calls from the nurses down the hall. Inside the white hospital room, he found the person he was looking for. A very bruised up nineteen-year-old Nakamaru Akira laying in a simple bed with white sheets, looking at her boyfriend with a raised eyebrow. The older ninja was by her side in under a second and quickly started examination her.
"Calm down, Kakashi, it's really not as bad as it looks. They've already fixed the broken ribs and torn muscles, so I'll be fine after some bedrest. I'm just glad Kamiko arrived in time." Akira grabbed his hand and tried to give him a comforting smile, only to end up twitching slightly in pain. "I got the wrong information, but my hawk reached Kamiko early enough for her to give me the backup needed to finish the mission."
"Don't bother lying to me, Kira-chan. You're flinching just by me touching you." Kakashi hissed at the ravenette, the worry bleeding through his words. "You're not fine."
"But I'm going to be fine. I won't leave you." Akira assured him as calmly as she could managed. The girl knew very well why he was so worried even with her being fine. The Hatake had lost his father, his entire original team and watched the team that was practically a reincarnation of his old team getting torn apart because of the member who reminded him the most of his old self. Not to mention he still carried the burden of his teammate Obito everywhere with the Sharingan. Like a physical manifestation of everything he had lost. Akira smiled softly at him, completely ignoring the pain in her jaw. "I'm not leaving you Hatake Kakashi. You're too important for me to leave you alone."
Kakashi gently brushed his hand against her cheek, careful not to hurt her.
"You better not. I haven't even gotten to tell you how much I love you yet." He whispered, the worry still showing clearly in his eyes. Akira gasped in shock at his confession. It was the first time he had told her his feelings for her. The young girls heart started beating hard against her chest.
"You love me?" Akira managed to whisper out, still shocked by his words.
"How could I not? You're my Kira-chan after all. Of course I love you." He said it like it was obvious.
"I love you too." Akira stated, feeling like she had never been so honest before in her life. "I love you so much."
Kakashi leaned down and placed a chaste kiss on her forehead, before sitting down next to the ravenette in the hospital bed.
"Promise me you won't leave me?" Kakashi asked her softly.
"If you promise the same."

The Hatake was unconscious when I found his room. A single nurse was writing down something in what I assumed was his patient information file.
"How is he?" I asked breathlessly.
"He'll be fine after a long rest. Physically he's alright, but it'll take a while to get rid of the chakra exhaustion. He was lucky he didn't end up in a more critical condition." The nurse explained with a frown.
"But he'll be alright, right?" I questioned her, my voice slightly more stable than earlier.
"Yes, but you should tell him to use his chakra more wisely. He ends up here because of chakra exhaustion way too often." The nurse said sternly.
"Will do, Nurse-san." I assured her with a thankful smile, my fox mask hiding it from the world. The nurse gave me a curt nod before leaving the room, leaving Kakashi and I alone. I took a chair and sat down next to Kakashi, taking a calm breath before grabbing his hand and intertwining our fingers.
"You better be alright, Kakashi." I whispered, squeezing his hand slightly. "You promised me you would be."
The man didn't answer me or show any indication that he had heard me.
"He'll be fine, Akira." The familiar voice of Tsunade called from behind me. "I need you to come with me. Team Kakashi had some very interesting information."
I looked over to her with a slight frown. 'Interesting information? That involves the Akatsuki and you need my opinion on?' I wondered mentally.
"I'll come back later, Kashi." I whispered softly and let go of his hand. "You better be awake when I come back so I can scold you for ending up here again."

I stood completely still while Tsunade explained what one of the Akatsuki members, Sasori, had told Sakura. "Obviously it could very well be a trap and we have no idea if the spy will actually give us any information to get us any closer to Orochimaru. But you know Team Kakashi just as well as I do, and they'll want to go after it regardless." Tsunade finished.
"They'll need to leave quickly if they're going to get Tenchi Bridge in time to meet the spy." I commented. "Kakashi won't be ready to leave in time."
"I know, I'm sending another instead. I believe you know him as Tenzo." Tsunade explained and I looked at her in slight confusion.
"Then might I ask what you've summoned me here for?" I questioned curiously, wondering why she would talk to me about this when it wouldn't involve anyone other than Tenzo.
"I want you ready to be ready to go after them as backup, should it be necessary. Your skillset makes you perfect to be on a team with Naruto." Tsunade worded her explanation somewhat carefully, but I understood what she meant regardless. A mastered Sharingan could stop the Kyuubi should it come to it. "Tenzo uses the codename Yamato for the mission, and I've ordered him to send word should backup be necessary."
"Tanuki should be back from her mission by dinnertime, I'll have her standby to come with me should Tenzo find us needed. Summon us if needed." I nodded my head in respect.
"Dismissed."

I was humming softly to myself while cleaning up after preparing for dinner. I knew Kamiko would be back in a few minutes unless something unexpected had happened on her mission and therefore planned to have everything ready by the time she entered the apartment. Just like I predicted, the older ravenette entered just as I sat down the last plate on the table.
"I'm home." I heard her say softly.
"Dinner's ready!" I smiled happily and sat down. "So how did the office react to you returning this time?"
"They found the fact that I was rushing back in time for dinner since we're having home-made dango for dessert to be one of our stranger reasonings." Kamiko snorted and started eating. "But they haven't tasted your dango so honestly it's a miscalculation on their part."
"Very true, Kamiko, very true." I smiled brightly, glad that my roommate was back again. "The mission was a success, I take it?"
"Obviously. You'll know when you dispel your Shadow Clone." Kamiko stated with a smirk.
"I hate dispelling them… I always get such a headache from it." I complained slightly.
"Ah yes, Tadashi would call it troublesome." Kamiko said and I could sense a fondness in her voice.
"He calls everything troublesome. You had to threaten him to do well during the finals of the Chunin Exams." I argued, knowing very well that our old teammate was one of the laziest people in Konoha. Well, along with the rest of his clan. How one managed to get an entire clan of lazy members was beyond me thought.
"It only worked for one match as well…" Kamiko complained.

Akira was having a hard time standing still. The ten-year-old was smiling excitedly and chatting animatedly with Itachi and her teammates. The four of them, along with four other Chunin-hopefuls, were standing in a huge stadium and waiting for the final exam to begin. It was still a few minutes until the first match, Itachi versus a Suna Genin, started.
"How troublesome… All these people here to watch us." Tadashi groaned in annoyance. "Maybe I should just forfeit? Less trouble that way."
"If you dare forfeit without winning one match, I'll test my Kunai Theory on you." Kamiko stated, using a kunai to file her nails with deadly precision. She earned a mutter of 'troublesome' from the Nara and smirked in victory.
"If every contender except Itachi and Eito could leave, we'll get started." The protector of the exam said.
"You better win, Tachi, so I can kick your arse in the finals!" Akira encouraged her friend. The two youngest participants of the exam had been placed in the opposite ends of the fights, meaning that they'd both have to reach the final if they wanted to be able to fight each other.
"Hn, it'll be fun to spar with you again." Itachi responded, the boy knew fully well that he would have no problem reaching the finals.

To the surprise of no one, Itachi won his match quickly. Tadashi's match against a Kumo Genin followed, ending in Tadashi's victory after trapping his opponent in his clan jutsu and knocking him out. After Tadashi's victory, Kamiko got ready to fight another Suna Genin. Akira had cheered wildly while Kamiko beat her opponent using solely taijutsu and before the youngest participant knew it, it was her turn to fight. Akira had quite dramatically jumped down to the arena and flashed her nii-san a bright smile once she spotted him in the mass of people watching the exam. Akira skipped over to the protector and waited for her opponent to get down the stairs. The young girl was practically jumping in excitement, smiling ever-so-brightly.
"You do realize that this can be dangerous, right?" the protector asked her with a slight worry in his eyes.
"Of course I do!" Akira responded. "It's going to be fun! I get to play with someone else!"
"And at the end of the game, you die!" her opponent, a boy from Kusa, mocked her cheerful voice while walking over. "A little girl like you doesn't stand a chance, it's only luck you didn't have to fight in the preliminaries."
"That's not very nice." Akira remarked, still smiling. She didn't really care what the boy thought, her nii-san told her that she was awesome after all. "But it's okay, the ever-awesome Nakamaru Akira forgives you."
"Enough chatting, start!" the protector rolled his eyes at them and quickly got out of their way. Akira smiled happily and jumped back from the other Genin. 'I should finish it while wasting as little chakra as possible. I'll need as much as possible in the upcoming two matches.' Akira knew fully well how strong both Itachi and Kamiko were. With her Sharingan activated, she quickly ensnared her opponent in a genjutsu were he would think they were fighting while he in reality couldn't move. Akira swiftly used a Shunshin to get behind him and held her Kunai to his neck.
"End the match or I'll kill him." She stated as emotionlessly as she could.
"Winner of fourth match: Nakamaru Akira." The protector stated with a shocked look on his face.

After a five minutes break, the semi-finals started with Itachi versus Tadashi. Tadashi had taken one look at Itachi and forfeited, claiming that his lack of chakra wouldn't allow him to win this match. That meant it was time for Akira and Kamiko's match. Akira knew Kamiko's fighting style very well. The girl was excellent at taijutsu and great at ninjutsu, but she had close to no talent in genjutsu. The older girl was also turning into an excellent tactician and had gotten fairly quick at planning the strategies needed as well. But there was one thing Akira knew would be enough to beat Kamiko. If she could distract Kamiko enough that she wouldn't notice the genjutsu placed on her, then Akira would win. Of course, it would need to be done at a distance, if Kamiko got close enough to fight then Akira would undoubtedly lose. After sending a huge fire dragon after her friend, which Kamiko easily put out with a water dragon, the genjutsu was made. Akira knew that it wouldn't take long for Kamiko to realize and break free, so she quickly used a Shunshin and managed to put her kunai to Kamiko's neck just as Kamiko broke free.
"You've gotten a lot quicker, Kamiko." Akira stated in surprise. It had only taken the older girl two seconds to notice and break free of it.
"But not quick enough yet. I forfeit." Kamiko snorted.
"Well I used a stronger one than usual." Akira explained with a smile. "Still, it was a good match."

The protector had ordered a fifteen minutes break before the final match. Akira and Itachi had looked at each other, a smile on both faces. It had been a long time since the two of them had gotten a chance to spar against each other and they were both excited for it.
"Let's have fun, right Tachi?" Akira asked the boy with a bright smile gracing her face.
"I'm looking forward to it." Itachi smiled back at her, though much more discreet than how Akira smiled. In fact, if one did not know the boy well, the smile would hardly be noticed.
"Start!" the protector ordered and both kids jumped away from each other while running through the exact same hand seals. Two huge balls of fire hit each other in the middle, none of them overwhelming the other. The fire jutsus were followed by an enormous number of Shuriken and Kunai flying through the air at incredible speed. Both had their Sharingan activated and were throwing everything they had at each other. The two countering every jutsu and weapon the other threw. The two were perfectly matched, both fully capable of reading the other and both having the same strengths and weaknesses. 'There won't be a winner. If we continue, we'll just waste chakra and while this is fun, it won't look good for our promotion if we beat ourselves into the ground instead of giving up and retreating. It's what we would both do if this was a mission.' Akira realized and blocked the last Shuriken flying towards her with a Kunai.
"It appears we're still equally matched." Akira commented with an amused chuckle.
"So it would seem." Itachi looked just as amused. "I believe we've been through our skillset?"
"Yeah, I think so." Akira nodded solemnly and the two kids bowed to each other before jumping over and doing the Unison Sign. "Good spar."
"It was fun." Itachi agreed.
"Wait what? That's it? You're both forfeiting?" the protector asked them in confusion.
"Well yeah… Neither can win and just wasting more chakra when we've already shown what we're capable of is hardly practical." Akira stated with a shrug.
"Okay then… Presenting the winners of the Chunin Exams: Nakamaru Akira and Uchiha Itachi!"