You Can Reclaim Your Crown

Summary: No one paid her much attention, Naruto's landlady, this woman who paid visits to the Uchiha compound with baskets of bread and fruit for the little Uchiha survivor. The woman who sat down to dinner with the Nine Tails Jinchuriki...who had befriended the silent Itachi, the impassive Kakashi...and had enraptured the hearts of Kushina and Minato...no one paid her any attention, until she's forced to act as a Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village once again.

Pairing: Kagome/?

Anime/Manga: InuYasha/Naruto

Genre: Romance/Spiritual/Adventure

Rated: M

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"Sasuke had it pretty easy..." Kagome smiled from next to Kakashi, her eyes glued to the match below. Shino Aburame of the rookie nine and Zaku Abumi of the sound. She wasn't too interested in Zaku, but Shino was as talented a Shinobi as his father, what little Kagome had seen of his Ninjutsu and Insect Jutsu's. "You heard that they had a run in with Orochimaru in the forest of death, right?"

Kakashi frowned, "and yet they stand before us unscathed."

"You doubt the legitimacy of my information?"

"Of course not, but are we sure that it was really Orochimaru?"

Kagome smiled and shrugged, "Anko fought him...heard it was pretty intense. As you know, I removed her mark too...it was activated during her fight." She cringed, listening as Zaku yelled out in agony as holes were blown through his arms. An explanation followed his pained groans; insects blocking his air canals caused the air to seek another way of release. "...the Aburame Clan sure is scary. You know, I've never liked insects. In fact, I hate them."

"I wouldn't let anyone in the Aburame Clan hear you say that." Taking her hand in his, he gave it a gentle squeeze as he pulled her back from the railing. "How are you holding up? Can you stand without the help now?"

Kagome pulled her hand back from his as she tested her balance and nodded to herself, "yeah, looks like I'm good. I just needed to rest a bit." She closed her eyes and relaxed into her aura, reflexively searching out the familiarity of her kids. Smiling at the warmth, she leaned forward and opened her eyes once more. Her eyes met Sasuke's who was looking curiously back at her. Beside him, Naruto was talking to him about one thing or another.

"What was that?"

"Just checking on them,"

"From this distance?"

"From this distance..." she looked to Kakashi, "I don't think it'll matter how far I am; I'll always be able to find the people who are precious to me."

"I wish I could say the same,"

"...Kakashi, it took a number of losses before I was able to use my spiritual energy like this. The distance comes from years of practice. Even before you started to pay attention to me as a potential love interest, I'd already been working hard on memorizing their energies, and not just theirs..." she placed a hand on his arm, "yours too."

Kakashi looked away from her, not able to take the overwhelming number of emotions he was currently feeling. They seemed to be cycling through no significant order as he tried to calm his heart down. Ranging from jealousy and annoyance to awe and relief. He felt at ease and he felt guilt, he felt hope and he felt shame. There was too much going on inside of him, he didn't know which emotion to key in on, deciding that all of them were no good, he settled for neutrality. Detachment had never steered him wrong...only, it always did. He sighed, "I'm really no good at expressing myself...why can't I just be indifferent and be happy with that."

Kagome shook her head, "first off, if you were happy being indifferent, then you wouldn't be indifferent at all. That completely contradicts what it means to be indifferent. Oh! Look! One of the Sand nin are finally going up."

"You know, I find I'm having to share you with more and more people...and I'm becoming quite jealous of this fact."

She gave a gentle punch, not at all hard enough to warrant so much as a whimper as she rolled her eyes and watched the oldest male of the Sand trio come forward. "I'm interest in them. It's for no other reason than the fact that they chose to pick a fight with Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura on their return, oh...and they finished the second part of the exam in two hours...that was impressive. That was really impressive."

"I get it, I get it. Try not to cheer on the wrong Village's Shinobi."

"...well...Leaf Shinobi aren't competing right now, so..."

Kakashi couldn't shake his head hard enough as he heard the underlying pleading in her voice. As if he could say "no" to her?! Not hardly. Maybe when he was thirteen and still thought she was undercover as a spy or assassin sent to do away with Minato, the soon to be Fourth Hokage, but certainly not now! He hadn't been able to tell her "no" in nearly five years. Yes, it'd taken him a minute or two to get to that point, but it was no fault of his. Well, it was. Because he continued to accept S-Ranked missions, he was never in Konoha. So, it took him longer than it probably should have to acknowledge his weak heart when around her. Or...maybe he was just a coward, fully aware of how he felt but too afraid to show it. He was sure nobody was keeping tabs, but just in case, he'd go with "a weak heart". After all, he was Kakashi Hatake, coward and Kakashi were antonyms as far as he was concerned. Neither had anything to do with the other.

"..." Kagome waved a hand in front of Kakashi's face, tilting her head in a show of confusion before sighing and turning her attention to Sasuke and Naruto who'd started walking towards her and Kakashi. Sakura followed loyally and quietly behind them as they continued to discuss whatever was rattling around in their brain. Considering the duration of this conversation, and the fact that it had enraptured Sasuke's attention, she imagined it must be fascinating. "Oi, Kakashi, you gonna come back down to Earth, or have I lost you to space completely?"

"Huh?"

"You zoned out, buddy. Turned into a total space-cadet."

"Space-Cadet?"

"It's someone who spaces out often, insert Kakashi Hatake "here"." She smiled charmingly before taking his hand and giving it a playful tug. "Now, focus on the matches, and don't be stingy with your cheers!"

"Sigh...I'm not being stingy..."

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Me: Here is chapter 25 of You Can Reclaim Your Crown. I know this had really nothing to do with Naruto, but you know how sometimes there were episodes that had a conversation that felt like it was there just to be there? Well, this is here just to be here while I get back into the series and update while in the process. Hope you all enjoy and I'll update soon. Also, I thought that Kakashi and Kagome needed some more chit chat time. Still, keeping the series in the background while not focusing on it in it's whole. As you know, its different in its progression, Sasuke wasn't bitten. He worked well together with Naruto and was able to fend off the Snake Sanin long enough to escape with the help of others. Lee showing up and of course Shikamaru's team being there, the tables were turned, and numbers became overpowering. So, yay! Send Love Through, and Review!