Hello to you readers! I've been updating as often as possible, but updates might slow down for a bit (a friend of mine and I are working on writing an original novel right now, so that takes up a lot of our focus.) please, PLEASE take the time to review! Reviews lead to inspiration for this fanfic which will lead to writing which will lead to quick updates! So please take the time to post a review :)

On to the story!

Chapter Fourteen - The Sky is Falling

"What the hell? You were supposed to be watching her, Kakashi!" An angry voice hissed.

"What can I say? I didn't expect her to take a rasengan to prove a point. Ibiki, this is Cashile we're talking about. She would never put herself in harms way unless she was getting some great benefit out of it. Like the spiders!" That was Kakashi's voice, both worried and defensive.

"You idiot, you still should never have let her walk off the training grounds Injured! Baka." Angry, angry. And condescending. How irritating.

I groaned out loud. Ibiki was here? He was so annoying. Always angry.

I opened my eyes and assessed myself quickly before letting them know that I was awake. Deep cut on my forearm, about four inches long. A bandage was wrapped around it, but blood was clearly seeping through still. Apparently they hadn't gotten around to healing it. I could feel the bruises scattered all over my body beneath the hospital gown. And my stomach...

It was wrapped in bandages, and while I suspected that it had been healed, it was by no means completely fixed. I suspected that they would want me to return for another check up and healing session. Thank God Sakura was a proficient medic nin now; between her and Aiko-the nurse I was on a fist name basis with- I would be able to avoid any official appointments.

"Let it go, Ibiki. I walked away, not Kakashi's fault," I spoke up, ignoring the burning pain in my abdomen and resisting a couple wheezes. The extra oxygen wasn't worth showing weakness over. Normally I would have held this against Kakashi, but I knew that he knew better than to feel guilty over this and give me ammo against him. Besides... he had allowed me to take that hit. He hadn't protected me from Naruto's rasengan. Maybe he was a little more Claw-like than I'd ever given him credit for.

Their heads snapped in my direction. "Don't get ahead of yourself, brat, I'm here on official business. Tell me what exactly happened," Ibiki snapped in a most formal manner. Obviously he didn't want me to get any wrong ideas. He wasn't here because he cared. He was here because he had to be. I rolled my eyes. He was an idiot if he thought I would be bothered by that.

Kakashi sighed but didn't defend me against Ibiki's immediate prodding.

I shrugged. Well, as much as I could lying horizontally in a hospital bed.

"I was attacked by another Claw. It was well trained, more so than the others. I handled it fine though, it's dead," I replied, ignoring the flash in my head of the boys face. Of his empty eyes.

Kakashi cleared his throat. "About that, Cashile..."

My eyes flashed to him. "What is it?"

"The boy you killed... He started breathing again. He's been hospitalized but restrained thoroughly, so no need to worry."

I blinked. "Alive?" I murmured. "I definitely stabbed him in the upper right chest. That's when he collapsed. The wound should have killed him."

"Like I said, he wasn't breathing-"

Ah. "He put himself in a death-like state to survive," I realized. "Slow down his heartbeat, minimize damage, better chance of escape. Smart. But once I was down his injuries must have caused his plan to backfire, landing him here. He couldn't escape and didn't realize that we would collect his body. Now, you said he was restrained?"

Ibiki nodded. "We've already attempted to probe his mind, but... It's nothing like I've ever seen. He has a.. A shield. This impassive, impregnable slippery grey wall that we just can't get by."

"He would have that," I said.

"We're hoping that the shield might shatter under duress. But he needs to wake up for that to happen."

I looked at him. Not quite alarmed, but not at peace either. "You provided a Claw healthcare. Once it's awake it won't think twice about killing you, and it's sole purpose will be to kill me. And we don't have much time before they think he's dead, and send another one.

There was a timid knock on the door. Then there was a loud, obnoxious knock. Shuffling footsteps and angsty whining voices could be heard behind the door.

Kakashi chuckled. "Looks like you have visitors, Cashile."

I made a face and looked at Ibiki, pleadingly. "Isn't this a classified interrogation?"

Ibiki smirked. "Yes, but it's over. I'll be in touch. I'm going to head back down to the boy's room and see if he'll wake up any time soon," he nodded at Kakashi and opened the door. Heartless bastards, leaving me to the mercy of the little snot nosed brats.

Three twelve year old bodies toppled in, stumbling over each other.

Ibiki grunted, then left. Kakashi scratched the back of his head. "I'll check in on you later Cashile," he promised. Then he walked out, leaving me with my three students who were looking sheepishly up at me, waiting patiently for me to speak.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Sensei has a black eye," Michiko giggled slightly.

I scowled and touched my eyes. " I do n-" I did. I was so used to having black eyes during training that, seeing the other claw's face during the fight must have brought me back to how I used to feel when I was Claw in training.

Numb.

I pushed whatever fear I may have felt down and my attention turned to the tugging at my hand.

Aisa.

He had been giving me the cold shoulder since I left the apartment. Aiden was probably-

Oh god. Aiden. If Aisa knew then Aiden would know, no doubt. Just what I needed. Ugh. Great. Just fantastic- more complications.

"What did they tell you?" I asked my students flatly.

"That an assassin came after you!" Aisa exclaimed.

"Sensei is important enough to have assassins sent after her," Michiko murmured. She had grown much more comfortable with me over the weeks- less shy, less hesitant, less embarrassed- and far more cheeky in her subtle, dry manner. I was tempted to either tell her to shut up or respond in an equally snarky manner, but instead opted to ignore her.

"Why didn't you guys do your training today?" I asked.

Aisa and Kento shared a look. "What are you talking about?" Kento asked, deadpan. "We did the same routine you assigned us yesterday for our 'day off'."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't even try to lie to me. You may be able to trick your old sensei or your classmates, but you can't fool me. You're really not that good of a liar. Aisa opened his mouth but I cut him off. "Don't even try," I ordered. "You're an even worse liar than Kento."

They pout while Michiko sighed. "I told them not to, sensei," she told me earnestly.

"Of course," I said. "You didn't lie to me, but you certainly didn't tell me the truth. If they had managed to trick me you would have just gone along with it. But you didn't participate in lying to me. You're perfectly innocent."

She shrugged. "What can I say?"

"Go and do the same routine as yesterday," I ordered. They grumbled. "Twice."

"But Cashile, it's gonna rain-"

"Now."

Almost as soon as they trudged out the door slammed open again. My eyes widened slightly as he rushed in, both anger and fear in his eyes.

"Cashile!"

I blinked in surprise. "Naruto," I greeted.

He had a weird sort of half glare, half worried look on his face. "C-Cashile."

"Oh. You know."

He nodded. "I... I'm sorry...?" he offered weakly.

"Okay," I replied easily. This would be useful for any time I wanted to manipulate him in the future.

"Uh... okay? Okay," he seemed both eager to get past this awkward conversation and suspicious of how easily I had brushed the apology away. "Um, they say that your stomach is mostly healed and that you can leave. Er, Kakashi wouldn't let you have any pain medication for some reason, but-"

"It's okay," I replied. "I don't need any. I can go?"

Naruto nodded. "Uh, they said to come in in a week for a check up? But you can just go to Sakura for that."

"Alright," I agreed. "Bye." I got out of the hospital bed.

He watched me leave, shocked. "...bye?"

I exited the hospital, regarding the swollen clouds. It would rain soon. Almost as soon as I stepped outside of the hospital doors I ran into Aiden, who had been heading in. For a long moment we stared at each other, shocked, unprepared. Then I turned on my heel and left.

"Oh, no Cashile," Aiden stormed after me, suddenly pissed as he snatched at my shoulder. "You're not getting away."

I wrenched away from his hold on my shoulder and disappear.

I stopped running when I reached the top of the hill. I was breathing harshly, emotions running through my body. I breathed in and out, and I was empty. I could feel the emotions drain from me, I could feel the emptiness, the numbness take over.

Emotions didn't help. Caring wasn't an advantage. It wasn't.

I turned as I heard a slight shift, and Aiden was there. I blinked. "How did you find me?" I asked. "It barely took you five minutes." Was there a way to track me that I wasn't aware of? Had I grown sloppy, left a trail?

"I guessed you would come here. You're not as unreadable, as unpredictable as you'd like to think," he replied quietly.

I winced and touched my stomach as the pain caught up to me. "Well?" I questioned. "What do you want?"

"What the fuck," Aiden whispered quietly. "What the actual fuck?!

I stared at him uncomprehendingly. "Why are you upset?" I questioned.

"You really never think about anyone but yourself, do you?" He asked in contemptuous amazement.

"What do you mean?"

"You never though about me? About Aisa? About the danger you were putting us in by being near us? You didn't care to tell me that people were after you?!" Aiden interrogated, rapid fire.

I didn't know how to respond. "Aisa's my student. It doesn't matter if I live with you or not. I'm close to him in that way as well."

"Then you shouldn't have been his sensei!"

"I didn't exactly have a choice. The Hokage herself ordered me to become a sensei."

"Oh, like that's stopped you before," he rolled his eyes angrily, words sharp and pointed.

"You're being irrational," I appealed . "Calm down and think this through. Be logical."

Something about that made Aiden snap inside. "Oh, be logical," he fumed. "Well here's my logic: You shouldn't have ever come back here!"

We each pause at that, recoiling from one another like magnets with the same charge. My heart contracted painfully. Aiden was breathing heavily.

"I'm sorry," he finally breathed out, deflating.

"No, it's perfectly understandable," I answered quietly. "I can leave, if that's what you want."

"No, no, no," Aiden shook his head. "I'm sorry, I was upset and scared and I said things I didn't mean to."

"Like I said, it's understandable. But often during times like this you say what you truly mean but what you're normally too scared to say, and-"

"Shut up," Aiden ordered, cutting me off. "Please, just... can't we just slow down for a moment? Can't we just stop and... lay here? Can't we just lay here and forget the rest of the world?"

I furrowed my eyebrows at his change in attitude but nodded, sitting down with Aiden on the grassy hill. The leaves of the tall tree whispered in the wind behind us. I sat with Aidan under our tree, suddenly feeling so removed from the world and our lives that I never wanted to go back. The tension that had been filling the air fell away, thudding to the ground and disappearing. Here was where both our guards went down, where we both became something perpetually human.

"Look," Aidan smiled up at the sky, a soft smile that lit up his face. "The sky is falling."

I glanced up, and sure enough the sky had shattered. "It's just rain," I muttered, but there was the smallest upturn of my lips as my head fell back and I stared at the sky.

"The sky is falling," Aidan murmurs again. "Let's watch the sky together."

We both lie on our backs, ignoring the grass that slowly soaked and blinking away pieces of the sky that fell into our eyes as we simply lay together, watching the roiling clouds and plunging rain.

Aidan turned on his side, dark eyes studying me closely. I tear my gaze away from the collapsing sky and allowed my glance to meet his stare. Without much thought, without any buildup or anticipation or worry or stress or angst, Aidan leaned in and kissed me once, twice, gently, unhurriedly.

"The sky is falling," I repeated softly, staring into his eyes.

"Or we're flying," Aidan countered, the slightest smile on his face.

The rain fell on our head and the sky was fractured and we were just two small humans who'd given up on trying to hold it together.

And we were flying.

I hope you guys review! The Cashden ship has sailed! Review!