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"What- the- hell did you do in there?!" Tsunami was staring at Aki's door, which was flashing every color from red to purple.
Kakashi sheepishly shrugged, and slipped away before she could get any further into her questions. She was just about to ask him what really happened in there, when she turned to see him running off into the woods. She sighed while her arms were akimbo, her head shaking.
"If she isn't careful she'll set the house on fire!" She exclaimed as she picked up the laundry.
Inari walked by, looked at the neon light door, shook his head disdainfully, and walked off.
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Kakashi sat on a lowered branch bemusedly, leaning his left temple against his boxed hand. It had gone fantastic last night; better than he expected, better than he had hoped! Now Kakashi was in a more daydream- ish happy- go- lucky behavior more than the strict, unforgiving, Come Come Paradise pervert at the moment. An Armageddon could pass him by, and he wouldn't have snapped out of his blissful trance.
What was this that he was feeling? It wasn't love, but nor was it just liking someone. Every time he saw her face, the heaviest burden on his shoulders would just float away, and never return. He stared to almost…yearn to see her face. That smile, those eyes…Why would anyone hate her?
He grinned placidly behind his facial mask, and thanked his lucky stars he was wearing it.
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Aki's chakra fireworks had died down a half an hour ago, and seeing it was quiet, she warily looked around her semi- opened panel door, slipped out, and made her way to the outside. When she knew she was out of earshot, she climbed down off of the docks, and stood on a harmless mound of coral reef. She cut her palm with her nail.
"Kuchiyose no jutsu." She said in a low voice, lowering her hand into the water.
Did the Wave country have sharks by any chance?
Bubbles whirled around her sunken fist and in a whirl of blue clouds and slivers of swirling ice blue chakra, Aoihoshi appeared.
"Koro nikei, Aoihoshi?" Aki smiled like the sun.
"Huh?" He was baffled by her expression.
"It means, "How are you?"." Aki waded herself towards his recovering fin.
"Oh. Well, I've had better days." He watched as Aki inspected his healing course, "You're looking chipper today." He said in an observant tone.
"How so?"
"Your chakra is sky- rocketing inside of you; I can tell."
"Oh." She grinned, feeling the healing tissue of his fin.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"What happened?" Aoihoshi had a habit of nosing into other people's business.
She blushed slightly, ignoring his eyes.
"Did you meet someone?"
She bobbed her head back and forth slightly as if to say "so- so".
"Someone you like?" Aki violently blushed; she couldn't hide it any longer.
"Aha! So it is someone you like! Who is it?" Aoihoshi's eyes were squinted in an invisible grin.
"Well…"
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Tsunami overheard talking outside, and piqued her curiosity. Knowing it was Aki's voice, she was wondering who she was talking to. Sneaking up to the window closest to the loudness of her voice, Tsunami caught a glimpse, and silently gasped.
She saw Aki…conversing with a giant blue, white spotted manta ray! Remembering what the creature looked like, she picked up yesterday's newspaper, and her eyes shot into circles. She instantly recognized the manta ray, but furthermore, she recognized the girl in the front-page photo.
It was Aki.
She couldn't believe her eyes. Her sense of what was right and what was smart began battling with each other inside of her head.
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"Well, he's…nice….and a bit laid back. Well, no, he's a professional slacker, but I can live with that. Sorta." Aki was lying on her stomach atop of Aoihoshi's head, her shins up in the air.
"You still haven't told me his name." Aoihoshi was pressing further.
If he were human, he could have been an investigating reporter.
"And the chances of me saying so are..?" Aki looked down on Aoihoshi's flat snout.
"Slim to none." He replied, his invisible grin coming on again.
Aki chuckled, and slid down Aoihoshi's side into the water.
"Well, give it a day or two, and you can start flapping, but it'll take at least five days to be fully healed." Aoihoshi looked bummed at her response.
"Hey, if I haven't placed that herb on your wound, it would take double the amount of healing time, so be thankful for what you have, alright?" She patted his wrapped up fin lightly.
Aoihoshi bowed his flat head and poofed into blue feathers again.
Aki grinned slightly, caressing her cheek. She looked at her hand, and looked amusedly confused. A wave of glimmering rainbow chakra encased her hand, and whenever she moved it, the chakra created a lingering wave of colors. She spent a couple of minutes just making odd, but beautiful shapes. She walked back onto the docks, her hands leaving lingering rainbows behind her.
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Kakashi came back at sundown, feeling close to accomplishing his healing goal. Combing his hair with his fingers, he strolled up to Aki's door. Before he even got his fingers around the panel wood, eruptions of colored light filled a silhouette of Aki sitting in the corner. Knowing it was harmless chakra, he slid the door open.
"Hi, Ak-!" He was silenced instantly.
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Aki had known he was coming, and her emotion- charged chakra had set of the fireworks again, this time wilder. She saw him slide open the door, and one of her sparking red chakra fireworks had ricocheted off the wall, and headed straight for Kakashi's head.
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PFT!!
Kakashi sighed, a couple of rainbow chakra dust particles falling off of his face and hair. Now his mane of silver hair looked like it was an exploded dynamite stick.Aki sheepishly grinned.
"…Oops?" She ruffled her hair, a sweatdrop forming behind her head.
(Remember to put that under "Rules I Have Bent".)
Kakashi patted out the last of the chakra dust, and slid the door behind him closed.
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Aki was sitting on a harmless mound of submerged coral reef. Water sloshed peacefully against the support posts and Aki's shins. Her eyes were half shaded in thought , the moon halloing the bottom of her eyes.
(This is it. The judgment day has arrived. I wonder what would've happed if I were to go there? I'd probably be prone to Kakashi's Chidori or Zabuza's butcher sword.)
She sighed, combing her bangs back with a damp hand. She heard the door slide open suddenly, and hid underneath the planks that held Mr. Tazuna's house up."Inari," It was Kakashi, and evidently, Inari was outside too.
Aki stayed quiet as she heard the exact same conversation play out from the manga series, but she was starting to get used to that. After a few minutes had passed, Aki strode back into the open, looking at the star- lit sky. She then looked to the forest, took second thoughts, and swam to the border (Well, she was already wet, so what was the point?). She heaved herself over the bank, and vanished into the trees.
After searching for a half an hour, she found The Tree. Her mark had healed in the bark, but the scar was still prominent. She laid a hand on the symbol, and closed her eyes. A strange tingling feeling went from her arm to her hand, and when she opened her eyes, she saw the familiar glove of rainbow chakra encasing her hand. Not only that, but the symbol in the tree began to glow with the same brilliance and color. Aki pulled her hand back sharply, and watched as small beady lines, trailed up the trunk and into the branches. They started to grow farther out with thicker heartwood, the truck slowly rising up like a cryptic behemoth awakened from its slumber. Aki warily looked around to see if anyone would notice.
The trunk began to twist itself into a gradual spiral, branches sprouting out in every spot that they could. The leaves changed from a deep pine green to a Lapis Lazuli blue, glowing like solar panels in the moon.
"Whoa, whoa! Stop, dammit, stop!" As if the tree would listen to her.
Two more minutes passed, and the tree finally stopped, giving off a shower of white chakra sparkles to signal its achievement. Aki gawked as she tried to see the top. She looked around again, a giant sweatdrop on the back of her head again.
"Looks like I gave the tree a chakra cocktail." She scratched her head sheepishly, some of the chakra petals falling on her hair like snow.
The tree reflected the moon's light, its blue leaves tinkling like crystal in the soft breezes. The mark remained glowing.