Bwahaha! I didn't review for a while, but here's the next chapter. (Had midterms and papers etc. but now it's spring break.)
Also, if you can't guess what the main match up is by the end of this chapter, turn in your plot detective badge ASAP.
Thank-you to my reviewers! SilverKnight7, EcpliseAzNGTX, RuByMoOn17, and babowonsuni.
While Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura slept, Kakashi made sure to only doze. Ketsuki hadn't specified a time of return, so Kakashi didn't want to be caught unaware by their enemies. As dawn peeked into the trees he came fully awake. Kurai began to stir, her eyelids struggling to rise. She looked around, her eyes focusing slowly on the trees above and the lightening sky. Then she looked to the side and saw Kakashi smiling down at her. "Good morning, feeling better?" he asked, as if nothing had been wrong.
Kurai nodded and sat up slowly, her body stiff from sleeping on the ground. She winced as she put her arm down and sighed. Oh yes, she had taken a couple shuriken to her arm and a pair of kunai to her leg. How was the leg doing? She reached down to unwrap the bandage when Kakashi caught her hand. She glared at him. "I have to check it," she said.
"I say wait a day before removing the bandage. Even if you heal like Naruto, it's going to be some time before you're 100%." She looked to the side and he knew he'd won.
"I was going to check for the effects the poisoning had on the healing, I know it's not better yet," she said. Kakashi still didn't let go of her hand.
"Wait one more day." She sighed and shifted as to rise onto her good leg then looked down at his hand on hers. He let go and she hopped up. Kakashi wondered if Naruto's stamina came from genetics or the demons he had in common with Kurai and decided it had to be the former. Ketsuki hadn't shown the same level of energy. Kakashi let Kurai stretch and do her thing as he woke the others.
When Sakura rose and looked around something behind Kakashi made her turn white as a sheet. He looked over his shoulder and blinked. Kurai had cut herself and was using the blood to draw on a nearby tree trunk. It wasn't too gruesome a sight, but Sakura had less of a stomach for such things. Kurai stepped back and performed a few seals. A rabbit fell from the symbol and looked up at his summoner expectantly. Kurai settled down with a scroll from her pack and started to write. The others went about their business as she finished her missive and handed it to the rabbit. The white hair took off.
Naruto came up hesitantly. "Onee-san, what did you just send?" he asked.
Kurai smiled down at him. "Father taught me the summons usually used only by the head of the village so I could get messages to him quickly. Ketsuki's absence tells me he's probably going to the edge of the blizzard to try and send a mental message. He'll be gone for days. I just want to get my version of the story to Father first…" She looked down at Naruto and patted his head. "I can't wait to show you off!" They spent the day doing physical training under Kurai's guidance. Kakashi recognized some of the concepts and tried showing them to the students, wondering to himself why they would need such skills.
That evening was quiet, Naruto fell asleep during dinner giving everyone some quiet time. Kurai stood off to the side looking up at the night sky through the trees. "So beautiful…" she said. Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi looked up with her. Stars winked at them from behind the black veil. Kakashi heard a ripping sound and looked at Kurai. She was using a kunai to cut the bandages on her leg.
He started to say something, but she'd already finished. The pale cloth fell to the ground and Kakashi stared. Fresh, pink flesh lay where a gaping wound had been the day before. She quickly cut through the arm bandages, revealing more smooth skin. Putting the pale weapon away she picked up the bandages and dropped them in the fire. Kakashi noticed she still moved rather stiffly. He sighed and lay down near a tree with moss growing around the base.
Sakura and Sasuke went to bed and Kurai wrapped Naruto up so tightly Kakashi expected they'd have to help the boy get out in the morning. As the fire burned down, Kurai came over to Kakashi and lay down beside him. "The kids might not have the guts to ask to share pillow space, but I am not so easily intimidated." Her head rested on the moss as his did and she sighed. "Tomorrow we move on," and she let out a big yawn. Kakashi closed his eyes and let himself sleep.
When he woke the next morning his eyes took a while to focus. This was probably because the site was so strange. A beautiful young woman was lying next to him, her face turned towards his. He'd had his share of partners in 'training' but when had he picked this one up? Then he remembered what was going on and sighed. She wasn't one of his companions, rather she was the thorn in his side who insisted on trying to hide herself in mystery. As a possible enemy this made sense, but he knew enough that it seemed pointless.
"Ahh." Kakashi turned his head and saw Kurai was beginning to wake up. Her breathing had sped up and her fingers were twitching. Sitting up, Kakashi looked around and blinked. When had the kids left? Three bedrolls lay empty by the cold fire. "Hm?" He looked down at Kurai whose eyes had just opened.
"I don't suppose you gave the kids some early morning instruction I wasn't aware of?" he asked.
Kurai blinked and rolled onto her back with a yawn. "Hum, m? Oh, I told them it was their job to find a good breakfast for us this morning because they'd need the energy. Are they not back yet?" She sat up and looked around. "Maybe they took too long to wake up, knowing Naruto."
Kakashi guessed this was also the cause and stood and stretched. "I'll get the fire back up," he said. Kurai waved a hand. Better him than her. She wanted to go hunt for Naruto. He had been making progress, but to be honest he wasn't so awe-inspiring their father would feel her little adventure was worthwhile. Everyone had been ready to let the matter die, forgetting the blood to be paid out of failure to return the child, ignoring Kurai's mother as the woman wasted away into a shadow.
She heard light conversation and a shouted, "NARUTOOO!" That's Sakura. With a small smile she walked over and found her brother standing waist-deep in a river with a furiously blushing Sakura looking away. Sasuke was just glaring at Naruto in that 'Now look what you've done' way. Kurai walked over to Sakura and patted the girl's shoulder.
"It's not so big a deal, I'm sure you would prefer not to have seen something like that yet, but you're still young." Sakura blinked. Kurai chuckled. "Now you have something for future reference, just remember he's still growing." Sakura sighed, still looking troubled if not as pink, and started back for the campsite with an armful of fish. Kurai scowled at Naruto as he climbed out of the water behind some bushes so she could only see his back. "And you should be more careful. I don't care how un-self-conscious you are about nudity, a girl like Sakura takes it differently." Then she grinned at him. "Or was that your ploy all along?" He started to make sputtering sounds, but Kurai just laughed and walked away. Now where had Sasuke wandered off to?
She went in the direction he had been standing and listened intently. Silence. Ah well. A few steps further and she leapt aside as a trap tried to snap shut around her ankle. She scowled and turned just in time to keep Sasuke from getting his kunai near her throat. It took her a moment to recognize the sharingan. He was really meaning to fight her. She put some distance between them and pulled out her own kunai. "A little bored with the usual training, Sasuke?" she teased. He smirked.
"I just need to know how much this training is doing for me. Fighting you seems fair enough to me." He moved so fast she could barely see him. If he had been as good as he thought he was, Kurai would've found a real challenge in fighting him. However, she still had more experience and was at a higher level. With a grin she decided to count this as a test and made a note to engage Sakura and Naruto eventually. Sasuke came down at her from above and threw a couple shuriken.
Her memories of his style of attack were not warm, so she lost her teasing expression and replaced it with her calm, fighting mask. Five minutes later Sasuke was panting and having trouble keeping his movements quiet. Kurai decided she was beginning to tire as well and had hoped to set out on their journey again today. To end it quickly, she tried her own sneak attack. Sasuke caught sight of her with his sharingan and managed to evade it. Slightly surprised and disappointed in herself, she tripped him up as he tried to get away and rested the kunai at his neck.
"Let's get some breakfast, hm?" she said. Standing up she waited for him to rise. His eyes returned to normal and he slowly got to his feet. She turned and leaned to the side just as a kunai thunked into a nearby tree. Pulling it out she said, "Test's over. We need to eat and get moving."
They rejoined the others, who gave the couple's ruffed-up appearance some suspicious looks. Just as they were cleaning up, Naruto tapped Sasuke on the shoulder. In his narrow-eyed fashion, Naruto leaned in and said, "You weren't messing with my sister were you?" One swollen jaw later they were peacefully jumping through the treetops, a slightly less urgent pace than before, but still swift.
During the afternoon break a white hair hopped up the tree Kurai was resting in and gave her something before vanishing in a puff of smoke. "What is it?" Sakura asked. Kurai opened the scroll, read it, rolled it up, and looked at Sasuke.
"Feel like some practice with that fireball move of yours?" Then she tossed the scroll into the air. Sasuke took up the challenge and executed the hand seals with all deliberate speed. "Fireball no Jitsu!" The scroll turned to dust…along with some of the nearby foliage.
Kurai popped the rest of her travel bread in her mouth and crouched. "Let's get going." The others hastily tucked their leftovers away and followed. Kakashi had noticed a change the other three had not when Kurai read that scroll. Something in it had made her nervous. They didn't stop until it was almost dark, and only then because Kakashi mentioned food and Naruto refused to go another step. Kurai relented, then looked around and told the students to stay and rest. She tossed one of her paper packets to Sakura and left her with the pale of water to heat over a fire. Kakashi didn't mind the soup, he thought the stuff was ingenious, but nothing was better than fresh fish. On a rare occurrence of acting on a whim, he left to find a river.
Poor man. Maybe.
Kurai sighed and ducked under the water's surface, running her hands through her hair before surfacing and closing her eyes in contentment. It had been a while since she had a good wash. Her skin was pink with warmth and scrubbing. By concentrating she'd managed to create a stagnant pocket of warming water around her thigh where the kunai had hit her. The wound ached after a day of travel, even if it was rather light compared to the pace she had kept up on her way to Hidden Leaf Village. A point of concern, because it had taken her a week to get through the blizzard when it shouldn't have been more than a day and a half according the kage who came. Well, at least they were doing well enough to suit her on the return trip.
Kakashi was already ruffling feathers back home. She'd managed to get the message warning her father through before Ketsune, but it still didn't sound too good. The younger ones were fine, but a ninja already set in his ways, at a Jounin level, wasn't part of the deal. If she really was put on the spot, she had to admit there was plenty she could say to defend her choice to allow the man to come, including the fact that he'd offered to go.
She opened her eyes and looked downstream. All her worries were washing away. Then she jumped and landed on the water, standing with the help of her chakra, and turned to the bank to find her clothes as her extra warm skin made the remaining water evaporate quickly. Her eyes met Kakashi's uncovered one. He smiled under his mask. "That's an odd fish."
"ECCHII!" echoed over the trees. Naruto and Sakura looked up, surprised. Sasuke snickered; he could guess what had happened.
Kakashi messaged his jaw as he looked up at a very furious and very naked Kurai. She loomed over him with fury in her eyes like blue flames. For a moment it looked like her irises had turned into slits, but they were normal now. She picked up her clothes and turned her back to him, as if denying his existence.
"For someone so angry about it, you sure didn't rush to cover up," he said in a reasonable tone.
Kurai had reached for her bandages first and was binding her chest with them. Looking at Kakashi over her shoulder she said, "I honestly hate that you were able to sneak up on me than the actual peeking…" Bandages done she slipped her panties on and the slit dress. "I am rather curious about your motives for peeking, though."
Kakashi gave Kurai a critical look, but she had her back to him and was still shaking out her shorts and hard to read. What was his motive? "I happened to want fish for dinner," he said. Kurai coughed. "It's the truth. Of course, you could also stay I kept looking because I am subject to the male condition."
Kurai turned and stared at him. "I would have said you're the last person I'd thought would say that, but I'm not so sure now." She strapped her weapon pouch to her thigh and slipped on her shoes. Hair still damp, she ran her fingers through it to get out most of the snarls. "I don't suppose someone so afflicted by the male condition would have a comb? Mine is in my pack."
Kakashi managed to procure a comb from somewhere, and he handed it over. Their fingers brushed against each other and Kurai bit her lip as she turned away and began to comb her white-blond locks. Kakashi watched, momentarily feeling like the scene was as routine in his life as in hers. Shaking it off, he headed back for the campfire. He'd only caught a few fish upstream, enough for the kids at least. The river had been amazingly empty, probably due to a certain someone's bathing so nearby.
He got questioning looks from Naruto and Sakura that quickly turned accusatory. He ignored them and set the fish to fry. A minute later Kurai came back. She walked over and returned Kakashi's comb, their fingers touching once more. As she unrolled her bedroll and took out a bowl for her soup, Kakashi did some mental debating.
Okay, she's a ninja from another village, a cursed village, a big no-no right there. She also happens to be quite a bit younger than you. Wait—how much younger? She was around five when she was sealed, which happened right before Naruto was born. Naruto and his peers are fourteen, so she's at least nineteen. But the Hokage mentioned completing this before her majority, which is twenty-one. So we'll say twenty. His eyebrows went up. Only seven years, not too bad. Of course I can't do much until I know what kind of person this father of hers is…Or her opinion on relationships in general.
He spent most of the evening on similar thoughts. At least until the food was done and Kurai handed him a bowl of soup. At that smallest contact he set about organizing his scheme for the seduction of Uzu Kurai.